The first verse of the Bible “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” has been the subject of more commentators than any other verse in the Bible. There are many different interpretations of This verse also. There are nearly as many interpretations as there are commentators! I want to scream, “More detail, God, would have been appreciated.” But no, that’s all we really get! Alright, then let’s use Kipling’s six brave men. He wrote in poetic form, “I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” There is a lot more to that poem, but I’ll limit my research to these six honest serving men. Today, I’ll just look at the “Where.”
I expect that as the question of “when” refers to time, the question of “where refers to space.” Looking at the “when and where” of God’s creation we’re concerned with the idea of time and space. We see God in various places in the Bible. He’s in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. He was in the burning bush when he addressed Moses and he was on the mountain when he called the Israelites to him. Do we assume then that God moves around? I don’t think so. Norm Geisler explains, “An omnipresent Being does not have to move, since He is already there. God is not a spatial Being and does not move in time and space, but for the purpose of communication He uses expressions that are understandable to finite humans who do move in time and space. Such nonliteral descriptions of divine activity reveal personal interaction with humanity.”[1]
Karl Barth said that God is “free, majestic and sovereign.” It is in a manner wholly determined by Himself. He is, therefore, One in such a way that He is omnipresent, constant in such a way that He is omnipotent, and eternal in such a way that He is glorious.”[2] The Omnipresence of God is something we just can’t comprehend because we’re trapped (for the time being) in the time space continuum. Is something that we don’t understand unbelievable. Absolutely not! Hodge writes, “…consequently reason, rational demonstration, or philosophical proof is not the ground of faith. We may rationally believe what we cannot understand. We may be assured of truths which are encompassed with objections which we cannot satisfactorily answer.”[3] Anselm is famous for saying this: “For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe-that unless I believe I shall not understand.”
[1] Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Volume Two: God, Creation (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 2003), 195.
[2] Karl Barth, Geoffrey William Bromiley, and Thomas F. Torrance, Church Dogmatics: The Doctrine of God, Part 1, vol. 2 (London; New York: T&T Clark, 2004), 441.
[3] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 42.