I have to admit, I was a little surprised when I realized that I first wrote this nearly two years ago. Time does fly.

A few things I think need a response. First, there is nothing in Pastor Geracci’s article which states explicitly or implicitly whether God can or cannot use a book like The Shack. In Scripture we find that God often used the unexpected. He used a donkey to speak, he used unbelieving kings to preserve and provide for His people. At times God uses false prophets to reveal His true prophets such as Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. That God may use something that is riddled with heresy is not the same as saying that the heresy is now acceptable.

Second, Pastor Geracci is using the Bible as the standard for faith and practice. He uses it in its normal historical/ grammatical context and draws on the rich history and historical understanding of the Christian faith including the Early Church Fathers, counsels, etc. I am not certain why this sort of “biblical theology” would be suspect, particularly by someone claiming a Masters in Theology. I know Brian McLaren and other emergents reject the historical faith in favor of post modern eclecticism with an affinity for the social gospel of the late 19th century as well as the updated version represented by the Jesus Seminar. Clearly, those in that camp would have a problem with Pastor Geracci using the Bible to evaluate books purporting to be Christian.

Third, it may well be that you do not regard patriopassionism or subordinationism (both discussed on page 13 of Discernment and The Shack) but both have been rejected as such for centuries based on the biblical text of “biblical theology.”

Lastly, Pastor Geracci is indeed a gatekeeper, as all pastors should be, but not against the Holy Spirit. Rather he is following the biblical mandate in Acts 20:28-30 to guard against false teachers outside the church who would invade and harm the flock as well as false teachers who rise up within the church and damage the flock. That The Shack touches people emotionally is not a test for whether it is true or not. The Shack misrepresents the very nature of God, as is pointed out in the article. As far as your assertion that “he exhibits a barely-veiled lack of charity” I find at least a double standard here. No where does Pastor Geracci make personal attacks or propose motives and yet as you write you state “but I suspect the “Pastor” know where he bent over backward to keep people away” and “appreciate the “Pastor” would like to set himself up as the gatekeeper and tell God “You cannot speak through this book!”” as but 2 examples of as assignment of motives which are not apparent or stated in the article and at least one of which you merely suspect. In what way is this charitable or is that something which only goes on way, from Pastor Geracci to whose teachings he is reviewing and commenting on?

Don

I don’t see that in the New Testament qualifications for “Pastor” – which are admittedly very thin.

“Pastor” Geracci could not have illustrated my point better – he commits the very common, but nevertheless blind error of super-gluing the fundamentalism called “Biblical theology” to the Bible, and then whacking the Shack around with that as if he’s being Biblical.

Again, exactly the mistake the Pharisees and Scribes made when concluding that Jesus could not be the Messiah.

What’s more, he exhibits a barely-veiled lack of charity toward his brother Paul Young – many items in his “list” of reasons you would like the book are fundamental misunderstandings of the book itself. If I had time, I would point each one out – but I suspect the “Pastor” know where he bent over backward to keep people away.

I appreciate the “Pastor” would like to set himself up as the gatekeeper and tell God “You cannot speak through this book!” God apparently has other plans.

Jim Wehde
Masters in Theological Studies
Grand Rapids Baptist (now Theological) Seminary

1. The different appearances of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit were used to help Mack break his religious conditioning.

2. You don’t get brownie points for doing something through obligation; only if you want to.

3. Life takes a lot of time and a lot of relationship.

4. How free are we really? – family genetics, social influences, personal habits, advertising, propaganda & paradigms etc. Freedom is an incremental process that happens inside a relationship with Jesus Christ.

5. When all you can see is your pain, perhaps then you lose sight of God.

6. Pain has a way of clipping our wings, so we can’t fly. After awhile we forget we were ever created to fly.

7. When Jesus became a man he gave up his own ability to heal people and do miracles. His miracles were accomplished by Jesus’ (a man, a dependent limited human being) trust in the Father God. We are all designed to live like that, out of God’s life and power.

8. God exists in three persons so we, his creation, can also live in love and relationship, just like God does. If God didn’t, we couldn’t. “God cannot act apart from love.”

9. Relationships are never about power, and one way to avoid wanting power is to limit oneself – to serve.

10. Sin is its own punishment, devouring from the inside. It’s not God’s purpose to punish it; it’s God’s joy to cure it.

11. When people choose independence over relationship, we become a danger to each other.

12. If people learned to regard each other’s concerns as significant as their own, there would be no need for hierarchy. God does not relate inside a hierarchy; God wants us to trust him because he will never use or hurt us.

13. When Christians don’t trust God it’s because they don’t know they are loved by him. They think God is not good.

14. Mack says: “I just can’t imagine any final outcome that would justify all this (pain, suffering etc).” Papa replies: “We’re not justifying it. We are redeeming it.”

15. The choice of God to hide so many wonders from man is an act of love that is a gift inside the process of life.

16. For any created being, autonomy is lunacy.

17. When something happens to us, how do we determine whether it is good or bad? By whether we like it or if it causes us pain. This is self-serving and self-centred.

18. We become the judge of good and evil; so when each person’s good and evil clashes with someone else’s, fights, even wars, break out.

19. Eating of the tree tore the universe apart, divorcing the spiritual from the physical. All of us died, expelling the very breath of God.

20. We play God in our independence. The only remedy is to give up the right to decide good and evil and choose to live in God and trust and rest in his goodness.

21. God is light and God is good. Removing ourselves from God will plunge us into darkness. Declaring independence will result in evil because apart from God, you can only draw on yourself. That is death, because you have separated yourself from God, from Life.

22. This concept is difficult for us because the good may be the presence of cancer or the loss of income, or even a life. Sarayu answers: “Don’t you think we care about these people who suffer too? Each of them is the centre of another story that is untold.”

23. About having ‘rights’: “‘Rights’ are where survivors go so they won’t have to work out relationships.”

24. Jesus gave up his rights so his dependent life would open a door that would allow us to live free enough to give up our rights.

25. Each of us is wild, beautiful, and perfectly in process when God is working with a purpose in our hearts. We are an emerging, growing, and alive pattern – a living fractal.

26. We tend to live either in the past or the future; dwelling on the pain and the regret of the past, instead of a quick visit to learn something from it. Or fearing the future, letting our imagination run wild with worry, and forgetting to see the future with Jesus. This happens when: a. we don’t really know we’re loved and b. we don’t believe that God is good.

27. Apart from Jesus’ life, we cannot submit one to another. Jesus’ life is not an example to be copied. Jesus came to live his life in us; so we will see with God’s eyes, hear with his ears, love with his heart, and touch with his hands.

28. Some say love grows, but it is the knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. Love is the skin of knowing.

29. We human beings are constantly judging others because we are self-centred.

30. We say: “Predators deserve judgment, their parents, too, for twisting them, and their parents, and on and on, until finally we go right back to Adam, and then, why not judge God? He started it all…isn’t God to blame for our losses? He could have not created, or he could have stopped the killer, but he didn’t.” If we can judge God so easily then, of course, we can judge the world. We must then (e.g.) choose two of our five children to go to heaven and three to go to hell, because that’s what we believe God does. Mack could not choose any one of his children because he loved them no matter what they did. So instead, he begged that he could go to hell for his children. This response is exactly what Jesus did. Mack judged well. He judged his children worthy of love, even if it cost him everything. This is how Jesus loves. ‘And now we know Papa’s heart.”

31. God’s love is so much larger than our sin could ever be.

32. Evil was never a plan of God’s. We must return from our independence, give up being his judge, and know God for who he is.

33. When we receive God’s love and stop judging him we let go of the guilt and despair that had sucked the colours of life out of everything.

34. God never abandons his children. We are never alone. God could no more abandon us than he could abandon himself.

35. “Live loved.”

36. When we leave the light of God and retreat to the darkness all alone, the darkness makes our fears, lies, and regrets bigger in the dark. Sometimes, as a kid, doing this is part of survival, but now we must come to the light.

37. Jesus will travel any road to find his children. But only one road leads back to heaven.

38. Stories about a person willing to exchange their life for another reveal our need and God’s heart.

39. Even though God can work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies, it does not mean God caused it. Where there is suffering, you will find grace in many facets and colours.

40. ‘Love’ bothers to keep trying to touch people and never gives up.

41. Sometimes we hide inside lies that justify who we are and what we do.

42. Ask for forgiveness and let the forgiveness heal you. Take the risk of honesty. Faith does not grow in the house of uncertainty.

43. Our transformation is a miracle greater than raising the dead.

44. All evil flows from independence.

45. God’s purposes are always and only an expression of love. God works life out of death, freedom out of brokenness, and light out of darkness.

46. Emotions are neither good nor bad. They are the colours of the soul. They are spectacular and incredible.

47. The more you live in the truth, the more our emotions will help you see clearly.

48. Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control. Keeping the law grants us the power to judge others and feel superior.

49. Responsibility and expectation are dead nouns, full of judgment, guilt, and shame. Our identity becomes wrapped up in performance. The opposite is when God gives us an ability to respond that is free to love and serve in every situation, with God in us; and expectancy is alive and dynamic with no concrete expectation – only the gift of being together.

50. To the degree we live with expectations and responsibilities is the degree we fear and the degree we don’t trust or know God.

51. If God is the centre of everything, then together we can live through everything that happens to us.

52. Forgiveness is big.

53. When bad things happen, what God had to offer us in response is his love, goodness, and relationship with us.

54. God doesn’t do humiliation, guilt, or condemnation. They don’t produce one speck of wholeness or righteousness.

55. Forgiving isn’t about forgetting; it’s about letting go of another person’s throat.

56. Forgiveness does not create a relationship; it simply removes them from your judgment.

57. Because you are important to God, everything you do is important.

I gotta tell you, this book made me want to explore the idea of God a little more, and I just can’t see how that is a bad thing.

“Do not be deceived. Any mature believer exercising genuine spiritual discernment immediately recognizes The Shack as nothing more (or less) than another attempt to indoctrinate people into the false belief systems of New Ageism and Universalism.”

It appears you have a few more times around the block to run, Wendie, before you feel truly secure walking, really walking with your God. I have been where you are, being a graduate of a solidly conservative theological seminary.

There is one thing, as a “Biblical” Christian, that is very, very perilous to forget: Every time, and I mean EVERY LAST TIME that you go to the Scripture to use as a weapon against your brother in Christ, you bring yourself, your insecurities, and also everything God has done in you so far, to the table with you. You do not read Scripture in a vacuum.

The Scribes and Pharisees were impeccable students of Scripture – almost nobody was better in their time. Yet they used that very Scripture “knowledge” to conclude that Jesus could not be the Messiah.

There is plenty to openly discuss about The Shack…but you who are claiming to reject it based on your knowledge of Scripture appear to me to be also unknowingly bringing in all of your theological biases, and laying classic theology over the top of Scripture.

This is a fatal error, at least it was in the case of one set of people who met Jesus.

Nobody is the self-appointed person who stands in front of the forbidden place, and says, “God does not live here”. Our Father comes and goes as He pleases. Paul Young’s writing is a bit of an overreaction to his upbringing that made God very cold and distant; but your theological writing here tells me that the spirit that scarred Paul Young so is alive and well.

Take my dare: Go to http://www.theshackbook.com, and continue the conversation that Paul Young has started (and that you have used as evidence for his public execution). I think you will find that the Body of Christ was made for interaction, not for cold, dead theological judgment.

And maybe, when the Spirit of God is then guiding you through relationship, you and I will run into each other again!

God speaks to people through the Holy Spirit in many ways. When Jesus was alive God spoke through Jesus’ words and actions, and He said He wouldn’t leave us alone but would send His Spirit to help us in the years following. In all the ways that mankind will listen to the small whisper that is the Holy Spirit let us as fellow Christians help our fellow Christians, not hinder them.

I read the book, I penciled in my own questions, and comments, and places where I disagreed, places where I laughed, cried, or wanted the author to rewrite something. If someone were to get my copy and read it, they would want to ask me questions about it. I’d want to talk to them afterwards just to be on the safe side.

Whoever it was further up there talking about taking people out for a hike in the woods, first needs to show people how dangerous the streets of the city can be, as well as the woods. No one in their right mind forgets that the world is a dangerous place. One of the first things you teach your child after they learn to walk is how to cross a street, you’d teach them what to eat and what not to eat as well while in the woods, or who to ask.

When young Christians( age is not the case here) are around you, you have to be mindful of them and explain where to find help in tough times of worry and doubt. If someone has found Jesus through reading this or any book including the Bible, they will be needing further instruction. That is where going to others for help in a prayerful way is needed.

In all you do Pray for the Spirit to guide you.