{"id":1111,"date":"2010-06-26T09:59:04","date_gmt":"2010-06-26T14:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2011-08-07T12:55:49","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T16:55:49","slug":"fools-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Fool&#8217;s Gold"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Close Your Church for Good, <\/em>Chap. 1, Sec. 7. <em>In the <a href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/falling-to-temptation\/\">previous section<\/a>, we reviewed the history of the church in which it accepted\u00a0riches, fame, glory, authority, and power.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">* * * * *<\/p>\n<p>The rationale and justification for why the church did this\u00a0is easy to understand. The conversion of Emperor Constantine caused persecution to cease and brought in tens of thousands of additional converts. Leaders wanted to protect these new believers from heresy or from other religions. Gaining money, power, and buildings made the training and education of the masses more manageable. Also, being the official religion opened the way for the rapid spread of the Gospel.<\/p>\n<p>And so began what many call the \u201cGolden Age of Christianity.\u201d With the money and power it had gained, it had the resources to provide for its own needs. It became powerful as the official religion of the Empire. It gained authority and glory in the eyes of the people. Its clergy became scholars and philosophers, great men of learning and education. Buildings were constructed and great public works were performed. Laws were written, rulings were made, and control was gained. All of this resulted in the spread of Christianity, and with it, better government, improved education, and increased morality.<\/p>\n<p>What could be wrong with all this? Only one thing. Somewhere along the way, the very things that Jesus had rejected to accomplish His mission\u2014self-reliance, power, authority, glory, riches, recognition by men, and control\u2014these things were adopted in full force by the church. The Golden Age was filled with Fool\u2019s Gold. The very things that Jesus refused, the church accepted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Close Your Church for Good, Chap. 1, Sec. 7. In the previous section, we reviewed the history of the church in which it accepted\u00a0riches, fame, glory, authority, and power. * * * * * The rationale and justification for why the church did this\u00a0is easy to understand. The conversion of Emperor Constantine caused persecution to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-1111","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"tag-books-by-jeremy-myers","7":"tag-close-your-church-for-good","8":"entry"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fool&#039;s Gold<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fool&#039;s Gold\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Close Your Church for Good, Chap. 1, Sec. 7. In the previous section, we reviewed the history of the church in which it accepted\u00a0riches, fame, glory, authority, and power. * * * * * The rationale and justification for why the church did this\u00a0is easy to understand. The conversion of Emperor Constantine caused persecution to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Redeeming God\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/290798794274804\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-26T14:59:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-07T16:55:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Mailchimp-Header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"562\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"182\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@redeeminggod\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeremy Myers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"headline\":\"Fool&#8217;s Gold\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-26T14:59:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-07T16:55:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/\"},\"wordCount\":269,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"keywords\":[\"Books by Jeremy Myers\",\"Close Your Church for Good\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/\",\"name\":\"Fool's Gold\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-26T14:59:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-08-07T16:55:49+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/fools-gold\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fool&#8217;s Gold\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/\",\"name\":\"Redeeming God\",\"description\":\"Liberating you from bad ideas about God\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/0df0211c3f7ba3d4c6cfa1f8411f481c\",\"name\":\"Jeremy Myers\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/eddb31e43c2836234b746787cbef8f12?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeremy Myers\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/redeeminggod.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Jeremy Myers writes about Scripture and theology in a way that redeems God and people from the prison of religion. 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