Keith,
You're splitting hairs and it's not working well. If God must be everywhere he must be everywhere, if there is a bottle he must be in that bottle, as inside that bottle is somewhere and he must be everywhere. Omnipresence as you use is is saying that God is everywhere, everywhere refers to every physical place. Either you are proposing that matter displaces God's presence and thus he is everywhere except where matter exists (nonsense, btw) or you are proposing that God is IN everything, or at least his presence (which inseparable from God) is in everything, including demons. By definition, to be everywhere you must be in all things.
As for basic freedom God can be active in an area or not active in an area.
But you still maintain he must be there, the basic freedom of motion is denied to him. As to Acts 17, I said it to Polydoc and I'll say it to you. Context, Context, Context!
Act 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
Act 17:25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
Act 17:26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
Act 17:27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
Act 17:29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God,
This chapter does not at all support the philosophical necessity of God being everywhere at all times, it emphasizes repeatedly that God created the universe and life and us, that is the meaning of 'in him we live and move and have our being' and it is explained to mean that repeatedly in the surrounding context. That he is never far from those who would seek him or any of his creations is neither surprising nor a case for mandatory omnipresence. It flows from being his creation and his active part in redemption of the lost.
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
Upholding all things not by his presence, but by his word. The word which goes forth out of him to uphold all things. He is GOD, the True and Living God. He is not Atlas who has to go out and hold the world up with his presence, nor Apollo who needs to get up every day and haul the sun through the sky, but He is the True and Living GOD who's word alone is enough to create all things and maintain all things. Do you at least concede that like scripture says, his mere word is enough to create and maintain all things, and that things do not need his immediate presence to go on if he says they should go on?
God is certainly a physical being, he choose to become one, and this is a central doctrine of Christianity which you will not argue with once its pointed out. That understood, he, like us, also has a spirit. That spirit is certainly not 'everywhere' but manifests itself in particular locations to particular people at particular times. Simply being a spirit does not force someone to be 'everywhere' and a spirits location can correspond to a physical location (this you must concede, or omnipresence is out of the question as well)
He can excercise rule and dominion over all because he is present everywhere. He does not have to fly from one place to another to exert his power. He can exert his power over any sphere at any second because his presence is there.
Once again, you are saying God is so weak he must be physically present somewhere to excersize his rule and dominion. Its about time you started a study on what God did 'by his word'
not 'by his pressense'
not 'because he was there' but look at what he can do
by his word alone. The you will come to see that he can excessive rule and dominion over all because HE IS GOD and has so much authority that he only has to say something for it to happen, not because of your ideal of omnipresence.
You're mixing idle philosophy and human invention with theology when you say God Must be everywhere. Scripture does not say this, reason does not say this, but the foolish human drive to make God fit all their ideals says this. It is no more founded to say 'God must be everywhere' than to say 'God must do everything' or 'God must be in everything'. Such is philosophical nonsense and idolatry which always reduces our God in one way or another to the foolish Grecio-Roman gods. Scripture talks about God's presence and the presence of his spirit more than enough to understand it, it is not everywhere all the time, it may be put upon people or a place and it may be removed from people or places. Scripture also explains clearly how the universe is maintained, and that is by his word, not his presence.
Yes, he has authority over Hell and the devil himself, that does not mean he resides in Hell nor that he is normally there. It is not better to define the Kingdom of God as any place where God has authority though, that's not how Christ used it. When Christ said seek ye first the Kingdom of God he did not mean, 'seek any kingdom, because God rules them all' but meant something more specific than that.
Welltan,
I know, it was a good testimony.
My opinions on the character of hell would not leave it an abstraction without God's influence
I agree, I'm saying it lacks his glorious and wonderful presence, the presence and residence of God is what makes heaven so worthwhile. I'm not saying it isn't a place He created and planned, I'm saying he doesn't live there.
