The Shack - a feel good message of cheap prosperity and doctrinal heresy
Problems contained in this book:
Rejection of Christianity as a whole – Because of a belief that Christianity as it has traditionally been practiced does not work for our emerging generations, the book suggests throwing out the whole of Christianity for something entirely new. The book fails to recognize that Christianity has been in a state of constant change in accordance with culture, and that to remain relevant the church must change over time. Today’s modernists were yesterday’s emerging leaders. Rather than dumping out the church as something outdated and irrelevant even to include the most fundamental core beliefs of the Christian faith as this book suggests, we should rather seek to adapt the church according to culture while retaining truth. The connection between practice and doctrine that this book seems to hold reflects a naive view of religion easily accepted and assimilated by the uneducated and those prone to heretical beliefs such as prosperity gospels.
Experience superior to Revelation – The book suggests that experience is superior to revelation, thus one can go have an experience of his own making and according to this book it holds greater authority than scripture. The error in this thinking is that it does not recognize the many possible origins of an experience. An experience may often be the making of one’s own imagination, psychological instabilities, Satan, or cultural influences. An experience for the sake of experience would be like going out into the woods and using every blade of grass as the needle of a compass. Simply because its needle like shape seems to point you in a direction does not mean that it is pointing you in the right direction.
Love without Justice – The book has an unbalanced view of God’s love and justice. By focusing solely on God’s love and diminishing his Justice, the shack creates a God who feels good to people who want to feel good about themselves without any moral obligations. It is a God that doesn’t truly love because he does not punish. We have all seen children who run amuck, controlling their parents, spoiled to the core, and then when life does not go as they want as they grow older, their parents wonder why they did not turn out any better. To raise up a child without punishment and correction is unhealthy, and perhaps like allowing your children to play on a freeway because you “love” them so much that you are not willing to say no to them about where they can or cannot play.
Unbiblical view of the Trinity and its nature – The shack presents a non-Trinitarian view, but rather a polytheist view of 3 separate entities. Such heretical views have always plagued the church and have been dealt with from the beginning of the church with the writing of the Nicene Creed in order to properly define the nature and personhood of the Trinity according to the words of Scripture. The Creed is written using the words of Scripture in order to accurately communicate this truth and was done so in the face of such heresies as would seek to separate and incorrectly present the nature of the Trinity as this book does so.
Heretical view of the Incarnation – John tells us the Word (that is Christ) became flesh. The incarnation is the event by which the person of the Trinity which is Jesus became Flesh by which He would take on the sins of the world and conquer death. Scripture is clear that the Father remained the Father, and the Holy Spirit remained the Spirit, being sent as our Great Helper after Christ’s ascension. While retaining these three separate roles the Trinity remained united 3 in one, yet clearly distinct in roles. The Shack however, in its failure to understand the nature of the Trinity and perhaps echoing the misunderstanding of so many who find its pages so appealing, presents the entire Trinity as becoming incarnate in Christ. “When we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this universe, we now became flesh and blood” (98) The Father and the Spirit who are pure Spirit did not join Christ in the incarnation to become flesh and blood.
Patripassionism – The shack promotes the view of Patripassionism which is the view that the Father suffered with Christ. This not only contradicts various aspects of God such as His sovereignty and immutability. If the Father truly suffered with Christ on the Cross even displaying the wounds on the Father as this book suggests, then Christ would not have asked the Father why He had forsaken Him. This is clearly a work of errant imagination and fantasy.
Faith without Reason – In accordance with many heresies, particularly those of the prosperity nature, this book suggests the importance of faith over reason, and even without reason. This is undoubtedly how the heresy is born to begin with and it is certainly a tool of many heretical movements for the continuation and growth of its misleading ways. By removing reason from faith, one can lead and control many people down dark and irrational roads of nonsense and heresy. Yet Scripture very clearly unites faith with reason or wisdom. Paul is very consistent in coupling wisdom or knowledge to faith, because he knows one without the other leads to incorrect beliefs of the imaginations or self-righteous legalism based on extra-biblical decisions and rulings. When one practices faith without reason, they are led to believe anyone and anything even to the point that their faith no longer even resembles the words of Scripture.
As our culture becomes increasingly marked by anti-Christian-universalism and self-absorbed narcissism we will see more and more people who so desperately seek something to believe in being caught up in such faith-without-reason heresies which promise good feelings, minimal moral obligation, and selfish prosperity. It is no wonder why prosperity gospels and books such as the shack become best sellers in our selfish culture where everyone carries a sense of entitlement at everyone else’s expense. The blame for this heresy may not rest in those who are misled by it, and certainly not in those who have psychological instabilities that give them a propensity towards such beliefs that feed into their narcissism, their need for security through financial or spiritual promises, and their natural tendency to seek something for nothing, but rather with those who produce such books that take advantage of these people and mislead so many others.