Opus 2017-188: Book Review: The Shack, part 3 of 3

So why would I urge a word of caution about this book?  It has a very new age/emergent church view of the atonement and salvation.

Although sin is mentioned it tends to be watered down in its significance.  Take this for instance.

“I am not who you think I am, Mackenzie, I don’t need to punish people for sin.  Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.  It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.” pp. 119-20

If you have the feminine new age view of God then you reject His wrath and how sin demands punishment.  Take the very familiar verse,

(Romans 6:23 KJV)  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

While the love of God comes through it is very clear that sin demands punishment.  The book contradicts itself here.  In this chapter it tends to make the justice and wrath of God misunderstandings of the Bible, leaving the way open for having a God of the Old Testament and a God of the New Testament.  Later it refutes that, as it should.

“Mean?  Sad, isn’t it?  He came to show people who I am and most folks believe it about him.  They still play us off like good cop/bad cop most of the time, especially the religious folk.  When they want people to do what they think is right, they need a stern God.  When they need forgiveness, they run to Jesus.”
    “Exactly,” Mack said with a point of his finger.
    “But we were all in him.  He reflected my heart exactly.  I love you and invite you to love me.” p. 186

One of the heresies that I have read in emergent church literature is that Jesus did not die to pay for our sins but to make us feel good about ourselves.  This book tends to follow along that path.  It uses some of the same language but doesn’t deal with the sin problem. 

“Honey, you asked me what Jesus accomplished on the cross; so now listen to me carefully:  through his death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world.”
    “The whole world?  You mean those who believe in you, right?”
    “The whole world, Mack.  All I am telling you is that reconciliation is a two way street, and I have done my part, totally, completely, finally.  It is not the nature of love to force a relationship but it is the nature of love to open the way.” p. 192

It doesn’t really tell us why the world needed to be reconciled.  You see the beginning of a sense of universalism.  This is stated more clearly on the last page.

“And one day, when all is revealed, every one of us will bow our knee and confess in the power of Sarayu that Jesus is the Lord of all Creation, to the glory of Papa.” p. 248

I could go on with pro’s and con’s but that is more than enough.  If your faith is strong, read it for yourself.

Young, William P.  The Shack.  Los Angeles:  Windblown Media, 2007..

homo unius libri