Christadelphians, let us arise! — and stand on our feet with praises unto our Father, the Lord God Omnipotent” (Rev. 19:6); for doth not the Psalmist David tell us that Yahweh’s Omnipresence surrounds us at all times? (Psalm 139:7-10) . . . “But wait,” that inner voice crieth forth, “we are poor creatures of the dust, prone to sin — and sin is death, or departure from God’s righteousness.” The questions then arise:
- Can God dwell (be present) where sin abounds?
- What is it that holds us to the Almighty?
Our very future inheritance of Eternal Life demands understanding of those questions, and we will go to the fountainhead of information—God’s Holy Word for the answers. As we drink therefrom, let us lean our minds back to those 3 magnificent qualities that belong to God alone: Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Omnipresent.
Commit this to Memory
From the onset, let us remember that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all,” (1 Jo. 1:5). Read it again, committing this powerful verse to memory for this is the key qualifier of the nature of our omniscient heavenly Father who with His infinite knowledge, knows all things.
There is a foreboding ring to the word darkness, a separation from God, a sounding forth of all things evil . . . “The way of the wicked is as darkness” (Pr. 4:19); and of the very grave itself . . . “Before I go whence I shall not return, to the land of darkness and the shadow of death,” (Job 10:21). Our spiritual conduct must be a continual running from darkness (except in the case of death which we may not escape) for symbolically darkness stands for ignorance and spiritual blindness, and remembering again the words of the apostle John, “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.”
Scriptures against scriptures are the best tests for Truth. Does then the prophet Isaiah reveal a double standard concerning darkness? — Isa. 45:6, 7 reads: “I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light and create darkness: I make peace and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” . . . The undiscerned would say in those verses there is a problem. However, Isa. 45:6, 7 in no way cancels out I Jo. 1:5, “in Him is no darkness at all.” The verses of Isaiah indeed support Truth and the omniscient quality of the Father who knows all things.
Omnipotent Found Once in the Bible
Additionally, the Deity alone also has the title Omnipotent. Omnipotent is used 1 time in the Bible, Rev. 19:6, and it is the same root word as Almighty, or the militant title of God, ‘Lord of hosts’ (used 8 times in the Apocalypse). In what way will the militant title of Yahweh assist in the understanding of our 2 original questions and the correlating problem, ‘God cannot dwell in darkness’ ? . . . Bible researchers would have us again consider Isa. 45:7 where it is written, “I form the light; and create darkness: I make peace and create evil.” Here we see the double standard of God’s power — light and darkness . . . Initially this verse speaks of Israel as God led them from Egypt, and then their subsequent apostasy created darkness so that “the light was darkened in the heavens of Israel,” (cf. Isa. 5:30).
Accordingly, the darkness above may be ascribed to the workings of Cyrus and Babylon at about 540 B.C. . . . bringing it down to our time, or the future application, it represents Jesus and the anti-typical Babylon of the 20th Century soon to be brought into focus. Thus as we bring together the darkness of the verse of Isa. 45 with the omnipotence of God, we conclude that darkness (sin) is not a place wherein God becomes a part; rather it is expressive of God’s ability to perform His purpose in spite of opposition presented by flesh.
Now then, the conclusion of our 3 O’s is bringing us full circle back to Omnipresence — and this term issued of the Deity and none other — for it implies the placing of His presence in all places at the same time.
Now then, whenever our minor infractions to His commands occur (and brethren, because we are flesh, they do occur —see 1 Jo. 1:8), the loving omniscient Father (knowing our end from the beginning) has provided the way to Eternal Life through the sacrifice and the unending priesthood of His son — and it is Christ who brings us (through our repentance and tears) back to Him.
Yea, sin can cut the lifeline to Eternal Inheritance, but it is that buffer of true Light and perfection contained in God alone (combined now with the mediator-ship of Christ) that surrounds each of us in His ever present love and concern for His own.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One