It has been assumed that God cannot die. If this is true, then can humans and other living creatures experience something that God cannot? If the theological concept of God's immanence is true, then when something dies, does God experience anything? Can God experience death without dying?
"God was existing within the midst of and in union with Christ, progressively reconciling [the] world – by Himself (or: to Himself; with Himself; for Himself; in Himself)…" (2 Cor. 5:19a)
Eph. 2:16 tells us that this reconciliation happened by means of "the cross," which means, His death. 1 Cor. 15:3 tells us that "Christ dies for our sins…"
Now, since Christ means "the Anointed One," this could mean that the man Jesus, who was the Christ, the Anointed, died, was buried, and then rose again.
Taking only the thought that "God was within Him and in union with Him," (skirting the issue of whether or not Christ was fully God, not just divine) what did God experience while He was existing within Christ, on the cross? Did God die, or experience death, with Christ?
A friend, the writer Martin Zender, recently made the statement, "If Christ is the Deity Absolute, then who – or “Who” – was running the universe while Absolute Deity was Dead?"
When we assume that God cannot die, we tend to think of Him as a creature, who, or which, cannot be dead and alive at the same time. But is anything impossible with God?
Can God enter into a human, and be fully there, and yet still be elsewhere at the same time? Or, is He just partially there, not fully there? We cannot say, because He has not specifically said so, one way or the other. We believe that He is omnipresent. Could He experience death within the midst of His creation while yet at the same "time" be outside of His creation?
In Matt. 10:29, Jesus says that not one sparrow "will be falling on the earth without your Father." So, the Father falls upon the ground with each sparrow that does so. Does this seem incredible? God is not a creature, and cannot be judged by the same rules that we judge facts about His creatures.
Consider what Paul said in Acts 17:28, "For you see, within the midst of and in union with Him we continuously live (or, as a subjunctive: could be constantly living), and are constantly moved about and put into motion, and continue existing (or: to experience being)." Yet He came and lived in the midst of Israel, dwelling within the Tabernacle. He was there within their midst, yet they all lived within the midst of Him.
After writing these initial thoughts, I sent them on to my friend, Martin, knowing that he had a differing view on this subject. Not only thinking it insane of me to ask the opening question(s), since I was obviously speaking literally, not figuratively, he further addressed the falling of the sparrow (Matt. 10:29, above) and compared God to a prison chaplain, accompanying a condemned man to his execution. God was with the sparrow, not in the sparrow. Now Martin makes a good analogy, here, and represents the world view – and view of God – of what is probably the majority. God is watching us "from a distance" (the Deist view), or is not far from us (a general view of many Christians, based in part on Paul's words in Acts 17:27, "though to be sure, not far from each one of us [is He] inherent"). I, on the other hand, was viewing the death of the sparrow from what Marcus Borg has termed *panentheism*, which means that God is in all of His creation (not *pantheism*, which means that all creation is God).
So before I continue with my initial questions, let us diverge to discuss this underlying understanding about God.
The church has long discussed, and most have accepted as fact, the doctrine of *ex nihilo*, that God created the universe "out of nothing." J. Preston Eby has discussed this subject, logically asking, that if before creation there was only God, of what then did God create things, since "nothing comes from nothing." Eby's logical conclusion was that God took from Himself to form, or fashion, Himself in a different form of Himself (note: "form," or, "fashion" is the meaning of the Heb. word *bara* which is used in Gen. 1:1, and commonly translated "create" – it does not mean to make something out of nothing, or, *ex nihilo*). This thought, or idea, can be seen in Paul's words found in Rom. 11:36, "Because from out of the midst of Him... [are] all things." Again, in 1 Cor. 8:6, he say, "But to the contrary, with us (or: to and for us) [there is] one God, the Father, out of the midst of Whom [are; or: come] all things (or: the whole [of the created universe])." He repeats the phrase in 2 Cor. 5:18, "all things (Greek: *ta panta*) [come into existence (following the verb “ginomai” in vs. 17)] from out of the midst of God."
Paul presents a slightly different view in his short cosmology of Col. 1:16-17 Vs. 16 “because within Him was created (or: in union with Him is founded and settled, is built and planted, is brought into being, is produced and established) the whole (or: all things) – the things within the heavens (or: skies), and the things upon the earth (or: land); the visible things, and the unseen (or: unable to be seen; invisible) things: whether thrones (seats of power) or lordships (ownership systems) or governments rulers; leadership systems; sovereignties) or authorities – the whole (or: all things) has been created and continues founded and stands framed through means of Him, and [proceeds, or was placed] into Him (or: = He is the agent and goal of all creation).
Vs. 17. And He is before (prior to; or: maintains precedence of) all things, and the whole has (or: all things have) been placed together and now continues to jointly-stand (stands cohesively; is made to have a co-standing) within the midst of and in union with Him. Keep in mind that in these verses the "Him" is "the Son of His love," vs. 13.
So with these verses in mind, can we concluded that since all things come into existence from out of the midst of God, that if follows that all the things of the created universe are composed of "God-stuff"? Is it then unreasonable to conclude that God is within everything? If so, it does not follow that creation is the totality of God, for it was God that formed and fashioned the universe. I suggest that we here have both imminence and transcendence. We can recognize His presence within all things, and – in both a figurative and a literal sense – "the heavens are recounting the glory of God (El), and the atmosphere is telling the work of His hands. Day after day is uttering a saying, and night after night is disclosing knowledge.... into the entire earth their voice goes forth, and into the ends of the habitance their declarations..." (Ps. 19:1, 2, 4, CVOT).
Am I going too far, then, to suggest that God is within the sparrow? If we only figuratively interpret the Psalm quoted above, then you may say, "Yes." I, for one, interpret it both ways.
Back to my original question, "Can God die?," I would direct your thoughts to the first chapter of John's good news. In the first verse we see that "the Word was God," or, as some translate it, "God was the Word." Then in vs. 14, John tells us that "the Word became flesh." Now since we know that Jesus – the Word made flesh – died on the cross, it seems logically obvious that the Word, which was God, died. Thus, in the form of the Word, God died.
I have purposely avoided the controversy of the doctrine of the Trinity, the idea of Oneness, or, modalism, and the idea that Christ was "a god" (based upon the lack of the definite article before the word "God," in John 1:1, cited above), to limit the scope of this inquiry.
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