{"id":6204,"date":"2009-10-26T06:20:30","date_gmt":"2009-10-26T11:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/"},"modified":"2009-10-26T06:20:30","modified_gmt":"2009-10-26T11:20:30","slug":"counterfeit-gods-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Counterfeit Gods 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Keller.jpg\"<\/span>Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC<\/a>, is perhaps the most balanced pastor, theologian, cultural critic and evangelist in the American scene today. His newest book, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>, is no exception to his approach. The book addresses what its subtitle says: the counterfeit gods of money, sex and power, and he does this through the biblical idea of idolatry. It is timely, it is pastoral, it is theological, and it is profoundly missional. I am looking forward to reading this book.<\/p>\n

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Keller has become a preacher\u2019s preacher and a pastor\u2019s pastor.\n
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After an opening salvo that sketches the big picture, Keller dips into the Abraham offering Isaac scene to describe what is at hand in our world today:\n
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Abraham, like so many, wanted something deeply: a son.<\/div>\n
Abraham\u2019s son is promised so Abraham can become a nation and bless the nations.<\/div>\n
God gave Abraham what he wanted, and getting what you most want is not always best.<\/div>\n
Furthermore, after giving the son God \u2014 and here Keller has to fill in some lines of what was going on in Abraham\u2019s head with some psychology \u2014 tested Abraham\u2019s love for God: Does he love God even more than this promised son who alone could be his heir?<\/div>\n
So Abraham, in an act of trusting God, takes Isaac to the brink of sacrifice and God steps in to provide for Abraham \u2014 God provides a substitute.<\/div>\n
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What do you think of seeing this story as a display of surrendering our deepest wants to God? What can we learn from this approach to the story?<\/b><\/div>\n
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Keller skillfully interweaves what we want most \u2014 our Isaacs, our deepest desires, things that become our idols, our counterfeit gods \u2014 with the central obligation that God wants us to love God most. In the same interweaving, God provides a substitute to accomplish his designs for the world. The firstborn child in the ancient Near East was often forfeit, or given in sacrifice, in order to atone for the family. So two things happen in this test: Abraham is tested and God\u2019s means of provision is revealed.<\/div>\n
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God provides that sacrifice: God not only led Abraham to see that loving God was most important, God provided a sacrificial ram instead of his son and\u00a0(I don\u2019t see this in Keller)\u00a0thereby replaced the ancient Near Eastern tragic religious belief of child sacrifice with animal sacrifice \u2014 and then Keller\u2019s emphasis is that this sacrifice of a ram indicated in advance the substitutionary sacrifice of God\u2019s Son who would break out of the cycle of death in the resurrection. The promise to bless the nations through the birth of a son, Isaac, becomes an event where the true Son who will bless the world is revealed.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC, is perhaps the most balanced pastor, theologian, cultural critic and evangelist in the American scene today. His newest book, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters , is no exception to his approach. The book addresses what its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1733],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayer-and-formation"],"yoast_head":"\nCounterfeit Gods 1<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC, is perhaps the most balanced pastor, theologian, cultural critic and evangelist in the American scene\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counterfeit Gods 1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC, is perhaps the most balanced pastor, theologian, cultural critic and evangelist in the American scene\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-26T11:20:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/imgs\/Keller.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/\",\"name\":\"Counterfeit Gods 1\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-26T11:20:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-10-26T11:20:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in NYC, is perhaps the most balanced pastor, theologian, cultural critic and evangelist in the American scene\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2009\/10\/26\/counterfeit-gods-1\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Counterfeit Gods 1\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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