Does the Bible teach panentheism? The obvious answer is no. That doesn’t mean people don’t try to prove me wrong. We’ll briefly look at various text they use. Here are some of the reasons I reject panentheism is biblical.

1. I have argued on this website that God is a being that is unique to everything in creation. So, the Bible teaches that God is unlike anything in creation implying that the creation isn’t in him.

http://spirited-tech.com/COG/2018/09/01/mormons-and-ot-polytheism/

2. The Bible teaches that God created the universe from no preexisting stuff. The Bible speaks nowhere of him creating parts of himself or the universe being within himself. Rather it teaches that God created the universe as something distinct from him.

http://spirited-tech.com/COG/2018/12/21/creator-over-all/

3. Panentheism seems to be an incoherent notion. It seems to me that it suffers the problems of monism. I’ve argued that elsewhere as well.

http://spirited-tech.com/COG/2017/10/12/panentheism-and-christian-theology/

Romans 11:36

³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

God is the source of all things, the means by which all things are accomplished, and the goal of all things. 13 Since he is the source and means of all things, no one could possibly function as his counselor or expect payment for some service rendered. God is the giver of wisdom to human beings, not the recipient of wisdom from them; God is the one who gives all things to us, not the one who receives benefits from human hands. Not only is God the source of all things and the means by which all things are accomplished, but he is also the goal (εἰς) of all things. The purpose for which the world was created is God’s purpose. It is fitting, therefore, that the text ends with an acclamation of God’s glory.

Schreiner, Thomas R.. Romans (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Kindle Locations 21738-21744). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Colossians 1:17

¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

This isn’t to imply that all things are in Christ and he holds them together in his kidney. The preposition in(ἐν) can imply different kinds of relations between things. Most recognize that this isn’t meant to denote a spacial relation but rather an instrumental one. Christ is that which by the world holds together, Christ is why everything coheres together. The ideas of this passage don’t originate with a pantheistic culture but rather with Jewish traditions and thoughts found in Genesis 1 and wisdom traditions that developed over the Second Temple period.

Ephesians 1:10

¹⁰ with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him

This isn’t about the location of the universe but rather the purpose and goal of history and the universe. Rather, it is to state that believers are under the federal headship of Christ(sphere).

Throughout the rest of the eulogy God’s grand purpose is said to be ‘in Christ’; the same holds true for the finale, the summing up, as the concluding words of v. 10, ‘in him’, emphatically reiterate. Although this expression might be understood as instrumental, suggesting that the Messiah 386 is the means (or instrument) through whom God sums up the universe, it is better to take the phrase as referring to him as the sphere, in line with the earlier instances of this phrase within the paragraph (vv. 3-7, 9). Christ is the one in whom God chooses to sum up the cosmos, the one in whom he restores harmony to the universe. He is the focal point, not simply the means, the instrument, or the functionary through whom all this occurs. The previous examples of ‘in Christ’ and its equivalents within the berakah focussed on the Son as God’s chosen one in whom believers have been blessed. Now in vv. 9 and 10 the stress is placed on the one in whom God’s overarching purposes for the whole of the created order are included. The emphasis is now on a universe that is centered and reunited in Christ.387 The mystery which God has graciously made known refers to the summing up and bringing together of the fragmented and alienated elements of the universe (‘all things’) in Christ as the focal point.

O’Brien, Peter T.. The Letter to the Ephesians (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Kindle Locations 2411-2421). Eerdmans Publishing Co – A. Kindle Edition.

Furthermore, there are things that remain outside of Christ’s sphere. Unbelievers are not “in Christ”

There is an important Christological dimension to the paragraph as well. Christ, who is the mediator and ‘sphere’ of divine blessing, has the Father’s glory as his goal. Finally, there is a stress on believers as undeserving beneficiaries of God’s gracious saving work. Again and again Paul speaks of ‘us’ and ‘we’ as the people of God who have been ‘blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ’ (v. 3; cf. vv. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14). In vv. 4-14 the same people are in view. Paul includes himself along with his readers within the first person plurals. At the same time, the apostle has all of God’s people in mind, both corporately and individually (see below). ‘God as the origin and goal of salvation, Christ as its mediator, and believers as its recipients — these themes give the passage a threefold theocentric, Christological, and ecclesiological focus’.315

O’Brien, Peter T.. The Letter to the Ephesians (Pillar New Testament Commentary) (Kindle Locations 2089-2095). Eerdmans Publishing Co – A. Kindle Edition.

There is an evil in the world that isn’t “in Christ” in this very same epistle.

Ephesians 2:1-7

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. ³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 4:6

⁶ one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Taken together, these statements seem to spell out what Paul means when he says that God is “over all and through all and in all.” He is “over” all in the sense that he created everything (3:9), named all the tribes of the universe (3:15), and subjected everything to Christ (1:22). He is “through” and “in” all in the sense that he is summing up all things in Christ (1:10) and works all things to accomplish his will (1:11).

Frank Thielman- Ephesians (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) (Page 260).