Happy April Fool's Day

It’s been said many times that “Its quite true there’s a fool born every minute. It’s also quite true they don’t die that fast.”

I have proven that true time and again in my own past. Maybe you have too.

Next to myself, one of the biggest fools I know of was a long-ago French explorer by the name of Jacques Cartier. A “mariner of Saint Malo in Brittany, he made two voyages to America in 1533 and 1535, sailing up the river which he named the St. Lawrence, turning back a little above the site of Montreal, wintering under the Rock of Quebec. Friendly and humorous Hurons beguiled the Frenchmen through a long, cold winter with tall tales of a Kingdom of Saguenay inhabited by white men who had mines of gold, silver, and rubies, and even grew spices; Chief Donnaconna, elaborating, declared that among them were men who had only one leg, flew like bats, and never ate. Cartier not only ‘bought’ the whole package but persuaded the Huron chief to accompany him to France and sell it to the king, which he did. Here, thought Francis I, was the opportunity to acquire a Mexico of his own and run the King of Spain out of business. So he sent Cartier on a third voyage in 1541, with ten ships and so many people and such rich equipment that the King of Spain seriously thought of sending a fleet to break it up. This expedition pushed up the St. Lawrence, but the wealthy kingdom was always beyond the next rapid. Cartier’s partner Roberval explored in boats the river now called Saguenay but found only the walls of the northern wilderness closing in on him. They returned to France with a heap of iron pyrites which they believed to be gold, and quartz crystals that they hoped were diamonds. ‘Canadian diamonds’ became a standard joke in France, and the only tangible result of this voyage.”(1)

It’s not a good thing to give fool’s gold to a king.

The Colorado Gold Rush
I live in the small town of Salida, in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Along with railroaders and ranchers, miners of the 1858-61 Pike’s Peak Gold Rush (later called the Colorado Gold Rush) were early residents of the pioneer settlement on the banks of the Arkansas River. There are still a few working mines in the area—and a lot of people who would love to strike it rich, quick, in one way or the other.

A hundred years ago, in the nearby mountains, Ed Woods was digging a cellar on his place on Willow Creek. His shovel struck a vein and he quickly and jubilantly reported to Salida’s newspaper, the Mountain Mail, that it was copper and silver that would run $25 per ton. As Woods later learned, he had hit a worthless streak of pyrites of iron—fool’s gold.

To this day, the streams that feed the Arkansas wind down from the majestic, snowcapped peaks of surrounding fourteeners and deposit silt that glitters with golden flakes along their banks. But it’s not gold dust.

William Shakespeare had it right: “all that glistens is not gold.”

Fooled by real gold
But even real gold can sometimes be fool’s gold. Those who covet it are fools. Those whose vanity and pride are bolstered by it are fools. And those who tie their self-esteem, power and security to gold are fools.

Gold has long been associated with extreme foolishness and evil. The Book of Exodus relates to us that the Golden Calf was the vanity of foolish children of Israel because it was an idol made in rebellion against God.

Anyone who prizes gold from the ground over gold from God is a fool.

God’s gold
In the Bible’s Christmas story, one of the magi honored the baby Jesus with a gift of gold. It was a thing of high commercial value, as were the other magi gifts of myrrh and frankincense. But like myrrh and frankincense, the gift of gold had an intrinsic value much greater than its market price. Gold was an appropriate gift because it acknowledged that Jesus was God’s most precious gift to the world, and that in Him was the embodiment of God’s love, justice, power, perfection, forgiveness, salvation, and grace.

The gold of the Half-Hearted Christian
Like the French explorer Jacques Cartier, fleshly, carnal or Half-Hearted Christians are seduced by the glitter of fool’s gold. Their divided hearts quench the Holy Spirit and this disables their ability to spiritually discern what is fake and what is real. So they fall for the glitter of the desires of the flesh, the glitter of Satan’s lies, the glitter of sin’s promises, the glitter of worldliness, and the glitter of self-righteousness under the law. But it’s all fool’s gold.

The Half-Hearted Christian walks in the flesh—in the ways of Satan, sin, the world system, and as one under the law—and this produces "fruit for death."


The king of France wasn’t deceived by Jacques Cartier’s fool’s gold and Canadian diamonds, and the worthless haul from the New World strained the relationship between the emperor and the explorer, to say the least.

And so it is with God and the Half-Hearted Christian. This fleshly believer lives on fool’s gold and his life produces fool’s gold. But God won’t buy it. In this sense, the Bible tells us that the Half-Hearted Christian produces “fruit for death.” Paul wrote that, “For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death” (Romans 7:5). While the Christian has been “crucified to the flesh” (Galatians 5:24) and is no longer “in the flesh,” he can still walk “according to the flesh” (Romans 8:1-9) and thereby produce fruit that is unacceptable to God. Such fleshly fruit is the product of a divided heart that experiences broken fellowship with God (“death”). Please understand that, while a believer is out of fellowship with God, their relationship remains unaffected because it is absolute and everlasting.

Redeem gold from the earth for gold from God
Here’s some biblical admonition for the Half-Hearted Christian: “Please receive instruction from His mouth and establish His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored; If you remove unrighteousness far from your tent, and place your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks, then the Almighty will be your gold and choice silver to you. For then you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God. You will pray to Him, and He will hear you” (Job 22:22-27a).

Notice in the above passage that if gold from the earth is causing you to sin, you are better off to get rid of it. This principle was also taught by Jesus in this analogy: “If your right hand makes you stumble [sin], cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:30).

Elsewhere, Jesus said: “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed ; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see” (Revelation 3:18).

The Whole-Hearted Christian buys gold from Jesus, and so his “faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:7).

The magi gave gold to the baby Jesus—gold whose intrinsic value was far greater than the market price. And so it is that when the Christian whole-heartedly walks in fellowship with Christ, he produces real gold for Him—“fruit for God.” Paul wrote: “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God” (Romans 7:4). The fruit produced in the life of the Whole-Hearted Christian gives praise, glory, and honor to Jesus Christ.

The Whole-Hearted Christian walks in the Spirit—in God, God's love, God's Kingdom, and God's Grace—and this produces "fruit for God."

It’s not a good thing to give fool’s gold to the King. If someone or something beguiles you with its glitter, you might first have it assayed by Him who will tell you whether it is fool’s gold or the real thing.

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(1) Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of The American People, (Oxford University Press, 1965), 40-41.
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©Copyright AD2010 Frank Allnutt. All rights reserved. Content herein may be quoted, subject to the "fair use" doctrine of U.S. Copyright Law.

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