The Shack,
by William P. Young

a review by Adam Pohlman

The Shack

The Shack is the story of a man struggling to understand a great complexity in life. He has just lost his young daughter to a serial kidnapper/murderer and cannot see how a good God could allow such a thing to happen. He believes that a loving God would have stopped it from happening and feels that a truly loving God must therefore not exist.

The book describes this man’s journey as he returns to the place of his daughters murder only to meet with “God” who walks him into a new, broader understanding of the love of God; helping him to find peace from the terrible sadness that has overcome his life.

Throughout the book I found many things that were very helpful and biblical, convicting me in my own selfish desires. It was a good reminder that the world we live in has been destroyed by sin and that God finds joy in his plan to redeem it. Other things were more troubling as they seemed to contradict very clear teachings in the Bible. Some parts were just plain odd as I couldn’t really understand what the author was saying. Some of these positives, concerns, and confusions are listed at the end as I don’t have time to cover them and others have written extensively on them. The thing that stood out most clearly as I read the book, and what I cover here, was a misunderstanding of the gospel.

The Shack attempts to explain the wonderful beauty of the relational aspect of the Trinity. From eternity past God was supremely happy within the relationship of the Trinity. The sufficiency of His own relationship provided no need for the creation. However, because He had so much love to share, He decided it would benefit His own glory even more to create humans which would be able to participate in the love shared within the Trinity. We were created as relational beings primarily to be in a relationship with Him.

The beautiful relational nature of the god in The Shack and the picture of forgiveness described are very inspiring to those people who have had bad experiences with stodgy old religion, shallow empty churches, or hypocritical self-righteous “Christians.” It is a breath of fresh air to those who saw God as a boring, begrudging rule-maker who wants to make us into mindless drones on our knees throughout eternity chanting his “goodness.” The Shack offers us a picture of a future with God that is full of every beauty God intended in the original creation. Heaven will be a perfect relationship with Him, partaking in everything He created humans to enjoy (including much of which we can enjoy here in this world). This is causing many people to say that their lives were changed from reading this book. Their understanding of God was radically altered as a bright, colorful world created by God was opened up to them.

This is where I begin to be concerned. When a book gets praise for changing lives, it is much more than a work of fiction. The Shack is actually theological fiction, as it was written by the author in a fictional story to teach his children about God. The Word of God is the only thing truly capable of changing lives to be pleasing to Him. With as little as The Shack contains actual Scripture references, I wonder how then it can change lives. The few times Scripture is introduced into the book, it is for the god of the shack to move us away from looking to the Bible for godly wisdom.

We in America tend to do what makes us happiest instead of doing what is right. So many people claim this book has helped them despite the fact that so much of the book is wrong. It is so easy for us to define God in a way that is more comfortable for us than to listen to God’s own description of Himself in the Bible. We like to make ourselves happy by creating a god in our own image instead of asking God to reveal His true self to us. Readers of The Shack claim to have grown closer in their relationships to God. This sounds very spiritual, but unless it reveals the true God of the Bible, they are only growing closer to an image.

Suppose you want to have a relationship with me. You desire to grow closer to me. Someone has given you a book that says it will draw you closer to me. You read it, study it, and find that it has changed your life. It has made you more peaceful, forgiving, kind, and generous and you say you feel much closer to me. It tells you I love poetry (which I don’t), and that my favorite color is green (it is not). The book describes my love for astrology (not true) and gives you my phone number and address (which are not accurate). It says my hair is dark brown, that I am 5’10” tall and I weigh 225 lbs. (not even close). There is a problem here. While you may feel like you’ve drawn closer to me, you have only grown closer to a false image of me. When you tell people that you know me and that I know you, you are actually deceived because you don’t really have any idea who I am. This is much more serious with God, because if it means the difference between heaven and hell, not just being my friend or a stranger, then you will want to be sure you truly know the real God. Careful discernment must be exercised to find out if the god of The Shack is the same as the God of the Bible.

The story of The Shack is a dramatic telling of one man’s road to forgiveness and joy, but claiming to be a Christian story, it misses out on the ultimate story of redemption as covered throughout the pages of the Bible. The gospel is the central theme of Scriptures; the redemption of people throughout history from the consequences of sin by the substitutional sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for the praise and glory of God. While The Shack does touch on a few of these themes, it also undermines (perhaps unintentionally) some of the basic, foundational aspects of the glorious gospel.

It is definitely true that we were created to enjoy the glory of God in a relationship with Him forever. However, we squandered that possibility as we decided we were more capable than God of determining what was best for ourselves. Our pride determined that we would seek our own way instead of trusting God to be the leader of our lives as He purposed in the creation. This is the essence of sin; that we rebel against what God expects from us as His image bearers.

The 10 Commandments are not simply a list of rules that God created for us to follow, but a perfect picture of the character of His holiness.
[1] There is one God who has revealed Himself to us through the Scriptures.
[2] Any picture or imagining of Him that is not revealed in the Bible is creating a false god.
[3] His name is due honor and respect as it expresses His character.
[4] The Sabbath rest commanded of us pictures the rest from striving to obtain his favor that we can find in Christ’s sacrifice.
[5] Honoring our parents is a way that we honor God’s authority through the submission to the authorities God placed in our lives.
[6] Murder (even anger and hatred) of an image-bearer of God are seen as a direct attack on His character.
[7] Marriage was instituted to be a picture of the Trinitarian relationship and the relationship of Christ to His church; to seek for pleasure outside of this institution is metaphorical to seeking after false gods.
[8] God gives some things to some and not to others. To take something that doesn’t belong to you is to question His providence.
[9] To bear false witness (tell a lie) is to proclaim that there is deceit in the character of God.
[10] God commands us to be content with what He has provided in life.

The god in The Shack claims that it has no expectations of people and therefore cannot be disappointed by us. Contrary to this feel-good expression, in the Bible God commands us to “be holy as I am holy” (1 Peter 1:16) and “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

As we look at ourselves in God’s perfect mirror of the 10 commandments we see that we are so far from perfect holiness that we are completely helpless to obtain His favor. We begin to recognize the deceitfulness of our hearts (Jeremiah 17:9) and that we aren’t good people at all (Romans 3:12). When people in the Bible were standing before God, they were fearful for their lives as they realized that as sinners they could not possibly continue to live in the presence of God. Moses hid his face as he was afraid to look at God (Exodus 3) and God hid him in a rock to prevent Moses from seeing Him and being killed (Exodus 33). Isaiah cried out to God not to kill him because he was a “man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6). When Peter recognized that Jesus was God, he pleaded with Jesus to leave his presence so he wouldn’t perish (Luke 5). Guilt arises in us as we realize that we do not deserve blessing, but we actually deserve just punishment in hell (1 Corinthians 6:9,10; Matthew 25:46). The guilt isn’t all bad, however, as it drives us to repentance (2 Corinthians 7:10) and leads us to the good news of the cross (Galatians 3:24).

The good news of the cross is that Jesus, who lived the perfect life we are commanded to live, died on the cross taking the punishment we deserved (2 Corinthians 5:21). God’s justice and wrath against our sin was satisfied as He was pleased to pour out His punishment on His son Jesus (Isaiah 53:4,5,10). Those who repent and believe in Christ will be counted as sinless (John 3:16), but those who refuse to repent will not find their sins paid for but will pay for them on their own in eternal fire (Matthew 25:41). The Shack leaves the door open for those who deny Christ to still be reconciled with God.

Often times the love of God is misunderstood; pictured as God giving us a hug when we are sad or giving us nice things to enjoy. But the Bible always explains the love of God in connection with the death of Christ. “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9,10). Love isn’t a warm feeling of pleasure magically given to us by the Holy Spirit, it is God allowing our sin to be transferred to Christ and Christ’s perfection to be transferred to us; so that His enemies (Colossians 1:21; Ephesians 2:3; John 8:44) become His children and friends. How truly amazing that God gives blessings to those who curse Him and offers eternal life in His kingdom to those who drag His name through the mud!

Because God loved us by giving us new life (1 John 4:9), we are “born again” (John 3:3) with a clean heart that desires to obey God. His commands aren’t a dead list of rules to us, but a delight (1 John 5:3) as we are being transformed into that image of His perfection (2 Corinthians 3:18). We delight to read of His works through the Bible (Job 23:12) as they are the words of life (John 6:68). We enjoy the fellowship of other believers at church gatherings because they have also been redeemed from their fallen condition (1 John 3; Hebrews 10:25). We are now able to forgive others because we realize how much God has forgiven us (Luke 7:47; Matthew 18:21-35).

No matter what a believer encounters in this world, we know that God is working through the corruption brought on by our sin to eventually bring goodness into our lives (Romans 8:28). We can handle the temporary trials because we know that one day we will be welcomed into heaven where there will be no more pain and death (Revelation 21:4) and we will get to enjoy the pure loving fellowship with God without our sin destroying every relationship.

While The Shack does a beautiful job of portraying loving relationships and the need for forgiveness, it lacks (and often contradicts) the holy, righteous demands of the Creator, making Him out to be at times a helpless bystander waiting for people to recognize He loves them. It tends to bring the glorious God of all creation down to a picture of a really good human. The God of the universe, revealed in the Bible, is much, much bigger and more powerful than this. He is in control of all things, working all things together for His glory and the good of His children. He will punish all sin wherever it is seen. He punished the sin of those who trust him on the cross of Jesus Christ and He will punish the sin of those who refuse to believe in eternal hell. It would have been perfectly just and right for Him to send us all to hell, but He has chosen to lavish His goodness on many and to redeem them to partake in His eternal glory in the beauty of heaven, far greater than anything we can imagine. This is what makes His love so great, that we nearly insignificant people would be cared for by the infinite Creator even though we didn’t deserve it. Praise be to God for giving mercy and grace to some to enjoy Him forever!

Quick Thoughts Running Through My Mind as I Read the Book

Strong Points

When we question God’s goodness, we act as ignorant judges, believing ourselves to be more righteous than God Himself (pg. 159)
Forgiveness requires leaving God to work out His plan and not allowing bitterness to control us.
God is completely satisfied and self-sufficient within the Trinity.
The main character, while often disrespectful of God, is at times brutally honest with God sounding like some of the Psalms crying out to God for understanding.
Papa sensitive to Mack’s lack of a good father, as God is called in Psalm 68:5 “A father of the fatherless.”
Mack realizes that God is a lot more complex than he could possibly understand and needs to trust in His goodness more. All good things come from God.
God is not to blame for suffering and pain in the world, but we are for our selfish God-dishonoring decisions.
God tells Mack that people like to determine good or evil based on their own feelings instead of looking to God for answers (pg. 134-136).
We are created in God’s image to be in a relationship with Him. Our sense of justice, love, and creative imagination (pg. 141) show how we were different from the animals, specially made to be in fellowship with God.
We fear so much because we don’t trust God (pg. 142).
The church that the world sees does not always represent Christ the way it should (pg. 177,178). Jesus told us there would be true and false believers mixed in with the visible church, with the false believers giving the church a bad name.
God is not the stereotypical grandfather-in-the-sky. He is magnificent, beautiful, powerful, gracious, loving and merciful. Much more than we could ever imagine (which is exactly why the 2^nd Commandment forbids imagining or picturing Him as anything).
Heaven isn’t a place where we are all wearing white robes, playing harps and chanting like monks for eternity. It includes everything we understand as loving and beautiful in this world multiplied by infinity. It contains relationships without sin, joy without pain, life without death, happiness with no interruption for sadness, complete use of our senses far better than we have ever used them on earth, expressions of art, music, dance, food, architecture, and science that we haven’t even begun to experience.
The 10 Commandments aren’t a list of rules we are to keep to please God, but are a mirror to look at to see how far short we come up to His standard.

Weak Points

There is a huge lack of Scripture throughout the book. The only times verses are brought up is for “God” to subvert the obvious understanding of the text. A good Christian book will be laced with Bible verses, especially in the parts where God is talking (read Pilgrim’s Progress). It is always dangerous to put words in God’s mouth as you may end up teaching something that is false and attributing it to the holy One of all creation (which is blasphemy). The Bible is discounted in this novel. The author represents it as a book of guilt and subjection rather than hope, encouragement, knowledge, and light. Scripture is downplayed as our source of God’s knowledge as personal experience is elevated to a source of truth.
Anti-authoritarian – seminary, church, rules, structure, roles are all bad, not just abused by people, but essentially bad. The book says all hierarchy is a result of sin. Hierarchy is ordained by God in many things including government (Romans 13), Marriage (1 Corinthians 11; Ephesians 5; 1 Peter 3), and even in God Himself (1 Corinthians 11:3). Consistent with this anti-authoritarian theme, the author refuses to participate in any regularly attending church organization, directly opposed to a command in Scripture (Hebrews 10:25).
Holiness/Transcendence is missing. God’s closeness/imminence is focused on to the detriment of his greatness. God is big, perfect, righteous, and holy. People in the Bible feared for their lives when they saw His glory. The Shack is missing the fear of God element (Proverbs 1:7).
Mack does not act as though he is in the presence of One far greater than he is, but acts as if he is hanging out with peers. He uses foul language and snaps in anger at God. Not near the reaction of people in the Bible standing in the presence of God (Exodus 3; 33; Isaiah 6; Luke 5:8)
God the Father and the Holy Spirit depicted as humans. Only Jesus became a man. God in the Bible never portrayed Himself as a human other than in Christ. He is spoken of as a consuming fire, a whirlwind, unapproachable light, etc., but we must be careful to describe Him as anything other than what He has revealed. Throughout the Bible the Father reveals Himself in masculine terms, not once as a woman. While God does not have a gender, it is dangerous to start messing around with how He has chosen to reveal Himself. The 2^nd Commandment forbids us from portraying God as any image; making the Creator part of the creation.
God’s power and control over creation is limited. God is seen as helpless to overcome the sinful choices of man and is anxiously awaiting the day that people recognize how good they can have it with Him. God in the Bible is in control of all events, able to work good out of every situation and working to redeem those He has chosen from before the foundation of the world. It was His plan from before time to create people who would fall into sin so that He could redeem some from it by sending His Son to be a sacrifice. God’s purposes cannot be thwarted.
God’s love and His justice are presented as contradictory attributes, where His love apparently limits His justice. The God of the Bible is just because He is loving. He will punish sin. He does not simply forgive sinners and ignore justice. He displays just punishment of sin on Christ at the cross; both loving and just.
Papa suggests the word “responsibility” is nowhere in the Bible (pg. 206). While the English word may not be found in a couple of translations, the meaning of the word is littered throughout scripture; obligation and duty. Also misleading in this is that Papa says He won’t be disappointed in us because He doesn’t have expectations. He is more than disappointed in us; He is angry with our sin.
The Shack claims that the Father was on the cross with Jesus, suffering with Him (Papa also bears the marks of the cross like Jesus). However, the Bible says that the Father forsook the Son (Matthew 27:46) as Jesus bore the guilt of our sin and it pleased the Father to pour out His wrath on the Son for our sake (Isaiah 53).
Sin is downplayed and judgment is denied. Judgment is spoken of throughout the Bible and sin is an eternal offense to a holy God. God will punish sin (contrary to The Shack pg. 120) because He is offended by it. Sin is much more than its own punishment, it is wickedness in the sight of God.
Very man-centered. It is not about revealing how wonderful God is in all of His glory, but about making man more comfortable with God. God is revealed in with human limitations. He is not portrayed as being very different than weak, limited humans.
Papa says that all three persons of the Trinity became a man in Jesus. This is not an accurate portrayal of the Trinity. The Trinity did not become human, the Son did.
The Shack claims that Jesus set aside his deity and was only a man completely dependent upon the Father. Orthodox Christianity says that in some awesome mystery, Jesus is 100% God and 100% man, not denying His godly nature when He became a man.
Jesus says He is the “best way” to relate to the Father instead of the only way (John 14:6). Later Papa says He has followers in many different religions.
The Shack teaches that all people are God’s children and He is “especially fond of” them all. The Bible teaches that we are children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3), children of the devil (John 8:44), and we become His children when we repent and trust in Christ (1 John 3:10; 1 John 5:2).
Relationship with God is emphasized so much that it ignores that believers are also “slaves” to Christ (Romans 6:16-19) and that God does have expectations of obedience from us (John 14-17; 1 John).

Confusing Points

Racial stereotyping (Jews with big noses, jolly African American woman serving in the home, Strange Asian woman difficult to grasp)
Instead of saying that all roads lead to the Father, Jesus says that He will travel any road to find people. Compare this all roads discussion to the roads Jesus talked about in Matthew 7 where He says the road most people are on leads to destruction but the road few are on that follows Him is the one that leads to glory.
In American culture, kissing is a very intimate (often sexual) expression. It is odd then that the Trinity is often found to be kissing (once on the lips). As much as love and sex is misunderstood in our culture it is a bit confusing to see it casually displayed like this by God in the book.
Sarayu (the Holy Spirit) is a weird, hard to follow, mind-in-the-clouds person with not much of a purpose. I just had difficulty understanding the reason for the eccentricities described.

The Shack,by William P. Young

Quick Thoughts Running Through My Mind as I Read the Book

Strong Points

Weak Points

Confusing Points

Helpful Reviews I Have Read

The Shack,
by William P. Young