Is Ultimate Reality an impersonal 'Life Force' or a
personal Creator?
Pantheism—Many Far Eastern religions embrace
some kind of pantheistic worldview: the belief that creation
is an emanation of God.
Pantheism identifies the Creator with the creation:
all substances, forces and laws in this universe are essentially God in
manifestation. "God is All and All is God." Ultimate Reality is
an impersonal 'Presence' permeating all things—from the smallest
atom to the largest, swirling galaxy. This is not a personal Creator who
delights to interact with his creation, but a mere 'cosmic energy'
expressing 'Itself' as minerals, plants, animals and human beings. In Absolute
Pantheism, God does not exist apart from these things.
Modified Pantheism, also called Panentheism,
declares God to be the principle behind nature, the essence of life within
all of creation. "God is in All and All is in God." He is both
immanent and transcendent; he is in the world, yet beyond it.
Causal Principle—Some religions and teachers
reduce the Source of all things to nothing more than an underlying 'Causal
Principle.' The Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism expressed this opinion in a
recent interview, claiming that "there is not an autonomous being (God)
'out there' who arbitrates what you should experience and what you
should know; instead, there is the truth contained in the causal principle
itself."1
Personal vs. Impersonal God—Contrary to the idea
of a 'causal principle,' the Bible teaches that there IS a God 'out
there.' He is a personal God (one who thinks, remembers, hears, speaks,
plans, expresses emotion, demonstrates character, exercises will and makes
choices and judgments based on reason). Biblical revelation declares the
universe to be a creative act of God, not an emanation of his own being. It
also indicates that God is not contained by his own creation; rather, he
transcends it. Yet the 'External God' promises to manifest himself to
those who call upon his name and indwell their hearts. So a personal
relationship with him can be received and experienced. He is also personally
involved in the affairs of this world.
As some interpret it, an impersonal 'Life Force'
would have to be a non-thinking, non-emotional, non-volitional cosmic
Presence, incapable of hearing, seeing, communicating or interacting with
human beings. Challenging this concept, the Bible questions, "He who
planted the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed the eye, shall he not
see?" (Psalm 94:9) A 'cosmic energy force' requires an
elaborate system of magic formulas, incantations, symbolic rituals and other
manipulative, esoteric methods to operate its power. A personal God is more
interested in relationship than rituals—he desires from his own sincere
love, adoring worship and submission to his Word and will.
In the Old Testament, we discover the God of Judaism to
be a very personal God that cared for his people in a very personal way. He
powerfully opened the Red Sea before them as they fled from Egypt. He
audibly declared his ten commandments from trembling Mount Sinai to the
entire camp of Israel. In their wilderness journey, he compassionately fed
them with manna out of heaven and supernaturally produced water out of a
rock to quench their thirst. An impersonal cosmic energy could never
intervene in such ways for 'its' followers.
The Incarnation—Then it happened, a pivotal
event that would forever change the human race. The God of Abraham, in an
attempt to communicate his true and personal nature even more effectively,
visited the earth in a bodily form and walked among men. By angelic
revelation, this incarnation of Deity was given the name Jesus (meaning
"the salvation of God"). This unique 'man' was such a complete
and perfect personification of God that he even asserted, "He who has
seen Me has seen the Father." (John 14:9) Of course, not only
did he 'image' the Everlasting Father during his earthly existence;
Jesus always has been and always will be "the image of the invisible
God." (Colossians 1:15)
Two Kinds of Life—Far Eastern, pantheistic worldviews teach that
the life of creation is the life of God, that the former is actually
an emanation of the latter. In opposition to this view, the Bible teaches
that there are two kinds of life—natural life (the life in the plants,
animals and every human being) and divine life (the supernatural life of
God). Natural life is not the same as divine life. The Bible differentiates
between these two by using two different Greek words for the word
"life." Generally speaking, when the natural life (temporal life)
of a human being is being described, it is psuche (pronounced
psoo-khay') when divine life (everlasting life) is being described, the
Greek word is zoe (pronounced zo'-ay).
The Breath of God—The existence of two kinds of
life is excellently illustrated by what took place in the creation and fall
of Adam (the person identified in the Bible as the first human being). After
God shaped Adam from the dust, he breathed into his nostrils the
"breath of life." (Genesis 2:7) What actually entered into
Adam? Maybe we should first ask what God breathes. Does he inhale oxygen,
hydrogen and nitrogen? Does he have to breathe the gases that fill our
atmosphere in order to live? Of course not! When God breathes, surely he
breathes his own divine essence. When he breathed into Adam's nostrils, he
breathed himself, his very own being, into this progenitor of the human race
and he became a "living soul" (a Holy Spirit infused soul—Genesis
2:7).
When Adam fell, he lost this vital principle, this divine
breath. The life-imparting Holy Spirit that enabled him to constantly
commune with the Father in a personal way exited from his soul. Adam was
still alive physically, but because of sin's entrance, he was dead
spiritually. Though he still possessed natural breath, he no longer
possessed divine breath. Though he still possessed natural, physical life
and a fallen soul, he no longer possessed divine life. All of Adam's
offspring have since been born into a similar state of spiritual death. We
have natural life (psuche), which is a gift from God, but until
salvation takes place, we are devoid of divine life (zoe).
The Bible records a very significant happening that took
place after Jesus arose from the dead. After appearing to his disciples in
the upper room, he breathed on them, saying, "Receive the Holy
Spirit." (John 20:22) In essence, he was restoring to them what
Adam lost—the breath of divine life. This could not happen until the blood
of Jesus was shed, to cleanse the hearts of his disciples and qualify them
for the indwelling of the presence of God.
Conclusions—It is important to note that when
Christians are filled with this divine life of God, they do not become
God anymore than water becomes lemon juice when the two are mixed to become
lemonade. Rather, they merge into oneness. The Spirit of God blends with the
spirits of those persons he redeems, enabling them to have communion with
him and to yield to the influence of his indwelling personality. However,
both God and those he indwells maintain their separate and distinct
identities.
We need to focus our attention also on God's initial
statement concerning the creation of man. He said, "Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26 KJV) This was
fulfilled a number of ways, but one primary point needs to be emphasized. A
basic law of nature is the fact that any living thing reproduces after its
likeness. The genetic blueprint is passed on to the offspring to perpetuate
any given species. Giraffes do not reproduce elephant-like offspring,
neither do mice produce horses. Giraffes produce giraffes and mice produce
mice. There is a perpetuation of like physical characteristics and like
nature. On the basis of this observation, the following two logical
conclusions can be reached:
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If the highest expression of God is impersonal, then
we who have been made in his image should also, on the highest level, be
impersonal. But if God is a personal Being, on the highest level, we
also should be personal beings. Christian doctrine pronounces this
latter view the correct one.
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We know that it is possible for a personal being, a
human, to produce a force or energy source that is impersonal, but
theoretically, it does not seem possible or logical that an impersonal
force could actually produce personal beings. Even Hazarat Inayat Khan,
the Sufi Universalist, insisted, "If God has no personality, how
can a human being have a personality—we human beings who come out of
His own Being."2 Can an inanimate object like a rock
produce an animate object like a tree? Of course not! Can a flow of
electricity give birth to a host of angels? Absolutely not! Then the
question must be asked, "Can an impersonal God produce personal
beings?" Logic would dictate that our answer be in the negative.
1 Kenneth L. Woodard, "The Other
Jesus," Newsweek Magazine (March 27, 2000) p. 56, Excerpt from The
Good Heart by the Dalai Lama.
2 Dr. H. J. Witteveen, Universal Sufism (Rockport,
Massachusetts: Element, 1997) p. 95.
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