The Myth of Omnipresence (6): God in the Garden of Eden

The Myth of Omnipresence (6): God in the Garden of Eden

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. – Genesis 3:8

Having devoted several series to debunking the theory of omnipresence, we will now consider some biblical scenarios that suggest God is not omnipresent. He never described Himself as omnipresent; that was the adulation of His awe inspired devout.

And while not being omnipresent does not detract from the greatness of God in any way, He remains the Almighty, knowing that He is not everywhere at the same time, as the notion of omnipresence posits, will help us better understand some of the inscrutable events or questions we might have about certain events in the Bible.

The first clearest indication in the Bible that God is not omnipresent is the scene in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had eaten from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, which God had warned them not to touch. All the while that Eve and the serpent were locked in their debate about why they should or should not eat the fruit, God was not there. However, by the time He came to check up on the couple in the cool of the evening, later that day or perhaps days or weeks after then, they had already eaten the forbidden fruit and were hiding themselves from Him when they saw that He was around.

If God had been there all along, He might have prevented Adam and Eve from eating the fruit. However, because He created them as free moral agents, not robots that required His hands-on handling to live and function, He left them to themselves. So He was not there when they were eating the fruit.

Now, that leads us to the question of whether He knew they were going to eat the fruit in the first place before or after He created them? That will be answered in another series.

You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!

Also read:

• The Myth of Omnipresence (5): The 5 Places God Always Is
• Blackbirds
• Understanding God: He Does Not Hold Grudges Forever
• Dust If You Must
• How I Surrendered My Life to the Lord Jesus Christ

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