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Old 05-31-2009, 03:41 PM
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Join Date: May 2009
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Default The Shack~ Universalist Doctrine in paperback

This morning, in Sunday School, one of the leaders of our class gave the book, The Shack, to another member, saying it was "wonderful, a good read".I said I disagreed with what the Shack said,, and didn't like it.
She shot me a dirty look, but, oh well.
Well, I was reading it today, the Shack, and several odd things came up in theauthor's representation of the way Christianity is, in HIS interpretation, or, may I
say MIS-interpretation. So, I looked up reviews of The Shack, and found out that Wm. Paul Young,
the author, is a Universalist. In case you aren't familiar with their doctrine, like I wasn't,
here's what the author believes: the theological doctrine that all people will eventually be saved
even after death, and that eventually satan will be forgiven by God! It's a scary, unGodly
anti-bible religion, and The Shack represents Universalism through and through.
If you read the book, please be careful, and PLEASE read this first:
Click on this link:
http://theshackreview.com/content/Th...rterReview.pdf

Excerpts from the review:
Christian universalism (also known as universal reconciliation) argues that love is
the supreme attribute of God that trumps all others. Those who refuse him now will be
given another chance to repent after they die. Thus unbelieving humanity, and fallen
angels and the Devil himself, will one day in hell repent and be delivered from it and be
admitted into heaven.

Also PY clearly disassociates God with the punishment of evil. In his crucial
chapter on judgment (ch. 11) Mack acknowledges that he believes that God “will
condemn most to an eternity of torment, away from his presence and apart from his
love.” But the story proceeds to show that Mack is wrong in believing this! When he is
asked to choose three of his children to send to hell, he protests that he could not act as
judge and send any of his children to hell. He is willing to be “tortured for eternity”
instead of them. It isn’t about his children’s “performance; it was about his love for
them” (163). At this point Mack is told that he sounds like Jesus, that he is loving as
Jesus loves (163). The chapter concludes with Papa affirming that “judgment is not about
destruction, but about setting things right” (169). Many biblical statements affirm that
God indeed does have anger or wrath against sin, that he judges and that he does punish
the ungodly (note condemnation in John 3:16-17; and in many places in Romans, chs. 1-
5; cf. 2:2-16; 3:5-6; 5:9).
3) There is an incomplete picture of the enormity of sin and evil. Satan as the
great deceiver and instigator of the temptation to sin goes unmentioned in PY’s
discussion of the fall (134-137). In so doing the complete picture of explaining the
enormity of evil in history and in our own day goes unmet. The evil one who was so real
to Jesus (Matt. 4:1-11) and to Paul the Apostle (Eph. 6:11ff.) is apparently unreal to those
of universal reconciliation.