God The Sustainer
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God the Sustainer is the conception of God who sustains and upholds everything in existence. ''Al Qayyum'', sometimes rendered "The Sustainer" is one of the 99 Names of God in Islam. "Creater, Sustainer, Redeemer" is reportedly a "common phrase" in
Protestantism in the United States Protestantism is the largest grouping of Christians in the United States, with its combined denominations collectively comprising about 43% of the country's population (or 141 million people) in 2019. Other estimates suggest that 48.5% of the U ...
, specifically in
Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...
liturgy. Thomas J. Scirghi, ''An Examination of the Problems of Inclusive Language in the Trinitarian Formula of Baptism'' (2000)
p. 168
John Stanford Holme, ''The Baptist Hymn and Tune Book'' (1858)
822, 825, 849


Christian theology

In the
Christian theology Christian theology is the theology of Christianity, Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theology, theologian ...
, the described doctrine is supported by the following
biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
and
Deuterocanonical The deuterocanonical books (from the Greek meaning "belonging to the second canon") are books and passages considered by the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and the Assyrian Church of the East to be ...
references: *Wisdom 11:21-26: For you love all things that exist, and detest none of the things that you have made; for you would not have made anything if you had hated it. How would anything have endured, if you had not willed it? Or how would anything not called forth by you have been preserved? You spare all things, for they are yours, O Lord, you who love the living. *John 5:17: My Father is always at his work, even to this very day; and I am also working. *Acts 17:28: "For in him we live and move and have our being." As some of your own poets have said, "We are his offspring." *Hebrews 1:3: He upholds all things by the word of his power. *Colossians 1:17: He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. Moreover, there are other relevant places in the doctrinal Christian literature, for example: * St. Augustine comments on John 5:17: Let us therefore believe that God works constantly, so that all created things would perish, if his working were withdrawn. *The
Catechism of the Catholic Church The ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ( la, Catechismus Catholicae Ecclesiae; commonly called the ''Catechism'' or the ''CCC'') is a catechism promulgated for the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1992. It aims to summarize, in book for ...
says in 301: With creation, God does not abandon his creatures to themselves. He not only gives them being and existence, but also, and at every moment, upholds and sustains them in being, enables them to act and brings them to their final end. Recognizing this utter dependence with respect to the Creator is a source of wisdom and freedom, of joy and confidence:


Hinduism

The conception of Deity in a sustaining/conserving/preserving mode is also used in Hindu theology where the Godhead, or Trimūrti in Sanskrit, consists of
Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 21 ...
the Creator,
Vishnu Vishnu ( ; , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Vishnu is known as "The Preserver" within t ...
the Preserver/Sustainer, and Siva the Destroyer.


Pantheism and pandeism

In
pantheism Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...
and
pandeism Pandeism (or pan-deism), is a theological doctrine that combines aspects of pantheism with aspects of deism. Unlike classical deism, which holds that God does not interfere with the universe after its creation, pandeism holds that a creator d ...
(pantheistic deism) generally, God or some similar formulation is characterized as ''only'' needing to exist as a sustaining force, with no other aspect.


References

{{Reflist Sustainer