WHAT IS PANTHEISM?

Pantheism is the belief that God and the universe are one and the same. In this view, God is not a distinct, personal Creator who exists outside of the world; instead, “God” is the sum total of all things—nature, energy, and the cosmos itself. Simply put: Everything (all) is God, and God is everything.

The word itself comes from Greek: pan = “all” and theos = “God” So pantheism literally means “all is God.”

THE ORIGIN OF PANTHEISM

Pantheistic ideas appeared very early in human history, especially in Eastern philosophies. Some schools of Hinduism, particularly the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, teach that the ultimate reality (Brahman) is identical with everything in the universe. The individual soul (Atman) is considered one with Brahman. The universe is essentially divine itself.

Some Greek philosophers developed similar ideas. The philosopher Heraclitus (c. 500 BC) believed a divine reason (Logos) permeates everything. Later the school of Stoicism taught that: God is the rational principle within nature and the universe itself is divine.

The actual word “pantheism” was first used in the 18th century. It became associated with the philosopher Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). Spinoza taught: God and Nature are the same reality. Everything that exists is simply a mode or expression of God. His philosophy is often summarized as: “God = Nature.”

Pantheistic ideas influenced later New Age movement which often teaches that nature is sacred and divinity exists within everything.

Biblical teaching clearly separates God from creation. For example: Romans 1:25 warns against worshiping the creation instead of the Creator.

Seventh-day Adventists strongly opposed pantheism, especially in the controversy involving John Harvey Kellogg and his book The Living Temple (1903).

Ellen G. White warned that pantheism destroys belief in a personal God and confuses Creator and creation.

JOHN HARVEY KELLOGG

Kellogg, John Harvey (1852–1943) was a Seventh-day Adventist physician, health promoter, nutritionist, inventor, author, and entrepreneur. He was director of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, inventor of flaked breakfast cereal, and a long-time associate of James and Ellen White, founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. After years of struggles with denominational leadership over management style, philosophy, and doctrine, Kellogg was disfellowshipped in 1907, but he continued to maintain Adventist friendships and many features of an Adventist lifestyle until his death in 1943.

Dr. Kellogg was a global celebrity and the “father of wellness.” His Battle Creek Sanitarium was the most famous health destination in the world. It was the “White House” of health. Guests included President William Howard Taft, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Amelia Earhart, and John D. Rockefeller. Kellogg accidentally invented Corn Flakes while trying to create a bland diet to suppress “unpure” impulses. This birthed the modern breakfast industry (and a lifelong bitter feud with his brother, W.K. Kellogg). In 1895, Kellogg patented a process for creating peanut butter. He marketed it as a nutritious meat substitute for patients with no teeth or digestive issues. He was a pioneer of the “smoke-free” and “meat-free” lifestyle long before it was popular, inventing granola, soy milk, and early meat alternatives. The “San” featured high-tech (for the time) gadgets like electric light baths, mechanical vibrating chairs, and “mechanical horses” for exercise. He turned Battle Creek into the world’s health capital, inventing the modern breakfast and peanut butter along the way.

TENSIONS BETWEEN KELLOGG AND CHURCH

There had always existed an uneasy tension between Kellogg and church administrators. But as the nineteenth century drew to a close, these tensions escalated. For one thing, the Kellogg believed that Adventist clergy failed to live up to the health principles that both he and Ellen White advocated.

Kellogg’s attitude toward Ellen White had deteriorated during this time as well. He began to express the view that her son, William C. (Willie) White, and church leaders, especially Arthur G. Daniells, who became the General Conference president in 1901, and his vice president W. W. Prescott, negatively influenced her views of his work and operations at the sanitarium.

He considered the sharp rebukes he received from Ellen White the result of this negative influence. She had indeed reproved him for his critical attitudes toward Adventist clergy, doubts he expressed about certain Adventist beliefs, and his independent spirit. And following the rebuilding of the sanitarium following the 1902 fire, she asserted that the new building was too large and should have been built where there were fewer Adventists.

KELLOGG’S SEPARATION FROM THE CHURCH

While initially the Church leaders had supported the doctor’s plan for Adventists to sell The Living Temple as a method of raising funds to pay down the cost of the new sanitarium building, once the book was published they backed away from the plan because of what they interpreted to be the book’s pantheistic slant. Statements such as “there is present in the tree a power which creates and maintains it, a tree-maker in the tree, a flower-maker in the flower” were particularly troublesome.

Kellogg countered that his statements were similar to those made by Ellen White in her book Education–statements like: “A mysterious life pervades all nature, a life that sustains the unnumbered worlds throughout immensity; that lives in the insect atom which floats in the summer breeze; that wings the flight of the swallow, and feed the young ravens which cry; that brings the bud to blossom, and the flower to fruit.”

Ellen White, however, specifically called out the “inanimate” aspect of his teaching to show how far it had gone: “God is not to be found in flower and leaf and tree. … I have had much to say of the glory of God as seen in His created works, but never have I left the impression that our God Omnipotent… is to be found in flower and leaf and tree.” — The Upward Look, p. 336 (Letter to Kellogg, 1903)

On Sunday, November 10, 1907, three days after a long interview with Kellogg by local church leaders, members of the Battle Creek Tabernacle voted to disfellowship him. Charges against the doctor included failure to attend services, neglect to pay tithe, and antagonism toward “gifts now manifest in the church,” a reference to Ellen White’s testimonies. Despite the charges, Kellogg continued to pray, study the Bible, and accept general Christian beliefs, but he never joined another church organization.

The story was personally painful for Ellen White. She had known Kellogg since he was a boy and had strongly supported his education and medical career. Historians note that the final separation deeply saddened her.

Late in life Kellog actually spoke more positively about Ellen White than many people expect. In 1941, Kellogg even defended Ellen White against critics and objected to harsh attacks on her prophetic ministry. This shows that he did not end his life as an enemy of Ellen White.

KELLOGG’S PANTHEISM

Kellogg denied that he was a pantheist and held that his concept was nothing more than omnipresence. There are three special attributes of God: God is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing) and omnipresent (present everywhere at the same time). Does believing in the omnipresence of God automatically make one a pantheist? No. Although Kellog denied he was a pantheist yet there is no doubt that pantheistic views were found in his book. Kellogg’s view was that God is to be found in everything.

He said that when we eat food, we are tasting God; that God is in the water we bathe in and in the water we drink; and that when we smell a rose, we are really smelling God. He said that God is in the trees and in the boots we wear. One of the most famous and controversial passages from John Harvey Kellogg’s The Living Temple that was identified as promoting pantheistic (or panentheistic) views is his description of God as a “working presence” within the physical structures of nature:

“God is the explanation of nature,—not a God outside of nature, but in nature, manifesting himself through and in all the objects, movements, and varied phenomena of the universe. . . . Where God’s Spirit is at work, where God’s power is manifested, God himself is actually and truly present.” The Living Temple (Battle Creek, MI: Good Health Publishing Co., 1903), p. 28.

Kellogg and his followers were so overjoyed by believing God being so very near in the things around them that they appeared to ordinary minds to be pantheists. Imagine expressing delight in taking a bath, thinking that God is in the water and you’re splashing God filled water all over yourself! Picture the enthusiasm of those who believe that when they drink water that they’re being filled with the life-giving Spirit of God! The same enthusiasm has been expressed for God literally being in the healthy food we eat and in the pure air we breathe.

In The Living Temple, Kellogg did not limit God’s presence to living (animate) organisms. He taught that God was a “working presence” in everything—including inanimate nature and the fundamental forces of the universe. Kellogg argued that gravity was not just a law, but the “universal presence” of God acting instantaneously to hold the universe together.

He stated, “The light which comes from the sun is energy… divine energy.” He took the verse “God is light” (1 John 1:5) literally, suggesting that physical light is a manifestation of God’s actual essence. He rejected the idea that God is like a shoemaker who is separate from the boot he made. He believed God must remain inside the “boot” (the universe/matter) for it to exist. He argued that the way a plant turns toward the light or roots itself is evidence of God’s literal, intelligent presence within the plant’s cells.

By equating God with “All-Energy,” Kellogg’s logic extended to every atom. If God is the energy that holds an atom together, then God is “in” the rock just as much as He is “in” the person.

DOES THE WORD OF GOD SUPPORT PANTHEISTIC IDEAS?

Kellogg tried to use Colossians 3:11 to turn a spiritual privilege into a biological fact. However, by saying that God and Christ are “all in all” in Colossians 3:11, 1 Corinthians 12:6, 1 Corinthians 15:28, and Ephesians 1:23 Paul is not promoting pantheism! When Paul uses the phrase “all in all,” he is referring to the sovereignty of God and the unity of the Church through His presence in all believers. He does not mean that God is a pantheistic “life-force” present in all inanimate (earth, air we breath in, sunlight, water, stones, etc.) and animate nature (plants, animals and all men including unbelievers).

God and His Spirit do not personally dwell in everything; instead, His mysterious life-sustaining energy (which Ellen White termed “electricity”) is present in everything, including us. However, only born-again believers have the privilege of sharing in the divine nature through the Holy Spirit dwelling within them—and through Him, God the Father and Christ dwelling in their spirits. Therefore, “all in all“ refers to “Christ in us (only the believers), the hope of glory”.

The Word of God doesn’t support pantheism. In fact it denies it. Here is one of the most clear anti-pantheistic biblical texts:

“The LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12).

If Christ is “in all” (meaning all people, including the unrepentant), then:

  1. No Need for Conversion: If God is already in you by nature of your heartbeat, why do you need to be “born again”?
  2. No Distinction Between Sacred and Profane: If God is in the “sinner” in the same way He is in the “saint,” the moral requirements of the Gospel are blurred.

Kellogg’s error was mistaking Power for Person. He thought that because God’s power kept the heart beating, God’s person was literally inside the organ. Paul, however, was focused on the miracle of the transformed heart.

God and his Spirit does not personally dwell in all living organisms including animals or plants but his mysterious life sustaining energy of life, called “electricity” by Ellen White, is present in them and in us. But only true born again believers can have the privilege of sharing divine nature through Holy Spirit dwelling in them and through him God the Father and Christ dwelling in their spirits.

If God is already in the plant or the unbeliever by nature: Then the “New Birth” is just a realization of what is already there, rather than a miraculous transformation.

By separating His sustaining energy (which can be everywhere) from His personal presence (which is in the Heavenly Sanctuary and in the hearts of His children), we maintain that God is a literal, personal Being.

Ellen White’s mention of “electricity” in the context of the nervous system and life-force was ahead of its time, but she was always careful to state that Nature is not God. She wrote:

“God’s handiwork in nature is not God Himself in nature… The things of nature are an expression of God’s character; by them we may understand His love, His power, and His glory; but we are not to regard nature as God.” (Ministry of Healing, p. 411)

Aside from Colossians 3:11, Paul uses this specific “all in all” construction in three other key places:

1 Corinthians 12:6 “And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all”. Paul is saying that while different believers have different gifts (healing, prophecy, etc.), it is the same God who “activates” or “works” those gifts in all believers.

1 Corinthians 15:28 “And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” This refers to the restoration of the universe to its original harmony. Once sin is gone, there is no longer any rebellion or “wall” between God and His creation. His authority and presence will be the “all”—the single, undisputed reality—everywhere.

Ephesians 1:23 “Which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.” Christ “fills” His Church (all but only believers) with His grace, presence, and power.

Pantheists make the human body divine; they believe that God and the universe are one and the same. For them, all things are God and the human body is part of the one single integrated and universal divine substance. Simply put: in true pantheism, God is nature. Pantheists make nature and the human body divine.

The Bible provides reasons to believe that God created us and the nature that surrounds us (including water, food, and air) but we never find a text that would proof that God is in the water, food or air. The only object that according to the Bible could be indwelled by God is the spirit of a true believer (John 5:5; Gal 2:20).

Pantheism is the view that the natural universe is divine, the proper object of reverence; or the view that the natural universe is pervaded with divinity. Negatively, it is the idea that we do not need to look beyond the universe for the proper object of ultimate respect.

In Galatians 2:20 and John 15:5, Christ’s presence “in” a person is a result of faith and legal/spiritual adoption, not just existing as a biological entity.

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” This is a result of being “crucified” to the old self. An unbeliever hasn’t died to self; therefore, Christ does not “live in” them in this sense.

John 15:5: “He that abideth in me, and I in him…” This “abiding” is conditional and relational. It requires a branch to be grafted into the Vine.

2 Corinthians 6:14-16: Paul explicitly asks, “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?” He argues that God dwells in His people specifically because they are separated from unbelief.

THEOLOGIANS ON CORPORATE SALVATION IN CHRIST & UNIVERSAL LEGAL JUSTIFICATION