The False god of Spinoza, Einstein, and Moore.

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.”

Are You a Dangerous Christian, or are You Just "Nice"?

Modern Christianity has produced a new phenomenon: the nice Christian. A nice Christian bears little resemblance to the dangerous Christians we read about in the Bible and throughout history. The nice Christian is just that; nice.

John Wesley told Christians not to be "nice." Why did he say this? The Latin roots of the word "nice" mean "ignorant" or "silly." Modern Christianity has become nice in the truest sense of the word. I'll spare you my rant on all the ways. Instead, I will write about the dangerous Christian.

The world, the government, and the minions of Satan hate dangerous Christians. These are believers who fear nothing but God. Jesus tells dangerous Christians that the world will hate them because they hated Him first. (John 15:18-27). Dangerous Christians are told to "love not the world." (1 John 2:15-17). Why would they, they are not citizens of this world. (Philippians 3:20)

This is why governments all throughout history hate these Christians. Nice Christians line up to show just how obedient and subservient they are. They salute the flag, send their children to public schools to pledge allegiance to the state, and stand whenever the National Anthem is played. Dangerous Christians dare to remove the American flag from their sanctuaries and do not sing patriotic songs, refusing to acknowledge that Caesar has any place in God's worship. They refuse to incorporate their church and become a state 501(c)3 state corporation.

Dangerous Christians are the bane of ungodly governments. They refuse to pay homage to the gods of the state. (Exodus 20:5) They would rather face perishing by fire (Daniel 3) than bow down. The Caesars hated these Christians as did tyrants all throughout history. They hate them because this kind of Christianity has brought down every major government in the past. When given the choice of obeying God or ungodly government, these Christians always obey God. (Acts 5:29)

The problem with dangerous Christians is they have already died. (Galatians 2:20). They fear no one and nothing, only God. It's difficult to intimidate someone who believes that killing them only ushers them into the presence of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:8) In fact, these Christians believe that dying for Christ increases their reward in the afterlife. (Matthew 5:10) No, they don't get 72 virgins. They receive Jesus Himself! And for them, there is no greater reward.

Compared to the love of dangerous Christians, the love of nice Christians is pathetic. Nice Christians never speak difficult words, don't offend anyone, and do not want to impose their religion on anyone. Not so with dangerous Christians. They speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), follow the lead of their Savior by offending the crowd (John 6:60-62), and continually impose the gospel's message on this lost world. (2 Timothy 4:2)

Dangerous Christians will give you the shirt off their backs if you are in need (1 John 3:17), yet command that food be withheld from a slacker (2 Thessalonians 3:9-11)

Dangerous Christians defend the innocent and vulnerable with fierceness and tenacity that makes nice Christians uncomfortable. (Psalm 82:3) Nowadays, nice Christians wear masks to protect the irresponsible, while saying nothing about the hundreds of ways people jeopardize their health daily, let alone anything about their eternal soul.

Dangerous Christians stand outside of the abortion clinics that, by the way, remained open during the pandemic's height as an "essential service." Instead of chastising others on Facebook for not wearing a mask, they begged and pleaded with mothers to spare their unborn children. They are so dangerous that governments have to pass special laws limiting the protesting of dangerous Christians so women can have guilt-free access to slaughter their baby in their womb.

Dangerous Christians know the corruption of the human heart and so are suspicious of profit-driven media. (1 John 4:1-3) They wage war against lies, arguments, and opinions that are anti-God and anti-Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:1-6) The media and its disciples can't stand the difficult, penetrating, and insistent questions of dangerous Christians.

These Christians love science, but they don't trust the scientist (Jeremiah 17:5), especially when they have motivations to please those who sign their paychecks. There is nothing more annoying than a Christian asking difficult questions of power or profit-driven science.

Dangerous Christians are not perfect. They make mistakes. Many of them are former adulterers, fornicators, haters, blasphemers, thieves, and alcoholics. (1 Corinthians 6:11) There is plenty to criticize in their lives even now, but no one is faster to admit that than these Christians themselves. They know what a miserable lot they are apart from Jesus Christ. Tell them how hypocritical they are, and they will heartily admit it. Though, they dare to say they are saints and believe they are as holy as Jesus Christ Himself. They indeed are an odd bunch.

Who are these dangerous Christians? They are the ones who call the world to repentance, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the orphan, and provide for the widow, all for Christ's sake. They have only one ultimate cause, and that is the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 25:35-40) While they work for social change, they know that the world can not change unless the root cause of sin is rooted out by the power of the Holy Spirit. These Christians are intolerant of all other religions and are zealous for the One True God, who has revealed Himself in Scripture. They are people of one Book, one faith, and One God.

If you don't know any Christian like the dangerous Christian I've described, you are probably friends with a nice Christian or perhaps are a nice Christian yourself. If you'd like to join the motley crew of dangerous Christians, put down your phone and computer right now and ask God to make you one. Call upon the Holy Spirit to transform you into someone the world, the flesh, and the devil would consider a dangerous Christian.

A Reminder to the Remnant

Working to change individual and corporate sin without first addressing the root problem of original sin is like trying to purify the ocean by pouring fresh water into it. This is why the work and mission of the Church are absolutely vital. It is only through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ that the human heart is transformed from being “desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9) to being “a pure heart” (Psalm 51:1). This is why the work of the Church 𝘪𝘴 𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 for our nation to be changed. It is through worship and the preaching of the gospel (Romans 10:17) that hearts will be transformed.

The Kingdom of God is not an abstract concept. His Kingdom comes and His will is done as individuals and then nations submit themselves to the Kingship of Jesus our Lord. Calling individuals and nations to this is the essential work of the Church.