I have not read The Shack. I have not seen the movie The Shack. Since the book's release in 2008, I heard from too many other brothers and sisters in Christ that it promoted a view of God that was unhealthy at best and heretical at worst. Personally, I just didn't think I could stomach reading it. And I definitely couldn't stomach watching it.
This is not, then, a book review or a movie review on The Shack. From what I understand, it's a great story of forgiveness. It is helpful to hear about forgiveness, and it may be edifying to see forgiveness in action.
Forgiveness, though, only comes through the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross. According to Hebrews 9:22, "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." True forgiveness is not possible without the intentional work of God the Father sending His Son to die for us. What is deeply troubling to me about The Shack is the words of its author William Paul Young in his book Lies We Believe About God:
Who originated the Cross? . . . If God did, then we worship a cosmic abuser, who in Divine Wisdom created a means to torture human beings in the most painful and abhorrent manner. Frankly, it is often this very cruel and monstrous god that the atheist refuses to acknowledge or grant credibility in any sense. And rightly so. Better no god at all, than this one.
I'm not sure how to square his claim that God the Father did NOT send Jesus to die for us. As generous as I'd like to be, I can't do anything with his teaching except to say that it is a false Gospel that he promotes. In fact, it is anti-Gospel. As you watch The Shack, as with all movies (even so-called "Christian" or "inspirational" movies), please use discernment. As Charles Spurgeon wisely said, "Discernment is not knowing knowing right from wrong. It is knowing right from almost right."
Don't let the ("almost right") forgiveness offered in The Shack keep you from seeing the ("the right") beautiful, costly forgiveness that God the Father offers through the violent, bloody Cross of His Son Jesus Christ.
I haven't read the book or seen the movie either, but I read a book titled "Burning Down The Shack" by James DeYoung, who used to go to a Bible study with Paul Young.
ReplyDeleteHis emphasis is that Young holds to a teaching called "Universal Reconciliation", which - from what I gather from an interview - the same Rob Bell promotes in "Love Wins." Universal Reconciliation teaches that salvation is in Jesus alone - but eventually everybody will get saved; some need hell to wake them up where they will be given a chance to repent. In other words, everyone is the elect, and everybody will eventually turn; doesn't matter if Scripture doesn't back that up.
I have a friend I knew in Nashville who's a pastor who holds to this teaching. He claims that some of the church fathers held to that view - Justin Martyr, Origen, and Clement of Alexandria. I bounced it off a friend who's familiar with the church fathers, and he doesn't think Justin Marytr really held to that view.
First of all, Justin Martyr almost certainly did not believe or teach Universal Reconciliation. Just refer to his First Apology. It is also doubtful that Origen and Clement of Alexandria were Universalists, though that claim has been made by a few theologians. Even if that claim were true, we must realize that anyone (including the church fathers) can err.
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