So, just to remind everyone, I write on this blog too :) When I update, I’ll be sure to put a little picture of me over there to make it easy on you. Not necessarily that one mind you, I just thought it looked funny and appropriate for this post.
Earlier this week, I over heard my mother and father discussing a new book called, “The Shack”. Specifically, they had very negative things to say about. Always being one to check things out for myself, I looked into some excerpts to find out a little about what this book was all about. The basic premise of the book is that a man goes up to a shack after a tragic event in his life and is there met by God (an African American Woman), Jesus (a Jewish Carpenter), and the Holy Spirit (an Asian Woman).
Ignoring the fact that the author identifies God as being a woman (which, you know, kinda goes against how God identifies Himself always with masculine articles) since that is a modern “make God gender neutral by using a female” movement. It is vitally important that we focus on the fact that this is a book filled with the worst kind of spiritual fluff: the FALSE kind.
I was going to point out the various theological falsehoods that permeate this work, but this guy has done a much better job already (it’s 17 pages long though, I’d only read it if you really wanted to find out more). I will however quickly point out couple of basic points that to give me a little ground to stand on for my overarching point (the suspense!)
1) In his conversation with “God”, “God” tells the main character that Jesus was just a man, and that everything that Jesus did could be done by any one else on the face of the planet.
2) The author has a very flippant attitude towards, God, the Bible, the Church, the Trinity, and most points of religion. The greatest offender of these things can be send in His use of portraying God basically as Aunt Jemima (which for the record, I also consider to be a little bit of a racist view of African American women).
I realize that he’s trying to be allegorical in his portrayal of God, but both the feminizing of God as well as what the author has his “God” say about Himself consistently display a lack of reverence both for God as well has God’s judgment of sin.
So here’s the overarching point I’m making with this post. First of all, don’t read this book. Just… just don’t. It doesn’t even help explain why pain is allowed in the world (which is the point of the book, remember). All it does it present just enough truth to make you go “oh, hey this is a trust worthy guy” then he throws fallacy after fallacy at you. Additionally, it has the potential to get a lot “young” believers seriously messed up.
Secondly, I would encourage anyone who is attending a church where the pastor advocates this book to find a new church. “Whoa, Matthew!” you’re saying. “That’s a pretty drastic thing to say just cause the pastor recommends a bad book"!” Here’s the thing, if you’re under the teachings of a man who would encourage you to read a book full of heresy and false teachings, then odds are, he’s weak in the faith, and, in the worst case scenario, teaching you falsehoods himself. This is not the sort of person you want to be under.
Find a church that faithfully teaches God’s word, not 30-minute feel good sound bytes. It might be a hard transition at first to get used to a church that diligently teaches the Bible if you’re only used to Sunday morning pep-talks, but it is worth it, I promise!
