The Things to Come

“Mack would like you to know that if you happen upon this story and hate it, he says, ‘Sorry, but it wasn’t primarily written for you’… I can promise you that the conversations and events (in this book) are recorded as truthfully as Mack can remember them, so please try and cut him a little slack…these are not easy things to talk about.” So begins the current best-seller, The Shack, by William P. Young.

I am thankful that the Word of God doesn’t begin the same way as The Shack. If it did – stating that if the reader hates it, it’s contents are is not for them – few would ever come to repentance and have a genuine conversion experience, as “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word” (Romans 10:17). And if the events of the Bible were also simply recorded “as truthfully as (the recorders) can remember them”, again, few would be compelled to trust it, myself included. But thankfully, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (2Timothy 3:16). And so it is with this plumb line, or maybe these days, this “line in the sand”, that we measure and critique yet another bestseller that is being devoured by the Christian audience that seemingly has an unending appetite for books to tell them what God hath truly said. (With all the books out there to tell us what the Bible means, I sometimes wonder how we are any different from the Mormon persuasion with our extra-biblical booklist.)

In our media-saturated culture, the written (or spoken) word has the power to not only create a strong sense of reality for the reader if it instructs, but at the same time can serve to reflect the very culture it helps to form. Some will likely form their theology from this book as though it were a pulpit; others who find flaws in it’s theology will look into the mirror it holds up and see in it a Polaroid moment in time of the state of the church. Those whom God has raised up to warn the church of error will most likely see the Polaroid and decry the pulpit; this is discernment at work. I cannot understate the alarm and grief I feel over any who might make The Shack their pulpit and curse the Polaroid and it’s accompanying “negative”.

For the plot construct, Young’s main character, Mack, goes on a spiritual journey in which he is divinely invited to experience a weekend alone with God, asking any question he wishes and getting, well, “Godly” answers. If Young’s God is the triune God of the Scriptures, and one would hope so in a book that is marketed as “Christian”, one who is biblically literate should be able to hold his portrait of God up to the light of biblical revelation and things should match up. In other words, it should not require rocket science to assess whether the God of The Shack and the God of the Bible are one and the same – identifiable, and recognizable. A common metaphor here might be, if you are going to recognize counterfeit money you have to have studied the real thing thoroughly first. Makes all too much sense.

Now no one is equating The Shack with Scripture on an inspired level, but for all it’s preaching and do-it-yourself theology, the writer better have a compelling reason – and some heavenly credentials – for putting so many words into God’s mouth, remaking Him into his own image, and presenting Him in a way that is often contrary to His Word on page after page. If I were a seeker, or new believer, and I trusted in Mr. Young’s interpretation of God’s character, (and many will) I fear that there would be much I would have to relearn should I ever pick up a real Bible and begin to take it seriously on any level.

Perhaps Eugene Peterson’s (The Message) glowing endorsement sets the tone by placing this book on far too high of a pedestal to begin with. Apparently Peterson doesn’t think so, as he speculates, “when the imagination of writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize, the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrims’ Progress did for his, it’s that good.” I am already quite suspicious of this overly generous assessment and this new fiction+theology mutation. Let me put it kindly: if John Bunyan had relied on The Message for his inspiration, Pilgrims’ Progress would never have been written, and that is no speculation on my part. And the church is worse off today because The Shack was written. Not so of Pilgrims’ Progress. Perhaps Mr. Peterson should dial his enthusiasm for this book down a notch or two until the reviews come in. At any rate, I saw through and through the influence of The Message in this book, and The Shack often sounds like an even more dumbed-down picture of God than that perverted paraphrase, and I would not have thought that was possible.

With the current best-selling status of The Shack, and having personally spent countless hours over the last several years familiarizing myself with today’s church trends – the buzzwords, agenda and overall spirit – this ‘story’ begs to be revealed for what it is, and I am giving The Shack no slack whatsoever.

Although it is supposedly fiction, it was clearly not written for the story. I find this new fiction/non-fiction genre disturbing from a spiritual standpoint, but not completely surprising, as today’s Emergent is more enamored of parables and narratives than absolute truth. Here, the premise and fictional backdrop is simply a stage prop to expose the reader to all manner of “emerging” and “house church” movement “theology”. Continue Reading »

Most of us are familiar with the idiom, “passing the torch”. It suggests passing down a work or responsibility to another person. You will find it mostly used today in the business sense, when a corporate head retires and hands his vision and game plan off to someone who is generally younger, and probably less tired, to continue to build upon. This someone would be hand-picked, and highly trusted, most likely, because if a person is going to spend their entire life building on what they believe is a sure foundation, it is unlikely they would just put it up on Ebay in the end.

But in light of the temporality of earthly pursuits, I prefer to think of this phrase in terms of faith. The Bible speaks frequently of “light” and “lamps” as signifying the effect the Gospel has on a sin-darkened world in which believers are exhorted to keep lamps trimmed and lit – so I believe the phrase comes into full bloom when used of spiritual things. A church with a burned-out lampstand is not spoken of too highly in God’s economy, simply because the darker life gets, the brighter we must shine to draw people to Christ. What good are we to lost souls if we blend right into the shadowy, undiscernable cultural landscape that threatens to envelope us all? Therefore, it remains for those who are running the race of faith, who have held high the standard and light of the gospel, to not bend to the cultural pressures of relevancy and compromise, and light the way for the next generation of torch-bearers. This is not an afterthought, but a duty that requires fore-thought and wisdom.

Speaking of dark days, we are surely in them, as sure as I have both feet planted in middle age. I have my road map laid out in front of me for the path God has put me on, and this pilgrim is navigating a course: the straightest line possible to the kingdom to come. I haven’t got time for distractions or sideshows. And having been on the road for some time now, I also have a good idea of where the snares and potholes, distractions and sideshows lie. I’m not driven by any “purposes”, and thankfully I am too old to “emerge”, because let’s be honest and say that I am not the demographic those folks are looking for. Let’s hear it for being too old and tired to be duped by the latest wind blowing through the trees! I have a road to stay on and my batteries are reserved for life-saving emergencies.

Now, I am not afraid of the dark, because I have an unending power source. But one thing, I admit, does cause me a bit of alarm. In looking around at fellow faithful torch-bearers who are nearing the end of their own journey, I find myself anxious about who is in line to pass their torches on to – torches of expository teaching, pure doctrine, and the heart of a pilgrim just passing through this life. How I respect such today, and how few I see anymore traveling this road.

Then too there are those whose influence today is very widespread, who believe that these very torches of which I speak are nearly extinguished, and should be replaced altogether by the unnatural light of sideshows hawking social activism, shallow programs, false unity, and experiential deceptions. Am I likening today’s church to a three-ring circus? It is an analogy that has merit, I’m afraid. We must pray that God raises up godly men and women who are uncompromising, unafraid, mature, bold and have eternity stamped on their foreheads to help us navigate the deep woods of the last days, as evangelicalism is being continually re-invented by more gurus and pied pipers than I can count. What we really need are more Chuck Smiths and Dave Hunts, not more best-selling figments of the Church’s imagination. Continue Reading »