Tim Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods”: Chapter 6 – The Hidden Idols in Our Lives

I. Introduction

1. We’ve been dealing with personal idols – i.e., idols of the heart - It’s easy to spot these because they are the passions of our heart


2. Now Keller explores the “hidden” idols in our lives – the idols of our culture & society


3. Keller starts out hitting at a recurring idol - money

• Our particular culture here in America is built upon capitalism & profit


• In and of themselves, those things are not bad


• However, Keller points out that our society’s preoccupation with profit has led to abuses


• Ex: Paying employees what they are worth & providing them a good working environment leads to higher profits


• Keller points out that it’s simply the right thing to do


• Honesty & commitment are goods in themselves & are equally important as profit

II. How did we get here?

a) I want to introduce a concept quickly that is a good overlay concept to all of the cultural idols we’re discussing

• Francis Schaeffer in his book, “The God Who Is There” came up with the concept he called “The Line of Despair”

Europe (pre-1890) / U.S. (pre-1935) ___________________________________________ The Line of Despair

• Above the line, man dealt in absolutes (God); below the line, truth has been blurred (enter Fredrick Nietzche who said, "God is dead.")


• We don’t have time to dive too deep into this, but the long-and-short of it goes like this:


• Pre-1935 – “she is a good girl;” we both would think the same thing: she goes to church, she studies hard, she volunteers at a soup kitchen


• Post-1935 – “she is a good girl;” You might still use the same concepts to describe this “good girl,” however, to me the term “good” means she hasn’t killed anyone, she’s only been in jail once


• Because of relativism, we now have a different definition of “good”


• What Schaeffer points out next is that the Line of Despair has infiltrated not only our broad culture, but the church

Philosophy

Art

Music

General Culture

Theology

• What Schaeffer is saying is that it was a subtle, gradual process for our society and ultimately our theology to remove God and replace Him with relativism

b) Keller approaches it from the “Hope” of a nation

• He quotes Andrew Delbanco in “The Real American Dream”


• The “Hope” of a culture is what it tells its members what life is all about


• In sequence, he states American’s “Hope” went from God, to Nation, to Self


• The U.S. was a Christian story that was abandoned during the Enlightenment of the 18th century for the deified nation; that “hope” was replaced by the age of “Self”


• Keller: “Any dominant culture “Hope” that is not God Himself, is a counterfeit God. And also, “When we are completely immersed in a society of people who consider a particular idolatrous attachment normal, it becomes almost impossible to discern it for what it is.”

III. Idols in Our Religion (the effects of the Line of Despair in Religion)

a) Three types of Idolatry in Religion

1. Doctrinal Accuracy – relying on the rightness of one’s doctrine for standing with God rather than on God’s grace; Proverbs – “scoffer,” contempt & disdain for opponents rather than graciousness; sign that we don’t see ourselves as sinners saved by grace


2. Ministry Success – mistaking spiritual gifts (talent, ability, etc.) for fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, patience); mistaken feeling that our standing with God depends on how many lives we are changing; Keller points out that ministers can suffer from this religious idol


3. Moral Rectitude – seeking to control God & others through our moral performance; we feel God & others owe us respect; it’s a form of moral striving for our own salvation

IV. Man (people) on the Run

a) Keller uses the story of Jonah to illustrate how the idols that drive us are complex, many-layered, & largely hidden from us

• Cultural/Religious idols can super-charge personal idols


• Jonah: prophet; nationalistic zeal; urged King Jeroboam to pursue expansionist military policy


• God commands Jonah to go to Ninevah – the most powerful city in the world – to proclaim God’s word & bring Ninevah to repentance


• As He does with us, God was putting all of Jonah’s idols to the challenge

a) Warning Ninevah would benefit them and be disastrous for Israel

b) Assyria was a violent & cruel empire – Jonah is biased

c) What does Jonah do in response to God’s command?

• He flees – goes in opposite direction (West) on a boat


• Hilarious to me – Does Jonah actually think he can escape God by getting on a boat?!


• We do this don’t we – we skip church; we avoid Scripture; we go to the things that fill our minds with anything but God

V. What are Jonah’s Idols?

a) Personal – ministry success

b) Cultural – nationalism for Israel over God

c) Religious – moral rectitude; he felt superior to the wicked, pagan Ninevites

• Peter is convicted of these same issues


• Galations 2 – Peter refused to eat with Gentile Christians


• Paul convicts Peter that he’s not acting in line with the Gospel (Galations 2:14)

VI. How Ought We to Defeat Our Hidden Idols?

• Jonah is an example of how we can let our religiousity turn into a idol that becomes super-charged and multi-layered

1. Humility – Jonah had to sit in the belly of a whale


2. 2. Watering – In order to reseed a yard, you must water the yard continually after laying the seeds not to simply cause the grass to grow, but to break down the hard outer shell of the seedling; this is similar to our spiritual growth; we need the constant watering of Scripture, Worship, Service, & Fellowship to break through our idols and maintain our focus on Christ


3. 3. Love – Keller rightly points out at the end of this chapter “Shouldn’t we just love like God?”

• We live, work, have fellowship with image-bearers each and every day; we need to love as God loves and our idols will have little ground in which to root themselves!


• Burk Parsons said it best with regard to our religious idols: “Is your goal celebrity (sitting at Jesus’ right hand) or sevanthood (washing the feet of a bunch of nobodies)?