The Shack. There is so much hype about this book by William Young. It tops the best seller list, its the must read amongst our squad and at home my mom has already read it. It is in all the stores, and everyone is talking about it. Is it really worth it? If you haven’t read The Shack and you plan on it, don’t read this blog just yet.
It is really not that good. There are definately some good points in it, and I don’t deny that it is at very least an interesting interpretation of the things of God. However, it is a novel, one man’s opinion. Which he is entitled to. But there is so much in it that makes the whole thing a little hard to swallow. There are some distinct parts in the book that I disagree with, not to mention the entire tone of the book.
–Jesus dropping things? Jesus is perfect. Yes, He is also human, but He is a PERFECT human. He doesn’t have accidents. He doesn’t make mistakes. He isn’t going to go around dropping things on the floor.
–Devotions. What is that? I like the part where it talks about nothing being routinized, and having freedom about having devotions, but what about the display that Jesus puts on as so called “devotions”. God doesn’t do devotions to himself. He has no need for that. That is why He created us.
–God doesn’t eat birds. God created all people to live in harmony and peace. It says in the Bible that the lion will lie down with the lamb, and that one day all creation will return to harmony with one another. There wasn’t meant to be meat eating. Vegetarianism is the way creation was planned. God doesn’t eat meat. (I eat meat, I don’t believe it is wrong, but I believe in the perfect creation of the world that it wasn’t part of the picture. After the fall of man and violence came meat eating became a way of life).
–The chapter about authority. There are some interesting points in this chapter, however God has created a certain order. Within that order there is an authority structure (for example parents have authority over children). To say that there was never meant to be any authority structure is ridicuulous, because God in creation has more authority than us. God by very nature has all authority.
–Tone of book. The same time as I was reading The Shack, I was reading another book The Fear of the Lord by John Bevere. One of the most interesting points that I took from it was that we can not (should not) limit God to corruptible man. We should not put words into His mouth (ie God wants me to be happy so I should divorce my wife who doesn’t do fun things with me anymore, when clearly God has stated He does not like divorce and marriage is sacred). It is irreverant to only image God to what we understand. And yet the whole The Shack was written in such a way that is exactly what is happening. The whole book is almost sacreligious because of the very tone and nature of the book. It is so loose with ideas, and it does not hold God to a very high esteem.
The Shack really scares me the most because although I have enough understanding of God to be able to read it, sift through the garbage to the few good points it makes and to take some from it, there are probably many people reading this who will take the entire thing as the word of God. With all of the hype there will be many unbelievers who will read this, and I don’t think this is a good view for anyone to have of God. I am really nervous about the negative effect this is going to have on Christianity and on people’s relationships with God. Instead of seeking His face and searching for who God really is, this is an invitation to people to twist God into what they want Him to be. This opens the door to all sorts of skewed images of who God really is.
*On another note, the book I mentioned- The Fear of the Lord by John Bevere- is an excellent book. It is well worth the read. It teaches about what the fear of the Lord is, why it is important, and how to have it. It ties it all up saying that only those who truly have the fear of the Lord (the total obedience to God) will be truly called friends of Him. Only once you have proven trustworthy through your obedience will God tell youo His plans, and His reasons for things. It is only at this point will you start to know God and not just know of Him and the things He has already done. You will know in advance His plans (as with Abraham, who was actually able to enter into negotiations over Sodom and Gamorrah- something you can only do with a friend. At this point he had already been tested by being willing to sacrifice Isaac).
The other interesting thing that Bevere points out is the order in which God works. First He establishes divine order (the Ark of the Covenant, the Temple, Jesus’s death and resurrectiion). Next He reveals His glory (dwells among us in the Ark, Temple, through the Holy Spirit), and after His glory has been revealed comes judgement (Aaron’s sons were quickly judged, Annanias and Sapphira were quickly judged). However, after a long time, His judgement begins to be delayed (as with Eli’s sons who were evil. They were judged, but not right away). He makes some interesting comments about the divine order being set up again for the second coming, and that we can know the season, and that God’s glory will be revealed again soon. His book is written 10 years ago, and there are many things that he points to as being necessary signs of God’s glory, all of which I can see now happening 10 years later, a lot of which is found in the outpouring in Lakeland, Florida. It is verery interesting to see how it is all coming together.
