God Is Everywhere and Beyond Human Limits
Early Christian writings teach that God is everywhere present and not boxed in by space. Writers like Theophilus, Novatian, Origen, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Minucius Felix say God fills all things, sees all things, and is not confined to one place. Bible passages such as Jeremiah 23:24, Psalm 139, and Hebrews 1:3 anchor that belief. The page focuses on direct early Christian teaching, not loose word matches.
181 early-church witnesses · 281 source quotations · compared with Scripture
What did early Christians believe about the Omnipresence of God and Divine Nature?
Early Christian writings teach that God is everywhere present, not limited to one place, and that his divine nature is beyond bodily form and change. Writers like Theophilus, Origen, Novatian, Gregory Thaumaturgus, and Minucius Felix connect this idea to Bible passages such as Jeremiah 23:24, Psalm 139, and Hebrews 1:3.
The witness is broad across the 2nd and 3rd centuries, though some cards are indirect because they speak more about God's greatness, eternity, or invisible nature than about omnipresence in a direct way. The strongest evidence is for God's full presence in heaven and earth and for the Son and Spirit sharing in divine nature. A few cards are only background or broad theology, so the page should stay focused on direct statements about God's presence and nature.
Many more early Christian quotations, Bible passages, and source links are gathered below so you can study the evidence for yourself.
Key Takeaways
- Early Christians often said God fills all things and is not confined to one place.
- They used Bible passages like Jeremiah 23:24, Psalm 139, and Hebrews 1:3 to explain God's presence.
- Several writers also said God's divine nature is invisible, eternal, and not bodily.
- The Son and Spirit are also described as sharing in divine nature in some early texts.
Questions Answered by the Sources
Did early Christians teach that God is everywhere present?
These sources say God is everywhere present, fills all things, and is not limited to one place. They also use biblical language about God’s presence in heaven, earth, and the depths to support that claim.
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Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus Direct teaching
But this is the attribute of God, the Highest and Almighty, and the living God, not only to be everywhere present, but also to see all things and to hear all, and by no means to be confined in a place;
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Lactantius, On the Workmanship of God Direct teaching
And does any one wonder if the divine mind of God, being extended through all parts of the universe, runs to and fro, and rules all things, governs all things, being everywhere present, everywhere diffused;
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Direct teaching
...gs, He Himself contains all things. Nothing lies outside Him, so He has left no room for any higher God, as some people imagine. Since He has enclosed all things within the embrace of perfect greatness and power, He is always intent on His own work. He fills all things, moves all things, gives life to all things, sees all things, and joins discordant materials into the harmony of all the elements. From these unlike principles, one world has been established by a united agreement, and no power can dissolve it unless He alone who made it commands it to be dissolved, in order to bestow other and greater things on us. For we read that He contains all things, and therefore nothing could have existed beyond Him. And since He has no beginning, it follows that He is not aware of any ending. Unless perhaps—and far be that thought from us—He began to exist at some point and is not above all things. But if He began to exist after something else, then He would be beneath what existed before Him, and so He would be found to have less power, since He would be shown to come later even in time itself. Therefore He is always without bounds, because nothing is greater than He is. He is always ete
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, On All the Saints Direct teaching
... nor descends. For from where, or to where, will He change His place, He who is present everywhere, fills all things, and holds the ends of the world in His hand? Once indeed He descended, and once He ascended, not through any change of nature, but only in the condescension of His loving Christhood. And as the Word He is seated with the Father, and as the Word He dwells in the womb, and as the Word He is found everywhere, and is never separated from the God of the universe. Before now the devil mocked human nature with great laughter, and he has celebrated the times of our misery as though they were feast days for himself. But that laughter is only a pleasure of three days, while the wailing is eternal. And his great laughter has prepared for him a greater wailing, unceasing tears, inconsolable weeping, and a sword in his heart. Our Leader forged this sword against the enemy with fire in the virgin furnace, in whatever way and manner He willed. He gave it a point by the power of His invincible divinity, dipped it in the water of an undefiled baptism, sharpened it by sufferings that had no passion in them, and made it bright by the mystical resurrection. And with this, by Himself
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Minucius Felix, Octavius Supporting witness
...t cannot see Him. For in His works, and in all the movements of the world, we behold His power ever present when He thunders, lightens, darts His bolts, or when He makes all bright again. Nor should you wonder if you do not see God. By the wind and by the blasts of the storm, all things are driven on and shaken, are agitated, and yet neither wind nor tempest comes under our eyesight. Thus we cannot look upon the sun, which is the cause of seeing to all creatures. The pupil of the eye is withdrawn from its rays. The gaze of the beholder is dimmed. And if you look too long, all power of sight is extinguished. What! Can you sustain the Architect of the sun Himself, the very source of light, when you turn yourself away from His lightnings, and hide yourself from His thunderbolts? Do you wish to see God with your carnal eyes, when you are neither able to behold nor to grasp your own soul itself, by which you are enlivened and speak? But, moreover, it is said that God is ignorant of man's doings; and being established in heaven, He can neither survey all nor know individuals. You err, O man, and are deceived. For from where is God afar off, when all things heavenly and earthly, and wh
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Supporting witness
and, looking round on all these things which we see, any one will rather doubt whether all the other gods exist, than hesitate with regard to the God whom we all know by nature, whether when we cry out, O God, or when we make God the witness of wicked deeds, and raise our face to heaven as though He saw us.
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Early Liturgies, Divine Liturgy of St. Mark Supporting witness
who is everywhere present, and fills all things, freely working sanctification in whom He will with Your good pleasure;
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Jeremiah 23:24 Direct teaching
Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?” says the Lord; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.
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Psalms 139:7 Supporting witness
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
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Psalms 139:8 Supporting witness
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
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Proverbs 15:3 Supporting witness
The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.
More related quotations from this section 2 shown
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Victorinus, Commentary on the Apocalypse Supporting witness
...ll things? So, with good reason, He can neither descend nor ascend, because He Himself contains and fills all things. Yet Moses nevertheless presents God as descending to look at the tower that the sons of men were building, asking and saying, “Come,” and then, “Let us go down and there confuse their language, so that each one may not understand the words of his neighbor.” Whom do they claim was the God who descended to that tower and came to inspect those men at that time? Was it God the Father? Then He is enclosed in a place, and how then does He embrace all things? Or do they say it was an angel descending with angels, and saying, “Come,” and afterward, “Let us go down and there confuse their language”? And yet in Deuteronomy we see that God said these things, for it is written, “When He scattered the children of Adam, He fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” Therefore the Father did not descend, as the matter itself shows. Nor did an angel command these things, as the fact makes clear. Then it remains that He must have descended of whom the Apostle Paul says, “He who descended is the same who ascended above all the heavens, that H
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Wisdom of Solomon 12:1 Supporting witness
For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.
Did early Christians say God sees all things?
Several sources describe God as seeing all things, including secret things and human hearts. The Bible passages used alongside them emphasize that nothing is hidden from God’s sight.
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Arnobius, Against the Heathen Direct teaching
Our opinion on the subject is as follows:— that the whole divine nature, since it neither came into existence at any time, nor will ever come to an end of life, is devoid of bodily features, and does not have anything like the forms with which the termination of the several members usually.
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Direct teaching
...man form—as when it says, “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous”; or when it says, “The Lord God smelled a pleasing aroma,” Genesis 8:21; or when the tablets written with the finger of God are given to Moses, Exodus 31:18; or when the people of the children of Israel are set free from the land of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; or when it says, “The mouth of the Lord has spoken these things,” Isaiah 1:21; or when the earth is presented as God's footstool; or when it says, “Incline your ear, and hear,” 2 Chronicles 19:16—we who say that the law is spiritual do not include any bodily form or appearance of the divine majesty within these features of our human nature. Rather, we spread out that character of boundless greatness, so to speak, over all its expanse without any limit. For it is written, “If I ascend into heaven, You are there; if I descend into hell, You are there also; and if I take my wings and go across the sea, there Your hand shall lay hold of me, and Your right hand shall hold me.” For we understand the purpose of divine Scripture according to the proper measure of its arrangement. For at that time the prophet was still speaking about God i
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Lactantius, The Divine Institutes Supporting witness
... in the beginning there was chaos, that is, a confused mixture of matter and the elements, and that God later divided that whole mass. After separating each thing from the confused heap and arranging them in order, He built and adorned the world. Now it is easy to answer these people, who do not understand the power of God. For they believe that He can produce nothing except from materials that already existed and were prepared. Philosophers also fell into this error. For Cicero, while discussing the nature of the gods, speaks in this way: "First of all, therefore, it is not probable that the matter from which all things arose was made by divine providence, but that it has, and has had, a force and nature of its own. As therefore the builder, when he is about to erect any building, does not himself make the materials, but uses those which are already prepared, and the statuary also uses the wax; so divine providence ought to have had materials at hand, not of its own production, but already prepared for use. But if matter was not made by God, then neither were the earth, and water, and air, and fire, made by God." Oh, how many faults there are in these ten lines! First, the man
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Novatian, Treatise Concerning the Trinity Direct teaching
when it is not the nature of man, but of God, that it can be present in every place?
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Irenaeus, Against Heresies: Book II Supporting witness
He is a simple, uncompounded Being, without diverse members, and altogether like, and equal to himself, since He is wholly understanding, and wholly spirit, and wholly thought, and wholly intelligence, and wholly reason, and wholly hearing, and wholly seeing, and wholly light, and the whole source of all that is good—even as the religious and pious are wont to speak concerning God.
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Jeremiah 23:23 Supporting witness
“Am I a God near at hand,” says the Lord, “And not a God afar off?
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1 Timothy 6:16 Supporting witness
Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.
Did early Christians say God’s divine nature is incorporeal and beyond bodily limits?
The sources present God’s divine nature as not having bodily form, not being subject to change, and not being contained like created things. Some writers also connect this language to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit sharing one divine nature.
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Methodius, Oration Concerning Simeon and Anna Direct teaching
...y of that one of the sacred Trinity who is to be worshiped by all, and who now, by the appearing of God in the flesh, has even come down to earth. They say, "The whole earth is full of His glory." For we believe that, together with the Son, who was made man for our sake according to the good pleasure of His will, the Father also was present, who is inseparable from Him in His divine nature, and also the Spirit, who is of one and the same essence with Him. For, as Paul says, the interpreter of the divine oracle, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them." 2 Corinthians 5:19 He thus shows that the Father was in the Son, because one and the same will was at work in them.
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Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Direct teaching
...to the words of the prophet quoted above: "Who shall declare His generation?" Isaiah 53:8. Since no nature that is begotten can investigate His subsistence, just as no one can investigate the Father, because the nature of rational beings cannot receive the knowledge of His divine generation by the Father. But men who are moved by the Spirit of truth have no need to learn these things from me. For the words spoken before by Christ on this very matter are sounding in our ears: "No man knows the Father, save the Son; and no man knows who the Son is, save the Father." Matthew 11:27. We have learned that He is, equally with the Father, unchangeable and immutable, lacking nothing, the perfect Son, and like the Father. In this alone He is inferior to the Father: that He is not unbegotten. For He is the exact image of the Father, differing from Him in nothing. For it is clear that He is the image fully containing all things by which the greatest likeness is declared, as the Lord Himself taught us when He says, "My Father is greater than I." John 14:28. According to this, we believe that the Son is of the Father, always existing. For He is "the brightness of His glory, the express image
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Direct teaching
...n. Moreover, names are such as these: Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. These, I say, are names. But the Divine Persons are names indeed, and the names are still the persons. And the persons signify that which is and subsists, which is the essence of God. The name of the nature also signifies subsistence, as if we should speak of the man. All the persons are one nature, one essence, one will, and are called the Holy Trinity. These also are subsistent, one nature in three persons, and one genus. But the person of the Son is composite in its oneness, being one made up of two, that is, of divinity and humanity together. These two constitute one. Yet the divinity does not therefore receive any increment, but the Trinity remains as it was. Nor does anything new happen to the persons or even to the names, but these are eternal and without time. However, no one was able to know these things until the Son, being made flesh, manifested them, saying, "Father, I have manifested Your name to men; glorify me also, that they may know me as Your Son." John 17:6 And on the mount the Father spoke and said, "This is my beloved Son." Matthew 3:17 And the same sent His Holy Spirit at the Jordan. And thu
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Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) Supporting witness
And not only so, but because the nature of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, whose intellectual light alone all created things have a share, is incorruptible and eternal, it is altogether consistent and necessary that every substance which partakes of that eternal nature should last for ever, and be incorruptible and eternal, so that the eternity of divine goodness may be understood also in this respect, that they who obtain its benefits are also eternal.
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness
and one Holy Spirit, who by nature and in truth sanctifies all, and makes divine, as being of the substance of God.
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Alexander of Alexandria, Epistles on the Arian Heresy Supporting witness
because that the nature of rational beings cannot receive the knowledge of His divine generation by the Father.
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, A Sectional Confession of Faith Supporting witness
John 1:1 and there is a divinity present according to nature in the Spirit into wit, what subsists as the Spirit of God— according to Paul's statement, You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you. 1 Corinthians 3:6
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Gregory Thaumaturgus, On the Trinity Supporting witness
All (the persons) are one nature, one essence, one will, and are called the Holy Trinity;
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Hebrews 1:3 Supporting witness
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
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1 Corinthians 8:6 Supporting witness
But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
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Colossians 2:9 Supporting witness
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
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Colossians 1:19 Supporting witness
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
Common Questions
Did early Christians believe God was everywhere?
Yes. Several early Christian writers said God is present everywhere, fills all things, and is not confined to a place.
Which Bible verses did early Christians use for God's omnipresence?
Common passages include Jeremiah 23:24, Psalm 139:7-8, Proverbs 15:3, and Hebrews 1:3.
Did early Christians say God has a body?
No. Writers like Arnobius and Novatian said the divine nature is not bodily and not limited by human form.
Source Index for the Omnipresence of God and Divine Nature
The guided sections above show the strongest quotations. This compact index highlights 160 ranked source links from 281 compiled sources for deeper study.
Source index 160 ranked links shown
Early Christian Writings 80 shown of 181
Primary-source quotations from early Christian writers and church documents.
Bible Passages 80 shown of 100
Related Bible passages saved for comparison with the early Christian quotations.