I'd like to give a response to the opinion given in this post:of the book "The Shack" as being too focused on free will and God's love and His desire for relationship and not enough on God's holiness and the fear that we should have in His presence etc._________________________But here is my main problem with the book. Anyone who is strongly influenced by the imaginative world of The Shack will be totally unprepared for the far more multi-dimensional and complex God that you actually meet when you read the Bible. In the prophets the reader will find a God who is constantly condemning and vowing judgment on his enemies, while the Persons of the Triune-God of The Shack repeatedly deny that sin is any offense to them.________________________I am nearly finished with this book myself and right from the start one of the things that impressed me the most about this book was how accurately it captures the basic essense of the kind of relationship with God that I myself have been enjoying over the years ever since I first actually trusted Him with my whole life and my future. He began to reveal Himself to me in ways very familliar or similar to the way He is portreyed in the book and not at all like I had grown up hearing Him to be like from pulpits.Matthew 11:25. At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.
26. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight.
27. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
28. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.The same Jesus who said these words did not stop being the consuming fire that He also is but He knows how to reveal Himself to His beloved in ways that do not frighten us but woo us as a lover does His beloved bride to be. I feel a profound sadness for the person who wrote that review of that book and for all who cannot understand the point of the book, The Shack. It is not intended to be some theological treatise on the nature and full treatment of all there is to understand about God but a glimpse into the way God seeks to know us and us Him, in the face of our difficulty in trusting and understanding Him and His ways. How many times are the words "fear not" found in our scriptures? The only time we are instructed TO fear is lest we should fail to enter into the rest that He invites us into.Hebrews 41. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
2. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
3. For we which have believed do enter into restIs our God a consuming fire? Absolutely! For those who will not come to Him while the invitation is being given but that choice is up to the ones invited.I don't know about the "God" of The Shack denying that sin is any offense to "them" but I know that with me He doesn't really make "sin" the point of our relationship any more than Jesus made sins per se the point of His visit here or his time spent with His disciples. Yes He had his run-ins with the Pharisees and He did preach on if your hand offends you cut it off etc. which I did in type to get to know Him so there is a time for that for sure but He mostly wanted to hang out with ordinary people like the woman at the well and Zacchaeus in a friendly get to know you sort of way even though He could have exposed, focused on and condemned their sin. And like even the woman taken in adultery she did not receive the rebukings of an Old Testament styled prophet but the comforting words "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more." And just so you see how this works He once explained to me what He really was saying with those words because it sounds as if He is saying "Well, I'll forgive you this time but you better not do it again or else!" But He explained to me that what He was actually doing was freeing her from the power of sin over her that had up to now had its way with her and now from this moment forward she was going to be free to Go and sin no more! It was as if He were saying to a blind man "Man, Go and be blind no more!" Or a lame man, "Man, Rise up and walk and go and be lame no more!" There was one time when Jesus actually said those words and added "Lest a worse thing befall you" and that was to the man who was lame by the pool for some 48 years! What's worse than that? Hell. He is ultimately saving us from that.