Dismantling our idols
Keller’s life as pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, one of the busiest churches in Manhattan, puts him in a good place to observe the impact of the financial crisis on a diverse congregation (numbering 5,000-plus). He effortlessly speaks their language and shares many of their heartwarming stories.
He’s generous in his appreciation of the wise, clear-eyed observation of the idols of young people today (including the pop stars anointed by Simon Cowell on TV), which he gained from talking about his book to his three sons. They enjoyed long and intense discussions during walks, dinners, and “just hanging out.”
Keller says his main concern in this, his fourth major publication, is to urge Christians and non-Christians to reassess “the empty promises of money, sex, and power” featured in his subtitle. After a glance back to the cultures of the ancient Greco-Roman world, and brief consideration of the melancholy of Americans in the 1830s, who believed that prosperity could quench their yearning for happiness, Keller suggests that contemporary society is not fundamentally different. “Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols,” he writes. “Each one has its shrines—whether office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums—where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life . . . .”
The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true God.
So what is an idol? Keller doesn’t mince words: “It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give.” The First Commandment is explicit, he says, and many other parts of the Bible point to the human heart as an idol factory of a kind (see Ezekiel 14:3). The Apostle Paul wrote that one of the worst things you can do to someone is to give them over to “the sinful desires of their hearts” (Romans 1:24, New International Version).
Among those desires Keller lists workaholism, chronic indecisiveness, perfectionism, and the need to control the lives of others—plus, excessive love of one’s own children (by which Keller means loving God too little in relationship to one’s children). But how do we change? Identify and dismantle the counterfeit gods of your heart, he says. It takes private prayer and corporate worship, though you can’t get relief simply by figuring out your idols intellectually. You have to strive through spiritual discipline for the peace that Jesus spoke of. “Analysis can help you discover truths,” Keller writes, “but then you need to ‘pray them in’ to your heart.”
Counterfeit Gods includes an absorbing and helpful 18-page segment in which Keller unwraps some of the complexities in God’s calls upon Abraham in Genesis, and especially the demand that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac (see 22:2). Keller also points out that Jesus struggled mightily with God’s call in the garden of Gethsemane. And he draws lessons in refreshing detail from the stories of Jacob (in Genesis), Zacchaeus (Luke), Naaman (II Kings), Nebuchadnezzar (Daniel), and Jonah (the book of Jonah). It’s impossible, says Keller, to understand a culture without discerning its idols.
Keller leaves us in no doubt that the only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true God. He concludes: “The living God, who revealed himself both at Mount Sinai and on the Cross, is the only Lord who, if you can find him, can truly fulfill you, and, if you fail him, can truly forgive you.”
