I know this is well behind the times, but I just got access to an audio copy of William Young’s The Shack.  Since I took the time to read this book that has become so popular, I decided to write down a couple of points.  Be warned, I’m not impressed.

 

Occasionally beneficial and generally dangerous—and not in a good way--, The Shack is a book that should not be read by those whose theology is not solid.  William young’s tale is compelling at times, encouraging at times, infuriating at times, and blasphemous at times.  Young writes an emotionally charged fiction that grabs at the heart strings, but which leaves readers clinging to a faulty notion of God.

 

In this book, Young:

 

·         Rejects the authority and sufficiency of the Scripture.

·         Rejects biblical notions of relationships of authority and submission.

·         Rejects most notions of the local church.

·         Rejects the sovereignty of God.

·         Elevates the autonomy of man to a place which degrades God.

·         Trivializes each person in the Holy Trinity.

·         Comes dangerously close to redefining God as a quadrinity with “Sophia” (wisdom) as a fourth person.

·         Presents a completely unbiblical picture of forgiveness.

·         Totally misses the atonement, failing to see Christ as a vicarious substitute.

·         Leans toward universalism.

·         Arrogantly corrects the theology of nearly 2,000 years of church history.

 

Can I come up with anything useful in The Shack?  I think so.  If a Christian is mature enough to carefully identify and set aside the obvious and the subtle heresy in this book, he or she might be challenged to have a more personal, more intimate, understanding of his or her relationship with God.  Much like reading the Left Behind series, reading The Shack can stir a Christian’s imagination to more fully imagine what it will be like to be in the presence of God.  Though the picture of the persons of the trinity in The Shack are not appealing in many ways (Jesus sure chuckles a lot), the concept of remembering that we are serving  areal, personal God is very important.  It is good to, with Scripture, allow your mind to imagine and long for the day when you stand in his presence.

 

Sadly, I cannot in any way recommend The Shack.  There is just too much wrong in this book, and its few positives cannot atone for it.

 

[I listened to an audio recording of this book, and thus cannot site page numbers to go along with my points above.] 

 

Justin Taylor on the Manhattan Declaration

JT offers a nice summary and recommendation of the Manhattan Declaration. This is an interesting document.

Piper on Visiting a Prison

This post from John Piper is inspiring.

OSBC Hard Questions Panel

If you are interested you can download the audio from our "Hard Questions" panel discussion from Sunday night. In this panel, Phil Nelson, Jim Smith, and I responded to the questions of people in the congregation about anything they wanted to ask. It was a good time, and many have said that it was very interesting. The inspiration of Scripture, end times, mental disorders, dinosaurs, where the devil came from--all of these topics and many more were discussed.

Hour 1 audio

Hour 2 audio

Judges 7:9-15

 

9     That same night the Lord said to him, “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have given it into your hand. 10     But if you are afraid to go down, go down to the camp with Purah your servant. 11     And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp. 12     And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number, as the sand that is on the seashore in abundance. 13     When Gideon came, behold, a man was telling a dream to his comrade. And he said, “Behold, I dreamed a dream, and behold, a cake of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian and came to the tent and struck it so that it fell and turned it upside down, so that the tent lay flat.” 14     And his comrade answered, “This is no other than the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel; God has given into his hand Midian and all the camp.”

15     As soon as Gideon heard the telling of the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped. And he returned to the camp of Israel and said, “Arise, for the Lord has given the host of Midian into your hand.”

 

            Have you ever thought to yourself that you would like to share your faith with someone, but it just wouldn’t do any good?  Have you ever thought that your effort might be too little, too poorly timed, too socially awkward, and thus simply not worth the effort or risk?  Have you ever thought that a little word of gospel would not be worth sharing?  If so, take a look with me at what God did with Gideon in Judges 7, and see if it doesn’t’ encourage you just a bit.

 

            In Judges 7, Gideon is facing unbelievable odds.  There is an army of 135,000 well-armed men opposing his little band of 300.  There is just no way that those guys from the smallest and weakest tribes in Israel could ever do anything to get rid of the armies of Midian. 

 

            As Gideon shakes in his boots, knowing full well that God had called him to take on that army but not believing it could be done, God pulls back the curtain for Gideon to show him something wonderful.  God sends Gideon down into the Midianite camp, and lets him ease drop on a conversation between two Midianite soldiers.  What Gideon learns helps him to see that God has done the work behind the scenes that would bring down the Midianite army.  God has been sending the Midianites nightmares.  The soldiers of Midian were having dreams about being crushed by the army of God under the leadership of Gideon.  When Gideon hears this truth, he realizes that God has made it possible to see the Israelite army victorious over their enemies.

 

            What happened next?  Gideon gathered his men, and helped them to sneak up on the Midianite camp.  The Israelites were carrying torches and trumpets, not much for battle gear.  The torches were shaded with clay pots on top, so the flames would not be visible.  Then, Gideon instructed them to smash those pots, making the sound of destruction audible from all around the camp.  The previously-hidden torchlight would have flared in the darkness.  Then the Israelites  blew their trumpets and shouted. 

 

            The Midianites, who were sleeping and suffering the terrors of the dreams that God was giving them awoke to the crash of breaking pottery, the flash of brilliant light where there had previously been darkness, the blast of trumpets, and the shouts of their enemies.  The terror of the Medianites reached such a level that they took up their swords and slaughtered each other without ever even turning to attack their enemies.  God delivered Israel from the hand of Midian, though it looked truly impossible.

 

            Now, back to our original question:  Have you ever felt like sharing a gospel witness will simply not work?  You have no idea what God has been doing behind the scenes.  You do not know what God has done in the heart of a person you are thinking about or meeting for the first time.  You do not know what kind of dreams they have been having, what kind of struggles they have gone through, what kind of secret thoughts they are having that might be heightening their understanding of their need for grace.  You never know whether or not God has done the work before you to bring a sinner’s dead heart to life, even if you cannot see that work being done.

 

            If you do not know what God has been doing behind the scenes, you do not know what kind of a glorious impact your word of witness might have.  God can use your effort to point someone to Christ to be the one that breaks through their darkened heart and helps them to be saved.  God can use weak instruments like Gideon, like me, or like you to help others to become his children.

 

            Dear Lord, as I watch what you did through Gideon, I see that you can use the smallest and weakest people to accomplish your will.  I know that you can use me, though I am certainly not worthy of that honor.  I pray that you will remind me that I do not know what you are doing behind the scenes in the souls of others.  It is not my job to know such things.  It is my job to be faithful, to share Jesus with others, and to entrust the results to you.  Lord, help me to share my faith and to see you do mighty things that I could never predict because of your great, soul-saving power.

 

Why Would Anyone Like the Doctrine of Election?

Juan Sanchez writes a worthwhile post about why, to him, the doctrine of sovereign election is precious. Regardless of your understanding of free will or predestination, this piece is worth a look, as it helps to see why one from the sovereignty side feels so positively about his understanding.

DeYoung on Gambling

Kevin DeYoung writes an interesting commentary on the issue of gambling and Christians. If you are interested in this issue, you might want to check it out.

Ezekiel 13:1-3

 

:1     The word of the Lord came to me: 2     “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ 3     Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

 

            It seems that no matter where I go, no matter what Christian group I am speaking to, I regularly hear people telling me that God has told them one thing or another.  When People invite me to preach to their group, they direct me to say “whatever the Lord leads you to say.”  Whenever I hear of a person making a major decision in their lives, it is very often that they claim that “God led me” to this or that decision.

 

            I want to preface my following

remarks.  I believe that God leads his people.  I believe that God communicates to us very clearly.  I do not believe that we are living this life in some sort of deistic state in which God does not actively intervene.  God is most certainly at work in the hearts of his people.

 

            With that said, I am often disturbed by a person claiming that God told him or her this or that.  Why does this disturb me?  It most often disturbs me that people claim to have heard from God because, in most instances, their claim to have heard from God has absolutely nothing to do with the word of God.  The claim to have heard from God that most people maintain is quite often a totally subjective, fuzzy, nebulous sort of thing.  They feel something very strongly in their heart, and they assume that God is leading them to some particular action.

 

            Without question, God has spoken to his people.  He has spoken to us in his holy word.  The Bible is living and active (Heb 4:12).  The Bible gives us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Pet 1:3-4).  The Bible is perfect, reviving our souls and changing our lives (cf. Psa 19:7-9).  The Bible is God’s communication to us, telling us who God is and what God demands of us.  The Bible is perfect, and its leading is trustworthy.  And when a person claims to be led by God as he or she rightly interprets and applies the word of God, I have no qualms.

 

            I do, however, struggle with a person who simply has a gut feeling, a strange dream, or a powerful notion in their mind claiming that it has come from God.  Without question, God has used people who have made such claims.  However, I also think that there are many, countless numbers, who have claimed to have heard from God that this event must take place or that marrying that person is definitely the right thing to do who have, upon further review, found out that they might not have heard as much from God as they thought. 

 

            When Peter defended his gospel in 2 Peter 1, he told his story.  He said that he knew that his story was not made up, because he saw Jesus transfigured (cf. 2 Pet 1:16-18).  However, Peter goes onto say that he has something that is more sure than his own personal experience, that being the word of the prophets, the Bible (cf. 2 Pet 1:19-ff).  [Note: some translations of the Bible do not word verse 19 in such a way as to help you see this truth clearly, but the ESV handles it well and the original language certainly makes it plain that Peter is affirming that the word of the prophets is more sure than his experience.]

 

            Ezekiel pronounced woe on those who prophesy from their own hearts.  He was saying, on God’s authority, that those who claim to have heard something from God that God did not say are in big trouble.  God commands those who claim to have heard from God outside of his word, “Hear the word of the Lord.”  In Ezekiel’s day, that word was spoken through Ezekiel.  In our day, that word of the Lord is available for us all to hear in the pages of Holy Scripture.

 

Piper: The Centrality of God's Glory

John Piper explains what he means by the glory of God and why this issue is so important.

Free Desiring God Audio Book

The folks at ChristianAudio.com are giving away a free audio download of John Piper's Desiring God all month long. Just go to the site, select the book, and use the code nov2009. You can choose to download the book in mp3, wma, or m4b formats.
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