The Sha-ZZzzzz

I have to be honest: I'm losing interest in The Shack. I am tired of beating up on this book, regardless of how much it deserves the beating. I knew going into this that I wasn't going to necessarily win friends and influence people by undertaking an ongoing critique, and that my little posts weren't going to make a bit of difference in the overall popularity and acclaim of the book.

To sum it up, there's lots I have to say, but I'm not sure that it matters. At all.

I'm not as discouraged as this might sound. It's more of a matter-of-fact acknowledgment.

It just saddens me that when I talk with people about The Shack, they tend to either brush it off as a mediocre book (perhaps not even bothering to finish it, because they found it to be so ludicrous in the first few chapters) or cling to it as a marvelous illumination of the life and character of the Triune God. Few people seem to care about how damaging such a book could be to the average reader, Christian or non. So that's where I think I'll spend my time today.

Ok, so perhaps the discerning reader can make it through The Shack without seriously buying into the theological fluff that it propagates. This is probably the camp that tosses the book aside, unconcerned about its implications. But what about the quasi-discerning reader who can tell that there are some problems with the book, but nonetheless believes that the story of transformation is so powerful that all their negative-God-image friends should read it? That is, the book can be so helpful to people who have a negative view of God, so I think I'll recommend it to everyone I know, even though I'm aware of some shady issues going on in the background.

Is this appalling to anyone else?

It's a sign to me that we take the character of God too lightly. When professing Christians can love a book that reads like a fun-room-mirror reflection of the God of the universe, we ought to be given great pause. And buy up as many copies of R.C.'s "The Holiness of God" to distribute right alongside our brothers and sisters who are giving out The Shack by the case.

I'll grant you that discerning believers who actually know truth about God and are familiar with Scripture will not be shaken nor moved by this book. It's not likely to throw up red flags for people who view the novel as rather silly or half-baked. But I encourage you to take up the cause and talk to your friends about The Shack, to find out where they stand. The book has been so popular, and I've seen it in the hands of so many people from my own congregation (anecdotally, I know of at least one church that is conducting small groups on the book, and probably not from a critical point of view), that I think we ought to go on the offensive in affirming truth about God.

We have the potential to make the book's popularity into a huge opportunity for evangelism and discipleship. Exhort your friends to compare the book against Scripture, to dig in for themselves and see whether Young's portrayal of the Trinity and Papa's comments about hierarchy and suffering measure up to the richness of the wisdom of God. I submit that they will not.

Thank God that there is nothing new under the sun - no new heresy or distortion of God that man can fabricate. It has all been said before, and it is of great encouragement to me that heresy has not only come, but it has come to pass. Only the Word of God will remain. Much like the steady onward march of Calvinism, we know that the Truth is everlasting.

"But when we see Thee as thou art, we'll praise Thee as we ought." [John Newton, How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds]