Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller
Week 7: Chapter 6 — The Hidden Idols
Read Chapter 6 of Counterfeit Gods. Key passage: Jonah 1–4 (the entire book); also Colossians 3:5.
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Keller turns to Jonah — a man who appears religious but whose life is secretly governed by a cultural and ethnic idol he himself cannot see — as a case study in idols that hide beneath the surface of respectable piety.
Discussion Questions
7 questions1.Keller describes Jonah as a man who loved his people, his nation, and his sense of moral and ethnic superiority more than he loved God's purposes. In what ways is Jonah more sympathetic — and more like us — than he first appears?
2.Keller argues that Jonah's flight from God was not simple cowardice but a deeply held conviction that the Ninevites did not deserve mercy. How does a sense of moral or social superiority become an idol? Have you ever caught that same idol operating in your own heart toward a person or group you consider less deserving?
3.Keller uses Jonah 2 — Jonah's prayer from inside the fish — to illustrate that we can mouth orthodox theological language while our hearts are still gripped by an idol. What's the difference between praying about our idols and genuinely repenting of them?
a.Keller notes the key line in Jonah's prayer: "those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs" (Jonah 2:8). What does it mean to "forfeit grace" by clinging to an idol?
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