Please take the time to watch this very important message and look at the list of heresies found in The Shack, it’s well worth the time. -Dani
“After reading the popular novel, The Shack, I find it necessary to bring to light some of its errors. The book is like a deep ditch covered with beautiful flowers — sadly, many Christians are falling into this ditch.” –Dr. Michael Youssef
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Everything we see, hear, and read must be examined before the mirror of God’s Word. This is how we discern Truth from error. This is particularly true if something sounds almost right, but is dangerously wrong.
After reading the popular novel, The Shack, I find it necessary to bring to light some of its errors. The book is like a deep ditch covered with beautiful flowers — and sadly, many Christians are falling into this ditch.
Whether you have read the book or not, my prayer is that you will develop a sense of discernment so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ (see Philippians 1:10).
As I read The Shack, I tried to find out as much as possible about the author, Paul Young. He was the son of missionaries to New Guinea. He went to Bible school, and he had some pain in his life. He once believed in biblical truth until about four years ago when he embraced Christian universalism.
Universalism declares that Jesus is “a way,” maybe even “the best way,” but not “the only way” to the Father in heaven. So regardless of your belief system, we all get to the same destination — heaven. Universalism destroyed Christianity in England and in all of Europe, and is now at work toward the same end in America.
To his credit, Mr. Young attempts to answer the question, “Where is God in a world full of pain and hurt?” The novel is about a man named Mackenzie (Mack) Phillips whose daughter, Missy, was brutally murdered by a serial killer. Three years after this tragedy, he receives an invitation by mail to meet with the holy Trinity in the same shack where his daughter was murdered.
Each member of the Trinity appears in a bodily form. God the Father is called “Papa,” but his actual name is Elousia, which is Greek for tenderness. Papa appears in the form of a large maternal African American woman who is always cooking in the kitchen. Though, by the end of the book, she turns into a pony-tailed, gray-haired man to assure Mack that God is both male and female.
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Jesus is a middle-aged Middle Eastern man, dressed in a plaid shirt, with a tool belt around his waist. The Holy Spirit appears as a delicate Asian woman named Sarayu, meaning “air,” who loves gardening. Mack also meets another woman, named Sophia, Lady Wisdom.
The novel is primarily a dialogue between Mack and the Trinity. Chief among the topics discussed are the nature of the Trinity, the cross, and forgiveness. As the dialogue progresses, Mack’s faith in the God of the Bible falls apart completely and is replaced by a new understanding of who God is — transforming him into a changed man.
The Holy Spirit depicted in the novel declares that the greatest evil is man’s independence from God. Yet this evil is precisely what the author promotes in the pages of his book — declaring his independence from the God of the Bible in favor of a new god, with very little resemblance to the true God.
Thankfully there are others who are just as concerned about The Shack as I am. Some of these have called it subversive and seductive, while Dr. Al Moehler refers to it as “undiluted heresy.”
One of the most devastating aspects of this book, The Shack, is the absolute disrespect and disregard for God by the main character. When Isaiah saw a glimpse of God’s glory, he was so overwhelmed that he cried out, “Woe to me for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of people who of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Hosts.”
The author of The Shack not only presents a false view of God; he mocks the importance and the uniqueness of the Bible. He makes the Bible equal to whatever your personal imagination says about God.
This is what we know from Scripture: God is Spirit, and He does not have a body, yet He chose to reveal himself in the masculine form. Nowhere does God reveal himself as a goddess.
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The Bible is very clear: Dare not portray God in an image. It is impossible to make the Creator part of the creation. Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and he who worships Him must worship Him in Spirit and truth” (John 4:24). The second commandment forbids us from making a visual portrayal of God. To worship such an image is pure idolatry. To worship an image of God is to worship the creation, not the Creator.
Since Adam and Eve first sinned, there has been one plan for our redemption. God revealed it through the pages of the Old Testament, and then 2,000 years ago, at His appointed time, He fully revealed that plan in His Son, Jesus Christ. The plan was for Jesus to pay the punishment for our sin — for everyone who comes to Him and receives Christ’s payment for himself and for herself. That’s the plan of God.
The day is coming when Jesus Christ is going to sit on the judgment bench to separate those who have accepted His Father’s plan from those who have accepted another plan. He will separate those who tried to stretch His plan, who are trying to make the plan popular, or are trying to rewrite His plan.
The question that you must ask yourself is this: Am I willing to accept God’s gift of eternal life as it is revealed in the Scripture? Your eternal life hangs in the balance and depends on the answer to this question.
Do not be blown away by every wind of doctrine, or by your emotions. Never allow your emotions to control your mind. Let your mind be the thermostat that sets the temperature of your emotions. Cling to the God who loves you so much that He gave His all. Don’t be misled by all kinds of warm and fuzzy descriptions that do not fit His own personal revelation in His book.
I read the shack and it is a dangerous new age thinking novel. It gave me the willies and I have
known Messiah 35 years now and am also a Pentecostal. New believers in Messiah can
get so mixed up in this book.
It tries to so humanize YHWH and I find it eerie to have used so many eastern names.
the goddess of the wind and so forth. I will not read it again. I do not care to digest this stuff when the Bible is so
rich and portrays Abba, Yeshua and Ruach Kodesh so very well. Truly God, Jesus and the Holy
Spirit are who they are and should not be catechized, allegorical or redefined over Who They say they are.
Shalom ,
Walking with Messiah one day at a time……..Abby
You bring out some good points. Thanks Rita!
-Dani
Apparently there are posts here that have been deleted in addition to the ones on the Persection in Orissa article. My apologies again.
-Dani
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i reckon that God can speak us today not just throughout the bible but also throughout the words of people like C.S .Lewes, D.L. Moody, and Gordon McDonald! so i reckon that God can use this novel the shack i do agree that discernment is need and a total reliance on the holy spirit is needed but i do believe that some of accusations Michel has made are, ridiculous and dogmatic! i think that to take what some one has openly said was a novel (and he wrote it) and try and pry it open to suit our own beliefs is silly and judgmental, i think its like thinking revelation and making literally dogmatic “doctrines” when hundreds of scholar agree and say that it is apocalyptic literature full of symbolism! so to read it litrilly would be taking the bible out of context!
read the book for your self pray! ask God to lead you! and speak to you! its a greta read interesting and i believe a christian trying to think actively about his relationship with God and that fact he wrote a book tells me that at least he is willing to let his ideas and personal adventure be reviewed by (us who are judging – read the part in the book about judging!) us
i reckon if your arrogant enough to judge the writing of the author you need to evaluate your self and make sure that by making judgments about some ones theology means that your assuming your 100% sure yours is write! what if your wrong! are you will to make the checks to be sure or are you to big headed!
remember that many belief in almost all denominations have at on point been called heresy — look at Martin Luther! i wouldn’t have wanted to be the person passing judgment on he let alone Paul young but both have and are seeking to grow deeper in there relationship with God!
also how can Michel youssef so bold make judgment on thousands of personal experiences of Christians who have found that there relationship with God has blossomed! how can he sit their and say that Gods revelation to me in through this book is bad! my relationship with God has deppend i have open up and trust him so much more how can he dismiss that!
i am a missionary to youth with in Australia and our personal experiances with God is often the testomoney people in this post modern society can dismiss and its often one of the most convincing truths and evidences of God! the journey i have had with God is my testomoney and the shack was a little bit of that journey!
The crux of the matter here is the Cross.
It is true that many people have been deeply affected by this book. But, there does seem to be two groups that are: unbelievers or very young ones that have not been immersed in God’s word, and seminary types who know the Bible, but dislike what it says.
This book, possibly accidentally, systematically dismantles the cross and all it entailed. We end up with in reality a crossless christianity, no scandal, no stumbling block…..
We need to pray for the young believers who are vulnerable.
I AGREE WITH STACEY OCT 20th There are a lot of things Michael does not understand about Human nature , perception ,concepts and understanding etc . I have seen the positive results from this book, the changed ways of thinking it can bring about resulting in spirtual growth . and a closer walk with ourWONDERFUL LORD AND SAVIUOR JESUS. I once heard Michael bagging Positive Thinking , then heard him speaking about how our speach must be Positive Speaking , how in the world can you Speak Positively if your thoughts are not Positive also. ? perhaps Michael can tell us ?. Didn’t Paul say in Phil.4:8 what ever things are Pure Just ,Lovely, Beautiful etc. THINK ON THESE THINGS ,THINKING comes before SPEAKING .
To Jeune, I would not bash Dr. Youssef because he is leading people back to the Word of God. Do you still elevate your own perception, nature, and understanding over God’s? The scriptures tell us that our thoughts are not God’s thought, so how do you know you’re even walking with the biblical Jesus if you condemn the ones who try to point us back to Him? Abiding in Christ through His written word is the only way your mind and thoughts will be renewed, btw. It’s not the same as positive thinking in the Norman Vincent Peale sort of way.
To Stacey, I don’t see where Dr. Youssef made any judgement on people in his sermon. He has left that to God. It is not arrogant to weigh an authors words against the Scriptures. In fact, that’s what every bible believing Christian needs to do unless they grow careless and fall into deception. I’ve read The Shack, tried to be open minded about it, too, and the emotions were gripping. Then the story just got too crazy and disrespectful of the God I worship through Jesus Christ. What bothered me, honestly, is the author’s low view of the Bible, how he elevated the human personal experience over the truth of God’s Word, and how he mocked bible believing Christians. All that aside, he really messed up when he attempted to portray the Trinity in bodily form. I just don’t care to have his Aunt Jemima image burned into my mind, thank you very much. This is idolatry. Lastly, the author doesn’t seem to have left his universalist beliefs behind…in fact, you can be sure all religions will embrace this story because the Cross has been totally dismantled, thereby not offending anyone. The book is selling like hotcakes and the masses are eating it up. But the bible is clear about walking the narrow path, and Jesus Christ being the ONLY way to God the Father. The Shack is not even clear on this.
I’ve read most of The Shack but find that I’ve run into a lot of excuses to discontinue. Now I know why!
I was encouraged to read this book by many of my Christian friends. When I heard that God was presented as a woman, my spiritual antenna went up because I know that the Bible tells me that Jesus is the expressed image of the Father, and He exactly represents the nature of God. So, I could not see any book portraying God in any other way. But, as discussion of this book continued all around me, I could not
comment because I had not read it. Now that I have, I can truly say that I did not recognize any one of the characters portrayed in the book as the Trinity that I serve.
My Jesus is the Rock to stumble over when I am going my own way (I Peter 2:2-8).
My Jesus is the Living Word of God (John 1:14)
My Jesus is full of grace and truth; and God’s word is truth (John 1:14).
My Jesus is The Shepherd and Guardian of my soul (I Peter 2:25).
My Jesus is able to keep me from stumbling and to present me blameless in His presence (Jude 24).
My Jesus would never say: “If you want to do your own thing, have at it.” (pg.149)
And, I would never presume to think that The Sovereign God whose ways are higher than my ways and whose thoughts are higher than may thoughts would be my servant (pg.236-237).
No, this does not portray the One True God who is The Creator and Redeemer of mankind.
This is not the God that I serve.
Have not read the book. Have heard lots of opinions and controversy. Appreciate Donna Morgan’s thoughts, particularly that Jesus is my rock to stumble over when I am going my own way. I have found this very true in my life. However, I’m not so sure that Jesus would never say “If you want to do your own thing, have at it.” Not sure the context in the book, cause I haven’t read it, but Jesus does allow us to go our own way until we come to that point of stumbling and realize our folly. I think He might just say that to make a point until we are ready to try His way. And as for presuming that our Sovereign God would never become my servant, my reading of the Bible tells me that’s exactly what He did. He became a servant, even a slave, giving up his sovereign rights as God and became a man, humbling Himself even to death on a cross! He washed the disciples feet and said they would have no part in Him if they did not allow Him to serve them in this way. True, we need to be careful of being arrogant and believing that God owes us something and is a servant to our bidding, but my God is a servant to all and has left us a great example to follow in humility. Humility is one of many things that I see lacking in our Christian culture whether we are debating theology or books like “The Shack”. Just my thoughts.
It is the introduction of goddess worship into the church.
http://www.worldviewtimes.com/article.php/articleid-4798/Brannon-Howse/John-Lanagan
It’s interesting to read here how people disagree over their perspectives of their Christian faith, and how both The Shack and Michael Youssef’s response has prompted this. It’s a Good Thing to talk about our faith, but please let’s not condemn others who think differently, because none of us sees the whole picture! For this reason I’m willing to embrace the ideas presented in The Shack, though I find some of them problematic, because I hope it will help to better reach for an understanding of The Truth. Faith is a hard thing to pin down, and while many folk cite the Bible as the only true expression of faith, I am no Bible expert and I honestly don’t think anyone else really is, so I’m wary of anyone using the Bible to tell me someone else’s ideas are wrong. I can pretty much guarantee I can find someone else who can counter their arguments using the very same Bible! It’s not the Bible itself that is flawed, it’s our limited ability to understand the depth of its message. I think this is what The Shack is trying to point out. I have become wary of ‘Bible experts’ who claim authority because they believe their Bible knowledge to be better than the rest of us. They remind me a bit of the Scribes and Pharisees. I found Dr Youssef’s comments rather picky and legalistic, though I’m sure he’s a sincere man of faith and I’d love to talk about it with him as equals before the Lord. I have a great deal of sympathy with The Shack’s central point that Christianity is a RELATIONSHIP with the divine through the person of Jesus as revealed by the Spirit. That’s a hard thing to express, because it varies with time and space just as we are all different from each other. Each person’s experience of God, and therefore their expression of faith, is necessarily unique, and we should celebrate this diversity rather than be divided by it. After all, we’re all experiencing different aspects of the SAME GOD. Wow!
There are so many things that have troubled me about this book. We have become like the frog in the pot. If you throw him in right away he will jump out and get away. But if you put him in a pot of cool water and gradually warm it up by the time he realizes he needs to jump out it is too late and he dies. That is what is happening to Christians. They are living more and more like the world. Warming up to all kinds of things of the world that is causing them to lose discerment unfortunatly. All of a sudden more and more things are becoming acceptable. It is a very sad thing and a slap in the face to God. Many people are not fully living to their potential. It is all about what I can do or get away with and still get to heaven rather than living to our full potential. This book will not send you to hell by no means but it does show the lack of discernemnt by many Christians.
Oh dear, Donna.
In your posting you said: “And, I would never presume to think that The Sovereign God whose ways are higher than my ways and whose thoughts are higher than [my] thoughts would be my servant (pg.236-237).” I wonder if you realize that Jesus Himself said he came not to be served, but to serve?
To those who have a problem with God being represented as a black woman, do you not think that all of us – male and female of all races – are created “in God’s image.” Does that not imply that God is as much a black female as a white male?
Jesus, the Good Shepherd, said that He would search everywhere for His lost sheep. Instead of beating them until they come home, maybe He’s using this book to draw people into a relationship with Him…
I am a Christian and I read Paul Young’s book the Shack a few months ago. I also read several of the comments here regarding this book. I don’t know why people are getting all up in arms about a book that was clearly stated as a novel, as fiction and not fact. Perhaps this was an avenue for Satan to get all fellow Christians fighting or arguing with each other over a book clearly portrayed as fiction. It is one man’s thoughts, perhaps some of his dreams or imagination. We cannot sit here and accuse a man saying that his book is false when he never intended it to be truth in the first place. As to the trinity being portray, I am not sure that he is committing herecy as he never claimed this book to be truth in the first place.
To me, I haven’t changed my belief in the fact that God is spirit, but think on this, that God can present Himself to us humans in any form He likes. After all He did send Jesus to us on earth in a form that we as humans could understand. We, I believe, cannot view the real God with our human eyes. That is for a later time when we leave this earth and go to be with God in heaven. Only then will we have the knowledge and ability to truly comprehend the beauty and whole truth of who God is.
I believe we should stop arguing about the parts of this book which are false and take it as it was intended, a fiction novel. After all God gave this man the talent to write as an author in the first place. There are many millions of books on the shelves of bookstores all around the world. Are we going to start going through them one by one and say this one is bad or wrong and toss them off store shelves? I believe it is up to the individual Christian to discern right from wrong in their own life and walk with Jesus or God. We all know there are millions of books that go against God’s will and truth however, I state that if you are offended by a novel then don’t read it. Simple as that. I enjoyed the book, except for the fact that a child was murdered in it but in my reading of this book, I found that it, in the end, gave me a good feeling because no matter what the trials in Mac’s life, he did draw closer in relationship to God. Isn’t this what our lives are all about, drawing closer in knowledge,understanding and in relationship to God?
As Christians we are not free from committing sin or free from bad times in our lives. We are, however, free to turn our trials and troubles over to God. That is the point. God never said we would have it easy in life but in our struggles we as Christians have someone to turn to in our daily struggles and trials. God is there to forgive those sins IF we confess them to Him. That is the point and this is the point that I got from this book that this man was far from God in the beginning and in the end got to know God personally! He had to forgive that murderer in the end and that is what it’s all about us as Christians, no matter what our trials and paths in life we have to forgive others who do wrong against us. Otherwise God will not forgive us of our sins.
How God portray Himself to the man in the story was left to this man’s imagination only and I believe if God felt the need to portray Himself to us visually in some way as an individual, He could do it however He felt best for our human eyes and brains to understand! God is God and God can do whatever He likes!
God Bless all who read this!
Hi Sherry… thanks for your comment! Here and here are a couple of other posts about The Shack that you might be interested in reading. See what you think. -Dani
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Dr Youssef relies on his assumptions when analyzing this novel:
The Bible accurately, only, and completely portrays God. This assumption is open to intelligent challenge. It is possible that the Bible in part misrepresents God. It is incredible to believe that the complexity and enormity of God could possibly be covered in one book, even the Bible. Certainly God is greater than that!
Universalism believes Jesus is “a way”, one of many. This is an incorrect understanding of Universalism. Universalism is primarily a belief founded on an understanding of Scripture declaring God’s intention to reconcile His entire creation with Christ as the central and only means to that end.
“The Bible is very clear: Dare not portray God in an image.” Yet, isn’t that what Christianity has done? Instead of carving graven images of God Christianity has molded an image in words and assumed it has a complete and accurate description.
Rather than being afraid of your mind being poisoned by non-traditional thoughts, such as those explored in this novel, why not take the opportunity to examine your beliefs and assumptions? Or, just enjoy the read. It is, after all, just a novel!
Rob,
I find this comment from you interesting:”It is incredible to believe that the complexity and enormity of God could possibly be covered in one book, even the Bible” given that John in John 21:25 states the following: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” Now, obviously, this was written about Jesus but I think you make a valid point about the “enormity of God” not being able to fit in one book. I mean if the “things” Jesus did numbers so high imagine the works of God! Praise Him!
Here is where we disagree though. Christianity teaches that God can be know because He has revealed Himself to us, not because we have “found” Him. Yes we may have different personal experiences with God, but He remains the same. He never changes. We all have different personal experiences with the same God. Now, this God, my God, our God, chose to reveal Himself in Holy scripture. He uses His word to us to tell us about Himself, about the things He has done and will do. He chose what to put in it and how much to tell us. So if the book is too short as you surmise, then you must take it up with Him, but I assure you friend it is not too short. I sense that you believe the Bible is not the infallible, inspired word of our Heavenly Father and if this is so I pray that His Holy Spirit would come into your heart and show you the fathomless depths of His Word. “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” Hebrews 13:20-21.