MSNBC’s Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough featured an interview with Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church and Newsweek’s John Meacham (who had just published an article entitled The End of Christian America). A good conversation. Enjoy.

“There is a great gulf between the understanding that God accepts us because of our efforts and the understanding that God accepts us because of what Jesus has done. Religion operates on the principle, ‘I obey– therefore I am accepted by God.’ But the operating principle of the gospel is ‘I am accepted by God through what Christ has done– therefore I obey.’”

–Timothy Keller, The Reason for God (New York: Dutton, 2008), 179-180.

The Manhattan Declaration was, as of last night, the 29th most searched term on Google.  It was a “spicy” search term.  So there you go.

Justin Taylor blogged it yesterday.  In less than 24 hours, the site has drawn over 7000 signatures.    The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Christian Post, First Things, and other organizations have covered it already.

If you have not signed up, consider joining Tim Keller, Al Mohler, Ravi Zacharias and many others.  Make a statement to the broader culture about life, marriage, and liberty.  Our voices matter.

¹⁴For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, ¹⁶that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, ¹⁹and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Tim Keller, senior pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, has written a new book entitled Counterfeit Gods, with the subtitle being: “The empty promises of money, sex, and power, and the only hope that matters.” He opens up his book with a reference to the global economic crisis which began in mid-2008, after which a string of suicides of some “formerly wealthy and well-connected individuals.”

He mentions that the acting CFO of Freddie Mac hanged himself in his basement. The chief executive of Sheldon Good, a leading U.S. real estate firm, shot himself in the head behind the wheel of his Jaguar. A French money manager who invested the wealth of many of Europe’s royal and leading families, and who had lost $1.4 billion of his clients’ money to Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, slit his wrists and died in his Madison Avenue office. A Danish senior executive with HSBC Bank hanged himself in the wardrobe of his 500-pound a night suite in Knightsbridge, London. These are just a few.

Alexis de Tocqueville came from France to America in the 1830s to look over this young country, he made a comment about a “strange melancholy that haunts the inhabitants . . . in the midst of their abundance.” What did he mean? He meant that there is nothing in this world that can satisfy the longings of the human heart. He called them “incomplete joys.” That was true then, and even more true today. The pursuit of abundance and affluence (whether pursuing millions, or even just finding joy in padding our retirement or just to that extra vacation we think we deserve).

There is a beauty to this passage of Scripture. Some of you may see this beauty now, others of you will see it, Lord willing. Layer upon layer, we see the glory of the Trinity bestowing the riches of his glory, love, mercy, grace, and power upon His people. Everything in the first three chapters of this letter to the Ephesian church leads to this point. And I must say, everything in the realm of our lives as Christians must lead to this point as well: “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think… .”

Given that this Sunday is our Arise and Build Commitment Sunday, this verse can most definitely apply to much of what we hope God will do—more than we ask or think! He is able!

But as we read this verse, one question kept coming into my mind—and it needs to be answered straight away! Are we asking and thinking? I know in my six years as pastor here, Boone’s Creek Baptist Church has occupied the majority of my thoughts! From sermon preparation to leadership training to mobilizing evangelistic and missions initiatives from our neighbors to the nations, praying and hurting for the lost and sick, and wanting Boone’s Creek to be a great church now for the glory of God—this has occupied my thoughts and fed much of my prayers.

And I recognized soon in the ministry, that just because I spent the majority of my time thinking about and asking God things regarding Boone’s Creek, I naturally assumed everyone else felt that same thing I did. But the truth is, there is much in our minds and desired that competes with the Kingdom of God and its desired rule over our hearts. School, work, sports, bills to pay, the economy, elections, matters in Washington, family matters, hobbies. All of these issues vie for our attention! All of these issues require our presence, require our money, but many cry for our attention and we become addicted to things that are not of any eternal consequence whatsoever.

(Tomorrow:  Is our asking and thinking strengthened by submission?)

Originally preached on Sunday, November 1, 2009 at Boone’s Creek Baptist Church, Lexington, KY.   To listen to it in its entirety, click here.

1. The first Clash of the Titans trailer. I love movies like this.
2. John Piper on When you don’t want to do what you ought to do.
3. Is your church’s vision too small? I hope this can never be said of Revolution.
4. Two Interviews with Matt Chander:  Church planting, preaching and leadership & Celebrity, diversity & burnout.
5. Download a free chapter from Mark Batterson’s new book Primal. This book is going to be awesome, waiting for my copy, any day now.
6. Respecting doubts: An interview with Tim Keller. There is so much in here, so many great points.
7. Kevin DeYoung on Be yourself when you preach.

For Matt, life seemed pretty normal. Wife, kids, house, good job, all the usual stuff. But he felt empty. Worse than empty. All the while he kept thinking, “Why aren’t I happy?”

In large part, it was because all those “good” things had crowded God out of the center of his life. And then when it all started to fall apart – it felt like the whole world was closing in on him. He was distanced from God and felt distanced from people too. And the distance seemed to grow and grow. The way back to “good” seemed impossible.

For Matt and maybe you today reading this, it is a sort of exile. You see, because of sin, all of humanity was and is in a complete state of exile from God. But it was Jesus who opened a door from eternal exile to eternal life through His cross and resurrection. Believing in Him offers the ultimate second chance.

Now, this book of Lamentations from the Bible (passage below) is the voice of the exiled Hebrews – a poetic mix of grief, hope, tears, confusion, remembrance, and faith. It captures the thoughts and feelings of God’s people, who were in relationship with God by way of their covenant with Him, at their lowest point – dislocated from their promised land and held captive far away – but worse – distanced from God.

“And yet, God, you’re sovereign still, your throne intact and eternal. So why do you keep forgetting us? Why dump us and leave us like this? Bring us back to you, God – we’re ready to come back. Give us a fresh start. As it is, you’ve cruelly disowned us. You’ve been so very angry with us.” Lamentations 5:19-22 (The Message)

Everything they counted on, knew and understood just evaporated. I’ve known what that’s like. Maybe you have been there too. And we will probably be there someday again.

Today, we experience exile or distance from God and others in many ways. But always at the heart of it is a loss of Jesus being the center of our lives. Sometimes, like God’s people in Lamentations, they had been warned and warned by the prophets to turn back to God – and they didn’t. Sometimes we turn away from God and others because of guilt, hurt and disappointment.

In his book, The Prodigal God (I highly recommend – our staff read and discussed it together), Tim Keller takes the story often known as the prodigal son in Luke 15 and describes two kinds of exile. One is of the prodigal son and brother – the one who asks for his share of the inheritance and wastes it all on partying. But then returns to the father to find open and arms and second chance. The other exile is the older brother who refuses to join in the celebration of the younger brother’s return. This kind of exile, according to Tim Keller, is due to self-righteousness and a belief that by doing things “right” God owes us – and the anger that comes from not getting what we think God “owes” us.

However we arrive at exile, it is an awful experience. Especially the isolation and the disorientation. From the Garden of Eden to the Exile to the garden of Gethsemane and the cross – separation from God, whether we understand it as that or not, is the worst pain in human experience. It is to be separated from the source of life. We were designed to be in full, authentic relationship with God and with others.

But sometimes we can even be in church and around other believers and still exist in a state of exile. Just out of reach for connection and community. This makes it all the more difficult. A kind of relative spiritual depravation. In other words, everyone else “seems” to be enjoying God and community. That is hard. On a lighter note, we can find this thinking behind the idea of “Time Out” as a consequence for children.

Yet, Lamentations and other parts of the Word show that exile is redemptive – it has a purpose and an end. It seems that God uses times of exile to teach us that He is in fact the center and that joy can only come from dependence and desire for Him above all things. The distance and separation left God’s people and us today crying out for Him in ways like never before. It can open our hearts, minds and lives to experiencing God in new and very alive ways.

For it is in exile that perhaps for the first time, we find a truer, more authentic voice for approaching, praising and beseeching God. For it is exile that perhaps for the first time we truly understand the mercy and grace of God through Jesus and how much we need it – need Him and need our brothers and sisters. And it is in that season or moment that exile can transform and translate into homecoming. But ultimately it’s God timing.

For Matt, for God’s people then, and for you and me, thankfully there was and is a way back. It’s not always easily visible for a while, the timing is usually not our timetable and it will cost us. But sometimes in life, in a life of faith, just knowing, just holding onto the fact that there is a way back can make the difference between living and dying, between quitting and hanging on, between throwing it all away and a fresh start and second chance. Knowing though, that a fresh start with God would involve transformation – letting go of some things and starting some new things.

So the question is, how much longer are we willing to live with the peculiar comfort of the emptiness as well as the episodic pangs of despair?

This is by far one of the warmest, most concise, well-reasoned and articulate cases I’ve seen for the existence of God lately.  Tim Keller visits Google’s Mountain View, CA, headquarters to discuss his book, “The Reason for God.” This event took place on March 5, 2008, as part of the Authors@Google series.  

His arguments are basic and well-known.  Tim Keller’s real strength seems to be his warm and humble demeanor that comes off as both sharp and friendly.  His personality is as compelling as his arguments.  I recommend you get this in the hands of your skeptic friends, use this video for a good discussion starter or the basis of an apologetics class. 

And, of course, go read his book The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. Its wonderful. 

I try to make reading theology a consistent part of my life because I believe other Christians help us all to understand the bible better.  This is why I have a recommended reading page on this new blog.  There are a lot of really bad ‘Christian’ books that fail to teach grace and perpetuate a ‘try harder’ or emotional therapy solution to our sin before God.

Tim Keller’s most recent book Counterfeit Gods is not one of those books.  You will soon learn if you follow my blog that I believe Tim Keller is preaching and teaching the gospel with more clarity and power than any other contemporary pastor I know or have heard.

This book is about idolatry which the bible teaches is the fundamental reason for all sin.  As Paul says in Romans 1.21&25, we have “neither glorified…God nor [given] thanks to him,” but instead, we have “exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator.”  Idols are not necessarily bad things, but good things that we have treated as the ultimate things.  They are where we have sought for our identity, comfort, hope, happiness, or security.

How do we identify our idols?  Keller gives us several questions to ask ourselves to identify our idols:

1)  What do I enjoy daydreaming about?  Where does my mind go effortlessly when I have nothing else demanding my attention?

2)  How do I spend my money?  What area of my budget am I constantly overspending?

3)  What am I praying for that leads me to despair or deep anger if God does not give it to me?

4)  What are my uncontrollable emotions?  Am I angry?  Does this mean I must have something at any cost?  Am feeling guilty all the time?  Does this mean my true god is something I have failed to live up to?  I Am I scared?  Does this mean there is something in my life that I think I really need that is being threatened?

These are just a few helpful questions that will help us identify idols.  However, what we truly need is not just to see our idols and repent of them but to uproot them and replace them by rejoicing in the forgiveness we have in Christ.

Paul tells us in Colossians 3.2-5 to “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

We must repent of our idols and rejoice in the forgiveness and righteousness we have in Christ through faith.  The more we meditate and set our minds on the work of Christ for us, the more God will work in us a love for him rather than these controlling idols.  Worship of Christ is the means by which we are conformed to him!

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” Luke 24:27

How can we find Jesus in all of Scripture? One way is through the individuals of the Old Testament which point to Jesus as we locate them in the history of redemption, sometimes with the direct help of the New Testament writers.

Listen to Timothy Keller as you read this post.

“Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us. (1 Cor 15)

Jesus is the true and better Abel who though innocently slain has blood that cries out for our acquittal, not our condemnation. (Heb 12:24)

Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void “not knowing whither he went”! In order to create a new people for God.

Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us all. While God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me, because you did not withold your son, your only son whom you love, from me” we can say to God “Now we know that you love us, because you did not withold your Son, your only Son whom you love, from us”.

Jesus is the true and better Jacob who made himself like his brother(s and sisters) before the Father. This time with the Father’s full knowledge so that He could secure blessing not for Himself but for others.

Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the King, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.

Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant. (Heb 3)

Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.

Jesus is the true and better Job – the truly innocent sufferer who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends. (Job 42)

Jesus is the true and better David, whose victory becomes his people’s victory though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.

Jesus is the true and better Esther, who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate heavenly one, who didn’t just risk His life but gave it- to save His people.

Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so we could be brought in.

Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.”

(Tim Keller, Resurgence 06, “Preaching the Gospel”)

Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller

I have finished listening to “Counterfeit Gods” by Timothy Keller

My latest paper journal is nearly filled, yet I have some thoughts I want to get down while they’re fresh. My wife and I just came from Redeemer Presbyterian Church, our church, and had some stimulating discussions both before and after the service. Of note:

1. Matt approaches waiting tables with this mentality: I come in, I do my job, I don’t complain, I help where I can, I don’t itch to run out the door every shift, and I view my job as an opportunity to grow in Christ and serve. Because of this, he doesn’t hate it.

2. Though the movement of humanity towards cities right now and into the foreseeable future heralds what may be, as some have said, the finest and perhaps final hour of Christian missions (because so many of the nations are coming to cities, making it easier for Christians to reach all the nations), not all Christians are called to live in cities–just a lot of them. Tim Keller is big on cities, and today, preaching on Acts 8 in the final Renew campaign sermon on the gospel, hope, and the city, Tim graciously noted something like, “Jesus said all creatures must hear the gospel, so I’m not saying every Christian must be in cities–I’m just saying that the opportunity to minister the gospel to the world through cities is bigger than it’s ever been and that as a result many Christians are going to be called here.” This was a relief for my wife and I, who have been considering strongly the opportunities for ministering the gospel back in the much smaller city of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

• Great night tonight
• Definitely felt more on my groove tonight
• The band nailed the Weezer song “Beverly Hills”
• Love seeing all the new people who God has brought to Revolution
• Love when ask I someone how they found Revolution and they point to the person next to them
• Never gets old
• If you thought tonight rocked, just wait til next week
• It is awesome to see the Revolutionaries who are taking steps of faith in the 90 day tithing challenge
• Here are some books to check out if tonight struck a chord
• I can’t recommend enough Tim Keller’s book Counterfeit Gods, got a lot of material for my talk tonight from that book
• Tim Keller nails it on how our idols impact our past, present and future
• Not sure how to discern your idols, here is a list of questions to work through
• This quote from C.S. Lewis nails on the head how idols work into our lives
• The Lord’s prayer is so rich, there is so much there
• Tonight really could have been a 6 week series
• Pumped to hang out with some Revolutionaries tomorrow and play ultimate frisbee, if you are interested in playing, show up at Lakeside Park at 10 am tomorrow
• There is an area for kids to play on a playground, so bring the whole family
• I am blown away by how good the new Kings of Convenience and The Swell Season albums are
• I’ve gotten a lot of questions emailed to me about giving
• I did some blogs this past week answering some of the most common questions, if you missed them here are my thoughts to the questions like why should I give back to God, why people don’t give, can I give too much, and what do I do if I don’t have enough money to give back to God
•  Huge Steelers game tomorrow, first place in the AFC north is at stake
• Better not blow it
• Got to hang out with Justin Anderson this week, awesome to pick his brain about church, leadership and church planting
• We have our last pre-marital counseling on Monday, Alan & Karen’s wedding is next Sunday
• Love being a part of helping couples get started on the right foot
• I have my lead pastor coaching this week
• It is amazing to me how much I have learned and what we have changed because of it and I still have 9 months to go
• Can’t wait to see what God continues to do because of it
• I said it before, we are in the midst of seeing God do some unbelievable things at Revolution
• Guess what
• We are only getting started
• Just wait…

Some churches use the Myers-Briggs Types Indicators as a way of quickly helping people to think reflexively about themselves and the way they interact with others. Glen talked about it here with a useful commentary that a good deal of what these types describe is actually patterns of sin (the series continued with part 2, 3 and 4).

Recently I also came across this from Tim Chester – the 4 G’s:

1. God is great – so we don’t have to be in control

2. God is glorious – so we don’t have to fear others

3. God is good – so we don’t have to look elsewhere

4. God is gracious – so we don’t have to prove ourselves

Then, this week, in a lecture as part of a geography course there came this stinging critique of those involved in a certain practice of ‘participatory geography’ which went like this:

People who do this kind of active, involved with marginalised communities, geography are “narcissistic Samaritans” in which the researches are driven by a need to be needed which turns what is supposedly about serving people into an exercise of buttressing the ’server’s’ sense of worth and identity, under the guise of self-effacement.

It reminded me of a personality type profile I’d heard before, one of the types from the Enneagram – there is an official website here.

The particular type it reminded me of was type two who have a need to be needed as a way of dealing with these things:

Basic Fear: Being unworthy of being loved
Basic Desire: To be loved unconditionally
Temptation: To manipulate others in order to get positive responses
Vice/Passion: Pride (specifically, Vainglory, the love of one’s own goodness)

Very briefly then these are the suggested types (follow the links for much more detail):

Ones are motivated by the need to live life the right way, improve oneself and others, and avoid anger.

Twos are motivated by the need to be loved and appreciated and to express your positive feelings towards others.

Threes are motivated by the need to be productive, to achieve success, and to avoid failure.

Fours are motivated by the need to understand your feelings and to be understood to search for the meaning of life, and to avoid being ordinary.

Fives are motivated by the need to know everything and understand the universe, to be self–sufficient and left alone, and to avoid not having the answer or looking foolish.

Sixes are motivated by the need for security, to feel taken care of, or to confront your fears.

Sevens are motivated by the need to be happy and plan fun things, to contribute to the world, and to avoid suffering and pain.

Eights are motivated by the need to be self–reliant and strong, to make an impact on the world, and to avoid being weak.

Nines are motivated by the need to keep the peace, merge with others, and avoid conflict.

You can do a test here or download a pdf with a super quick test.

Conclusion

In some ways each of these represents a sort of personality ‘idol’ with particular associated sins (Pride, Greed, Deceit, Envy, Fear, Gluttony, Lust and Indifference) conceived in the broadest sense. Still as Tim Keller remarked in a talk at the Gospel Coalition, “The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry“:

Here’s an interesting thing: in the business world the idol is profit, in the artistic world the idol is self-expression. So in the business world they say, “Sure express yourself, as long you’re not going to lose money”. In the artistic world you express yourself and if you make money it’s an insult: “you’ve sold out”. “Now you’re like those people over there in the financial world” and you see their idolatry. They sell out for money, but you’ve sold out too.  You’ve sold out to self-expression. What’s so great about self-expression? It’s an idol. Do you see the idols in your vocational field? Do you see the idols in your city?

Well, the idols of type two seems to be those for this particular field of geography. Now, how does the gospel confront them…? Seems like it would be helpful for me to think about it as Tim Chester has with the 4G’s and connect together the  fullness of God in Christ with the lacks that motivate the personality types.

I’d be really interested to know if you have heard of the enneagram? What do you make of it?

“If you want God’s grace, all you need is need,

all you need is nothing.”

Tim Keller

Darwin's Black Box: A Must Read

Let me first say that science would not exist unless it where for Christianity.  In the history of Western Civilization, one has to ask themselves, ‘the Greeks were really really smart, why didn’t they invent the scientific method?’  The answer is simple, following Platonic and Neo-Platonic thinking, they did not think this world was real or intelligible.  It was not until Christianity presented a world created, ordered, and directed by a sovereign and benevolent triune God that the scientific method sprouted.  The consensus view in the history/philosophy of science is that science required the fertile soul of Christianity in order to grow.  Christianity took this world seriously.

1.  Darwin’s Black Box by Michael Behe  [l, e, p, s]

In my view, this book destroys the Neo-Darwinian (scientific rationalism) story of how life exists.  This book is a must read.  See also this previous blog post.

2.  Pensees by Blaise Pascal  [y, l, e, p, s]

Although not explicitly about science and Christianity, Pascal presents an epistemology that includes science, reason, and faith.

3.  Personal Knowledge by Michael Polanyi  [e, p, s]

Polanyi rightly challenges the objectivity and impersonality of the scientist.  Polanyi is very important in philosophy of science and is a worthwhile read.

4.  When Science Meets Religion by Ian Barbour  [l, e, p, s]

Barbour presents four possible relationships that science and religion might have.  Balanced read.

5.  The Soul of Science:  Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy by Nancy Pearcey and Charles Thaxton  [l, e, p, s]

Great critique of naturalism.  Pearcey is solid as usual.

6.  Darwin on Trial by Phillip Johnson  [y, l, e, p, s]

Is there enough hard evidence to prove Darwinism correct, were it to be put on a public trial?  Creative and damning question.

7.  The Edge of Evolution:  The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael Behe  [l, e, p, s]

More Behe.  Good stuff.

8.  Evolution:  A Theory in Crisis by Michael Denton  [l, e, p, s]

Most think that this is the book that started the Intelligent Design movement.

9.  The Reason for God by Tim Keller  [c,y l, e, p, s]

Although not explicitly on the subject of science, like Pascal, Keller presents a third way between pure science/reason and pure faith.

10a.   The Language of God by Francis Collins  [l, e, p, s]

A look at DNA, from the director of the human genome project, and an evangelical Christian.

10b.  Inventing the Flat Earth:  Columbus and Modern Historians by Jeffrey Russell  [l, e, p, s]

Russell confronts the myth that people (esp. Christians) believed in a flat earth.  Pretty damning to an annoying and ignorant argument:

On page 1 of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae (that is, in the first article of the first question of the first part), he casually mentions the round earth on the way to proving something doctrinal: “the astronomer and the physicist both may prove the same conclusion: that the earth, for instance, is round: the astronomer by means of mathematics (i.e., abstracting from matter), but the physicist by means of matter itself.”  (via Between Two Worlds)

Honorable Mention:  Icons of Evolution by Jonathan Wells  [c, y, l, e, p, s]

I cannot stand behind anything else he has written, but Icons shreds the silly pictures commonly put in the textbooks you had growing up, demonstrating how they do not show Darwinian macroevolution.

(c=children; y=young adult; l=lay leader; e=elder; p=pastor; s=scholar)

“The Bible’s purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible’s purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome…”

-Tim Keller

This is what the elder brother in the parable should have done; this is what a true elder brother should have done. He would have said, “Father, my younger brother has been a fool, and now his life is in ruins. But I will go and look for him and bring him home. And if the inheritance is gone – as I suspect – I’ll bring him back into the family at my expense.”

……Mercy and forgiveness must be free and unmerited to the wrongdoer. If the wrongdoer has to do something to merit it, then it isn’t mercy, but forgiveness always comes at a cost to the one granting forgiveness.

Tim Keller, The Prodigal God (pg.82-83)

“Is there any hope? Yes, if we begin to realize that idols cannot simply be removed. They must be replaced. If you only try to uproot them, they grow back; but they can be supplanted. By what? By God himself, of course. But by God we do not mean a general belief in His existence. Most people have that, yet their souls are riddled with idols. What we need is a living encounter with God.”

–Tim Keller, Counterfeit Gods

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Reason-God-Belief-Age-Scepticism/dp/0340979321/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259062344&sr=8-1

This is one of those books that everyone talks about for a short period of time, but that I often don’t get the chance to read. I’m aware that I’ve read this after many others have, but I have, and so here we are.

The Reason For God is split basically into two halves. The first half takes common arguments attempting to disprove God, and Keller essentially shows that the arguments are circular reasoning and disprove themselves rather than God. The second half then moves into taking evidence to prove that there is indeed a God, and more than that, that Jesus is that one God.

In terms of logic, Keller is almost flawless in pointing out the natural and necessary conclusions of atheists’ arguments. As a Christian, reading this book bolsters one’s faith and gives logical, easy-to-follow, and ultimately correct reasons to answer back against the critics. There are also challenging words in there, so don’t just read this because you think you like apologetics and taking in information.

However (there has to be something!) Keller’s language, in an attempt to be concise, cuts out quite a bit of the conversation one would have with an atheist. While he does an admirable job of presenting the atheist position fairly, the responses are sometimes quite cutting, and could perhaps be seen as naive or patronising. So I’m not sure I’d give this as a gift to an unbeliever in the hope they’d be converted. I most certainly would, however, use it as a tool to start conversations.

Overall, I’m just going to say: read this book! In it you’ll see that every single argument for atheism is built on circular reasoning and flawed logic.

Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity. (g.k. chesterton)

i know what you’re thinking:  these are words coming from a man who died in 1936.  what does he know? okay, maybe that’s not what you were thinking.  if it was, i love you.  if it wasn’t, let’s pretend it was so i can still love you.

language is fluid.  fiction in 1936 was most likely restricted to stories orated or told on pages; in 2009 fiction means something else entirely.

i was having a conversation with someone yesterday, and she was expressing her frustrations with two apartment mates – nothing peculiar about that.  what did strike me as curious, however, was when she explained the reason she was frustrated with them.

they watch disney channel.  they like it.  they’re naive.

she was essentially hating on them because, in her mind, grown adults should not enjoy things that are meant to be enjoyed by children.  i was so upset.  but in reaching beyond my emotional response to her mistaken beliefs, i realized that she actually had something profound to say.

that is, in 2009, fiction is naive.  it isn’t by accident that reality television dominates the schedules of every major and minor network on the air.  on mtv unplugged, lauryn hill once famously said “fantasy is what people want, but reality is what they need.”  we live in an age of skepticism.

i have to give it to lauryn – she’s right.  a lot of people are in such denial of the circumstances that are in front of them that they refuse to accept it as reality.  they ignore real life by embracing fantasy.

but doesn’t this denial include everyone?  films, clubs, campuses, the list goes on (music, ms. hill?).  perhaps we have immersed ourselves so deeply in fantasy that we cannot tell the difference anymore…like fish describing water.

(disclaimer: things are about to get abstract)

and that’s precisely the point.  we don’t know that we’re drowning in fantasy because it has become the very thing that sustains us.  it has become a necessity.  and that certainly did not happen by accident.  in crying out, “give me reality or give me death”, we are left with fantasy after all.  reality television is phony yet people talk about the characters and situations as if they’re real.  and these are the same people that tell adults not to watch disney channel.

Fairy tales, are more than true.  Not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be defeated. (chesterton)

Yesterday at Brooklife, I concluded the Storyteller series with a sermon on Luke 15 called “The Tale of Two Sons.”  Luke 15 contains three parables by Jesus, the last of which is commonly called the parable of the prodigal son.

My sermon focused on this parable, but I strongly believe that it should really be called the “The Tale of Two Sons” or “The Story of Two Lost Sons.”  While a great deal of attention is often given to the younger son in this parable, I think it is important to recognize that what makes this parable unique is Jesus’ attention to the older son in the second half.

The main point of this parable, in my opinion, is that God not only wants to save those who are clearly lost in sin, but also those who are ‘righteously lost’. This parable is really a challenge to the religious leaders who are listening to Jesus tell this stories.

You can listen to the message online here or download our podcast here.

For some background on this series and parables, read here.

Two books on this parable that I highly recommend are:

• The Prodigal God by Tim Keller
• The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen

You can view the very simple presentation that accompanies my message below.