Book Review: Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters

If you ask the average American on the streets if we are a nation given to idols, the obvious answer would be, “No!”. Idolatry was commonplace in the pagan Greek and Roman cultures, but may scarcely be found in these more enlightened times. But what if there really are counterfeit gods all around us, only the kind not made of stone or metal? “In Ezekiel 14:3,” Keller reminds us, “God says about elders of Israel, 'these men have set up idols in their hearts.' Like us, the elders must have responded to the charge, 'Idols? What idols? I don't see any idols?' God was saying that the human heart takes good things like career, love, and material possessions, even family, and turns them into ultimate things. Our hearts deify them as the integrating centers of our lives, because, we think, they can give us significance and security, safety and complete fulfillment, if we attain them”. If this really is the definition of idolatry, then perhaps it is not so foreign as we think. And perhaps we are not just given over to, but being destroyed by idols. If we look for “safety and complete fulfillment” in things that can never finally provide that, then are we not doomed to despair? Are there not a great many more Wall Street experiences in store for us? Read the rest HERE