The Shack: A House Built on the Sand

by Bruce Mills

A friend recently sent me an email asking me if I was familiar with William Paul Young’s book, The Shack. I was familiar only to the degree that I had heard one of the DJ’s on our local contemporary Christian music radio station talking about it in glowing terms. When I heard that, I immediately became suspicious because this is the same person who has promoted other books which were superficially Christian, in that they only talk about faith and God in vague generalities rather than with theological precision. The same individual has also promoted books by "Emergent Church" authors, so when I heard the promotion for The Shack, warning bells went off in my mind. But I didn’t take time to familiarize myself with the book.

Anyway, when my friend asked me about it, I began to learn what I could about the book. I found out that the author never originally intended to publish this book. It was written as a story for his children as a way of explaining certain theological issues to them. After finishing the manuscript, he bound it and gave it to his children as a Christmas gift. He later showed a copy of the manuscript to a former pastor who had started a small publishing company. The company published the book and initially, it was promoted only by word-of-mouth. It has gone through multiple printings and, to date, it has sold over a million copies.

Obviously when a book which promotes itself as an explanation of the heart and nature of God sells that many copies, Christians ought to know enough about it to make a decision about whether or not to take the time to read it. So I went to a couple of websites written by men whose theological perspectives are sharp and trustworthy to see what they had to say about the book.

Apparently, the primary focus of the book is on the most difficult of all theological dilemmas: the goodness of God and its relationship to the problem of evil. Where is God in the midst of pain and suffering? How can a good God allow evil to exist? How can He allow mankind to suffer the effects of horrible crimes and dreadful calamities? Why doesn’t He do something to stop it? Why does God seem so unconcerned about suffering and injustice?

These issues are discussed in the context of a story regarding a man whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered years before. He spends the subsequent years in great sorrow until God invites him to meet with Him in the shack where it is believed that his daughter was murdered by a serial pedophile. After spending two days with God in the shack, he emerges as a changed man who has learned about the power of forgiveness.

However, in reading the various reviews by men of such theological fortitude as Dr. Glenn Kreider, professor of theological studies at Dallas Theological Seminary, and the world’s most famous Christian blogger, Tim Challies, it didn’t take long to realize that The Shack isn’t worth reading because, as Al Mohler has stated, “this book includes undiluted heresy.” The problems are that it promotes heretical views of the Trinity, the humanity and deity of Christ, God’s punishment of sin, and the exclusivity of salvation through faith in Christ alone.

As the protagonist of the story, Mackenzie Philips, meets with God in the shack, each of the members of the Trinity appears to him as separate, distinct individuals. God the Father appears in two forms; primarily, that of a large, matronly African-American woman, but also as a pony-tailed, grey-haired man. Jesus appears as a Jewish man, while the Holy Spirit is an Asian woman. Philips also meets Sophia who is a female personification of God’s wisdom. It is in this faulty presentation of the Trinity, as well as the conversations between Philips and the members of this strange Godhead, that the false theology which permeates this story comes through.

Young claims that the story which is told in The Shack is fictional, but he also claims that the conversations with God which take place in this book are all real and represent actual conversations he had with God, friends, and family members over a period of several years. In other words, he is claiming to have received “special revelation” from God other than that found in the Bible, which is God’s completed revelation to man. And much of the theology found in the book contradicts that found in God’s Word, revealing Young’s low view of the authority and inerrancy of Scripture.

So, with all these problems, I have no desire to waste my time reading The Shack, nor will I recommend it to anyone. As Chuck Colson has stated: "stay out of The Shack." But if you want more information about this book, I recommend you download and read Tim Challie's extensive review of The Shack, or listen online to Dr. Al Mohler's review.

The Testing of Abraham Part 3

by Robert Fraire



In this third and final installment on the testing of Abraham we will actually look at the passage in Genesis 22 that begins:

1Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
2He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

Here is Abraham the faithful friend of God who, after many years, finally had seen God give him the son through whom God would bring about his covenant with Abraham. He was an old man about 112 years old. And it would have seemed that Abraham would have quietly lived out his life seeing his son grow and marry. But God had a big test for Abraham.

We really can't put ourselves in the shoes of Abraham in that we don't have a covenant with God that His blessing would come through one of our children and God doesn't come directly to us and tell us to do things like sacrifice our children. So our ability to relate directly to Abraham is limited. But we can understand that this young son whom he loves and whom God has placed many promises simply can't die. From an earthly perspective it seemingly would have made God a liar (because God said it was through Isaac that Abraham's descendants would be named) and it would have broken Abraham's heart to lose Isaac. So what is this Godly man to do?

Scripture tells us what he did: 3So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey

A lesson we should learn here is that Abraham had true faith in God and took him at His word. Since God said go and sacrifice Isaac, then Abraham would do exactly that. He understood that he had no other choice, and he knew that God's wisdom far surpassed his own so that whatever God called for was ALWAYS the best option.

So with a heart that I am sure was racing and unsure of the future, this friend of God put the whole weight of his trust on God and took his son exactly as instructed. But Abraham was not a robot. He didn't shut off his mind and just move. He thought about God's promises concerning Isaac, he Believed that they would come to pass. But he also believed that God had the right to demand the life of his son, so his son would be dead! So how could these things be reconciled? The New Testament book of Hebrews does tell us Abraham's thoughts. It says in Hebrews 11:19

19 considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead...

So Abraham continued his journey to the hill that God would show him with Isaac and servants until God showed him.

4On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.
5Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you."
6Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

At this point the moment of sacrifice is fast approaching so as they walk up the hill Isaac asks a reasonable question. He had undoubtedly watched many animal sacrifices, so he knew they needed the actual sacrifice. Abraham's answer is deep and important for us to examine.

7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"
8Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

Abraham's response is translated for us "God will provide for Himself the lamb..." in other translation is is rendered "God will himself provide the lamb..." Abraham's statement is prophetic. For God did provide the lamb that would take away the sins of his chosen people. In fact God provided Himself AS THE LAMB (in Jesus, who is the Son of God and is God). Abraham trusted that this situation would be resolved by God providing the solution whether through rescue of his son or through the resurrection of his son. He knew that his part in this drama was to believe God and to act on that belief!

9Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.
10Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."
12He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

At exactly the last moment God had His angel stop Abraham. The test was complete, Abraham had done exactly what God had told him to do, and God preserved Isaac through the faith of Abraham. This is a great story of Abraham's faith lived out. But there is one final question that I will cover in brief.

What does the last line of verse 12 say. "...for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me" What does that mean. The most straight forward reading would seem to mean that God didn't know prior to Abraham's actions whether his faith in God (fear of God) was genuine. Did God learn something that he didn't know before? Again many people might think that way, if they don't take into account the character of God. God knows all things and is sovereign over all things. He reads the hearts of men before they do anything. So God did know exactly what Abraham would do. So why then the test? If it wasn't for God's benefit, what was the purpose?

Fortunately for us, this is not a hard question to answer in this case. This historical fact of Abraham's exercised faith is cited in James 2:

21Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?
22You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
23and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.

In this passage we learn that it is us who benefit from God's test and Abraham's obedience. You see in Genesis 15:6 it tells us that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. So Abraham already had saving faith. But just as the book of James instructs us, we gain evidence of that true faith by acting in accordance with what we believe.

So would you pass this test? The answer lies in whether you have true, saving faith or not. If you quickly answered this question "No" then it is a fruitful exercise for you to examine whether you truly have faith that God is just, loving, and authoritative over your life. In our lives today, are you willing to suffer physical beatings in order to proclaim the gospel to the lost? Are you willing to lose your job and wealth for the sake of God? These are tests that may come into your life. The true believer's faith will be tested and found true. If you shrink back from the thought then it is time for you to "count the cost".

What do your really hold most dear? God or anything else?

It's Finally Over--Now What?

By Bruce Mills

The presidential election of 2008 is finally over. I doubt there are any of us who woke up today and thought, "Aw shucks, I sure am gonna miss all those campaign commercials on TV." No, we are all happy the election is finished, if for no other reason than that. But I want to take a little time in my post today to let my mind sort of ramble regarding some observations about where we go from here.

Whether or not the outcome met your desires or expectations is not really the issue. The issue is how do we as Christians respond to the election. I have listened as many evangelical Christians have lamented about the potential result of this election, as though the election of a man could in some way destroy or change God's sovereign purposes for this nation and for the believers in it.

Let me say this as plainly as I can: God's purposes for this nation, its people, and the Christians who live in it were established before the foundation of the world, and nothing any elected official ever does will fall outside of God's decreed and permissive wills for this nation. Even the evil of man achieves the glory of God, as mind-boggling as that thought is to our finite minds.

So for us to fret and worry that an election will somehow change God's purposes for this nation or for the personal safety and freedoms of Christians is to deny the sovereignty of God and diminish Him to the level of some kind of demi-god who sits, wringing his hands, wondering if everything will turn out the way he wanted it to. That is a slap in the face of our infinite, almighty Lord.

Think about what the worst possible outcomes might be over the next several years. We may see our nation's economy decline further or our country's standing in the world diminish as we adopt a non-interventionalist approach to genocide and other crimes against humanity. Socialism may replace capitalism as the basis of our economic system. Our liberties may be taken away with expansion of hate crime laws and the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine. Supreme Court justices may be seated who expand the government's power to limit free speech, who further solidify Roe v. Wade as the law of the land, or who overturn laws forbidding gay marriage and remove the right of churches to refuse to hire applicants for employment who are homosexuals. We could even see the government remove the tax exempt status of churches and of charitable contributions to them. Euthanasia of the infirmed elderly and disabled may become standard practice, as it is today in the Netherlands and was in pre-World War II Germany. It may be that, within my lifetime, it may become illegal to hold certain biblically correct theological positions, and thus those Christians who are true and faithful to God's word may suffer imprisonment.

And if all of those things take place (and I believe that over the next 20-25 years they will), they will all take place in accordance with God's will. In Romans 1, Paul describes the wicked, depraved sinfulness of man, and three times (vv. 24, 26, 28), he says "God gave them over." In the original Greek that phrase referred to the turning over of someone to imprisonment and punishment. God turned ungodly man over to receive within himself the awful results of his rebellion against God's truth.

God does the same thing with nations. This is graphically portrayed throughout the Old Testament with the nation of Israel, as well as God's pronouncements of judgment against other nations for their ungodliness and depravity. The United States is no different. Our nation is merely reaping the results of its depravity and rejection of God's moral law. God has turned this nation over to receive the just punishment for its sin, and unfortunately, the more any nation forsakes God, the more the Christians within that nation also suffer. So we can expect that unless this nation turns from its sinful pursuits, the terrible things I listed will take place in this nation. It may already be too late. Pastor John MacArthur has a sermon titled "When God Abandons a Nation" which explains these things much better than I can.

So how do we respond? We find our answer in Scripture. When Jesus and his disciples were walking the earth, Rome was the government which ruled the majority of the known world. The Roman Empire was the most powerful, well-structured government that had ever been up until that time. But there were a lot of awful, sinful, ungodly practices taking place.

Abortion was practiced to limit the number of children in a family, and when a child was born that was not the sex the father desired, infanticide or abandonment was common practice. This was particularly common if the baby was a girl.

Slavery was the dominant social structure, with 20-40% of the population being owned by someone else. Slaves had no legal rights and were considered to be nothing more than a living tool. They could be beaten, tortured, or even killed by their master without any reason.

Homosexuality and bisexuality were common practices in the society, even among the Caesars, the official rulers of the empire. Nero, the Caesar in power at the time of the apostle Paul, commonly practiced homosexuality. Wild orgies were also common among the wealthy aristocratic rulers of the empire.

Rome contracted out its tax gathering to individuals telling them how much they were required to collect for Rome, and that they could keep anything they collected above that amount. Consequently, they would extort large sums of money from the citizens with the threat of imprisonment if they didn't pay what was demanded.

So it was a very bad situation for those who desired to follow and obey Christ. Yet at no time throughout all the New Testament, do we ever find either Jesus or the apostles ever spending their time championing causes such as stopping abortion, infanticide, or slavery. Scripture spoke against the sin of homosexuality, but the Christians were not campaigning against its practice. And when the Jewish leaders tried to trap Jesus into speaking against Rome's taxes, He responded that they were to "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21). In other words, pay your taxes. And we are told in Scripture to respect, obey, and submit to our government (Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:13-17).

So instead of championing causes, Jesus and the early Christians focused on evangelizing people with the gospel. That was the central message; in fact, it was the only message--that Christ came into the world to save sinners and people needed to repent of their sin and turn to Him. It was only after people became believers that they then began serving the Lord by gathering abandoned children and caring for them, freeing their own slaves, turning away from ungodly sexual practices, and helping the poor. And when others asked them why, they just continued to share the gospel. Never once in all the New Testament do we ever find Christians adopting a cause other than the evangelization of the hearts of lost men and women. They let the power of the gospel which changes the heart of man be the means by which those evils of society were diminished.

Initially, the result wasn't what they would have desired. Christians were ostracized, accused of unbelievable crimes, imprisoned, tortured, and then used as public entertainment as they were fed to lions and burned at the stake in the Roman Coliseum. This continued for about 250 years. All the while the gospel continued to spread throughout the empire, and finally in 313 AD, Constantine became emperor and outlawed the persecution of Christians.

Our response, then, to the election of our president and leaders is to show respect to them (regardless of how we might feel about them personally or their policy positions), obediently submit to their authority, and pray for them--both for wisdom in the decisions they make and for their personal salvation. We are to avoid turning our Christianity into a campaign against the evils of society and instead, make it a campaign to share the saving gospel of Jesus Christ so that the evil of men's hearts will be removed by God's cleansing power. And even if in future days, the liberties Christians have experienced in this land for the past 200 years are slowly removed and we begin to suffer for faithfulness to our Lord, the apostle Paul tells us, "do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord...but join with me [Paul] in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God" (2 Timothy 1:8). That is our calling; let us be faithful to obey.