Defending a Book or The Book?

First of all, I don't think drawing attention to the controversy will make more people buy this book since it's already a best seller. So here goes...

Last week I read an article called Is The Shack Heresy? by its publisher, Wayne Jacobsen, which is Windblown's response to the criticisms and accusations of The Shack and its author. Here is what the article says of the book critiques:

“self-appointed doctrine police, especially when they toss around false accusations like ‘new age conspiracy’, ‘counterfeit Jesus’ or ‘heresy’ to promote fear in people as a way of advancing their own agenda.
…such reviews also confuse people who are afraid of being seduced into error”

Meanwhile, one of the many concerns of these “doctrine police” is that The Shack promotes universalism. It’s interesting that the Windblown article brings up the fact that the author is (was?) partial to a belief in Ultimate Reconciliation (a form of universalism):

“ While some of that was in earlier versions because of the author’s partiality at the time to some aspects of what people call UR, I made it clear at the outset that I didn’t embrace UR as sound teaching and didn’t want to be involved in a project that promoted it.”

(*NOTE: See bible.com's article WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY ABOUT...THE ULTIMATE RECONCILIATION OF ALL? Also known as Universalism, Universal Salvation, Doctrine of Inclusion, The Larger Hope, The Greater Faith, Apokatastasis, Biblical Universalism, Christian Universalism, etc.)

Regarding this, the Windblown article says:

“This book flatly states that all roads do not lead to Jesus, while it affirms that Jesus can find his followers wherever they may have wandered into sin or false beliefs. Just because he can find followers in the most unlikely places, does not validate those places. I don’t know how we could have been clearer, but people will quote portions out of that context and draw a false conclusion.”

However, here is a quote from The Shack's "Jesus":

“Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims…. 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.”
-–The Shack [1,p.182]

One can only wonder what a reader might conclude from this "Jesus."

It’s been interesting to read the arguments defending the theology behind this fiction book. Especially since so many have said this book has revived their spiritual walk, touched their deepest emotions, and changed their lives and the way they view God.

Here is a comment from one reviewer of The Shack:

“Perhaps what amazes me the most about this book, "The Shack", is its almost hypnotic power to take captive the hearts and minds of believers, as if they were under a magical spell. They throw all caution, doctrine, and wise counsel out the window, because this book has touched their emotions so deeply."
-www.squidoo.com/TheShackBook

It reminds me of something timely I got in the mail this weekend from Hope for Today, about the marks of true revival, and this is one of the signs:

(re: what Biblical references to revivals reveal...)

They do NOT DIMINISH the importance of Biblical truth for the sake of unity or emotional expression!

But here we have The Shack’s publisher saying, “Three hearts weighed in on the theology to make it as true as we could muster.” (Uhhh....what about being true to God’s Word?) Then there's Eugene Petersen who says The Shack is the Pilgrim’s Progress of our generation! Even though Christian publishers, who seem to publish anything these days, thought it too controversial to publish. (This is why Windblown media was formed, to launch a new company with this book.)

I have not read the book. However, I do trust the judgment of my discerning Christian friends who have, and the discernment ministries I respect. I would hardly call them self appointed doctrine police, but rather those who know and love God's Word.

For further reading, here are a few critiques and reviews of The Shack:

• Tim Challies Review
• Berit Kjos Review
• Two more reviews here and here

Are these the ones referred to in Windblown's defense? I assume they are, as I haven't found any others floating around (although there are some good ones at amazon.com, here). If so, I would hardly call these the “ravings of those who misinterpret this book, either threatened by its success, or those who want to ride on it to push their own fear-based agenda.” I guess what it boils down to is whether we spend our time defending a book or defending THE BOOK.

On that note, I've spent enough time on this one...time to turn the page...by the way, here is one I highly recommend regarding criticism, discernment, being a Berean, etc...

http://erwm.com/Discernment.htm

***Also see the most read post EVER on this blog:
The Shack is a Heretical Book
morebooksandthings.blogspot.com