Why this warning, why this article? A few days ago Jurgen Matthesius, senior pastor of C3 San Diego, announced his support for “The Shack” in an Instagram. Over the years Churchwatch Central has done a stellar job warning the sheep about dangerous sects and movements that claim to be Christian including C3 churches. In their latest report they included a piece by noted Christian apologist Matt Slick where he details why the blockbuster book and movie must be avoided at all costs:
“There is a famine in the land, and Christian discernment is dying. The book “The Shack” is a feel-good fictional story about a man named Mack whose daughter is murdered. Mack subsequently has an encounter with God in a shack in the woods, and through this meeting, he’s healed emotionally and spiritually. Sound good? Of course it does. The only problem is the many false doctrines laced throughout the book.
Instead of describing God as the Majestic Supreme Being that He is, The Shack dumbs Him down and reshapes Him into a feel-good figure. God the Father who, according to the Bible, cannot be seen (John 6:46; 1 Tim. 6:16), appears in the form of an African-American woman named “papa” (p. 86–talk about gender confusion) who has scars on his wrist (p. 95). Wrong! The Father was not crucified. Jesus is presented as a Middle Easterner wearing a plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves (p. 84). The Holy Spirit appears as an Asian woman (p. 85). The Shack’s author, Mr. Young, justifies these false representations under the rubric of literary license and says it is only fiction. Okay, but does that mean it is alright to refer to God in a way that is in direct contradiction to Scripture? No, it does not. God has chosen to reveal Himself without gender confusion in the man Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5), but The Shack doesn’t stop with flamboyant reconstructions of God.
