An Interview with William P. Young, author of "The Shack"

William Young sounds like a genuine believer in this interview, and I'm sure he is. However, this doesn't mean that his book is sound. His book still needs to be scrutinized because it teaches theology. And although he wants to communicate an emotion, he ends up communicating dangerously weak ideas.

God's Not Asking us to BELIEVE ANYTHING?!

On page 119 of "The Shack", God (Papa) makes a stunning response to Mack.
Mack says, But you're asking me to believe that you're God.
God responds: I'm not asking you to believe anything...

Would the God of the Bible ever tell anyone that He is not asking them to believe anything?

- Romans 1:5 "Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith.

-Romans 16:25, 26 "Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him"

-Hebrews 11:6 "And without faith it is impossible to please God... "

-Romans 14:23 "Everything that does not come from faith is sin."

1. God holds the whole world accountable to believe in Him.
2. God offers us a relationship with Him through faith in his Son as opposed to doing a bunch of stuff to earn our way. Romans 4:5 tells us that God justifies the wicked through faith!
   

Is Jesus Really "the Best Way" to the Father?

On page 110 of "The Shack" Jesus says to Mack:
I am the best way any human can relate to Papa or Sarayu.
(Papa = God the Father, and Sarayu = the Holy Spirit).

John 14:6 says:
I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

• - to say that Jesus is "the best" way presupposes that there are other ways to have relationship with God. In other words, to say Jesus is the best way to the Father is to say that he is only one of other options; it's to say he is not the only way.
• - However, when Jesus says "I am the way", he means the only way. He does not mean "a way", otherwise, Jesus would have said so.
• - "No one comes to Father except through me" means not one person. This would mean that the only way to Father is through Jesus.
• - THEREFORE, JESUS IS NOT THE BEST WAY TO THE FATHER,
  
• JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY!
  

The Matrix v. The Shack: The Oracle or The Father?

Please understand that this post is a personal perspective. It's simply my perception.

The discussion on p. 94 about fate vs. freedom strikes me too much like the Matrix. The Oracle tells Neo not to worry about the vase before he ever knocks it over. He then says, "what vase?" as he turns and then accidentally knocks it over. So the question arises whether Neo would have knocked the vase over if she had not predicted he would. This leads to another question as to the nature of freedom vs. fate.

Of course, the only difference in this scene from "The Shack" is that the Oracle is a black lady, and Papa (God the Father) in "the Shack" is a... oh yeah, he's a black lady, too.

I can't help but hear the Oracle's voice when Papa speaks. Not just because I know what the Oracle's voice sounds like, but because there is this thing in literature called voice. Good authors have a voice, and they know how to give their characters a voice. Unfortunately, Papa's voice sounds like the Oracle maybe because that's where Young got his idea. Just a thought.

God the Father according to "The Shack" Part II

Read Part I for background.

Derek Prince has some of the best Biblical teaching on Fatherhood. You can view one of his teachings at derekprince.org
You can also download the teaching in pdf format.

Contrast Derek's teaching with Young's teaching. Which one lines up with biblical teaching?

True or False? Fact or Fiction?

I just ran across this great video by Bill Moyers dealing with our visual culture. It is inspired by the teachings of Neil Postman, a brilliant cultural and mass media critic. His writings and theories are extremely important, and prophetic.





What Moyers and Postman are getting at is the same point that most concerns me with "The Shack" by William Young. Fact and Truth are no longer relevant. It's just a matter of aesthetics; it's a matter of whether I like something or not. Truth is no longer something worthy of consideration.

Of course I know that "The Shack" is a work of fiction. I have no problem with this, but I must point out that truth and falsity still stands within fiction. For instance, if I'm reading a fictional work where a character explains that 2+2=5, then I can rightfully conclude that this is not true. It's fiction, but it's not going to influence my thoughts about mathematics. However, how can we as Christians be encouraged by a fictional story that conveys contradictions to the truth?

Decoding "The Davinci Code", I mean "The Shack"

We live in a world where fact and fiction blur. As a matter of fact, our postmodern world doesn't care about fact or fiction.

Earlier today I was thinking about the book "The Davinci Code." The Christian world was in an uproar over this book because of its challenge to scriptural authority. Book after book was written by Christians to decode the Davinci Code. The book is a well spun piece of entertainment. It can suck the reader into its entertaining grip. It presents history as though it were fact, but so much is fiction. And of course, Christians were aware that the myths would overpower most people's thinking so that they would take it as fact. Yet, I find it ironic that the Christian community is the number one consumer of "The Shack", which I find far more disturbing in its subversion of scripture. It is much more subtle in its presentation because "The Shack" presents no devil's advocate; rather God comes to us in sheep's skin. In the end, "The Shack" is a much greater threat to Christian thought than "The Davinci Code" could ever dream to be.

These lyrics from the OC Supertones have been running through my head today:

See wisdom and knowledge is one thing that we lack
You’ve been a christian how long and you’re still on similac
So I call on martin luther and all the reformation back
Then the common people couldn’t read god’s revelation
You had to be a monk or a priest or read latin
That was all before the revolution happened
But the fire cooled down ever since that generation
We put down the Bible and picked up the PlayStation
And we can't defend our faith
cause we don't even know it
We say we love his word but pick a funny way to show it.
The world walks by and we don’t have a thing to say
I call ’em as I see ’em
And that’s what I see today
-from "Return of the Revolution" by the Supertones