BEWARE OF THE SHACK

Yesterday I told everyone about the book, The Shack. After I completed the post I begin to contact certain ministries and let them know about the book as well. David Cloud of Way Of Life Ministries told me that he warned everyone on 9 May 2008! Wow, he has to be the first to begin warning people. He did a great job on being so fast to learn about this and to warn people.

Here is what he posted on the Way of Life Literature site:

BEWARE OF THE SHACK (Friday Church News Notes, May 9, 2008, www.wayoflife.org fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) -

The following is excerpted from “The Shack:

Father-goddess Rising,” Lighthouse Trails Research, April 23, 2008: “Many are crediting The Shack, the novel by William P. Young, with revolutionizing their faith. With themes of overcoming loss, working through anger, and restored relationship between man and God, Young’s novel has excited many within the Body of Christ. Young has appeared on CBN, and has garnered fans across the country. The Shack, continues to sell briskly. Yet, in the midst of such enthusiasm, does The Shack glorify Jesus Christ--or contradict the Bible with a false image of the Lord our God? The novel’s main character, Mack Philips, has lost his daughter. She has been murdered, her bloodied dress found in an isolated shack. Four years later Mack receives an invitation from God to spend time with the Trinity in the very shack where the dress was found. Nowhere in the Bible do Father, Son, and Holy Spirit simultaneously assume physical forms on earth. The Shack, however, portrays Jesus as a carpenter, the Holy Spirit as an Asian woman, and God the Father as a large black woman named ... Papa. ... At one point the book’s version of Jesus praises the fictional Father-goddess, exclaiming, ‘Isn’t she great?’ In the entire Bible there is not one single reference to Father, Son, or Holy Spirit--or to any of His angels--as female. ... There is an apparent dismissal of the importance of Scripture, which is reflected in slippery theology found throughout the novel. Young writes, ‘Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?’ ... The Father-goddess of The Shack, it seems, is never about guilt or punishment. She benignly informs Mack, ‘I don’t need to punish people for sin.’ ... An excellent writer, Young plays to emotion and touches on legitimate hurts and concerns. The author excels at imbuing his deity with attributes of love, forgiveness, and mercy, and this is what many people have responded to. Increasingly in novels and movies the Lord is blithely used as one of the characters and given words from the mouth of man.”


I have asked Jason and Jim to read the book and post their reviews as soon as they are done. Keep checking back for more information on this subject.

Have a great Saturday.