Toward A Christian Worldview - Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed

Chapter 4: False Philosophical Systems
lent, but he is certainly not omnipotent. Evil is one thing that limits
god. We cannot, then, blame god for the existence of evil in the world,
because even though this god would like to expunge evil from the
world, he is simply not able to do so. Kushner goes so far as to say
that we must forgive god for his limitations.
Since the world operates under the rubric of natural law, say the
finite theists, ethical absolutes must not be posited. Neither are we to
believe in miracles. Further, because there is no special revelation, we
cannot be certain about the destiny of mankind. All we can say for
certain is that “perhaps” there is life beyond the grave.
One form of finite theism is henotheism, which teaches that there
are many finite gods, one of whom is supreme. Sometimes henotheism
has one god per nation or ethnic group, such as Baal of the
Canaanites, or Dagon of the Philistines. Henotheism is a transitional
stage between monotheism and polytheism.
Pantheism
The word pantheism is derived from two Greek words pan (all)
and theos (God) – all is God. In a pantheistic worldview (Hinduism,
the “new age” movement), the world is god and god is the world; god
is all and all is god. Pantheism stresses the immanence of god, while
denying his transcendence. In this sense it is the opposite of Deism.
In general, pantheists are not so crass as to assert that everything
is actually god. This would render the word “god” virtually meaningless;
it would be the same as saying “everything is everything.” What
pantheists normally mean when they claim that “all is god,” is that
god is manifested in everything. The transcendentalist Ralph Waldo
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