Fool's Gold?: Discerning Truth in an Age of Error

by John F. MacArthur Jr., Nathan Busenitz (Contributor), Scott Lang (Contributor)

"Eureka!"

In an age of open-mindedness, many believers accept too much with too little discernment, resulting in great confusion and compromise. But God's Word makes it clear that not everything that glitters is gold. False teaching is at every turn, and the temptation to embrace it is great. As God's people we are called to sift through the overwhelming number of traditions and trends and use the truth of Scripture to determine which are the true treasures-and which are "fool's gold."

General editor John MacArthur and the contributors of this uncompromising book define the principles of biblical discernment and use them to address several contemporary Christian issues. They provide straightforward, biblical critiques of some popular but unfortunate Christian trends, such as watered-down preaching and doctrinally questionable best-selling books. Dr. MacArthur ends with a practical plan for cultivating discernment in the Christian life.

It is the duty of every Christian-not just pastors and elders-to follow the biblical command to cling to what is good and to reject what is not. This book will equip you with a foundation for biblical discernment that will enable you to make careful distinctions in your thinking about truth.

Genres: Christian, Theology, Christian Living, Christianity, Nonfiction, Religion, Cultural

226 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

John F. MacArthur, Jr. was a United States Calvinistic evangelical writer and minister, noted for his radio program entitled Grace to You and as the editor of the Gold Medallion Book Award-winning MacArthur Study Bible. MacArthur was a fifth-generation pastor, a popular author and conference speaker, and served as pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California beginning in 1969, as well as President of The Master’s College (and the related Master’s Seminary) in Santa Clarita, California.

Reviews

[Lynn Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really a book on Christian discernment - discerning what is going on within our own evangelical community. It is a collection of essays by MacArthur and some of the staff of Grace Community Church. Current fads are held up to the light of scripture, and the authors of the essays are very respectful to those they disagree with. Among the topics are:

The Purpose-Driven Life - He does not bash Warren, but demonstrates some of his weak theological foundations.

Wild At Heart -John Eldredge

Altar Calls - very well thought out and clearly written

Contemporary Worship Music - This is one of the best chapters, I think, by MacArthur himself, it really focuses on CONTENT.

Bible-zines - this was a shocking chapter. He focuses on the Revolve New Testament for teen girls, which is full of sidebars with tips on beauty, self esteem, guys, shopping and other self-focused topics. This is mixed in with the Bible. I had never heard of these "non-bibles for teens who find the plain bible too freaky, and would prefer a fashion-mag format", but apparently, it is a best seller!

Political Activism - This is the only chapter I wasn't too impressed with.

American Consumerism

Plexiglass Preaching - superficial teaching to the church today

I appreciated how this book points you to scripture to evaluate what is treasure and what is "fool's gold".

[Vianny D'Souza · Rating 4 out of 5]

In two words: extremely necessary. The book is authored by John MacArthur and many others have written a few chapters like Phil Johnson, Nathan Busenitz, Rick Holland etc. It reiterates the need for the long lost virtue of discernment in Christendom. It provides a critique of many popular Christian books and trends for ex: The purpose driven Life by Warren, New Perspective theology by NT Wright etc., and points out their fallacies. Among many other points, it mentions mainly why discernment is absolutely essential in the modern day Christendom as it always was. Was a good reminder and I must say this is one of the best theological books I've read this year. Hence thoroughly recommended. :)

[Jeanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just like fool's gold can be more appealing than the real thing, false teaching is as well. John MacArthur is one of the few solid teachers out there and I am always amazed in reading reviews of his other books, many without sound scripture to back them up, always trash his teaching. We live in an age where we live in fantasy more than in reality. One thing about truth is that it never changes. It is the same in every culture and in every time and we must always remember that is the weapon that the enemey uses against man-kind to bring us in a spiritual war against our creator.

There are four parts to this study- the first part is all that glitters. There are some dynamic teachers and books that have done very well, however, as Christians we are required to judge between truth and error. Abhor evil and hold fast to what is good. That is a judgement call that we are required to make. There is some truth in in teaching that is out of balance with rest of scripture and is therefore mixed dangerous. You do not have to look any further in the Old Testament when Israel combined other religions with their worship to God in a effort to have peace with their neighbors. This is a important lesson for us. Do be careful of Christianity that glitters.

Part two discusses The Wild at Heart Books, The Purpose Driven Life, some popular christian magazines for young people. How these books are appealing at best but lack real christian depth. You always need to ask yourself when reading or listening to any teaching, is the trancendence of God being proclaimed. When failing to establish a high view of scripture, a hig view of God and a proper view of man, we can easily become self-centered in receiving this teaching than God centered. We want to say as Isaiah woe is me. Holy Holy Holy is the Lord God almighty. John MacArthur gives many more good questions to ask our selves as we read and or listen to these popular trendy Christian celebraties.

Part three deals with worship, to music, to altar calls, to a Christian approach to politics to which I found very helpful. Also about consumerism in the church. Are we engaging our mind in worship or is all about our emotions. Altar calls can be very manuliputive with every good intention. I agree that there is no where in scripture about altar calls, so I think we have to be very careful when using Altar calls. Church camps are great but follow up is always needed. Church history has proven when personal holiness has been a concern, the church has grown. However, what is the purpose of our worship on Sunday mornings and the rest of the week. Is the church like the world where it glorifies power, dominion, force and physical strength or do we respond to what Jesus' blesses in humility, meekness, mercy, mourning, purity of heart and even persecution for righteousness' sake.

Last part is our doctrinal frame work. What are we willing to live and die for. Doctrine dictates those questions. That is why the disciples turned the world up-side down and we can as well.

[Eric · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't really get this from the library. A friend loaned it to my wife, she read it, and then I read it. Now it's on the way back to said friend.

I'm glad I didn't pay any money for it, but it's an okay read when you're not paying anything. My main complaint is this: many of the arguments by the various writers aren't very good. Some make no sense. Some are contradictory. Some are plain wrong.

An example: In discussing Rick Warren's Purpose-Driven Life, the author contends that Moses didn't receive his life's purpose on Mt. Siani (as Warren claims), because Moses already got that from God via the burning bush. But that's not right. Moses got his first purpose at the burning bush - to free the Jews from Egyptian slavery. On Mt. Siani, God gave Moses another purpose: lawgiver.

Such shoddy reasoning is rife throughout the book, to the extent that even though I agreed with the author's overall contention, I disagreed with most the reasons supporting the contention.

A few chapters were better argued, and those were among the most enjoyable. But there weren't enough of them to give this a higher rating.

[Mandy J. Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

MY REVIEW:

I really appreciate this book and how it explains and exposes recent movements and fades within the church based on the standard of the Bible. Each chapter is a short, yet thorough, explanation of a particular topic or trend and each one is written by a different man.

I personally enjoyed this book because I don't have the time nor attention span to read an entire book about each of the topics enclosed between it's cover. However, each of the issues it addresses are ones that I need to be informed about even in an overview format. Then men who have written this book present with a balanced and Biblical view and in ways that make it easy to read and understand.

Fools Gold? is a perfect book for anyone to read and a great book to read when you only have 10 minute windows of time. While this is several years old now, it's still very relevant to today's culture.

BOOK OVERVIEW:

God’s Word is clear that not everything that glitters is gold. In this uncompromising book, John MacArthur and the contributors lay a foundation for biblical discernment to assess several current Christian trends.

[Ed · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it's title, because it did a very good job of discerning by using the Word of God. I especially liked chapter 3 and agree to the exposure of 'The Purpose-Driven Life'. I have always been suspicious of the book put out by Rick Warren, and I feel that Nathan Busenitz did an excellent job of exposing it to public. I also liked chapter 7 concerning worship music. It really made me aware of the danger with our 'Christian' music used in the churches today, and how it should be a subject of very serious discernment. I recommend this book to everyone.

[GEA]

From beginning to end, John MacArthur and his theologian team contributors instruct the reader on how to be discerning in this present world. It was an excellent read, read it one afternoon, underlining as I read. Very helpful instructions in the last chapter for personal discernment.
Why I chose this book to read: Am studying false teachers for my Bible study and felt I needed some more help because today so many are falling for false "theology" and "false teachers."
The team tackled many current books and articles to show the reader how to discern truth from error. Hebrews 5:14 commands us to be discerning.
The team will equip you with a foundation for biblical discernment so you can make careful distinctions. The world today is not "black and white" but "gray" in regard to truth. This book is so needed. I highly recommend it.

[Callie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been wanting to read this one for a while and finally picked it up. It was structured differently than I expected - most of the chapters were about different issues or movements in Christianity and how we can apply discernment to these very specific issues. It was a great book though, and each chapter was a good example of how discernment should be applied! The chapter on Christian music was worth the whole book to me - I found it really balanced and useful, and learned a lot from that one chapter!

[Benjamin Ried · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a read for the conversations that should be taking place around politics and consumerism (chapters 9-10).

I was ready to give the book two or three stars after reading chapters 3-8, but overall the book is four stars because of the importance of practicing discernment. The introductory chapters in part 1 are clear and concise. The majority of the chapters in parts 3 and 4 are very useful for thinking critically through issues and developing skills for practicing discernment.

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very timely book that still has relevance today, almost 15 years after it's publication. Leave it to MacArthur to put something like this together. He has been a great prophetic voice in the church, always calling us back to discernment rather than get caught up in the "ooooh's and awe's" of the latest trends. This could be an eye opening book for some.

[Tim Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

We live in a time that gives us many half-answers, almost-truths, and big, fat lies. This book helped me to further understand how important it is to always fight for the truth, even when it is costly and painful. The Gospel is the ultimate truth that we, as Christians, should fight for while we live it out in the public eye for all to see. Truly a good read.

[AlegnaB † · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very good book. However, the Kindle edition (ASIN B00256Z3SG) has formatting problems. Spaces between words are often missing in the introductory section of each chapter. Since the book is still readable, the spacing problem is just an annoyance.

[Carolyn Lemonier · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Path to Disernment

With so much false teaching in the world today, it is important for Christians to be equipped to distinguish between truth and false doctrine. I highly recommend this book as a guide to developing discernment for those devoted to learning truth.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Publisher's Description:

"Eureka!
In an age of open-mindedness, many believers accept too much with too little discernment, resulting in great confusion and compromise. But God's Word makes it clear that not everything that glitters is gold. False teaching is at every turn, and the temptation to embrace it is great. As God's people we are called to sift through the overwhelming number of traditions and trends and use the truth of Scripture to determine which are the true treasures--and which are "fool's gold."

General editor John MacArthur and the contributors of this uncompromising book define the principles of biblical discernment and use them to address several contemporary Christian issues. They provide straightforward, biblical critiques of some popular but unfortunate Christian trends, such as watered-down preaching and doctrinally questionable best-selling books. Dr. MacArthur ends with a practical plan for cultivating discernment in the Christian life.

It is the duty of every Christian--not just pastors and elders--to follow the biblical command to cling to what is good and to reject what is not. This book will equip you with a foundation for biblical discernment that will enable you to make careful distinctions in your thinking about truth."

[Christopher Colegrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fool's Gold, a book containing a series of excellent articles on discerning truth from error in all its subtle forms, is an amazing read that tackles everything from trends in worship music and discernment in the 'christian' bookstore, to consumerism and the tendency to be too focused on the politics of this world as opposed to the Gospel. A great read!! John MacArthur, the general editor and author of a few of the articles contained within, is always an excellent writer and speaker on this topic! Of particular note were the articles on 'Altar Calls' and the open-theism book 'Wild at Heart'.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is written by various authors examining and exposing the error of popular evangelical trends and books in America: The Purpose Driven Life, Wild at Heart, altar calls, contemporary worship, substituting evangalism with political clout...some controversial stuff, no doubt, but challenges readers to examine things in light of what the Bible has to say, rather than how much money is made at the bookstore.

[Ilona Semenyuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very informative and difficult to read. Even though it was challenging, It was very detailed educational. The author did a very good job on describing the false teachers of this age and bringing examples ans sources. I recommend this book for those that like to challenge themselves and read something heavier then they are used to. This author is also very straight up and says what he thinks and I really enjoyed reading something new to me and consider reading it again.

[Valerie Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

a MUST READ!!!! so many topics/issues in this book. outside of the church, within the church.... believers have to discern biblcially. we must live biblically. in this present age. Christlike. if we aren't in the Word, if it isn't rooted in our hearts and minds.... if we don't have teachers that love the Word and preach the Word...... we are vulnerable to false teaching, false worship, even false living. grow in discernment. sharpen it. start here.

[Craig]

MacArthur and his compadres dissect lots of Christian books and trends. You might not agree with everything they say, but you will become more aware of being discerning about stuff, even "Christian stuff." And that's the goal of the book.

[Chris Bloom · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an assigned book in a ministries class, this was a pretty good one. While I can't go along with MacArthur's Reformed theology, I always enjoy reading his work and learn a great deal. This one isn't perfect, but it is very good.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't agree with some of the things presented in this book, for the most part I find the reminder to practice Biblical discernment so important. American Christians don't know the Word of God well enough to defend it when it is attacked from "within."

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far this book is eye opening!

[Jocelin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent Book.

[Kelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for a Theology class. I found that MacArthur's concepts lead to great discussions and were the cause of deep thought into what he wrote about.

[Michael Locklear · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book about discerning truth in the fallen world where we live and worship.

[Samuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some chapters are standard, solid critiques; some are more shotgun-style broadsides where the author should know better.

[Neal]

Only read selected chapters