Have you read the book? Has anybody here read the book? The book is a
fiction, but still has truth with in it. Do you know what I mean? It is
The Shack, an author's take of God and how his life was changed. Can you
accept that testimony and believe a human will like to write about it for
others to see?
P.S. You have taken a few of the quotations out of its context
"Then it is you who ..." is meant to be a negative idea in the event it is
being spoken in from one of the Holy Trinity Characters.

Not only is this attack from another Jesus, this is an attack of old. As we rember way back in the garden od Eden, the devil tricked Adam and Eve. He made them believe that, eating of the tree ,they will recieve power
to know good and evil. This was the first attack on man and still exist today in every shape, form and fashion.

I have not read 'The Shack' but if this is taken from it all I can think of is
rat poison. 99.9% good food and .1% deadly poison.
'If they speak not according the "this Word", there is no light in them.'
God bless all who are searching and may they be drawn to the Author and
Finisher of our faith; the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word.

I have read "The Shack" and I started in the book knowing and remembering that it is FICTION.
I think it would be a good bible study topic just to see were it does or does not fit with the true word of God.

I appreciate that we are to hold to the Bible for light and truth and to measure all other things by it, but these comments above are excerpted entirely out of context and made to appear as if they have an entirely new
meaning other than what the author intended.
For example, the excerpts
"Then it is you who determine good and evil. You become the judge...that which you determine to be good will change over time and circumstance..."
and
"By choosing to declare what's good and evil you seek to determine your own destiny."
are referring to the conversation where God is telling the main character that by seeking to set himself up as a judge of what is right and what is wrong, he is trying to control his own destiny in vain. And that the
human standards of what is good and evil, do in fact change over time and circumstance--that is, the human standards crumble and change, whereas God's standards are perfect and stand forever, regardless of time
and circumstance.
And as far as obedience? Submission IS indeed about a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, NOT arbitrary obedience. Arbitration is exactly what Satan tried to accuse God of, and God does not
arbitrarily demand obedience of any of His children. He wants our submission and obedience to be born out of trust in Him, because He demonstrated His love and trustworthiness by living for us and
dying on the cross for us. God's mission is to restore us, not control us.
And the exerpt "You will see me in the Bible...Just don't look for rules and principles; look for relationship - a way of coming to be with us." Jesus is indeed found in the Bible, and not amongst the rules and principles,
because if that were true, the Pharisees and Saducees of Jesus' time would have found Him. But they missed out on a relationship with Him altogether because they were too busy following the rules. Don't get me wrong--
Jesus' followers did indeed obey Him. But that obedience was born out of their relationship with Him.
And as for the statement, "I can give you freedom to overcome any system of power in which you find yourself, be it religious, economic, social, or political. You will grow in the freedom to be inside or outside all kinds
of systems and to move freely between and among them." This is also true, for Jesus gives us freedom to realize that the only truth lies in Him. The systems of this world--politics, economics, religions--are manmade
institutions and our hope in Jesus is that there is more to life, and we exist for a higher purpose than for money or politics or even churchgoing. Our highest calling is to reflect God through sharing His love. His kingdom
is not of this world, and this is what the author was referring to.
I am so glad that you have watchful eyes and ears and do not want to be led astray by falsehoods, but please don't demonize this book. It is an allegory, written to be a powerful story of redemption and restoration
through God.

“The Shack” a deception or an innocent yet ill-advised attempt to make an emotional connection to God?
The following is my response / explanations to the quotes Pastor Steve Wohlberg pointed out as citing potential or real heresy / errors in the book “the Shack”.
I have not read the book, so my comments are only related to my gut impression so far from the comments I’ve heard others make, and the reading of Steve’s comments and the following thread of comments after Steve’s on this web page.
I can see exactly where he is coming from however; being a 3rd generation SDA, I have seen far too many times in our denomination and others that people seem to lean too heavily towards a legalistic attitude, so much so that it occludes the relationship factor with Jesus Christ. Sad but true, it’s all part of the devils plan.
Most christian readers will admit that the devil will attempt to deceive by mixing truth with error, just like a politician will try to sneak a bill through with some hidden alterior agenda / motive. Yet the process of deciding how to decipher which doctrines are in agreement with scriptures and which ones are actually the lies and trickery of the devil, obviously has many interpretations. Some are much clearer than others.
If God is who He say’s He is then if we focus on Him, and are willing to do His (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit)will (John 7:16-19) we cannot help but be led into all truth.
The quotes . . . as listed on this website.
"I can give you freedom to overcome any system of power in which you find yourself, be it religious, economic, social, or political. You will grow in the freedom to be inside or outside all kinds of systems and to move freely between and among them."
Yes, Only Jesus Christ can provide freedom. As Pastor Wohlberg so aptly stated in his “Statement of Beliefs” on this website that
31.The truth of the Bible is bigger than any church or denomination.
Unfortunately, many SDA’s (I am one) have had (some still do), the wrong attitude. (May Jesus Christ help us to have the right attitude). Many have spat out the truth facts and just expected people to come up with the relationship on their own, and then they use the adherence to those “Truth Facts” as evidence regarding the level of salvation that person has attained.
And while it is true we will be judged by our works let’s let Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit bring us all into the full truth, and lets be sure that if we use iron to sharpen iron, that it’s REALLY the Holy Spirit impressing that upon us, and not our own realizations of weakness and failures that drive us to criticize others.
Many times we (Christians in general) have created a “System” which people need to free themselves from. Hopefully, in freeing ourselves from these kinds of “Systems” we don’t inadvertently also end up freeing ourselves from the only true source of “FREEDOM” that is Jesus Christ.
"You will see me in the Bible...Just don't look for rules and principles; look for relationship - a way of coming to be with us."
Yes we will see Jesus in the bible, all scripture is given by inspiration from God, or (God breathed) 2 Tim 3:16. The words are the representation of God, they are living words, they are the flesh of Jesus Christ, and if you read further you will find that those words show how much God loves us, in spite of our condition. Yet oddly enough these words of the bible include some relationship boundaries.
So it depends on which lenses you chose to see it with, is the bible a “Rule Book”? or Is it a “Love Letter”, inviting an estranged partner back into a loving relationship, and does that love letter include some safe boundaries for that relationship.
e.g. When a couple has a happy marriage, does the freedom within that marriage allow for infidelity with no consequences? Will either party ultimately be happy if that happens or even worse continues to? Can it be forgiven? Of course. But only by becoming like Jesus Christ and aligning our character with His can any of us truly learn to be faith full, just as any of us can learn to truly forgive if we’ve been hurt.
Where better to learn what the character of Jesus Christ is truly like than by reading His bible?
"Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to light and good; they do not have any actual existence."
This statement is at best a gross over simplification, and actually in it’s least common denominator is in alignment with the lies of the devil.
While it would be true that we could not fully understand or know what is “evil and darkness” without the comparison to “light and good”, the following statement that “evil and darkness” don’t have an actual existence? Are they trying to philosophize and say that “evil and darkness” are only concepts, (obviously concepts don’t have existences in and of themselves), rather it is the results of the actions that have actual existences.
When a statement like this is written by a Christian writer, I would attribute it possibly to one of those attempts to free oneself from the “System” of religion created by man, and not the true religion of Jesus Christ. They have not been brought into the full truth yet, but hopefully they will at some point see that whether or not evil has an existence, there ARE certainly consequences that Do exist.
"Submission is not about authority and it is not about obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect. In fact, we are submitted to you in the same way."
Here again it all depends on what lens you chose to view things through.
If you’ve been jaded by rules, then you may need to focus more on the relationship until you realize that God designed relationships to function best within certain boundaries.
If you’ve been trampling a relationship boundaries, thinking that you’re frolicking in the freedom of a relationship, maybe you should re-evaluate the basis of that relationship.
"Then it is you who determine good and evil. You become the judge...that which you determine to be good will change over time and circumstance..."
This statement seems to be missing the mark in a big way. There is a popular concept that teaches that Humans are inherently good, and if you truly follow your heart you will be following truth.
This can only be true if you’re heart is totally in line with the Character and heart of the truth giver, and how better to know what that is, than to read the only book which contains the truth, the Holy Bible.
Incidentally the bible states in Jer. 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”
And Prov 14:12” There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
"By choosing to declare what's good and evil you seek to determine your own destiny."
Ditto to my comment on the previous quotation.
Don't be fooled. Such New Age notions would never be spoken by the true God of the Bible. Instead, they would come from "another Jesus" (2 Cor. 11:4) whose goal is "to deceive, if possible, even the elect" (Matthew 24:24).

The devil did its job long before Young's book, The Shack. The devil deceived the 4th century "christian" world to cut itself off from it's original "jewish" vine/root -- so "christians" have become wild branches grafted onto a tree with no roots and are starving themselves into the death of cultish religiosity! The deceptions are enormous. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob made the day from sundown-to-sundown; arrogant "christian" man made the day from midnight to midnight; God numbered the days; arrogant "christian" man gave the days names of pagan entities; God gave His children the Feast Days of the Lord (Leviticus 23); arrogant "christian" man decided Christmas and Easter would become adequate replacements; all of it is subtle deception of a magnitude beyond comprehension -- righteousness as filthy rags.

we have a cabin rental business (36 cabins) One of our cabin guest just gave us this book 3 days ago.We were going to read it,but literally stumbled on to your website by accident . The folks who gave us the book said they were Christians,but were drinking alcohol. I don't think we are going to read it now ,because of your comments,thank you,Dave p.s. you need to fix your comment box,it is not letting us see our entire message that we are sending you.

Truth mixed with error is still error. Be on guard!

Christians are more deceived than the wold in some regards. if your walk never goes beyond good and evil/ sin/not sin, you missed something or you may still be an infant
in the faith with stunted growth because of pride, resisting the FULL counsel of god. if it ain't grace its "another gospel" . if you offend in one point you are guilty of the entire
law as a transgressor. so (since you are guilty) just consider your neighbor; he needs the FREE gift too.