“Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.” Amos 8:11
Matt Slick from carm.org writes:
“There is a famine in the land, and Christian discernment is dying. The book “The Shack” is a feel-good fictional story about a man named Mack whose daughter is murdered. Mack subsequently has an encounter with God in a shack in the woods, and through this meeting, he’s healed emotionally and spiritually. Sound good? Of course it does. The only problem is the many false doctrines laced throughout the book.
Instead of describing God as the Majestic Supreme Being that He is, The Shack dumbs Him down and reshapes Him into a feel-good figure. God the Father who, according to the Bible, cannot be seen (John 6:46; 1 Tim. 6:16), appears in the form of an African-American woman named “papa” (p. 86–talk about gender confusion) who has scars on his wrist (p. 95). Wrong! The Father was not crucified. Jesus is presented as a Middle Easterner wearing a plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves (p. 84). The Holy Spirit appears as an Asian woman (p. 85). The Shack’s author, Mr. Young, justifies these false representations under the rubric of literary license and says it is only fiction. Okay, but does that mean it is alright to refer to God in a way that is in direct contradiction to Scripture? No, it does not. God has chosen to reveal Himself without gender confusion in the man Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5), but The Shack doesn’t stop with flamboyant reconstructions of God.
Within its pages, you will find other false doctrines. On page 124 you’ll see a denial of the hierarchy within the Trinity. Remember, the Father sent the Son, not the other way around. On page 136 Young presents the humanist philosophy that good and evil “do not have any actual existence.” Contrast this with Luke 18:18 and John 17:15 which speak to the contrary. On pages, 145-146 God wants to be submitted to Mack so he can “join us in our circle of relationship.” Sorry, but man is to be submitted to God, not the other way around. Page 206 tells us that God has never placed an expectation on anyone. Biblically, this is not so. In 1 Peter 1:16, for example, God expects us to be holy. On page 225 the heresy of universalism is taught when we find the African American woman who is God the Father say, “In Jesus, I have forgiven all humans for their sins against me, but only some choose relationship.” This contradicts verses such as Matt. 25:46 and Mark 3:29 which clearly teach us that all are not forgiven.
Jesus said, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Real biblical Christians are supposed to follow the voice of Christ (the Bible), not the ear-tickling melodies of teachers who use feel-good stories and emotionally laden half-truths to lessen God’s majesty, present humanist philosophy, and teach universalism.
Is The Shack a good book? No, it isn’t. Be warned.” https://carm.org/shack-short-article
Why this warning, why this article?
A few days ago, the following Instagram from Jurgen Matthesius came to our attention.
Not only is Jurgen Matthesius senior pastor of C3 San Diego – both he and his wife Leanne head up the oversight of C3 Americas.
“Ps. Jurgen and Leanne Matthesius are the senior pastors of C3 San Diego. Under the amazing leadership of Pastors Phil & Chris Pringle they were appointed as the C3 Americas Oversights. Jurgen and Leanne are confident in knowing that these days are only the beginnings of the amazing things that God wants to do in America!” http://c3americas.com/
Matt Slick from carm.org addresses the serious pastoral issues surrounding the movie and the book in this clip.
Peter Hammond (http://www.frontline.org.za/index.php?option=com_content&id=1266:the-director) “….the blasphemy that’s obviously in it, attributing words to God, depicting the Trinity in humanist and obvious idolatrous ways…to talk about shear obvious advertising that this will be the Pilgrim’s Progress of our generation. Now Pilgrim’s Progress, for those who don’t know, happens to be the best selling English book of the Bible in all of human history. for three centuries never out of print, to compare some cheap piece of imaginative drivel and mindless blasphemy with Pilgrim’s Progress is insane and dishonest and foolish.
Matt Slick (carm.org)”….I cannot consider him (the author) a Christian based on the things that he said (in his later book “Lies About God),….this is just another example of the apostasy in the Christian church. The idea, in “The Shack”, of God the Father appearing as a woman is blasphemous – because the bible says he dwells in unapproachable light and no man has seen nor can see. But it’s ok if it’s fiction? If it’s ok if it’s fiction, to speak about God, to put words in His mouth and misrepresent Him….. you have to understand, blasphemy hardens the heart. A lot of Christians don’t know this but I know a lot of people out there who read “the Shack”, think this book is great, the movie is great – and if you think so and you don’t have the ability to discern between good and bad, you might want to check to see if you’re saved. And I’m not joking, because if what he’s teaching ministers to you and that movie was so great and you want to teach and preach out of it, and it’s just wonderful – you may not be regenerate
Peter Hammond “If anyone stood in a pulpit and preached the kind of imaginative drivel that this character dishes up in “The Shack”, surely he’d be drummed out of the ministry in any decent denomination. So how can Christians call this a Christian film and go, take the congregations, block booking, recommend it, buy it, give the book as a gift to their friends or DVD – this is poison.”
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