The question of how Adam and Eve could “go from God’s presence” if God is everywhere addresses the distinction between God’s omnipresence and His manifest presence. According to the doctrine of omnipresence, God is present everywhere in all of creation at all times, and there is no place one can go to escape God’s awareness or existence. Passages like Psalm 139 declare that there is nowhere to flee from God’s Spirit.
However, when Genesis says Adam and Eve were sent out “from the presence of the Lord” (Genesis 3:8, 3:24), it refers not to God’s omnipresence but to a special, localized manifestation of God. In the Garden of Eden, God is described as walking with Adam and Eve—a form of unique intimacy and fellowship that is not the same as God’s general, everywhere presence. Being expelled from Eden meant losing this special, relational closeness, not escaping God’s omnipresence.
• Omnipresence: God’s being is everywhere at all times—no part of creation is without Him, and He is never absent in the sense of “not being there”.
• Manifest Presence: At certain times, God chooses to reveal Himself in a tangible, special, or relational way—like the burning bush for Moses, or in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. This kind of presence can be lost or withdrawn in response to human sin or separation.
Thus, when Adam and Eve were sent out of the Garden, they were removed from this unique intimacy with God but not from God’s universal presence. Their exile marked a spiritual separation—a loss of direct fellowship and blessing—but not a literal hiding from the omnipresent God.
In summary:
• God is everywhere, always.
• Adam and Eve’s removal was from a particular manifest presence of God in Eden, not from His omnipresence.
• This exile represents the loss of special fellowship, not literal absence from God.
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