Critical Warning: Finis Dake’s teachings about God’s nature represent a radical departure from orthodox Christian theology. His redefinition of God’s essential attributes—omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence—fundamentally alters the biblical understanding of who God is, reducing Him to a limited being who differs from humans only in degree, not in kind.
How Dake Distorts the Nature of God
Throughout church history, Christians have affirmed that God is omnipresent (everywhere present), omniscient (all-knowing), and omnipotent (all-powerful). These attributes, derived from Scripture, distinguish the infinite Creator from His finite creation. Finis Dake, however, systematically redefines these essential attributes in ways that diminish God’s nature and make Him remarkably similar to pagan deities—powerful but limited beings confined to physical bodies and spatial locations.
Dake’s Denial of God’s Omnipresence
Perhaps Dake’s most shocking teaching concerns God’s omnipresence. In his Bible concordance, Dake writes:
“Omnipresent, everywhere present. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all present where there are beings with whom they have dealings; but they are not omnibody, that is, their bodies are not omnipresent. All three go from place to place bodily as other beings in the universe do.”
This teaching directly contradicts Jesus’ declaration that “God is Spirit” (John 4:24) and reduces God to a physical being who must travel from location to location. Dake further states that God’s presence is “not governed by bodily contact” and explicitly declares: “God’s body is not omnipresent, for it is only at one place at one time like others.” This transforms the infinite God into a finite being bound by spatial limitations.
The implications of this teaching are staggering. If God must physically travel from place to place, then He cannot simultaneously be present with all His people. When God is visiting one galaxy, He would be absent from Earth. This contradicts countless biblical promises of God’s constant presence with believers and reduces Him to something resembling the Greek god Zeus—powerful but geographically limited.
Limiting God’s Omniscience
Dake also attacks God’s omniscience, teaching that God’s knowledge is limited and that He learns things over time. In his concordance, he states that omniscience “must be understood in a limited sense” and that “Many passages show clearly that God comes to know certain acts of free and sovereign wills, and He does not plan or try to know from all eternity.” He even suggests that God needs angels to help Him gather information: “He sends messengers on innumerable duties to help Him carry on His rulership of all things.”
This teaching portrays God as lacking complete knowledge, needing to investigate situations and learn from His observations—a direct contradiction of biblical passages declaring that God knows all things (1 John 3:20) and that nothing is hidden from His sight (Hebrews 4:13). Dake’s god is more like a cosmic administrator who relies on angelic reports to stay informed about universal events.
Restricting God’s Omnipotence
While Dake acknowledges God has “all power,” he immediately qualifies this by stating it “must be sensibly understood as operating within the bounds of His own revelation of Himself.” He then provides extensive lists of things God supposedly cannot do, not just moral impossibilities (like lying), but suggesting operational limitations that restrict God’s ability to act in His creation. This redefinition transforms omnipotence from “God can do all things consistent with His nature” into “God is limited in ways similar to other beings.”
Most disturbingly, Dake applies these limitations to Jesus Christ as well, teaching that Christ “laid aside… His omnipresence to be limited in presence like men, His omniscience to grow in knowledge and learn obedience like men, His omnipotence to receive power from the Spirit.” While orthodox theology teaches that Christ voluntarily limited the independent exercise of His divine attributes during the incarnation, Dake goes much further, suggesting these limitations are inherent to deity itself.
These teachings do not merely represent alternative interpretations; they constitute a fundamental redefinition of God’s nature that places Him within creation rather than above it. Dake’s god is not the infinite, eternal, unchangeable Being revealed in Scripture, but rather a super-powerful creature who happens to rule the universe. Such teachings lead inevitably to practical atheism, for a limited god is no God at all.
For those who do not have a significant theological foundation I would recommend that you read the article directly below before going to the articles that provide lots of direct quotes of his works so as to avoid confusing yourself or being led astray. Read first:
Then read these other articles.
Dake’s Distorted Nature of God
- A Theological Analysis of Finis J. Dake’s Unorthodox Doctrines of God’s Nature, Presence, and Knowledge
- An Analysis of Dake’s Unorthodox Teachings on God’s Omniscience and Omnipresence
- Dake’s Dubious Doctrine
- Does Finis Dake Believe God Does Not Know The Future and is Not All-Knowing?
- Finis Dake and the dangers of the Dake Bible
- Finis Dake’s Denial of God’s Omnipotence
- Finis Dake’s Denial of God’s Omnipresence: A Comprehensive Biblical Refutation
- Finis Dake’s Denial of God’s Omniscience: A Biblical Examination of His Heretical Teaching
- Finis Dake’s Heretical Views on God: A Comparison with Jehovah’s Witnesses
- Finis Dake’s Theological Error on Jesus’ Eternal Sonship
- Finis Dake’s Theological Errors Concerning the Holy Spirit
- Finis Dake’s Theological Errors in “God’s Plan for Man”
- Finis Dake’s Theological Errors on God’s Immutability
- Finis Dake’s Theological Errors on Jesus’ Kenosis and Divine Nature
- Finis Dake’s Tri-theistic Doctrine: A Comprehensive Examination
- Finis Dakes Unbiblical Teaching on the Doctrine of the Trinity
- Finis Jennings Dake and The Dake Bible
- Understanding the Trinity: How Finis Dake Contradicts 2,000 Years of Christian Faith
Dake’s Teaching on the Physical Body of God
- Understanding the True Nature of God: A Comprehensive Biblical Response to Dake’s Physical God Theology
- Unbiblical Teachings on God’s Body and Lack of Omnipresence
- The Heretical Teaching of God’s Physical Body
- God’s Body Just Like Human Bodies
- Finis Dake’s Theological Errors in “God’s Plan for Man”
- Finis Dake’s Theological Errors Concerning the Holy Spirit
- Comprehensive Transcription of Unbiblical Teachings from Finis Dake’s Study Bible and “God’s Plan for Man”
