Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power--and the Only Hope That Matters

Timothy Keller was born and raised in Pennsylvania and educated at Bucknell University, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and Westminster Theological Seminary. His first pastorate was in Hopewell, Virginia. In 1989 he started Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City with his wife, Kathy, and their three sons. Today, Redeemer has nearly six thousand regular Sunday attendees and has helped to start more than three hundred new churches around the world. He is the author of The Songs of Jesus, Prayer, Encounters with Jesus, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Every Good Endeavor, and The Meaning of Marriage, among others, including the perennial bestsellers The Reason for God and The Prodigal God.

Introduction: The Idol Factory...ix

ONE All You’ve Ever Wanted...1

TWO Love Is Not All You Need...22

THREE Money Changes Everything...48

FOUR The Seduction of Success...72

FIVE The Power and the Glory...97

SIX The Hidden Idols in Our Lives...126

SEVEN The End of Counterfeit Gods...154

Epilogue: Finding and Replacing Your Idols...165

Notes...178

Bibliography...206

Acknowledgments...209

Author of The Reason for God and senior pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Keller asserts that the chaos of the global financial crisis offers a rare opportunity, as individuals and as a society, to discern the “glittering gods” that enslave us. “The only way to free ourselves from the destructive influence of counterfeit gods is to turn back to the true one,” writes Keller, mercilessly dissecting the things he believes keep men and women from acknowledging their sin and God’s love, grace and centrality. Shadowed by the pastor’s austere Reformed vision of the depth and shape-shifting forms of human depravity, this sometimes bleak series of linked meditations weaves the spiritual journeys of biblical figures like the Old Testament soldier Naaman with insights from more modern figures, including 19th-century industrialist Andrew Carnegie, contemporary author Malcolm Gladwell and retired tennis star Chris Evert. A work of recession spirituality and cultural criticism, this volume will appeal to those who share Keller’s conviction that the journey away from idolatry and toward God can sometimes take a lifetime. (Oct. 20) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.

In Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller writes a simple yet poignant proposal to our innate desire to make good things the ultimate thing. While we easily recognize bad things are not God-worthy, the pursuit of good things can assume the image of the divine. Keller further ponders whether the Creator of all things should subjugate to the very things He created as fair? Keller’s view of God may seem narrow as described from the crucible of New York City residents, flush with choice amid personal pursuits, cultural fittings, and peer impositions. Yet the tired explanation of idols in a modern context assumes new iterations of family, power, sex, money, and all else, geared toward pride, is exposed under the temporary and shifting position of personal perspective of “what works.” He proposes that a counterfeit is a temporary solution for a present situation, but a real God will not allow anything but what His desires dictate. Keller delicately and sensitively understands the culture he sympathetically decries, yet questions whether that cultural bent should dictate who God is. His conclusion allows readers to ponder personal choices without fault and to consider what lasts: a God who seems old by description but steadfast when all else crumbles.

Thank God, He is not counterfeit when it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. Thank Mr. Keller for exposing our tendency to make wrong bets! -- Pastor Daniel Perkins, www.ChristianBookPreviews.com

Praise for Timothy Keller and Counterfeit Gods

"Keller's wisdom and biblical understanding, served up in clear, engaging writing, can help both Christians and non-Christians to identify the idols in our own hearts and replace empty promises with hope in Christ." —World magazine

"Offers much insight for shepherding local churches. Keller argues that Christians cannot understand themselves or their culture unless they discern the counterfeit gods." —Christianity Today 

"Tim Keller knows how to tell a Bible story. Like The Prodigal God before it . . . Counterfeit Gods is built around them. And every time I read one of those stories, I feel like I am hearing it for the first time. . . . Counterfeit Gods is easily one of the best books I've read this year." —Tim Challies

"Smashes the arrogant conclusion that violation of the first commandment was merely an ancient problem. Combining biblical theology with experienced surgery on the soul over the years in modern Manhattan . . . Keller's heart diagnostics will leave us neither ignorant nor unmoved." —David B. Garner, associate professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary