Dissecting a recent pastoral defense of The Shack and how the acceptance reveals the long term damage from the purpose driven mindset.

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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. -- Galatians 1: 6-9 (ESV)

The movie The Shack opened last week and undiscerning Christians everywhere are singing its praises and pretending God is somehow moving through this heretical pile of garbage. I have read stories of Christians organizing makeshift altars at the theaters and calling people down to give their lives to this false christ presented in celluloid. It is time to stop pulling punches beloved. The Bible is very clear on these matters. It says you can believe in vain. It says you can spend your whole life honestly believing you are serving God only to get to the last day and discover that He never even knew you. Matters of eternal life literally hang in the balance when we deal with matters of faith and what we choose to place ours in. Seriously, just take a second to read the key verses from Paul's letter to the Church in Galatia. Does it sound like he is joking? Does he sound as if these are trivial matters to be waved off with a nod and a wink? Let me break this down for you:

1) Believing in any other gospel means you desert Jesus Christ -- period.

2) There is no other real Gospel but His.

3) People will be troubled by people seeking to distort the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

4) If anyone, including angels, were to ever present a different gospel -- may they be cursed!

Are we getting the picture? Because it sure seems as if those who call themselves the church are deserting Christ as fast as the Galatians once did and this is their call to come back before it is too late. Whatever new wind of doctrine that tickles the ears and sparks the imagination has the church chasing them down like a dog after a rabbit. It is hard enough for the sheep to properly discern these days with such poor doctrine taught overall and more attention paid to the building fund than to doing the work of a Berean. The purpose driven mindset is theological mush. Those who demand sound doctrine are deemed legalists and blessedly subtracted from the sheepfold. The sermons are a hodgepodge of motivational seminars and self-help lessons with a little Christianese thrown in to give the appearance of piety. The worship is man centered. The doctrine is man centered. Is it any wonder then that so many would fall for the man centered heresies of The Shack? The truly sad thing is the pastors appear to fall for it just as easily because they are used to teaching so sloppily:

Link

The above link is to a new article by a local pastor from New Orleans who has come out in favor of The Shack. He does so besides acknowledging the rank errors found throughout it. This is what the purpose driven mindset does. It creates compromising hearts and double minded Christians. It believes in the ridiculous analogy of eating the meat and spitting out the bones. One day under that thinking you choke to death. The poison in rat poison is less than one percent but it still kills the rat. Jesus said a little leaven will eventually leaven the entire lump. The purpose driven mind doesn't care because it cannot discern. It is about entertainment so vehicles like The Shack are tools to draw people into their churches. Purpose driven leadership is about emotionalism so The Shack is in fact a near perfect vehicle for them as it elicits such raw emotional responses from people. The problem is these are confused with spiritual experiences when they are far from it. Let us reason together as we go through the mind of a purpose driven pastor regarding The Shack:

"I had read criticisms of the author's portrayal of the Trinity, the gender of Papa (God) being that of a woman, and the near Universalist theology to which the book alludes. I also read reviews that celebrated the arc of the story of God's kind invitation to Mack, his redemption and the deliberative journey he experienced through the process of forgiveness and healing in the face of gut-wrenching circumstances." -- Jonathan Wiggins

So someone who fancies themselves a pastor starts by fully acknowledging that The Shack portrays God as a woman and that the overall theology espoused is "near Universalist." For the uninformed, Universalism is the belief that everyone goes to heaven, as we see in this quote:

"Jesus said, "Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptist or Muslims, Democrats, Republicans and many who don't vote or are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. I have followers who were murderers and many who were self-righteous. Some are bankers and bookies, Americans and Iraqis, Jews and Palestinians. I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa, into my brothers and sisters, into my beloved."

Except Jesus did not say this. The Shack character that plays Jesus says it. This is not "alluding" to Universalism; it is the definition of it. God has no desires to make anyone Christian? Really? All a Christian means is a Christ follower. On the flip side of this opening admission to rank heresy, Pastor Wiggins balances it with the fact that he has heard that many people liked the story and the overall themes of forgiveness and healing. Mind you, not Biblical forgiveness and healing but pure carnality. You see the character Mack has to forgive the man who killed his child. He is also quite angry with God and must forgive Him as well. So while the story portrays itself as this grand plea for forgiveness there is no actual mention of sin; which is the thing we must all be forgiven for. Oh wait, I am wrong; as The Shack does address sin:

"I don't need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it."

This statement alone should make all discerning Christians abhor The Shack. This is a key component of Universalism -- that there is no punishment for sin. This careless theology mixes things that sound right with things that will send you right to hell. Jesus did indeed "cure" sin in that His blood covers us on the Day of Judgment. That is not how the cure is presented in The Shack however. The author makes it abundantly clear that there is no need to repent. This quote is from God Himself in The Shack. If God does not need to punish sin then He is a liar. He is not a God of justice at all. Think about these things beloved and pray on them. Reflect how deeply offensive they must be to a holy God. Back to the article:

"I walked into the theater understanding the purpose of this book and the resulting movie was never to be a theological treatise any more than other fictional works that allude to various aspects of the Christian faith. I walked in thinking The Shack fits in a mostly non-theological-but-faith-friendly category with other important works like the Lord of the Rings or the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe."

Then you walked in deceiving yourself pastor. First of all, the book was meant as a theological treatise. The author admits that much. He wrote this for his children initially as his perspectives on God. However, even if he did not intend for The Shack to become a theological statement you cannot argue that it has become one. Christian resource groups have created sermon series' and small group curricula based on this nonsense. Churches across the country have organized movie nights so their congregations can come watch it. I do not recall the small group curricula for the Lord of the Rings. While Tolkien certainly was influenced by a correct sense of what was overall good and evil, there are no direct references to Jesus Christ or God. The Shack portrays God and Jesus Christ, as well as the Holy Spirit represented by a small Asian woman. Certainly one can point to Aslan in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as a Christ figure and see the overall biblical underpinnings but none of the Narnia series sought to teach unbiblical lessons. What Pastor Wiggins is trying to do is parse this out to find any acceptable reason for watching it when deep down he knows there is none.

"This is to say The Shack, in many respects, represents something that is not particularly heretical when compared to countless other Christian-friendly, fictional works. I have seen this kind of thing before. Therefore, I don't fear the premise of the story. I don't depend on them either. Instead, I allow myself to profoundly enjoy and appreciate them while looking exclusively to the Bible for the foundations of my theology and faith."

We may have discovered one of the larger problems with Pastor Wiggins approach here. One does not deem heresy by comparing what is being analyzed to other fictional works. We determine heresy by comparing it to the Bible and the Bible alone. I need to add here that The Shack is NOT Christian friendly at all. We already saw that it teaches God does not even seek to make anyone Christian and then there are quotes such as these:

"Mack, for you to forgive this man is for you to release him to me and allow me to redeem him."

"Mack was surprised. 'How could that be? Why would the God of the universe want to be submitted to me?' 'Because we want you to join us in our circle of relationship. I don't want slaves to my will; I want brothers and sisters who will share life with me."

What both of these quotes represent is the true overarching message and teaching from The Shack. That God is just one of us. That there is no true separation between the Creator and the creature. In the first quote, who is God in that scenario? Mack is! God cannot even operate to redeem the killer unless Mack forgives him first? What utter blasphemy! Beloved, and please trust me on this, God does not need our permission nor our anything to accomplish whatever He desires to do. The second exchange is even more blasphemous! Mack openly suggests that the God of the entire universe wants to be submitted to His creation and God's answer is yes? This is the purpose driven mindset. That God is an eighth grade wallflower just hoping you will ask Him to dance.

The final point on this portion of the article is that the pastor is speaking like a selfish child instead of a shepherd. Since most of the purpose driven pastors are taught they are not shepherds it is sadly understandable. Maybe Pastor Wiggins can truly watch tripe like this and not have it affect his faith, theology, and beliefs. To be honest his theology seems so suspect to begin with I seriously doubt it but let's pretend he can. It is not about him. It is not about you. It is about the countless number of sheep and those seeking the Lord who cannot tell the difference and will go to see this trash and think that Papa is really God. That He doesn't want to punish anyone for sin. Nah. That God wants to be submitted to us. That He cannot operate unless we let Him. As Christians we should be gathering people to Christ. All we do when we point people to heresies as egregious as this is scatter them away from Him. So with all due respect Pastor Wiggins, it isn't about you.

"The movie almost forces the viewer to dig deep into one's own story to unearth and attempt to resolve the seemingly impossible questions many of us have about God, pain and forgiveness. How can a good God allow terrible evil? Is God always good? Why do I need God to be the judge rather than myself? How can I forgive the unforgivable? Can we really know good from bad without God's help? These themes, to my mind, represent some of the truly useful philosophical themes -- ones that perhaps still fall short of sound theology per se."

Beloved, these are indeed tough questions. No one is minimizing the pain that we go through as human beings. The problem is this. The Bible already answers all of these questions. Sure it may take time, prayer and faith but God and His goodness are real and palpable to those with the indwelt Holy Spirit. And therein lies the rub. The cold hard reality involving the near blanket acceptance of The Shack within the purpose driven mindset is that we are not dealing with converted sheep but rather goats that have been told they are sheep. To the unconverted mind the things of God are utter foolishness. Such as the concept of true healing through faith in Jesus Christ. Pastor Wiggins is correct that these questions are useful philosophical themes but only for those who do not have the Spirit of God living inside of them. This highlights brilliantly once again why we cannot be our own god, as Mack ends up being. Because ultimately we cannot answer these questions without a philosophical debate of issues true Christians already know by faith. That is why they fall woefully short of sound theology and as such deserve no place within the mind of a Christian or their exercise of faith.

"As Christians, we must hold to biblical tenants of theology in our lives. No exceptions. I believe we can faithfully do so while appreciating one author's good-faith attempt at answering some of the most basic questions that effectively keep some unbelievers from accepting the fact that God is always good."

The fact that Pastor Wiggins clearly meant "tenets" of faith is possibly the least problematic part of this closing snippet. After spending the entire article making exceptions for The Shack he pretends that he makes no such exceptions. The point of whether this is a "good faith" attempt is not even worth debating because the key here is in the rest of this quote. Pastor Wiggins honestly believes that these very difficult questions often keep unbelievers from the faith and he may very well be right. I would ask Pastor Wiggins however, what is the remedy for people who do not have faith and doubt the goodness of God? Is it now The Shack? Or is it still Romans 1:16 that declares definitively that only the true Gospel of Jesus Christ has the power of God unto the salvation of man? This is what happens when we start to slalom down the mountainside of compromising sound doctrine. When we marginalize it and pay it mere lip service. Then we compromise more and more until we are so confused that we liken The Shack to Romans 1:16. Keep in mind that this is a pastor. A pastor raised in the church as a pastor's kid. This is what years of compromise looks like. Years of the marginalization of the true Gospel. I cringe at the notion that an unbeliever, who is struggling with the goodness of God, would go see this movie and be taught that sin doesn't matter. To be taught that everyone goes to heaven. That is how people desert Christ and chase myths. That is how we see so many on the last day saying Lord Lord. Let me be as clear as our key Scriptures today. The Shack presents a different god, a different christ and a different gospel. If anyone chooses to bring this false god, christ and gospel -- let them be accursed. Let me close with one last quote from The Shack:

"evil is a word we use to describe the absence of Good, just as we use the word darkness to describe the absence of Light or death to describe the absence of Life. Both evil and darkness can only be understood in relation to Light and Good; they do not have any actual existence."

No beloved. Evil is not merely the absence of good. That is a completely humanistic philosophy, as is the entirety of The Shack. Evil exists and it is very real. The Shack is merely a microcosm of evil. As are the pastors who defend it. It is a vile poison coursing through the veins of the bride of Christ that is only cured through clinging to the true Gospel and rejecting the purpose driven mindset that laps up such poison and then calls it non-theological-but-faith-friendly to get you to drink it too.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- March 7, 2016

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.