Trading the Kingdom for a Shack
By Eric Barger

"Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness.

Four years later in the midst of what he refers to as 'The Great Sadness,' Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.”

The Shack - a novel written by Paul Young – has many wondering what could be wrong. It is identified as a Christian book- authored by a man claiming to be a Christian.

The Shack being recommended; albeit praised by many seasoned Christian leaders has the Biblically discerning scratching their heads. Pastors are preaching from it, Sunday School classes and small groups are reading and discussing it. Many Christians are buying it by the caseload to give as gifts. Some Christian Schools are sanctioning and encouraging the reading of the book by their students. But this is not just a benign story of man overcoming life's challenges. Make no mistake, the book presents doctrine throughout its clever and gripping story - something the author clearly intended to do. Therein lays the problem.

God is portrayed in The Shack as a large African-American woman named "Papa" also called "Elousia." Young's "Papa" character is suspiciously akin to a Polynesian/Hawaiian goddess who also happens to be known as "Papa." Jesus is a Jewish carpenter complete with a tool belt and the Holy Spirit is depicted as an Asian woman named after "Sarayu," a mystical river in ancient India related to the Hindu deity Kali.

Here are just a few of the many issues raised by The Shack:

- Young's Papa character insists that sin is its own punishment. This distorts the reality of Hell and discounts eternal retribution for sin.

“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” Daniel 12:2

- Readers of The Shack are told that Jesus is only the best way to know God – not the only way.

Jesus said “I AM the way, the Truth and the Life; No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 14:6

- The Shack teaches that when Jesus went to the cross, God Almighty died there too. This is a heresy known as patripassianism.

- The Shack states that there is no structure or hierarchy within the Trinity and that the three personages of God are all equally subject to one another and to humans as well. I challenge fans of The Shack to open a Bible and try to make that square with the Scriptures!

The disturbing truth is that books like The Shack would never become bestsellers in the Christian world if Christians were on guard, thinking biblically and willingly following Scripture! In these dangerous days it is paramount that we actively develop "eyes of understanding" which constantly check everything by the Word of God - especially those things that claims to be of God.

The Scripture implores us to prove or test all things (I Thessalonians 5:21-22) and this test can only be accomplished one way - by knowing the Bible and then utilizing what we know from it. Every Believer needs to be alert to the reality that in these last days deception is going to come at a rate never fathomed before. As time passes Satan is preparing to use unheralded and brazen trickery that will look and sound very spiritual, even Christian.

The only hope we have to successfully avoid the traps of the enemy is by prayerful, dedicated and aggressive study of God's unchangeable Word.

Otherwise, sooner or later we'll find ourselves amongst a growing number from previously trustworthy evangelical circles that are heading straight for apostasy.