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God in 'The Shack' bears little resemblance to the real God
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Published: March 2, 2009
A friend prevailed upon me recently to read the novel "The Shack" by Wm. Paul Young, saying it was good and profoundly affected her. I decided I could evaluate it objectively since I had received both positive and negative input about the book.
I was struck early in the fictional story with how compelling his tale is, so real and wrenching. But my first and subsequent contacts with "God" in the story compelled me in a different way.
Young's theology is atrocious — in a word, unbiblical. Because he makes good points about relationship, reconciliation, restoration and spiritual strongholds I believe many people may accept or overlook his misrepresentations of the triune Godhead. But one cannot have a proper or full relationship with a god who does not exist – a figment of Young's imagination.
Consider the following quotes and how they contrast with Scripture. Papa (the name he uses for Father God) says to Mack, "I don't need to punish people for sin." (p. 120) Scripture says, "Your sins have made a separation between you and your God" (Isaiah 59:2), and, "I will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:7).
Next he follows up by saying, "It is not my purpose to punish sin." (p. 120). It is God's purpose, "for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness" (Romans 1:18).
Young rejects authority structures as unneeded among Christians and nonexistent within the Godhead: There is "no need for hierarchy" (p. 124). Ephesians 1:10 says, "He purposed in Him (Jesus) with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times." Jesus said, "We must work the works of Him who sent me" (John 9:4).
Hebrews 5:8 instructs us that "although He was a Son He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." Young has his Jesus saying, "We are submitted to you in the same way" (p. 145), referring to sacrificial love, while the Bible says, "He has put all things in subjection under His (Christ's) feet" (I Corinthians 15:27).
Young's point, that doing things for people out of a sense of obligation is not love, is correct, but that does not negate roles and responsibilities. As an example, Young's Jesus character says, "Fulfilling roles is the opposite of relationship" (p. 148). That does not agree with, "Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church" (Ephesians 5:25) and, "Wives be submissive to your own husbands … so that … they may be won without a word" (I Peter 3:1). Proper fulfillment of roles is a sacrifice of love pleading for relationship.
The Jesus in "The Shack" is limited by hunger and clumsiness, but the real Jesus is not so limited in Revelation 19:11 when "He judges and wages war" and "from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike the nations" (Revelation 19:15).
Jesus is human, but He is gloried and able to enter "when the doors were shut, … Jesus came and stood in their midst." (John 20:19). Young's God is represented as a Father and therefore a man, but not for the reason Young's character suggests: "Once the Creation was broken, true fathering would be much more lacking than mothering… (A)n emphasis on fathering is necessary because of the enormity of its absence." (p. 94).
Rather, it is in His nature because He is "Eternal Father" (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus "was calling God his own Father" (John 5:18) and that upset the Jews. We are only a reflection of that, poor though we be; not the cause of it.
Attempts toward gender neutrality destroy pictures God determined for both man and woman. The woman is the picture of "His bride," the Church, who "has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:7). And picturing God the Father as a man or woman in flesh, as Young does, is badly mistaken for "God is spirit." (John 4:24).
So despite Young's insights into relationships with God and among men, the ultimate result, I believe, will not be closeness to God because people will be disappointed as they find God is not who Young or they wish Him to be.
And a misunderstanding of God results in a wrong view of ourselves as well. Our view of God must come from the Bible so that we are "seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." (II Peter 1:3).
This book adds to the incoming flak that can prevent us from catching a fuller glimpse of God and His promises.
Noel Francis teaches at Patton High and may be contacted at noel_francis@yahoo.com.
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