Our Life and Times : Biblical Reasoning for a Modern Age
BLOGGER · THEOLOGIAN · APOLOGIST
Norman Harold Patterson Jr.
The False god of Spinoza, Einstein, and Moore.
Einstein said he believed in the god of Spinoza. Jillene Moore gives us her take on the god of Spinoza. Read why Spinoza’s god as depicted by Moore is not only terrifying, but completely arbitrary, and totally irrelevant.
Recently, I was reading someone’s Facebook page. He shared a post by a woman named Jillene Moore. I will include the text of Moore’s post at the end of this blog post, so the reader can read what each of us wrote and make up your own mind. If you are at all interested in this subject, I encourage you to scroll down now and read it first. Or you can read it here.
Moore begins her post by saying,
When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the question students asked him most was: Do you believe in God? And he always answered: I believe in the God of Spinoza.
Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.
She then gives a fanciful depiction of Spinoza's god. She paints this god with an optimistic brush. Assuming Spinoza would approve, how does she know what this god would say? It is entirely arbitrary and total conjecture.
This god supposedly reveals itself through sunrises, landscapes, and in the eyes of loved ones. Why didn't she include maggot-infested carcasses, garbage dumps, and train wrecks?
Whether she realizes it or not, Moore borrows her optimism from the Christian worldview. Only in the self-attesting Bible do we have the objective revelation of the self-existing Trinitarian God. Without this, Einstein, Spinoza and Moore cannot account for why sunrises, landscapes, and the eyes of the loved ones are better revelations than carcasses, dumps, and train wrecks.
What does she mean when she writes that Spinoza's god "loves"? And why is "love" better than "hate"? Neither Moore nor Spinoza's god tell us. They assume it. Without an objective revelation of love, how can we even know what it is?
God reveals in 1 John 4:8 that "God is love." We cannot know what love is apart from the God of the Bible. It says in 1 John 3:16,
By this we know love, that Jesus Christ laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters.
Without this objective revelation, any notions of love are purely speculative. Again, Moore borrows from the Christian worldview when she believes that Spinoza's god "loves" rather than "hates" us.
The god of Spinoza, as revealed by Moore, cares nothing for morality. She opines that Spinoza's god says,
I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything that others made you believe."
Would she then say that it's okay to rape, cheat on your spouse, or that it's wrong to have sex with animals? Since this god never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you are a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing, why not do as you please to whomever or whatever you want?
If you follow this line of thinking to its logical conclusion, you can't say that any form of sexual expression is wrong. And if you do, you once again have borrowed the objective revelation of the Trinitarian God of the Bible, which limits human sexual behavior and says that the violation of His Law is the very definition of sin. 1 John 3:4,
Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
The god of Spinoza knows nothing of law and sin. This god cannot say any form of sexual behavior is wrong. As soon as you try to put limits upon human sexual behavior, you assume once again the morality of the God of the Bible. You can't have it both ways. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:24,
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
It's either the self-existing God of the self-attesting Bible or the subjective, amoral, relativistic god of Spinoza.
Moore writes that you cannot know Spinoza's god through any "alleged sacred scripture." While there are many "alleged sacred" scriptures, there are none like the Bible. It is the only self-attesting Book that claims to be the sole and unique revelation of the one and only self-existing Trinitarian God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No other book claims that it is "infallible" and "God-breathed." (2 Timothy 3:16)
Only the God of the Bible provides the foundation for rationality, science, and morality. Apart from this self-attesting revelation, we cannot prove anything. How does Einstein, Spinoza or Moore know anything about their god? Again, maybe cesspools reveal more about this god rather than fluffy white clouds. Without an objective standard, it's all fairytales and wishes.
Any person that claims that anything can be proven presupposes the Christian worldview as revealed in the Bible. The very idea that something can be proven presuppose the God of the Bible exists; otherwise, we choose meaningless humanistic subjectivism that cannot prove anything. Who needs proof of anything in a God-empty universe?
We can’t have scientific proof apart from the Bible. The atheist Hume clearly demonstrated that we cannot assume the uniformity of nature. Science is impossible without this assumption. Science is only possible when we start with the God in whom
we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28
Quite frankly, I am terrified of Spinoza's god. Imagine a universe where
"there's nothing to forgive."
This god makes us with
"passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies, and best of all, free will."
Since this god does not hold us accountable or threaten punishment for "being the way you are," why aren't we "absolutely free" to do whatever the hell we please to anyone we want and not ask forgiveness?
Imagine if humanity believed and acted on this presumption. What's to stop people from carrying out whatever atrocity they want? Even the idea of an "atrocity" must assume the Christian worldview rather than Spinoza's god. To agree with Spinoza's god, you cannot say anything is wrong. You have no moral basis for condemning the holocaust or Stalin's genocide of his people. Moore wants to paint Spinoza's god with a rainbow pallet, but this god paints with the pallet of blood.
Spinoza founded his god by his own subjective idealistic thinking. However, the Bible is the only objective revelation of the one and only God of the universe. Yet, even those who deny God continue to testify to His existence. Moore does so by assuming meaning in what she is saying, by assuming sunsets are better than carcasses, that enjoyment is better than misery, that the god of Spinoza is true, and the God of the Bible is false. She assumes she is saying something meaningful about a meaningless god.
For Spinoza's god, as depicted by Moore, there is no such thing as sin. In the Bible, God revealed that sin is real because He is holy, which means He is wholly set apart from sin. God defines sin, and no one else. The Bible reveals that God punishes sin. The glory and beauty of Biblical Christianity is that the Second Person of the Trinity became fully Human and died as a substitute for all who believe in Him. Believing in Him means that we repent of our sin and look to Jesus Christ for our salvation. The Bible says all who call upon Jesus Christ will be saved.
God then sends the Third Person of the Trinity to fill us and make us as pure and holy as Jesus Christ Himself. The Spirit writes the Law of God on our hearts so that we obey God not only outwardly but inwardly as well. God empowers us to love one another, not according to our subjective whims, but according to His Law given to us in the Bible. This is why it is wrong to rape, cheat on your spouse or have an affair with a goat.
The god of Spinoza speaking to us through Moore hasn't offered anything but meaningless sentimentality and permission to do whatever the hell we please. This god is the ultimate expression of narcissistic humanity.
The god of Einstein and Spinoza is nothing new. You can find it all throughout the Bible. Sometimes it is called Moloch, sometimes Baal, sometimes Astorath, and under many more names. In the end, we learn that this god's name is ultimately Satan.
The choice is always the same, both in Biblical times and in our times:
Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness. Put away the gods that your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. Joshua 24:14+15
Me? I have made my choice. I answer as Joshua did in the same verse,
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
I'm happy to dialogue if you want to talk about what I've written.
Jillene Moore’s Facebook Post, November 19, 2020:
When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the question students asked him most was: Do you believe in God? And he always answered: I believe in the God of Spinoza.
Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.
According to Spinoza, God would say: “Stop praying. I want you to go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.
“Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.
“Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything that others made you believe.
“Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes—you will find me in no book!
“Stop asking me, ‘Will you tell me how to do my job?’ Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry or bothered. I am pure love.
“Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. If I made you, I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies, and best of all, free will. Why would I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How could I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?
“Respect your peers, and don't give what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life—alertness is your guide.
“My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, not a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now—and it is all you need.
“I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life. It’s you who creates heaven or hell.
“Live as if there is nothing beyond this life, as if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist. Then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is an afterlife, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask, ‘Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?’
“Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.
“Stop praising me. What kind of egomaniac God do you think I am? I'm bored with being praised. I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That's the way to praise me.
“Stop complicating things and repeating as a parrot what you've been taught about me. Why do you need more miracles? So many explanations?
“The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.”
We find the Dominion Mandate for Bible-believing Christians in Genesis 1:26-28:
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
For Christians, this means that God has given us the responsibility to take dominion over the entire world. We have God's approval and authority to "fill the earth and subdue it." Add to this Christ's call in Matthew 28:19+20 to:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
And 2 Corinthians 10:3-6:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
While God called Christians to be separate from the world in holiness, He doesn't give us the option to isolate ourselves from the world physically. As Jesus said:
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. John 17:14-15
Because of false piety and a lack of understanding of these and other Dominion affirming Biblical texts, Christians far too often vacate the world, leaving an "influence vacuum." As the old saying goes, "nature abhors a vacuum." Because of this, instead of taking Dominion over the arts, sciences, court systems, political offices, universities, and so on, Christians withdraw into isolated communities only to leave the world unoccupied.
As a result, anti-Christ people and philosophies have readily taken over virtually every facet of life. The greatest antithesis to Biblical Christianity has understood and intentionally implemented the Dominion Mandate for their own sinister ends.
The most dangerous of all are those espousing Cultural Marxism. Briefly, Cultural Marxism is an expansion of Classical Marxism, which focuses primarily on the economic philosophy of Karl Marx. Cultural Marxism is much more all-encompassing than Classical Marxism.
Ultimately, Cultural Marxism is about liberating humanity from the moral constraints of Biblical Christianity. The Bible prohibits same-sex intimacy, adultery in all forms, polygamy, bigamy, bestiality, pedophilia, and so on. God created man and woman in His image and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply; the Dominion Mandate!
The method Cultural Marxism employs to propagate its insidious agenda is through applying the Biblical Mandate. The plan has been and continues to be for those who oppose Biblical Christianity to infiltrate and dominate every known sphere of influence. As Voddie Bachem pointed out, their strategy is to take over the "robes" of society; professors, pastors, and judges, for example.
R.J. Rushdoony and the Christian Reconstructionists proposed the same tactic, taking over the "robes" of society. However, instead of a great "Amen" from the rest of the Church, Christian Reconstructionism has been vilified as patriarchal, extreme, and misguided.
In the meantime, Cultural Marxism is dominating the universities, media, churches, courts, arts, etc. They are putting Christians and Christianity to shame by their ardent intentionality to dominate the world for Self.
As the degeneration of our culture continues, so will the hostility toward Biblical Christianity. And just as Marxism tried to destroy Biblical Christianity through the reign of terror in anti-Christ regimes like the Soviet Union and Communist China, modern Marxists will not rest until Biblical Christianity is destroyed.
The good news, however, is the promise of Jesus Christ. He said that the "gates of hell" will not prevail against the Church. (Matthew 16:18) The image Christ was giving was not a Church that was cowering in the corner, battening down the hatches until the storm of hell subsided. Just the opposite. Hell is under attack, and its filthy gates are no match for the power and glory of the Risen Christ and His Bride.
Christians can no longer cower in corners. It is time for us to take up the battle cry and assault Cultural Marxism and any other "high place" (2 Corinthians 10:3-6) that dares to raise itself against the knowledge of God. Our weapons are not of the flesh (Ephesians 6), but they are weapons nonetheless and are worthless if left unused.
It is time for Christians to take back our country, our world for Christ. We must do it according to the means and methods of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom, which means we must take Dominion and occupy all walks of life for the glory of the crown rights of Jesus Christ.
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