Lifestream Blog » Blog Archive » Is THE SHACK Heresy?

Let me assure any of you reading this that all three of us who worked on this book are deeply committed followers of Jesus Christ who have a passion for the Truth of the Scriptures and who have studied and taught the life of Jesus over the vast majority of our lifetimes. But none of us would begin to pretend that we have a complete picture of all that God is or that our theology is flawless. We are all still growing in our appreciation for him and our desire to be like him, and we hope this book encourages you to that process as well. In the end, this says the best stuff we know about God at this point in our journeys. Is it a complete picture of him? Of course not! Who could put all that he is into a little story like this one? But if it is a catalyst to get thousands of people to talk about theology—who God is and how he makes himself known in the world—we would be blessed.

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Does it devalue Scripture?

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guess what people these critics cannot see is confrontation and healing inside a relationship of love and compassion. This is not the angry and tyrannical God that religion has been using for 2000 years to beat people into conformity and we are not surprised that this threatens the self-proclaimed doctrine police.

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Does it distort or demean the Trinity?

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hey live in love and honor each other. While in the flesh Jesus did walk in obedience to the Father as our example, elsewhere Scripture speaks of their complete unity, love and glory in relating to each other. Different functions need not imply a different status.

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This is not a treatise on every element of theological study. Perhaps we should have paused in the story to have an altar call, or perhaps we should have drug a pipe organ into the woods and enlisted a choir to hold a service, but that was not the point.

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white, male autocrat bent on religious conformity

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Religion has presented many lies about God which for the most part has prevented each follower of Christ to truly and completely get to intimately know Him. From what I have read and heard this is the point of The Shack

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The biggest thing that has paralyzed me is the idea that in anyway salvation is up to us…Ie - Free Will. This has not happend overnight - for many years i was into teachings such as those by Charles Finney etc and was a convinced Arminianist, but gradually over a number of years became broken and fragile and to see that salvation is up to me in anyway just simply paralyzes me with overwhelming fear. One book that has helped me is ‘The Really Bad Thing about Free Will’ by Martin Zender - although i don’t agree with everything this guy says, this book is a killer to the ‘free will’ doctrine i think.

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