The Shack

I read The Shack this past month. It was a suggestion of a few close friends of mine. It was also small and a quick read amidst my already growing reading list and school work. After finishing it I could see why many would eagerly embrace the book. Young’s work was easy to follow, emotionally connecting, and strongly emphasized our relationship with God. However, with its strengths it also had weaknesses. Now to be sure, every book has both strong and weak points. However, the problem I had with The Shack was that in many ways, although a fiction book, misrepresented God.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the book, and made connections from the book. The book can enrich peoples' lives and even grow them spiritually I believe, however I feel that a person needs to have a pretty solid foundation before diving into this book. It could be a very dangerous thing to have a book – even a work of fiction – whose intention is to help people understand God, yet have him making statements which contradict what he already said in his Word.

Some VERY BRIEF examples…

1. On the God-forsakeness of the Cross

The Shack

God the father says of Jesus on the cross, “Regardless of what he felt at that moment, I never left him” (96).

The Bible

It seems to indicate that at some level, God the Father did “turn” from his Son as his wrath for sin was poured upon Jesus. Mark 15:34 reads, “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

2. On God Punishing People

The Shack

Papa: “I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it. (122)”

The Bible

All one needs to do is look through the Bible to be clearly convinced that God has and will punish people for their sins. Romans 2:5-6, “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done.”

3. On God and Institutions

The Shack

Young’s book definitely has a distaste towards almost anything organized at a macro level. The church is no exception. Frequently, God in The Shack takes his hack at the idea of institutions.

Jesus: “I don’t create institutions – never have, never will. (178)”

The Bible

God created the institutions like marriage (cf., Gen. 1-3), government (cf., Rom. 13), and yes, even the church (cf., Mt. 16:18, Heb. 13:17)

4. On God Saving Everyone

The Shack

William Young has been exposed by those who know him as being a proponent of universal reconciliation, essentially the idea that Jesus will save everyone and no one will go to Hell.

Papa: “Forgiveness does not establish relationship. In Jesus, I have forgiven all humans for their sins against me, but only some choose relationship. … When Jesus forgave those who nailed him to the cross they were no longer in his debt, nor mine. In my relationship with those men, I will never bring up what they did, or shame them, or embarrass them. (224)”

In fact, a reader can easily get the sense that you don’t even have to be a Christian to enter into God’s Kingdom.

Jesus: “Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims… I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into brothers and sisters, into my Beloved (182).”

The Bible

It is clear that only those who believe in this lifetime have their sins forgiven through the work of Jesus on the Cross. Hebrews 9:27, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” This shows us that once you die there is no second chance with Jesus. And it is only through faith alone in Christ that forgiveness is procured. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

5. On Roles in the Godhead

The Shack

The Shack teaches that hierarchical roles are the result of sin. In fact one gets the feeling from the book that any form is unacceptable (husbands to wives, parents to children, and yes, God the Father to God the Son).

Sarayu: “Mackenzie, we have no concept of final authority among us, only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command or ‘great chain of being’ as your ancestors termed it. What you’re seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power. We don’t need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. Hierarchy would make no sense among us. Actually, this is your problem, not ours. (122)”

The Bible

Not only do we see roles of leadership given in mankind (cf., Gen. 2; Eph. 5:22ff) but we see roles each member of the Trinity takes. For example, the Son submits to the Father. 1 Corinthians 15:28, “When all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.” 1 Corinthians 11:3, “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”

Okay, that’s just a sampling of some of the issues that arose for me in the book. I simply wanted to show that there is enough questionable content in this book to demonstrate this is more than just a nice read. It’s just fiction, not a theology book, however when most of the positive response I’ve heard about the book ironically revolves exactly around the fact that the it refreshingly presents God in a certain light. In other words, it teaches a theology to a certain extent.

I did enjoy the book, and really did like the story, I just would like to have people be informed a bit before reading.