Rom. 1: 16-26 “16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,[a] for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”[b]    18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

A New and Acceptable God?

The atheism exposed in Ravi Zacharias’s able offensive The Real Face of Atheism amazingly parallels the popular and nice god of The Shack so popular with many church people today! In The Shack, the new god is popular, down to earth, personable, nonjudgmental, and psychologically acceptable, made to man’s size and man’s order!

The God opposed by the atheists is One they declare profoundly and personally unacceptable, don’t like, is beyond their manipulation and they irrationally reject as nonexistent, though He is the innately known Explanation for the wonders of the Universe and man!

Like the Texas anti-creation crowd^{AP 3/26/09} that seeks to legislate that text books teach only evolution, they arrogantly and dishonestly seek to censor or dismiss the Truth, reality and Person of the One beyond their liking for unbelievable random chance and circumstance!

In The Shack, we find anti-god religion set forth by Mack’s claimed journey as he rails against God for not speaking, being mean, unjust, unreasonable and unacceptable. Thus, Mack discovers/invents his new god with a journey that leaves multitudes of readers pleased, thrilled and wondrously moved!

Now, surely, one of these two approaches of intellectual or psychological rants effectively dismisses the God of the Bible! Just ignore Him! Deny Him as Creator, Sustainer, the Truth, the One Who mercifully sought Adam in his rebellion and sin! Or, remake a god into our own image and liking and simply present him as a substitute, the nice god who accepts everyone without judgment.

Neither washes! We innately know and see better and the Word of God stands fixed forever with God’s gracious and merciful offer of redemption, peace and grace only in-Christ.

Another way of looking at it is: in light of God’s Word, either the pagan philosophers are lying or God has lied. Both cannot be true. Has man somehow evolved from nothing and now approaches intellectual and moral perfection with no need of God or the Bible? Or, is The Bible God’s merciful and gracious supernatural light, Truth and meaning informing us of the six days of Creation, the Fall, the Promise of a Redeemer, the Flood, the choosing of Abram, the continued Revelation via the Jews and promises of our caring God and the Coming of Christ born of a virgin as faithfully foretold, Christ’s death, burial and resurrection and His coming again and each man’s need of Him are revealed truths? This includes His mercy, grace, redemption and forgiveness with cleansing of sins, rebirth and discipleship.

Recall the Russian Cosmonaut that declared from space that he didn’t see God there. I heard that brash announcement in 1961 and remembered immediately Psalm 19. There we have God’s eternal rebuke and rebuttal: “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork” ^Psa.19:1  So, let’s look closely at Romans 1: 16-26 and soberly consider the detailed light our God has given except we be deceived by the wicked and prove ourselves also faithless, liars and haters of God, suppressing Truth, disobedient, given over by God for our insolence, arrogance, intellectual dishonesty, thanklessness and a vast and growing multitude of sins … with all the stinking baggage, godless fruits and God’s holy judgment.  

Carefulness in thinking, attention to doctrine, holy living and being born again are urgent priorities! We must ever remember, Adam distrusted God and bought the lie of Satan that he would be like God and he would be the judge of truth and right and wrong, not God!  (Note: This is attempting to set aside the Word of God!) But, Adam did not become like God. He suffered the death-judgment God had warned him against! It is noteworthy that the infamous and otherwise brilliant but dishonest proponent of atheism and accuser of God, Nietzsche, spent his last eleven years in ‘insanity’. The world says he was insane but the Bible reveals he was ‘given up by God’. Indeed, though he was a son of a Lutheran minister, he was never born again!

In conclusion, the many continuing claims that Darwin’s rant against Creation and claim of Evolution, Marx’s atheistic and thieving Socialism, Nietzsche’s ‘God is Dead’ and other philosopher’s rants do attack but do not destroy the alive church anymore than deceivers and heretics like Rick Warren, et al are destroying the church today. But they are leading many astray! Many think and feel that they have become Christian because they have joined a church, said a prayer or even are active in a church work. Paul, like others, warned us that such deceivers would rise from within the fellowship. Beware! Many Church leaders then were as spiritually dead as such are today and in Jesus’ day! Search the Scriptures and prove yourself. ^{Read Romans 12: 1-21, then John 4}

A careful and sober study of the 4^th chapter of John will not only demonstrate the gross and glaring errors of The Shack and its man-made, soul-only religion but God’s merciful and gracious provision in Christ. No man comes direct to the Father! None can come without blood! Salvation is by God’s revelation and of the Jews, not by man’s will and imaginations. Those who worship God must worship Him in Truth and Spirit! God’s Word is Truth! Christ seeks sinners; lost spiritually dead men do not seek the true God.

The alive church thrives! The dead follow the dead just as the alive gladly and obediently hear the True Shepherd, follow Him and hear His alive teachers. Lastly, the alive church does not teach mere ‘theism’ nor that man is basically good. It proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ demanding repentance and faith in Jesus Christ Who rose from the grave and is coming again. Thus, we who are alive must never overlook that before, we also were dead, dead in trespasses and sin. Hence, we must be about showing His character and His love and wholeheartedly, obediently and gladly proclaiming His Word of reconciliation only in Jesus.

                    The Shack Critiqued

 Recently I heard two Christian women going “gaa gaa” about a book: The Shack. One of them said that another Church woman in town had also read it and it was awesome. It happened that just days before I had read a very brief but very unfavorable reference to it. I was intrigued. How could such stark contradictions among professing believers exist? I asked myself, does the Bible speak understandably and authoritatively and with finality or are truth and doctrine just matters of individual feelings? Does anyone really know? One excused its heresies and blasphemies because it is just a novel. I asked, compared to what? So, is Porn excused because it’s just pictures?

Thus, I pondered: Why? What? What was so exciting and acceptable about this book they found so exciting? Well, I began looking. I discovered two reviews by respected Conservative believers on the internet. Both were clear and consistent. The Shack was a travesty, dark and dangerous. Were these mere opinions? Truth questions remained, so, I waded in. I bought the book to continue the journey I had unknowingly started. A few days later, the book arrived. I began reading the book.     

Wow! It’s a high profile sell! Stunning reviews and gripping eternal drama affirmed by big names greet the reader on the front, back covers and opening pages! I’m more perplexed! Is The Shack an innocent, well-meaning Christian novel or a twisted, malicious misrepresentation of God, Christian churches and Christianity? One misguided pastor had told me, words are just words! But, John proclaimed, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Matthew soberly wrote, “…I say to you, that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned.” So much for ‘just words’. 

Nonetheless, the Foreword opens with poor struggling Mack, a victim of a brutalizing dad, twisted church people, a loner later scarred by a twisted Australian seminary education and married. Now, 50ish, he is crushed and loaded down with ‘The Great Sadness’ which he accuses my God of causing by the tragedy of his young daughter’s murder in a shack in the Oregon Mountains where they had been camping. More, he’s mad at my God for not communicating to his satisfaction! Later, Mack says he hates God, he’s sick of God and His religion; he rashly accuses God of unrighteousness, being indifferent and uncaring. Mack demands more revelation and a god that suits him!        

In all of this and throughout the novel, which is claimed to be written for the author’s children, Mack is presented as a sincere if hesitant Christian, a real truth seeker, righteous. The holy God of the Bible is a villain like most claimed Christians, the Bible is not the Truth and any traditional aspect of Christianity is presented as usually misguided. I kept reading, pondering and thinking.    

Finally, I got it! In The Shack, Mack is the new measure of all things. Spirituality, feelings, ideas, with what is seen and heard. These are made the measure of all, including God! Not the Bible!       

In subtle but clear denial of the Bible which begins, “In the beginning God ...,” In contrast, The Shack subtly gives us: Now, Mack! Only Mack’s spirituality, feelings, opinions, ideas and judgments, especially judgments of God and Who and what God is are allowed, acceptable! 

Note that in rejection of Jesus’ instruction on prayer, “Our Father, Who are in Heaven, Hallowed be Your Name”, The Shack has shifted the standard to holy, reverenced and respected be Mack, his spirituality, his feelings and demands! Wow!

So, now I believe I understand The Shack phenomena. This is where so much of Churchianity is today! Spirituality without the Bible but with new experiences, new revelation, new definitions and most of all, great feelings with self-satisfaction! These are in. Holiness, conversion, discipleship and sound doctrine are treated as curses! They are out! But note that Paul warned the Ephesian elders at Miletus that from among themselves would come deceivers.^{Acts 20:16ff}  Jude likewise solemnly warned believers of apostasy, deceptions, bad doctrine, God’s judgments and that claiming to be a believer is not the same as being a blessed born-twice believer! ^Jude   My journey is compete.

I heartily recommend The Shack as an excellent teaching resource of pagan spirituality and blindness in the church. It is an unparalleled study of the natural man opposing the Bible, God and Truth. The Shack is likely the finest current example of the treachery of once-born church leaders and members championing the old Eden lies as ‘new, emerging, experiencing-God and exciting Christianity’ beyond the Bible.   

Lastly, God’s Word is light, merciful and absolute. It needs no additions or corrections. There are no substitutes for its doctrine and its demands for repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ with the blessedness of conversion, forgiveness, cleansing, discipleship, fellowship and maturity in holiness as the Psalmist spoke in Psalm Nineteen. None!

By David Holmes © 2009