Liberating Planet Earth

The Covenant of Liberation 53
For You, LORD, are most high above all the earth: you are exalted
far above all gods (Psalm 97:9).
The LORD is great in Zion; and He is high above all the peoples
(Psalm 99:2).
Perhaps the crucial verses in the Bible that deal with God’s
transcendence are Isaiah 55:8-9:
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My
ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than
your thoughts.
Those who are familiar with the writings of Christian philosopher
Cornelius Van Til will recognize that the Creator/creature
distinction is Van Til’s starting point: the sovere@ty of God and
therefore the non-autonomy of man. Van Til has offered an approach
to apologetics (the intellectual defense of the faith) that begins and
ends with God and God’s revelation of Himself in the Bible. We
are supposed to begin all our thoughts with the idea that the God
of the Bible is in control of everything. We know that all unbelievers
(anti-Christians) resist this intellectual requirement.
This is a very important difference between the two types of
liberation theology. The Biblical version insists that men bring all
their thoughts captive under Christ, under the Bible. The Marxist
version insists on bringing mankind under the supposed “impersonal
forces of dialectical history.”
Biblical Presence
But God is not simply above man in terms of His being. He is
close to man in terms of His presence. God is present everywhere
in the creation. He is omnipresent. He is immanent, not just transcendent.
Solomon announced:
But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and
the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less the
temple which I have built! (1 Kings 8:27).
Even more powerful is Psalm 139:7-9: