Update on The Shack:

 

The Shack by
William P. Young has been on the

New York Times Best Seller List for 15 weeks,
currently in the number one position for fiction books. The
book has been promoted by popular Christian figures such as
Eugene Peterson and Gayle Erwin (The Jesus Style). What’s
more, numerous Christian ministries such as Probe Ministries
(an apologetics group based out of Texas) are endorsing the
book. Probe’s associate speaker, Sue Bohlin says “The
Shack became one of my all-time favorite books before I
had even finished it.”

1



In addition
to receiving wide acceptance from the Christian community at
large, the author speaks at many evangelical churches. On
September 8th and 9th, for instance, Young will be speaking
at North Valley Calvary Chapel in Yuba City, California,
church of Calvary pastor Bob Fromm.

2 However, even though this is a Calvary Chapel church,
Calvary Distribution (the resource and book venue for the
Calvary Chapel movement) has issued an “Official Statement”
regarding The Shack. Calvary Distribution’s book
reviewer Keyan Soltani calls The Shack “a dangerous
book.” The Official Statement reads:

Due to
the popularity of this book and the positive
endorsements it has received from the Christian
community, we felt that it would be prudent to explain
why, as those who hold fast to the word/nature of God as
inerrant, we will not be endorsing this book. Some of
our concerns include:

*
The minimizing of the word of God: The Shack errs
in the presumption that God desires to be freed from His
word as expressed by the characters, yet, the Psalmist
tells us in Psalm 138:2 “For You have magnified Your
word above all Your name.”

*
The
redefining of the nature of God: the book implies a
theology of modalism which is defined as the non
Trinitarian belief that the Heavenly Father, Resurrected
Son and Holy Spirit are different modes or aspects of
one God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three
distinct persons in God Himself.

* The book’s conversational tone is intended to catch the
reader off guard with overt casualness. There is a
personalized-trademarked version of God that requires
the least bit of commitment; seeker-friendly experience
over truth; an air of anti-authority for the spiritually
lazy consumer. The double-speak and theology that is
embedded in this book with its underlying condescension,
protesting agenda, and liberal theology are genetic
markers of the emergent church.

We recognize the enormous popularity of The Shack
but are wary of the overlying theological implications
and the presentation of the person of God within this
book.

In a Lighthouse Trails report
on The Shack, it was brought out that co-author of The Shack, Wayne Jacobsen

3
resonates with the leaders in
the emerging church, which may
well have influenced the final draft of The Shack.
The book refers to God as “the ground of all being” that
“dwells in, around, and through all things–ultimately
emerging as the real” (p. 112)–this is the ripe fruit of
contemplative/emerging spirituality. One can find this
language and definition of God in the writings of
John
Shelby Spong and
Marcus Borg, and the concept overflows
within the emerging camp. Let there be no mistake, this
description of God does not mean that God upholds
everything; it means that God is the essence of all that
exists (in other words, He dwells in all humans and all
creation).

New Age proponent Sue Monk Kidd would agree with The
Shack’s definition of God: in her book, First Light,
she says God is the graffiti on the building (p. 98).

It is possible that a key to understanding The Shack
could actually lie with Monk Kidd who was once a
conservative Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher. She
began studying the teachings of mystic Thomas Merton, which
eventually led her out of the Southern Baptist arena and
into the New Age. Today, she follows goddess spirituality
(Sophia) and has said in one of her books that God dwells in
all things, even excrement (The Dance of the Dissident
Daughter).

There is perhaps a striking
similarity between The Shack’s “God” the Father and
the Black Madonna used in Monk Kidd’s best selling novel,
The Secret Life of Bees (coming out soon as a movie).
Monk Kidd says the Black Madonna she chose is “a powerful
symbolic essence that could take up residence inside of [the
novel’s character, Lily] and become catalytic in her
transformation.”4
The fact that both Sue Monk Kidd and William Young have
chosen a Black Madonna figure as representing “God”
and that both talk about the ground of all being (God
in all things) cannot be ignored. Episcopal priest (panentheist)
Matthew Fox says:

“Today
the Black Madonna is returning. She is coming, not
going, and she is calling us to something new (and very
ancient as well)….

“[The Black Madonna
archetype awakens in us and … she is so important for
the twenty-first century…. The Black Madonna invites
us into the dark and therefore into our depths. This is
what the mystics call the ‘inside’ of things, the
essence of things. This is where Divinity lies. It is
where the true self lies…. Because she is a goddess,
the Black Madonna resides in all beings. She is the
divine presence inside of creation.”5

The gap between the New Age and
Christianity is being narrowed, and The Shack is
another disastrous and deceptive tool that will bring this
about. When

David Jeremiah
favorably quoted and referenced Sue Monk Kidd in his book,
Life Wide Open, we knew this would further close the
gap that gave Christianity its distinctness. It is this
distinctness that allows sinful man to see his need for a
Savior. When that gap closes, the Gospel message will be
hidden from view from even more people than it is today. The Shack
has brought about some
huge strides in causing this to take place.

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Other reports from
www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com:

The New Age
Comes to the Girl Scouts of the USA

The Oneness Blessing – Pathway to Global Awakening

Brian McLaren Tour
Starts Soon |

Ken Blanchard Joins “The Secret” Team

Rick Warren
Teams Up with New Age Proponent Leonard Sweet

Al Gore and Tony
Campolo Address Baptist Organizations

Emergent Manifesto |

Deceptive
Roots of the Emerging Church

The
Re-Think Conference |
Deceptive
Roots of the Emerging Church

They Like Jesus,
But Not the Church |
Erwin
McManus

The Secret: A New
Era for Humankind

Yoga, Mysticism & Moody Bible Institute