I have several saved and unsaved friends who have been reading a book titled “The Shack.” I’m not sure if you’ve read it or not. A lot of my friends are raving about the book and they are discussing it as some new “truth” about God. The ones who like it the most are the ones who have admitted they haven’t read the Bible. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and I enjoy a good story as much as the next person – so I tried to read the book.
Since folks were touting it as some new “revelation” about God – I made sure that my “Scriptural glasses” were squeaky clean when I read. With that in mind – it was hard for me to enjoy the book because so much of it didn’t line up with what I know from the Scriptures. I stopped reading when it got very off-Scripture about “all roads” leading to God. The bottom line is that it’s a fictional story and shouldn’t be any big deal, but it has become dangerous because people are embracing it as Truth. If you have read it – what did you think about it?
Having been asked about the book several times, I finally read it. I found it to be an interesting work of fiction that puts a lot of words in the Lord’s mouth. Although it was Scripturally inaccurate in a number of places, I think the overall message of God’s unconditional love for those who have chosen Him and the power it has to heal our emotional wounds, especially through forgiveness, is valid.
That said, The Shack is purely a work of fiction. It shouldn’t be thought of as a book on theology, nor was it written with that in mind. It’s a fictional story about fictional people and should be seen only for what it is, an entertaining story.