When I first saw the book, The Shack, at Barnes & Noble, I wanted to get it. Yay! a book about Christianity being pushed in a mainstream bookstore. Or so I thought. I picked up the book, and for some reason decided not to buy it. I hadn't heard anything about it, but something just didn't set right in my spirit. So I didn't buy it. I continued to look at it whenever I was in the bookstore, but didn't trust it.
On a trip to Colorado, I saw the book at the Focus on the Family headquarters bookstore as well as the bookstore in the NAV Press headquarters. The book must be all right, I thought. Surely, these bastions of the faith wouldn't promote a bad book.
I got home and bought the book. BOY WAS I WRONG!
And that is what has disturbed me more than anything. Since then I see that the 700 Club has promoted it, as well as other organizations I respected. Hmmm. Either I am whacked or the enemy has slipped in unnoticed under the guise of a good story that brings readers to tears as it plays with their feelings as well as their beliefs.
I'm feeling like I have spotted a dangerous flood coming our way and am shouting "watch out for the flood," but most just stare at me like I'm all wet.
In these days, last days I believe, we are warned of a great delusion. After I read half the book, I put it down and that is the word I heard from the Lord -- Delusion.
I'm sorry to say that I did finish reading the book. It got worse not better.
I am not a scholar and have no desire to study The Shack to point out its errors. I have learned that I must run to the Word of God and soak in His truth and trust in His Holy Spirit. I shouldn't have bought the book. Sorry I did. I don't need to fill my brain with error.
I don't think Jesus, God the Father, or the Holy Spirit need to be repackaged to be sold. We're warned not to teach or believe any other gospel or any other Jesus.
Test the spirits
6 comments:
Powerful, Patty. The late Walter Martin who wrote _The Kingdom of the Cults_ stated that if you miss the definition of Jesus and wind up with the wrong Jesus, you could miss everything.
God bless~
Patty --
Let me just say, Amen to your post! With no preconceptions I picked up The Shack and read about half of it. I had to stop because I found it so disrespectful and disturbing in its portrayal of God.
There are many websites that review this book. Two that give a negative/cautionary tone are:
http://www.mynameisrush.com/blog/
http://www.challies.com/archives/book-reviews/the-shack-by-william-p-young.php
I don't necessarily agree with everything in these reviews -- especially the second website's view on forgiveness -- but think these are pretty good.
Amy
Amen! and Amen! And Ditto to what Margo said, "Very powerful."
Hi Patty, the book is being heavily promoted here in the UK and has had good reviews in our 'Christianity' magazine which is normally very balanced (like your 'Christianity Today'. I've now bought it and feel I should read it so that I'm informed about it at least.
I'd read a lot of controversy about this book on the ACFW loop, and decided not to read it.
Then I went to Washington to spend my father's last 12 days with him. All my siblings were there before he died.
My sister-in-law from California had just read The Shack and was raving about it. She had just finished talking about it when my nephew arrived from out of state and started talking about The Shack.
It sure is controversial.
Hi Patty--
Wow! Ditto on your take of "The Shack". You're right on about it. Father, Son and Holy Spirit shouldn't be written into a story without the absolute Truth of Who they are and What they do. (ex. the Son and His sacrifice for us--represented beautifully by Aslan in Chronicles of Narnia). Otherwise, it's just another "feel-good" story that hides the danger of heresy(people don't like words like heresy anymore :) But it should caution them enough to examine the background of this book, and how it was written. Bless you, Pat I.
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