What is Christian pantheism?

Response

Christian pantheism seeks to reconcile the teachings of the Bible with the erroneous belief that everything in existence is essentially God. The core tenet of pantheism is the assertion that “God is everything, and everything is God.” However, the Bible clearly distinguishes God from His creation, emphasizing His separate existence. Referring to “Christian pantheism” is as contradictory as mentioning “square circles,” as these concepts are fundamentally incompatible. Consequently, most efforts to interpret Scripture in support of pantheism involve disregarding the biblical text in some manner, either by questioning its accuracy or by extracting verses from their intended context.

Pantheism asserts that only God exists, viewing everything as God, which directly contradicts several fundamental principles outlined in the Bible. God explicitly states that He is distinct from humanity “God is not a man, that he should lie; Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” (Numbers 23:19), affirms that the universe is a creation “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1), declares that humanity is made in His image “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27), and so on. The Scriptures depict interactions between humanity and God (Genesis 3:9-10;Exodus 3:4-5), God’s judgment of humanity (Isaiah 2:4;Isaiah 33:22), and God’s deliberate distinction from His creation.Certain beings (Revelation 20:12-15). The entire concept of prayer implies there is an “other” to hear the prayer «After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. », Matthew 6:9. This is why true pantheists do not pray; they meditate, since pantheism denies there is an “other” with whom to communicate.

Those attempting to defend Christian pantheism take certain Bible verses badly out of context. Almost all such errors focus on the idea of God’s Spirit indwelling man. For example, Galatians 2:20 speaks of Christ living “in” us. First Corinthians 3:16–17 refers to man’s body as the “temple of God.” First John 3:24 mentions the Spirit “abiding” in believers. These verses, according to the pantheist, show that God and man are one and the same.

However, both the specific contexts of these verses and the overall context of the Bible show this view to be false. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is not an obscure, poetic metaphor for pantheism. If Scripture intended to teach that “all is God, and God is all,” it would not reference concepts such as salvation, sin, prayer, or judgment, all of which imply an absolute, objective difference between two non-identical things.

Scripture is clear: God is not the same as His creation. He is certainly not the same as man. Obscure or not, Christian pantheism is ultimately another example of poor Bible interpretation and even worse logic.