The Shack - Spiritual P*rnography?

[Rich Koster]

The only similarity is that they are printed books

 

[Guido's Brother]

It doesn't help that we have Regent College in our neck of the woods. Regent has been ardently marketing the book. It was Eugene Peterson who said that this book would do for our generation what Pilgrim Progress did in Bunyan's.

You've got to be kidding? Peterson compared it to Pilgrim's Progress???

I know, I know. You'll never be able to read the Message the same way ever again.

 

[toddpedlar]

I must lead a sheltered life -- I hadn't even heard of this until just this past week. On one hand, I can appreciate reading so you can discuss stuff intelligently, but lately, I haven't had much time to read anything, so I don't know if I want to take the time to read something that apparently refers to the Holy Spirit as a she.

The Father in The Shack is a black woman.

 

[Zeno333]

I must lead a sheltered life -- I hadn't even heard of this until just this past week. On one hand, I can appreciate reading so you can discuss stuff intelligently, but lately, I haven't had much time to read anything, so I don't know if I want to take the time to read something that apparently refers to the Holy Spirit as a she.

The Father in The Shack is a black woman.

So is the Shack book claiming that a woman can be an "equal figure" to a father??

 

[toddpedlar]

I must lead a sheltered life -- I hadn't even heard of this until just this past week. On one hand, I can appreciate reading so you can discuss stuff intelligently, but lately, I haven't had much time to read anything, so I don't know if I want to take the time to read something that apparently refers to the Holy Spirit as a she.

The Father in The Shack is a black woman.

So is the Shack book claiming that a woman can be an "equal figure" to a father??

I'm not sure what it's trying to claim, but it's wicked blasphemy at best.

 

[kvanlaan]

It doesn't help that we have Regent College in our neck of the woods. Regent has been ardently marketing the book. It was Eugene Peterson who said that this book would do for our generation what Pilgrim Progress did in Bunyan's.

Peterson's endorsement should be the largest of large red flags as to the book's content, even if you never actually open it. Also, things have changed, haven't they? I thought Regent was JI Packer's home, but I think I read somewhere that he's gone a bit wonky too, no?

Seriously though, if a visiting elder saw "The Shack" on someone's shelf during huisbezoek, would he not take the father to task? As I recall from my childhood, that's how it would go where I come from...

 

[Pergamum]

Panting Donkey Machete:

Listen to Al Mohler's review on his radio show. I was shocked and dismayed not only by what I heard but what other Christians are saying about it. It is worth the time to have a listen. I will look for the link a minute here.

-----Added 11/29/2008 at 08:07:55 EST-----

Here is the link I was looking for:

A Look at “The Shack”

-----Added 11/29/2008 at 08:08:58 EST-----

never heard of it

Lucky man.

Panting donkey machete!!!! HA!!!!! Where's a mod to change his signature when you need one?

 

[PresbyDane]

I think the conclusion on his book is DO NOT read it ! it is

 

[Rich Koster]

AGREED

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Panting Donkey Machete:

Listen to Al Mohler's review on his radio show. I was shocked and dismayed not only by what I heard but what other Christians are saying about it. It is worth the time to have a listen. I will look for the link a minute here.

Here is the link I was looking for:

A Look at “The Shack”

Highly recommend listening to Al Mohler's show. Excellent as usual.

 

[Guido's Brother]

Seriously though, if a visiting elder saw "The Shack" on someone's shelf during huisbezoek, would he not take the father to task? As I recall from my childhood, that's how it would go where I come from...

It can be difficult to take someone to task with credibility if you haven't actually read the book. The elders can say, "The pastors warned the congregation about this book," but that only goes so far with some.

 

[DMcFadden]

Panting Donkey Machete:

Listen to Al Mohler's review on his radio show. I was shocked and dismayed not only by what I heard but what other Christians are saying about it. It is worth the time to have a listen. I will look for the link a minute here.

Here is the link I was looking for:

A Look at “The Shack”

Highly recommend listening to Al Mohler's show. Excellent as usual.

Mohler did a good job of highlighting SOME of the heresy.

A collection of negative reactions by notables such as Mohler and Colson can be found at:

Taking The Shack to the Shed | Out of Ur | Conversations for Ministry Leaders

Even the USA Today did a fine job of surfacing pros and cons (includes mention of the author's adultery 15 years ago that gave rise to his pulling demons out of his own "shack"). They cite Mohler and Driscoll:

Albert Mohler, a leading theologian of the Southern Baptist Convention, which takes the Bible literally, trashes The Shack in his weekly radio show, calling it "deeply subversive," "scripturally incorrect" and downright "dangerous."

Says Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle: "If you haven't read The Shack, don't!"

Driscoll, whose multi-campus non-denominational church is packed with 6,000 people each weekend in the least-churched corner of the nation, says he is "horrified" by Young's book. He says "it misrepresents God. Young misses the big E on the eye chart."

'Shack' opens doors, but critics call book 'scripturally incorrect' - USATODAY.com

A "balanced" assessment by an apologetics speaker who criticizes the errors in the book, but gives a strongly positive assessment, can be found by the Probe folks:

Response to 'The Shack' - Probe Ministries

Probe sees the positives insights as:

• God is warm and inviting
• He collects our tears in a bottle
• Jesus was not particularly handsome
• God is one, in three Persons
• The Holy Spirit is a comforter
• There is love, affection and fellowship within the Trinity
• God prefers us to relate to Him out of desire rather than obligation
• God values what is given from the heart
• God understands that difficult fathers make it hard for us to connect with God
• God is compassionate toward the anguished question, "How can a good and loving God allow pain and suffering?"
• The substitutionary atonement of Christ
• The faulty dichotomous perception of the OT God as mean and wrathful, and the NT God in Jesus as loving and grace-filled
• There is a redemptive value to pain and suffering
• How good triumphs over evil
• The nature and purpose of the Law
• The healing nature of God's love
• Through the cross, God was reconciled to the world, but so many refuse to be reconciled to Him
• God's omniscience coexists with our freedom to make significant choices
• In the incarnation, Jesus willingly embraced the limitations of humanity without losing His divinity

They fault the central error as denial of authority and hierarchy within the Trinity, and the suggestion that hierarchy is a result of the Fall, not of the created order.

If you want a defense of The Shack by someone who knows the author, cf, the defense on the publisher's website, addressing the specific issues of the Trinity, universalism, Scripture, etc.,

Is The Shack Heresy

On balance, I suspect that the book has more value than I had prejudged it to have. However, with diamonds abounding just below the surface of so many solid Reformation, post-Reformation, Puritan, and even contemporary books, why scubba dive in a sewer for the promise of a possible cubic zirconia? I do NOT intend to read the book.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

Love the little blurb in the USA Today you cited Dennis:

Albert Mohler, a leading theologian of the Southern Baptist Convention, which takes the Bible literally...

How ignorant.