The Shack and Scripture

Due to the seemingly continued popularity of this book, I wanted to put yet another post out there exposing it for what it is... a blasphemous work of heresy! Should a Christian want to read a book like this? Should a Christian know so little about the Bible that books like "The Shack" seem completely harmless? Is it harmless? Let's take a look.

Why is the book so popular?
When god is created in “man's” image, he is more likable and easier to be accepted by carnal men. Why? Because he's just like them. The writer has created a false god who can be controlled and manipulated by his creation.

Why is this book so dangerous?
Because it's a work of heresy! We need to fill our minds with the Truth of Scripture, not with make believe books that falsely portray the Just and Holy God of Scripture. Anyone indwelt by the Spirit of God should find themselves outraged not only that the Godhead has been reduced to human form, but at the message this make-believe trinity has for the Reader in light of Holy Scripture.

· Papa to Mack: “We [the Trinity] have limited ourselves out of respect for you.”

Hey... isn’t this Open Theism – God choosing to limit Himself?

· Open Theism - makes the case for a personal God who is open to influence through the prayers, decisions, and actions of people. Although many specific outcomes of the future are unknowable, God's foreknowledge of the future includes that which is determined as time progresses often in light of free decisions that have been made and what has been sociologically determined. So God knows everything that has been determined as well as what has not yet been determined but remains open. As such, he is able to anticipate the future, yet remains fluid to respond and react to prayer and decisions made either contrary or advantageous to His plan or presuppositions.

· Jesus: “God, who is the ground of all being, dwells in, around, and through all things . . .”

Hey, isn’t this Pantheism – God in all things?

· Pantheism - the doctrine that God is the transcendent reality of which the material universe and human beings are only manifestations: it involves a denial of God's personality and expresses a tendency to identify God and nature.

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths." (2 Tim 4:3-4 ESV)

"Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints." (Jude 1:3 ESV)

Discernment, not an attack
“Discernment is not simply a matter of telling the difference between what is right and wrong; rather it is the difference between right and almost right.” -Charles Spurgeon

As Christians, we are required to read books like The Shack with discernment. We are to contend for our faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints! (Jude 1:3)

Work of fiction, relax
Wrong. It may be a work of fiction, but it is marketed as a spiritually transforming book and is taken that way by many. Since William Young has characters in his book that claim to be God, you cannot dismiss it as merely a “light hearted read”. You cannot turn a blind eye to the Writer's low view of God, his heretical portrayal of the Godhead and his gross manipulation of Scripture.

eg. “I am the best way any human can relate to Papa or Sarayu.”

This is a false Jesus! The Jesus Christ of Holy Scripture never claims to be “the best” way, He says He is the ONLY way!

"Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" (John 14:6 ESV)

As Believers we should exercise discretion when approaching this type of a book and should be careful not to dismiss it as a harmless work of fiction, because it is not. This book is dangerous and will deceive many. It is nothing more than another sign of the times that 2 Timothy 4 is in full effect. People will not endure sound doctrine, but they have itching ears and will gather to themselves teachers who will suit their own passions and they will turn away from listening to the truth.

I'll close this out with the words of Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit.

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." (Gal 1:6-7)

Solus Christus