The Shack Attack
Tim Challies continues to deal with comments on his review of The Shack. In a post today he writes a very helpful critic of the pragmatism used in the arguments people make against his reveiw. It is broadly helpful in dealing with our culture, not just those who love or hate The Shack.
The first is pure pragmatism, implying that the book should be judged not on theological
arguments, not on the basis of comparing it to Scripture, but on the basis of how people have reacted to it. Because so many people are responding positively to this book in opposition to “stodgy old religion,” we must believe that it is good. “William Young wrote a novel - a story that inspired me and thousands of others to want to have a closer, more intimate relationship with God. All your theological arguments can’t erase that.” The danger of such an argument is that it effectively places us over the Bible and over God. No longer do we judge right and wrong by what God says, but we judge right and wrong by how we feel. If the book inspires people to be intimate with God, we must judge it to be good. If it stirs emotions we like, we judge it to be good.
There are profound implications here. Pragmatism necessarily causes us to lose our focus on the absolute standard God has given us in His Word to determine right from wrong. When we lose that focus the church is placed on the slippery slope to becoming like the world. When we discard God’s standards we must depend on our own deeply flawed standards. We begin to trust in ourselves and lose our trust in God. We lose our reliance on His Word as the tool for discernment.
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August 6th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
So, like, what exactly are you saying? Is man (woman) alone not able to discern the love and word of God? Can we never inherently “get it”? I think we can and that often our religious leaders have other motives in mind than Micah 6:8 to act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly with your God.”
August 8th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
What is said is feelings or popularity do not make something right and true. The only way we can determine who God is and what he requires of man and what it means to walk with Him is what he has revealed in His Word. Man can discern God’s will through the Bible and the Holy Spirit.
Proverbs warns and encourages us to “trust in the Lord with all our heart, and lean not on our own understanding.” Therefore, we are reliant upon God for our understanding of God.
I do not know what has happened that has caused you to be skeptical of religious leaders (I admit that many have fallen under leaders that have not faithfully taught the Word of God), but religious leaders faithfully teaching the Word of God and the teaching of the Apostles ought to be vital to our Christian life if we follow the pattern revealed to us in Scripture. God does not intent for us to walk humbly with our God independently. When we are one with God we are then united to the people of God. When we are in the people of God we are under Christ (Eph 4:15, 5:23). And within this God has promised undersheperds (Jer. 3:15)and Pastors to feed his people.
So what am I saying? Our view of God is only correct if it lines up with God’s view of God. Any other viewpoint, even if one finds it helpful in their own life in the here and now, is not right. How do we know who God really is? Only through what He has revealed about himself in His word. If any other book does not line up with that God it is not helping us understand God as who truly is but rather creating God in man’s image.
August 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Andy, have you read this book? I think it presents us with a lot of the same questions that we discussed with regard to Rob Bell or other similar writings. Although I wouldn’t reccomend either books by Rob Bell, or The Shack due to their theological and scriptural errors i’m still left wondering at what point do we read discerningly or at what point do we throw it all out?