Old & New Idolatry (Tim Keller Quotes)

In the introduction to a recent sermon at Fellowship Raleigh on Hosea 4 I spent time reading aloud an idolatrous amount of Tim Keller quotes on the topic of idolatry. The quotes were all from the book “Counterfeit God’s: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters.” Here are those really challenging and helpful quotes on idolatry from Keller.

The relevancy of idolatry

“To contemporary people the word idolatry conjures up pictures of primitive people bowing down before statues… Our contemporary society is not fundamentally different from these ancient ones. Each culture is dominated by its own set of idols. Each has its own ‘priesthoods,’ its totems and rituals. Each one has its shrines—whether office towers, spas and gyms, studios, or stadiums—where sacrifices must be made in order to procure the blessings of the good life and ward off disaster.” (xiii)

“We may not actually burn incense to Artemis, but when money and career are raised to cosmic proportions, we perform a kind of child sacrifice, neglecting family and community to achieve a higher place in business and gain more wealth and prestige.” (xiv)

“When most people think of ‘idols’ they have in mind literal statues—or the next pop star anointed by Simon Cowell. Yet while traditional idol worship still occurs in many places of the world, internal idol worship, within the heart, is universal. In Ezekiel 14:3, God says about the elders of Israel, ‘These men have set up idols in their hearts.’” (xvi)

“the most famous moral code in the world is the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. The very first commandment is ‘I am the Lord your God… you shall have no other gods before me.” (Exodus 20:3) (xviii)

Defining Idols

“What is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give you.” (xix)

“An idol is whatever you look at and say, in your heart of hearts, ‘If I have that, then Ill feel my life has meaning, then I’ll know I have value, then Ill feel significant and secure.’” (xx)

“If anything becomes more fundamental than God to your happiness, meaning in life, and identity, then it is an idol.”

Locating Idols

“the Bible uses three basic metaphors to describe how people relate to idols of their hearts. They love idols, trust idols, and obey idols.” (xxiii)

We can locate idols by…
1. Looking at our daydreams. What do we enjoy imagining? What are our fondest daydreams?
2. Looking at our nightmares. What do we fear most? What, if we lost it, would make life not worth living?
3. Looking at our most unyielding emotions. What makes us uncontrollably angry, anxious, or despondent?