the shack - william p young

After listening to Warren smith's message on New Age.. I started to research on certain things he said especially about the book called, "The Shack." by William P. Young. This book has gained alot of popularity in the past couple of months, becoming one of the best sellers. I stumbled upon many different articles, about what the author went through and some issues he had to deal with.. and how that led him to write this book, inorder to find himself, etc. I looked up the people that supported his book, which were mostly emergent church leaders and also some others. I stumbled on this one theologian name Dr. C. Baxter Kruger and read up on some of his blog. He mentioned the word Perichoresis so I looked it up and was a bit confused about the idea of the holy spirit. Dr. C. Baxter Kruger's blog addressed me to a page, Perichoresis.com and I saw a banner, "The shack conference" which was going to be held to share the theology that is behind the book.

This made me very alarmed. So I did some more research on to find a legit person who is biblically grounded, to break down the book. I'm not sure if the concept of Perichoresis is correct, but I will have to look into it. So, here's the link.

the shack breakdown

some parts:

Though common, such teaching is dangerous and directly detracts from the sufficiency of Scripture. When we admit that God has not, in the Bible, said all that He needs to say to us, we open the doors for all manner of new revelation, much of which may contradict the Bible. What authority is there if not the Bible? Ultimately the issue of revelation is an issue of authority and too many Christians are willing to trust their own authority over the Bible’s. What authority does Young rely on as he brings teaching here in The Shack? Does he look to a higher authority or does he look mostly to himself? The reader can have no confidence that Young loves and respects God’s Word has He chose to give it to us in Scripture.

The book contains surprisingly little teaching about salvation. When Young does discuss conversion, he places it firmly in the camp of relationship but also uses the stereotypical phrases such as “this is not a religion” and “Jesus isn’t a Christian.” Jesus apparently loves all people in exactly the same way, having judged them worthy of his love. Young also wades dangerously close to universalism saying that Jesus has no interest in making people into Christians. Rather, no matter what faith they come from, he wishes to “join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa.” He denies that all roads lead to him (since most roads lead nowhere) but says instead, “I will travel any road to find you.” Whether Young holds to universalism or not, and whether he believes that all faiths can lead a person to God, the book neither affirms nor refutes.

oh wow.