[Apologetics] FW: How 'The Shack' seduced evangelicals

Art Kelly akelly at americantarget.com
Mon Jun 21 12:11:56 EDT 2010 

I have no opinion on this book, which I have not read, but am sending it
your way because I thought it might be of interest.
 
Art

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From: WorldNetDaily [mailto:alerts at alerts.worldnetdaily.com] 
Sent: Monday, June 21, 2010 6:38 AM
To: Art Kelly
Subject: How 'The Shack' seduced evangelicals


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How 'The Shack' seduced evangelicals
Prof who knew author says book's acceptance exposes weakness in church 
________________________________


As a seminary professor and a former colleague and neighbor of the
author of "The Shack," James De Young has a unique perspective on the
mega-best-selling work of fiction that has captured the hearts of many
wounded Christians and skeptics and become the topic of sermons and
Bible classes in churches nationwide. 
Burning Down The Shack
<http://p2tre.emv3.com/HS?a=DNX7Cqk-YrB88SA9MKJNyYLnGHxKLL6_Jgz9> While
well aware of the testimonies of many who claim they have experienced
emotional and spiritual healing from the book's portrayal of God, De
Young warns in a newly released book of his own that "The Shack" author
William Paul Young's primary intent was not to tell a good story that
happened to contain theology but to teach an unorthodox view of God he
claims changed his life. 

Undergirding "The Shack," De Young told WND in an interview, is an
age-old heresy - universal reconciliation - that diminishes the work of
Jesus on the cross and the holiness and justice of God by asserting that
everyone eventually will be saved from eternal damnation. 

Paul Young has vigorously and repeatedly denied he is a universalist,
but De Young says he was personally acquainted with Young's spiritual
journey over more than a dozen years. De Young points to a 103-page
paper Young wrote that presented his embrace of universal reconciliation
and rejection of the "evangelical paradigm." 

DeYoung's new book, by WND Books, is his attempt to warn of "The
Shack"'s seductive theology and present what he believes are the
biblical answers to the questions it raises. 

"I think it is very clear 'The Shack' is written to teach theology,"
said De Young, a New Testament language and literature professor at
Western Seminary in Portland, Ore. "It's not just written to tell a
mystery story." 

De Young told WND his hope is "that as the truth is known about the
universalist background of the author - and how it can be found
throughout 'The Shack' - that people will realize a good story needs to
be good teaching as well." 

In 1997, De Young and Young, whose families socialized through a
Christian school and youth sports, co-founded a Christian think tank
called M3 Forum. For the next seven years they discussed and probed
topics, doctrine and problems facing the church as it approached the new
millennium. Young submitted his surprising paper embracing universal
reconciliation in 2004. 

Less than two years later, Young asked friends to read the early draft
of a novel he was writing as a Christmas gift for his children. Though
highly impressed by the manuscript's potential, the friends were opposed
to the universal reconciliation they found in it and acknowledged
publicly that they spent over a year trying to remove that message.
Mainstream Christian publishers declined interest in publishing what
became "The Shack," so Young and his friends formed their own publishing
company. 

Author James B. DeYoung
<http://p2tre.emv3.com/HS?a=DNX7Cqk-YrB88SA9MKJNyYLnGHxKLL6_Jwz8> 

In need of revival 

Now, with 10 million copies in print, "The Shack" has been on numerous
best-seller lists for more than two years and become an iconic work
among enthusiastic evangelicals, with many buying multiple copies to
hand out to their friends. 

But De Young believes the acceptance of "The Shack" by evangelicals and
their institutions is evidence of a church in need of renewal. 

"I'm really dismayed to see that Christian publishers and radio
programs, TV programs have basically imbibed the feel-good spirit of
'The Shack' and have not critically examined the theology," he told WND.
"If you point that out to them they feel offended. They feel that you're
being overly critical. They feel something like, 'Well, can't you look
beyond the doctrine and appreciate the story.'" 

De Young laments "a great lack of discernment" in Christian media and
publishing that is willing to "look askance at the doctrine" if a book
enjoys widespread popularity and makes a lot of money. 

Many evangelicals and churches have been seduced by "The Shack," he
said, because the story resonates with many who have difficult
backgrounds in which they've been deeply wounded emotionally and
spiritually. 

"There is a growing segment of our population who have a bad background,
perhaps in the sense they come from a divided home, a home where divorce
took place or even an abusive home on the part of one or both parents,"
he said. "When they can read a story like 'The Shack' and find solace
and encouragement from the experiences of this fictitious person and his
experience and realize that God does love them, then I think that it
will resonate with a lot of people." 

People who have been deeply hurt, he said, "are reaching out for a
sympathetic God who they can clearly understand and who loves them." 

De Young said the book's "Christian bearings and overtones" encourage
many Christians to accept the book and its message, particularly those
unaware of the teaching of universalism. 

"Unless you confront people with the truth, people will not find
ultimate resolution of their need," he said. "Only there will they find
freedom from their past, deliverance from that which they feel in
bondage." 

De Young pointed to Jesus' promise "you shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free." 

He said another problem is that evangelicals, in the U.S. in particular,
can partake in a broad "buffet of food for their souls" outside of the
guidance and discernment of local church pastors and elders, including
through television, radio and the Internet. 

"This explosion of information and knowledge enables people to draw on
the things that they like," he said. "Frankly, it represents a church
that is increasingly indifferent to the gospel and in need of renewal
and commitment." 

Churches have failed, he said, to teach the meaning of biblical
inspiration and the authority of Scripture, so "people begin to form
their own doctrinal positions and beliefs based upon not only the
teaching of Scripture but other things they hear elsewhere." 

The great need in the American church today, he said, "is for renewal,
and that will include a significant return to the authority of
Scripture." 

Author James B. DeYoung
<http://p2tre.emv3.com/HS?a=DNX7Cqk-YrB88SA9MKJNyYLnGHxKLL6_JAz_> 

'A wonderful book' 

De Young recalled an encounter on a bus to the airport in Boston about a
year and a half ago that helped shape his response to "The Shack." 

He sat next to a man who turned out to be a Christian and asked him if
he had read the book. 

"Oh, yes," the man replied. "I think it's a wonderful book." 

De Young described the man as a well-taught member of a conservative
Episcopal church that was breaking away from the U.S. denomination
because of its stand on homosexuality. 

"This is a fellow who is seeking to know the truth and was part of the
movement to pursue truth, and yet he thought much of 'The Shack,'" De
Young said. 

The conversation, he said, convinced him that if he were to write a
meaningful response, he had to acknowledge chapter-by-chapter the book's
good points and then "bring the reader around to questioning what that
chapter really is all about and the doctrinal errors in it." 

"So that's why my book is in the form it is," he said. "I took [the
conversation in Boston] as a sign that that's what I ought to do instead
of being totally confrontive and finding no good in it." 

Other books have been critical of "The Shack,'" he said, but have been
"dismissed as being extreme, and, therefore, people don't read them." 

Telling the truth 

 <http://www.wnd.com/images/email/shop/deyoung2.jpg> De Young said he's
prepared for an onslaught of opposition to his book. 

He noted his daughter, who has followed comment on blogs, told him of
how painful it is for her to see her father attacked. 

"I've anticipated for some time that my family may suffer more than I
do," he said. "I am trying to alert them to that and tell them not to
worry. It's part of the cost of telling the truth, frankly." 

It may not be popular, he said, "but it's right." 

"It's what is godly and in accord with the injunction of Scripture that
we're supposed to go into all the world teaching them all the things
that Jesus commanded us," he said. "As long as we do that, we look
toward the eternal determination of things, the judgment and our
faithfulness in the calling that God has given us - and that transcends
all else no matter what people do." 

Get your autographed copy of
"Burning Down 'The Shack'"
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