Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I fell from Your presence? (Psa 139:7, NASB)
Some critics have appealed to this verse as evidence against God being embodied. This is problematic (and eisegetical) for a number of reasons:
Firstly, in Latter-day Saint theology, the speaker (whether directly or through agency [representing/speaking on behalf the Father]) was the premortal Jesus, who at this time was “only” a spirit and not yet received his then-future glorified, resurrected body.
Secondly, the psalmist is speaking of not being able to flee from God’s spirit. In Latter-day Saint theology God the Father (and, post-resurrection, Jesus, too) are not “only” a body; while their person is localised at one place, they are spirits who have a body, so their spiritual presence is everywhere, and God can go anywhere he wishes in an instant. This is also the theology of Jer 23:24 (see Does Jeremiah 23:24 pose problems for LDS theology?)
Thirdly, many critics of the Church who raise this argument do not realise it is just as problematic for their theology. In the Hypostatic Union, as formulated at Chalcedon in 451 AD, Jesus will remain embodied throughout all eternity. In this theology, while having two natures and two wills, he is a single person, and that person will, in his body, remain localised at one place, notwithstanding his spiritual presence being everywhere present.
LDS apologist D. Charles Pyle made the following astute observation:
Most all critics also believe, and indeed the Bible teaches, that Jesus has a body of flesh and bone. (Luke 24:39; Acts 10:40-41; John 2:19-22; 20:19-20, 24-28; Philippians 3:20-21.) A physical body occupies both time and space and, can be at only one place at any given time. Yet for the critics this does not in any way limit the omnipresence of Jesus Christ. If it does not limit him who was raised from the dead with a body, why should it limit the Father were he also to have some kind of a physical body in such a manner, according to LDS beliefs? If the Father is limited by the bounds of corporeality, the Son similarly also must be limited. But then there are those pesky doctrines of the Mystery of the Hypostatic Union and of the Consubstantiality of the Trinity! They cannot have it both ways and still be theologically consistent.
Interestingly enough, Paul explains at Ephesians 4:9-10 how Jesus first descended to the lower parts of the earth and then ascended far above all heavens ινα πληρωση τα παντα, “so that he might fill all things.” The word ινα is what is called in Greek grammar a subordinating conjunction, expressing purpose. The word πληρωση is a verbal form that is in the subjunctive mood, and, with the subordinating conjunction ινα, it expresses an indefinite and dependent statement. In other words, these two words form a subordinate clause that actually states the reason that Jesus descended and ascended—so that, or, in order that he might fill all things—showing that the action (the filling of all things) therefore is dependent upon both his previous actions of descending and ascending. What Paul said, to be to the point, is that Jesus could not fill all things unless he first descends to the lowest parts of the earth and then ascends above the highest heaven. Jesus also makes passing reference to the shape/form of God that his detractors had not seen (John 5:37).
These scriptures are hardly conducive to the position of the Evangelicals on the subject of omnipresence. But in LDS belief, God the Father, although possessing a body—and thus being in but one place at any given time—is omnipresent and in metaphysical touch with all things through the influence of his Spirit. The Spirit (or spiritual light) which radiates from him is just as much as part of him as his physical body. Hence, in a very real sense, he is omnipresent and fills all things. Said the Psalmist: “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (See Psalms 139:7 [1-16]).
The Lord Jesus Christ, in Latter-day Revelation speaking in detail of the light of Christ, explains that this light:
proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things. (Doctrine and Covenants 88:12-13 [see also the fuller context of verses 4-13). (D. Charles Pyle, I Have Said Ye Are Gods: Concepts Conducive to the Early Christian Doctrine of Deification in Patristic Literature and the Underlying Strata of the Greek New Testament (Revised and Supplemented) [CreateSpace, 2018], 277-78)
For more on this issue, including an exegesis of John 4:24 and Gen 1:26, see:
