Is Jesus Omnipresent?

This article and the one which follows are compiled from the responses of Brother Emmanel O’neale to another brother who made the claim on a Facebook forum that it is “pantheism” to believe that Christ Himself lives in us. This other brother quoted a statement from Ellen White which says that “Christ could not be in every place personally,” and used this statement to support his assertion that Christ Himself does not actually live in us as a Person.

His belief is that Christ’s power is equally present in all things and also in the Christian, but not Christ Himself.

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“Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.” (Ellen White, Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, pages 23, 24; written February 18 and 19, 1895)

Physically vs Spiritually

When EGW says, “Christ could not be in every place personally,” she is referring to the time when He dwelt among men, as a man. At that time He was just like us; obviously we cannot be in every place personally, that is with our physical, tangible bodies. But this does not apply to the time when Christ returned to the kingdom and received again the glorious abilities of divinity. He then was able again to be omnipresent spiritually (without visible and physical representation).

Ephesians 4:10 explains this clearly:

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.(Eph. 4:10)

The NLT translation renders the same passage in this way:

And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. (NLT)

When EGW says He could not be in every place personally she is not referring to after His anointing (Pentecost) she is speaking about before His ascension.

It seems quite clear that when Christ walked as a Man He was without the abilities of divinity in order that He might walk in our shoes completely. Obviously He would also have to lay down His ability to be everywhere present. It was only after He was glorified that He would gain access to those abilities because part of the plan of salvation was that He would pass through all our weaknesses with no advantage save His immovable connection with God and the mind that was not blighted by sin.

The problem I see is that you are making no distinction between the abilities of Christ during those two different phases of His existence.

1. EGW says: “Christ could not be in every place personally”

2. You interpret this to mean: “The spirit is in all places, but not personally.”

Sister White in the same quote later says:

“The Holy Spirit is Himself (Jesus) divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He (Jesus) would represent Himself (Jesus) as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.”

And again she says:

The Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them than if He had not ascended on high. {DA 669.2}

So her meaning is very clear; while Jesus was in the flesh, He could not be in every place personally, but now that He is glorified He is able to come to us in a form that is not limited by flesh, that is, through His spirit. In this form, He is now able to be in every place personally, because in this form He is omnipresent.

Here are Jesus’ own words:

Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:17-20)

It is as if the incarnation is to take place again in the person of every born again believer. The seed of God is to be planted in us. His Life, the Life of Christ is to be placed in the Soul.

An Omnipresent Comforter

It is not essential for you to know and be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. Christ tells us that the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and the Comforter is the Holy Ghost, “the Spirit of truth, which the Father shall send in My name.” “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” [John 14:16, 17]. This refers to the omnipresence of the Spirit of Christ, called the Comforter. {14MR 179.2}

The Spirit of Christ is now omnipresent (unlike ours) and is called the Comforter, It is the very way in which we can have the actual presence of Christ without us having to see, handle, nor have Him physically here with us. We are His body this is why when He was anointed at Pentecost “the oil” ran down His forehead and face, and fell upon His disciples (Ps. 133:2). We who are born again are in Him and He is in us.

Away with the idea that to believe this is pantheism! Rather we would say that those who will deny this seem to be dabbling in the doctrine of antichrist!

Let us make it clear, I don’t know of any of us who teach or believe that God is in everything and in everyone. that is rubbish and absurdity if I ever heard it. God and Christ are in the believer and this is not something someone can explain any more than we can explain the incarnation or the birth of Christ. But we do not believe that Christ is in us in His bodily form, we believe that Christ can manifest Himself to us, in us, and through us spiritually by the person / agency / personality / avenue / power / presence/method of the Holy Spirit.

I’ve never heard anyone even hint or suggest that Christ and God’s physical bodily presence is within us. David, Howard, Imad and Nader are clearly speaking of the divine unseen presence, the invisible manifestation.

Indefinable

This is why we are counseled: “It is not essential for you to know and be able to define just what the Holy Spirit is. It is useless to try to define what the Spirit of God is.

We cannot limit the spirit as some seem to be doing. It is not simply a force, a power, a movement, creative words, the might of God, the character of God, divine nature, the mind of Christ etc. Please, please let us not forget it is the presence of God and Christ, and it will be as hard to define its make up as to define the makeup of God Himself. We in the Godhead movement have come to understand who the Spirit of God is but what it is, is not given to mortal finite minds to even begin to grasp.

The issue seems to boil down to, what does “omnipresent” mean? Is God present everywhere, or is He limited to the confines of His physical person.

God and Christ are in heaven in bodily, physical, tangible, visible form. There is a work taking place on our behalf there, but that work has an immediate impact on our lives here on earth. It is through the unseen presence of God and Christ in us that we partake of the phases of His ministration in the heavenly courts.

We are to believe the mystery of Godliness that Christ has come in the flesh, but how that happens is not for us to know! As Christ said to Nicodemus in John 3:

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:6-8)

There is a huge difference between God upholding all life including the seed, the tree, the fruit, and God dwelling in the believer. The seed is not born again. Let us not mix apples and oranges and base our theology on something that is not valid.

If one concludes that the life of God in seeds and trees and animals is the same as the life of God in Christian believers, the end result will surely be pantheism of the Kellogg variety.

Seeds and trees were growing even when Jesus walked the earth, but the Comforter was not yet given at that time. Clearly the spirit of God in the believer is not the same as the spirit of God in trees, in fruit and in seeds.

(Source: Restoration Ministry)