Comments on: Is THE SHACK Heresy?

By: Ted Dunn

Ted Dunn — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:35:54 +0000

A more appropriate question actually raised by The Shack is: Is legalism heresy? – insofar as it separates people from God Who deigned to demonstrate His abiding Love throuh the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, His Son.

A quote I read recently stated: “People are not necessarily concerned with how orthodox the theology is. People are into the story and how the book strikes them emotionally…”
(Lynn Garrett, Senior Religion Editor for Publishers Weekly)

I cold not disagree more with this comment. People are fascinated by the book because of a desire for a COMPLETE understanding of God which involves the both the heart and the head. It is a book that stimulates thought and meditation and is intended for those who already know Scripture or who will be led by the Holy Spirit to immerse themselves in Scripture for a deeper understanding of God.

By: BWhite

BWhite — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:53:32 +0000

“This book flatly states that all roads do not lead to Jesus, …I don’t know how we could have been clearer”

Seriously?!
You can’t think of any way to be clearer?
You are very well spoken, so I find that very hard to believe.

I know that I could easily say that, even if I believed in Universal Reconciliation.
Certainly, not all roads lead to Jesus. That has naught to do with whether He
will eventually reconcile all to Himself.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 03:08:10 +0000

I am a Christian and recently have turned my life around. I have heard about The Shack and all the New-Age hoopla connected to it. I strongly agree that someone writing a book “The Shack” about some african american woman that’s God and an asian woman as the holy spirit. This is such heresy because The Bible is the only way to Jesus, God and The Holy Spirit which is the true trinity. I have NEVER read The Shack because who would want to be drawn into a book that was written by some false prophet? Not me!

This is what Jesus has warned: 2 Timothy 3:16: “But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” I am sad to tell you that my Mother has a copy of this book. She told me today. I was surprised that she is part of the ‘Christians’ that are deceived. I thought about stealing it and burn the book. I know stealing is wrong as it says in the Commandments, but wouldn’t I be doing God a favor? Think about that.

By: Paul Trudeau

Paul Trudeau — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:57:25 +0000

Someone commented above: “This past Wednesday . . . during the Q & A time someone asked him (my pastor) if AIDS was God’s punishment for homosexuality, and I believe that they made a reference to Romans chapter 1; this is a typical fundamentalist take on AIDS. His answer was an unequivocal no. And then he said that if you pay attention to the passage it says ‘God gave them over’ not ‘God punished them with or for’ and that often sin is it’s own punishment.”

Did you miss this scripture right here in the sane chapter?: Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which they deserved. Romans 1:27

AIDS is just one of the penalties deserved. How much more lucid can the Bible be?

By: Tamara Francis

Tamara Francis — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:19:17 +0000

Woah! Very interesting some of your comments. Did anyone listen to Paul Youngs’ audio testimony on Drew Marshall.ca show dated April 28th, 2008 entitled ‘Spill your guts’. I finally found this after searching for several months to discover what caused a guy to write a book like this.
He didn’t just pull this out of the air. This was built on a foundation of breakings, anguish , struggle & a desperate searching & need to find answers to deep & crucial questions about life’s experiences sufferings. It’s an amazing & heart-breaking story & the effects the Shack has had on many peoples’ lives are equally amazing. People who off-handedly critiscise this book & write it off as heresy are mising the point & are missing out on a lot of the fine points that make up life as the exciting experience it is, sufferings warts & all when it brings us to experience & know Jesus & the Fahter’s immense love. Words don’t do the subjest justice. Tis book is fantastic as are Wayne Jacobsens books @He loves me’ 7 ’so you don’t want to go to Church anymore?’ Very liberating & eye-opening & if understood & embraced will go a long way to liberating many people locked in differentkinds of bondage.
Well there’s more to say perhaps but this’ll do for now. Keep living the love of Jesus Christ & giving His love to everyone who crosses our paths, more by living example & caring than by dead tradition & sermons. P. S. Don’tforget to look up Paul Young’s testimony on above website. It could change your life if the book hasn’t already.

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 23:10:26 +0000

I am mystified by the negative critique the book is getting. Do we not understand the meaning of fiction? Or of an allegory? When Jesus compared Himself to a grapevine, He was simply using imagery to drive home a single point, that of the closeness of relationship he so much desired with us.It seems to me that if God at one point had to use a donkey to get a message to Baalam, perhaps (and I would NEVER compare Paul to a donkey lol) some unorthodox method needs to get through to the North American church that we have lost our first love (Rev.2). The fact that there are so many denominations ought to give us pause as to how unlike the Father we all claim we have become. When Mennonites and Baptists can’t form one perpetual group because they can’t agree on the mode of baptism, I see the problem as being critical. Aren’t we running the risk of having what light there is being snuffed out (Rev.2:5) because we can’t give one another the unconditional love of the Father despite our differences? Aren’t we more like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day when we can’t see past the imagery of this parable in order to recapture the unlimited love our “Papa” has for us. Each time (now in the seventh go-around) I go through this book I see something more than the time before. Bless you, Paul!

By: Edwin Larkin

Edwin Larkin — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:41:42 +0000

I would find your statements on the shack more credible if you would take each criticism that the people are making and line it up with God’s word to prove that they are not contrary to sound doctrine. I see alot of subjects covered, but I have not seen a whole lot of biblical references to prove your point if any.
I think you would be more credible if you would. The word of God is what’s being used to point out the false teachings and universalism, but I am not seeing it here to back up it’s defense.. Could somebody please explain that to me?

http://www.ericbarger.com

By: Thoughts on ‘The Shack’ (Part 3 of 3) « The Prodigal Thought

Thoughts on ‘The Shack’ (Part 3 of 3) « The Prodigal Thought — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:14:45 +0000

[...] editors of The Shack, Wayne Jacobsen, and his assessment of the heretical claims against the book, click here. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Our Triune God By John MacArthurStepping Off: [...]

By: Janet

Janet — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:20:22 +0000

First of all, let me just say that I THOROUGHLYand COMPLETELY LOVED the book “THE SHACK”. It transformed the way I thought about God and my relationship wirth Him! There were times I had to put the book down because I was weeping so hard. I have absolutely NOTHING bad to say about the book. However, I will say that those who are worshipping the BIBLE (heretic/doctrine police) and not GOD are out of step! It seems to me that they have made their “worship” of the Bible their graven image or focus of worship! Secondly, I would like to point out that Rick Warren’s excellent book “The Purpose Driven Life” also had its detractors. It just goes to show you that no matter what anyone writes, there is always someone out there who will find a way to excuse, damage, dismiss or even destroy anything that is out of their view of what is “normal”. God bless all of you who had a hand in the telling of this remarkable story and in the production of this book!

By: Eikin Kloster

Eikin Kloster — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 11:25:42 +0000

It’s only natural to expect that a book eliciting strong positive response from so many people will elicit a similarly strong negative response from quite a few. The argument of “don’t let others think for yourself, read the book” is self serving at best. Are you going to read any bestseller just because if so many read it you just might like it too? No way. People read The Shack mostly because of positive reviews from other people who read it. It makes just as much sense *not* to read it because of negative reviews.

You go short from stating that for a book to draw strong positive responses from many people it has to be because it met some widespread deep needs. Well, drugs also draw strong positive response from millions of addicts because they too meet deep needs, so “best selling” should never be considered a final argument for the quality of a product.

I read the Shack because of a close friend who felt deeply moved by the book and thought I might be too. It did touch me strongly, but in a negative way. At some point every time Papa chuckled I had glimpses of me shoving the book down the author’s throat. “Oh, isn’t Jesus lovely?” “Yes, I’m specially fond of him. Oh, by the way, I’m specially fond of you. And of Missy, and of Missy’s rapist… and of Hitler”. Gosh. Please. Bestsellers use to be downright irritating, but I’m specially fond of The Shack for that purpose. It plays on me like televangelists for Hannibal Lecter.