Can God Be in the Presence of Sin? – Post #3 of 2010

Post Author: Bill Pratt

The Bible clearly teaches that God is morally perfect and holy, that he hates sin. Habakkuk 1:13 says that God is too pure to look on evil. Christians often say that God cannot allow any sin in his presence.

But, this is not the whole story. There are also several instances in the Bible where Satan and other demons are said to be in God’s presence (e.g., Job 1:6; 2 Chron. 18:18-21; Rev. 12:10). In addition, the prophet Isaiah, himself a sinful man, was in the presence of God, as recorded in Isaiah 6.

We also know that God is omnipresent, which means he is present everywhere. “‘Am I only a God nearby,’ declares the Lord, ‘and not a God far away? Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth?’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 23:23-24). If he is present everywhere then he cannot but be in the presence of sinful creatures.

So what are we to make of all this? I think the simple answer is that Habakkuk 1:13 is a commentary on God’s moral perfection and holiness. It is not meant to be a statement about his physical presence. In fact, the full rendering is, “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil.” But we know God does not literally have eyes! God is spirit (John 4:24) and does not have a physical presence.

The Bible teaches that God is opposed to sin and evil, that he is holy and righteous. We know that eventually he will quarantine evil from good when he creates the New Heaven and Earth (Rev. 21). At that time, God will physically separate those who love him from those who don’t. Those who love him will no longer be in the presence of sin from that point forward.

Until then, God tolerates the presence of sin in order to accomplish his purposes with mankind. Thank goodness, because if God truly could not be in the presence of sin, none of us would be here!

Tags: Christianity, God, Heaven, Satan, Sin

This entry was posted by Bill Pratt on Wednesday, December 29th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under Difficult Bible Passages, Heaven, Sin, Theology, Top Ten Posts of 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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Bill Pratt

Comments

http://AnneRice.com. Anne Rice

Thank you for your interesting comments here. I am in a forum on Amazon.com about what Christians believe about Hell. Posters have suggested that God “cannot” be in the presence of sin, which to me contradicts Scripture, as God was certainly in the garden with Adam and Eve after they sinned, and made clothes for them; and Jesus was in the company of sinners all during his earthly existence, and descended into hell after his crucifixion. — i am trying to find the origin of this theological notion as it is posted by people who believe it is a “given” and it explains the necessity or fact of Hell. It seems to me they are attempting to limit the Infinite Power of God.
Bill Pratt

Hi Anne,
The only verse I could find was Habakkuk 1:13, which I mention in the post. Aside from that, I’m not sure where this comes from. My guess is that people are trying to stress the holiness and righteousness of God and they are just going overboard with it. We know that certainly God hates sin and that heaven will be without sin, but that is a far cry from saying that God cannot be in the presence of sin.

Thanks for dropping by,
Bill
Arix (@UK)

Hmm,

Perhaps I could offer an explanation. In Judaism, the original meaning of “sin” meant “a state of separation from God”. Under this definition, it is self-evident why God cannot be in the presence of sin, since God cannot be separated from Himself. So the Fall was the generation of this state.

Over time, the word “sin” also came to be used to refer to sinful actions, that is actions which cause, preserve or enhance the state of sin. This meaning eventually eclipsed the original meaning, and thus we get our confusion. In fact, what worsens the confusion is that the first meaning is conflated into the second, so the State of Sin becomes defined as “the state of being in sinful actions”, which leaves the word “sinful” without any conceptual definition at all.
http://teruwong.yolasite.com/ Teru Wong

The Physical Presence of the God is the Earth.
http://randyeverist.blogspot.com Randy Everist

@Teru, why just the earth?
God

He is saying that God is the Earth, God is the trees, God is the wind, etc…
A_todaro

I was just contemplating this very thought of God not being able to look on sin and yet we know He looked at Adam and Eve in the garden after the fall. I read Pastor Chuck Smith’s comment on Hab 1:13 and he says God cannot look on sin…approvingly. When Jesus hung on the cross He not only took all of our iniquity on himself but II Corinthians 5:21 says He actually became sin! So God turned His back and forsook Him so that we would not have to ever face the seperation from God and we could become the righteousness of God…. While this is amazing and awsome, it begs to answer the question. I guess the answer is God cannot look on sin with approval but He obviously does look on sin by having Satan in front of Him and just being omnipresent here on this earth.
S_duke

Maybe it’s not that God cannot be in the presence of sin but that we cannot live with God without forgiveness of sin. I think of the old testament and Moses not being able to look at God, or when he went up the mountain to get the commandments and God told the people not even to touch the mountain because God was there and He is so holy that they would die if they even touched the mountain, or the priests and the holy of holies and all the steps to cover their sins before they entered the presence of God in the temple. I’m not a theologian but a Christian trying to figure out why it is that I have believed for all these years that God cannot be in the presence of sin when scripture says the opposite. I like Arix’s explanation about A-todora’s reference to II Corinthians 5:21 helps too.
Welafalot

I dissagree with this theology. I think God had His eye on Jesus especially as he hung on the cross. God does not leave us at our moment of greatest pain and He certainly wouldn’t leave His Son. When Jesus said “My God why have you forsaken me?” He was quoting scripture and feeling the FULL brunt of His humanity at that point. Don’t we all feel abandoned by God sometimes? Personally I think telling people God turrned His back on Jesus on the cross only makes us feel like we can’t trust Him and that is simply just a LIE!
Laila

heresy
Powerprince33

The bible is filled with contradictions ..Christians always try to explain away bible contradiction and always fails miserably…the bible is a lie

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