OK, I just finished “The Shack” and here’s my overall perspective on it:
It was a gripping story that drew me in, touched me emotionally, made me cry and gave me a lot to think about (stereotypes, the freedom of forgiveness, relationships, grief, believing and trusting God, etc.)…but, that’s where it ends. As I read it, I prayed for discernment to find the dangers within it. I kept a blue pen with me and I underlined everything that I found dangerous. There has to be about 50 pages with blue markings now. My conundrum is whether we should even be looking at a fictional book to give us theology. My answer is clearly, NO. But the real danger is that many people are desperately looking for a definition of God beyond the bible and this book draws it for them. If it were theologically sound, I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but because it is not, I believe it is extremely dangerous. As Stan Key stated, it’s really only for the “thinking Christian”. Sadly, there are fewer and fewer of those these days.
Statements like: “Jesus had no power as a human being to heal anyone” is blasphemy as he was never only human but both God and man…or The statement by “Jesus” of “who said anything about being a Christian. I’m not a Christian”. Yes, the author’s intent was to belittle the current status of “Christian” however, the word Christian means “Christ Follower” and the word “Christ” was not mentioned once in the entire book…only “Jesus”, “Joshua”, “Jesse” as to negate his true deity and completely humanize him apart from God the Father’s work in him. Even in the end, it was never the main characters desire to lead others to the personal relationship that he enjoyed but just to “tell his story” which is in keeping with our 21st century focus on ourselves. The whole aspect of their being no hierarchy within the trinity is a complete mockery of scripture. Interestingly, the author contradicts himself by referring to the hierarchal roles within the book.
Another statement that made my head spin was “God my servant”, which clearly was how the book portrayed the trinity….right there at our beck and call to serve us: a complete reversal of the truth. Heresy. It’s simply 21st century writing that is in keeping with 2 Tim. 4:3-4: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
If it’s fiction, than what’s the big deal? I’ll tell you: A FALSE REPRESENTATION OF GOD which we are warned against in scripture (first commandment). It brings God down to our human level which in the end “corrupts the mind and heart of our comprehension of God.” (T.A. McMahon). How dare William Young speak for God? I fear for him and I fear for the many that raise this book up to be literature on the same level as “Pilgrim’s Progress” as Eugene Peterson has done. The only true God is the God of the bible, defined as much as the trinity wanted the trinity to be defined. We’re so clearly warned to never take away or add to that written Word (Rev 22:18). Young has clearly overstepped his bounds and given us a depiction of a god we can better relate to in keeping with the 21st century fixation on psychology, self-centeredness and boldness to create our own images beyond what scripture has depicted.
I would not recommend this book to anyone other than a thinking Christian who wishes to read something to test their scriptural knowledge and expose them to the apostasy so prevalent in our day.
