Wonderful book
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I think The Shack is a beautiful book. Honestly I just can't understand why there is any controversy over it at all. Personally I enjoyed Young's writing style and I think he did an excellent job of portraying a deeply emotional story. I quite literally laughed and cried throughout different parts of the book.
Theologically speaking I found The Shack to be spot-on. The book deals with intense spiritual truths and expresses them in a way that anyone can understand. I really think The Shack contains a much needed message for our world today and I didn't find a single thing to disagree with.
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Rough Start, Life Changing Middle, Wimpy Finish
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The author obviously writes from personal experience and skillfully weaves his spiritual pilgrimage into a story that addresses the struggle of many who have suffered hardship and heartbreak. The author takes us through some rather gruesome circumstances (without being graphic) to set the stage for The Great Sadness. I suspect everyone of us have asked the question: "If there is a God, why does this happen?" This book helps us see that God is not to be blamed for our sufferings.
The author uses story-telling in plain language to explain some pretty profound theological questions from a biblical perspective. While some Christians will disagree with him, I personally find myself nodding my head through many of the "conversations" with God in the book. A few times I find myself chuckling over some humorous but revealing "zingers", such as God saying, "I'm not a Christian."
The Shack makes me wince, cry , laugh, nod my head, shake my head and ultimately, sigh with satisfaction.
There is still, to a certain extent, a "happy" ending. I don't think I spoil the story to say that the father never gets his abducted little girl back, but otherwise everything resolves to a gratifying conclusion for the main characters in the story. I wished life was like that. Many people who suffer never find closure in this life, irrespective of their faith in God. The Shack, after dealing with the tough and realistic harshness of life, still brings a somewhat unrealistic closure for suffering for all the main characters. For this reason, I give it a wimpy finish.
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A truly compelling tale!
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Read this book and prepare for a spectrum of emotions that come along with it, ranging from tears to laughter. It shines light onto God from another angle; He's still the same, but it challenges how you may have thought about how He works with some challenging questions.
After reading this, I definitely felt more joyful and excited about our world, despite all the hardships that exist in it.
I would definitely recommend this to a friend!
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Too many doctrinal errors
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The Shack, the sensational best seller by William P. Young, is a pretty gripping story. Mack's little daughter, Missy, is kidnapped and murdered while Mack is on a camping trip with his three children. The place where she was killed, a shack in the mountains, is discovered, though Missy's body and the killer are not found.
Some time later, Mack receives a letter from God, "Papa", inviting him back to "the shack." Mack goes to the shack and meets the Trinity there. God the Father is an Afro-American woman; Jesus is a blue jeans-wearing man; the Holy Spirit is an ethereal woman called Sarayu.
In unique sessions with each of the Trinity, Mack struggles with anger against his abusive father and his hatred against Missy's killer. After he forgives his father, God the Father appears to him, for the rest of the story, as a man. After Mack forgives the murderer, God leads Mack to Missy's body and the four of them bury her. Mack, then, returns home to his wife Nan and his other two children.
It's a very imaginative story, but contains some serious theological difficulties.
Young, runs into trouble with the second commandment which says that we are not to make an image of God in any way and that God cannot and may not be visibly portrayed in any way. When Young "paints a picture" of God with words, he bumps up against the second commandment. Arguably, one could portray Jesus, since he is a true man, but one may not portray the Father nor the Holy Spirit. "You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman." (Deu 4:15,16).
Young's view of the Trinity is not right. God the Father, at one point in the book, says that he is truly human in Jesus and has scars on his wrists to prove it. The wrong teaching that Young subscribes to at this point is likely patripassionism, the teaching that the Father also suffered. Young confuses the persons of the Father and the Son. The ancient Athanasian Creed warn against this.
Young also espouses a wrong view of the extent of the atonement. Whereas scripture teaches that Christ dies for the forgiveness of the sins of his people, Young says that God has forgiven all sin in Christ and that it is up the human individual to choose relationship with the Father. His view of the atonement is Arminian; his view of man's unregenerate will is Pelagian.
Although it's a nice story to read, I cannot recommend The Shack because of its many doctrinal errors.
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Sorry
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It's a rare book. The first I've ever thrown into the trash bin having read three-quarters of it. It promises something new but delivers the same brainwashing as Sunday School. Sorry to offend people, but there is no new information here....just someone trying to tug your heartstrings into Christianity with the murder of an innocent little girl. Wake Up!
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