“For close to a decade, a few discerning Christians have been warning about The Shack,” says Gideon Knox. “Unlike other books that are equally as bad, this one even attracted the ire of more prominent men like [Albert] Mohler and [Tim] Challies. And yet, few listened.” Dr. Mohler charged that the book contains “undiluted heresy.” And he’s right. There are 13 heresies in the book. Even so, a large number of professing Christians read the book and had no problem recommending it to friends and family. Putting aside the controversy over the book, they rushed to theaters and filled their mouths with popcorn while enjoying Hollywood’s trashing of the Trinity on the silver screen.
Thanks largely to those who claim to follow Jesus, the movie’s a box office success.
In his piece over at Pulpit & Pen, Gideon Knox argues that discernment within the church is not vigilant and it must be. With this in mind, he has some excellent advice for pastors and church leaders. He writes:
While we should be thankful for the plethora of warnings about The Shack that have been published in recent weeks, there is still a cause for concern in Zion. Pastors and concerned laypeople have done an admirable job, by my estimation, of sharing articles on their social media pages, providing a polemical view of both the movie and the book. And even if the articles don’t include the word polemical, they nonetheless are, and they are obligatory warnings for our friends being carried away by the novelty and sensuality of a cinematic, modalistic, patripassian, whore-god who is an imaginary graven image of Yahweh, created and promoted by the money changers of the Christian book industry.
