The Shack is now the number one best seller on the Christian Book Sellers Association list and since it is apparently so widely embraced I thought I had better say a little more. Not only does this book absolve the Christian of personal responsibility, commitment to a local church, and devotion to spiritual disciplines, it also portrays God as a cosmic hermaphrodite! This genderless approach to God may be very PC but it doesn’t square with the revelation that God has given us of Himself. The short sighted casual reader may not see the intended destination, but where this book will lead is to the replacement of “Him” with “Her”, of “Father” with “Mother”. These liberal theologians won’t be satisfied until they have not only removed course and offensive words like “blood” from church song books, but also replaced our great and awesome God with the great and awesome Goddess! In the Shack god shows us that he can present himself as either male or female but is not necessarily one way or the other. That notwithstanding however he actually shows more femininity than masculinity even suggesting that if women were in charge the world would be a much better place. Allow me to point out that it was in fact when the woman took the lead role, being deceived, that the universe was plunged into the chaos and darkness it now writhes in. Suggesting the world would be better with women in charge is like saying you might fare better getting hit at 100mph by a Pink semi than if a Blue one hit you at the same speed. No matter how you color it your dead both ways. The purpose of making women superior and portraying God as feminine is to get the reader to rethink their understanding of Him. These kinds of theologians, so eager to please our post modern feminist culture, will take isolated descriptions of God and use them to distort His image. For example in Genesis the Spirit is seen as “hovering”, or brooding, over the waters of the deep like a hen on her nest. This however describes His activity, not His person. It no more demonstrates God as feminine than “hiding under the shadow of His wings” proves Him to be a bird! The simple fact is that the overwhelming repeated revelation of God shows Him to be masculine. Paul even adds his Spirit inspired commentary to Genesis 1:26, 27 by emphatically declaring that it was the man, not the woman, who was created in the image and reflection of God.
For a man ought not to have his head veiled, since he is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man. Indeed, man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for the sake of woman, but woman for the sake of man. 1 Corinthians 11: 7-9 NRSV
Woman is a special and unique creation who came from and for man. Man was created lower than the angels who don’t reproduce, marry, or have female counterparts. Never do we see female angels in the Bible because women were only created from and for man. Angels, like man, are created masculine from the pattern of God Himself which is why they are referred to as “sons of God”. The truth about God, from His own mouth, is that He is masculine. According to John 1:18 Jesus is the only person, as second person of the Trinity, qualified to exegete God and He identified Him as “Father”. Not once does He suggest that God could be mother! He never calls Him “Mama” but “Daddy”. God is not an “either or” as this book suggests but He is a He just as He has said. The Shack is cunningly attacking the nature of God, undermining the authority of Scripture, and opening people up to a subtle kind of theological deception that is nothing short of demonic.
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