"Counterfeit Gods" by Timothy Keller

I found this book in a rather odd place – the LSU campus bookstore in Baton Rouge. Like most campus bookstores these days, it’s much easier to find the brand apparel – the gods of our alma mater – than it is to find the books. But it was prominently displayed on a longish table, part of which was devoted to religious books.

 The book was Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope That Matters by Timothy Keller. Keller, a pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America denomination, is well known in Christian faith circles. He’s the founder of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, with a congregation of 5,000+ and numerous daughter churches. He’s also actively involved in planting churches internationally.

Keller became widely known in much broader circles last year, when Princeton Seminary announced that he would receive the Kuyper theology prize. Seminarians exploded in outrage – Keller is known for his conservative, Biblical views on marriage and women’s ordination – and the seminary then rescinded the prize (but they still wanted him to give a lecture). Keller handled the controversy with far more grace than the seminary did.

This book (Keller’s written many books) called Counterfeit Gods was published in 2009, almost a decade ago. In a culture that travels at the speed of the internet, a book published a decade ago would be, or should be, rather dated. Counterfeit Gods is not. It could have been published yesterday. Its message is even more applicable in this era of fake news, issues of sexuality and personal freedom, and the increasingly vicious fights for political power.

He dispassionately considers the things in our lives and culture that we turn into idols – love, money, success, power, attention, patriotism, and more. Each discussion centers on a story from the Bible. It’s no surprise that none of these things are new; people have been making idols of the same things for thousands of years. Solomon was right: there is indeed nothing new under the sun, at least as it concerns the human condition.

Timothy Keller

Keller is the author of numerous books on faith, including works on family, marriage, prayer, justice, books of the Bible, and other subjects. In 2017, he stepped down as Redeemer’s senior pastor and is doing full-time teaching in a partner program with Reformed Theological Seminary.

I can pick up the newspaper today, and I can look at my own life, and I see why a book like Counterfeit Gods is timeless. That’s how wisdom works. Everything else passes away.

Top photograph by Nilton Oliviera via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A Glimpse of Heaven

We know these times when they happen, possibly because they’re so rare – everything falls into place; everything works as intended; things go well. Your life seems to hum with purpose. Every day is a welcome adventure.

Katie Davis is back “home,” home being her village in Uganda. She and her parents have agreed that she belongs where her heart is. She returns to find her family growing, new children arriving, the program expanding and new needs to be met.

She rolls with everything. This is what she’s meant to do and where she’s meant to be. There is an assurance in her heart that is like a song – and much of this chapter in Kisses from Katie: A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption sounds like a song, or perhaps a psalm.

I can look back at my own life and see times when everything seemed to go wonderfully, and times when things didn’t seem to go at all. I had a great junior year in high school – and a not-so-great senior year until the very end. There were times when great things happened at work, and times when they didn’t. There have been a lot of mountaintop experiences, and a lot of valley experiences.

Even in the good times, there were conflicts, challenges, problems, and upsets. And you know these times when they’re happening.

You are where you’re supposed to be.

You’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

And things are happening; you see the effects and the results.

But you need the other times, the difficult and unhappy times, as a reference point, but also more than that. Success can be blinding, and a trap, for organizations, people, governments and nations.

You think because things work well they will always work well. And you learn from failure more than you do from success. Success can teach a false independence, while failure can teach the right kind of dependence on God and other people.

All of these times together comprise a life.

For Katie Davis, at this point in early 2009, it’s a time when she seems firing on all cylinders. It’s a good feeling and a good time. She’ll remember it – she’ll need to remember it – when the serious challenges arrive.

Led by Jason Stasyzen and Sarah Salter, we’ve been discussing Kisses from Katie. To see more posts on this chapter, “A Glimpse of Heaven,” please visit Jason at Connecting to Impact.