A Berean Exercise: “Christian” Magazines – Part 2

August 1, 2019

T. A. McMahon

There’s a Latin saying that is similar to what it means to be a Berean. The Bereans were Jews to whom the Apostle Paul spoke in the synagogue in the Greek city of Berea. Luke commended them (Acts:17:10-11) for listening to what Paul and Silas had to say and then for searching the Scriptures to discern whether or not their words were true to what was written therein. In a secular sense, that’s what the Latin phrase caveat emptor means: “Let the buyer beware.”

That warning is what the Word of God encourages. Jesus characterized the days prior to His Second Coming as ones of increasing apostasy. He forewarned, “Take heed that no man deceive you” (Matthew:24:4). The Bible also gives reasons for the coming apostasy (a widespread turning away from biblical truth) such as: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine” (2 Timothy:4:3). Without an understanding of, and the application of, “sound doctrine” in one’s life, the ability to discern truth from error is nearly impossible. Furthermore, as deception and seduction increase, the errors become more cunning and therefore more difficult to identify. Twice in Proverbs—14:12 and 16:25—we’re told, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Death always involves separation, and in these verses, death may be understood as separation from the truth of God’s Word, which ultimately leads to destruction.

Over my many years of reading Charisma Magazine, subtlety would not be a term I’d use regarding its biblical errors. They were typically more of the blatant “billboard” variety, but that’s just my opinion. What I’m seeing now is a more sophisticated maneuver that is very seductive and far less obvious. This has been taking place among many of the Word-Faith, Healing, and Prosperity ministries. Joel Osteen is a frontrunner in this approach. His father, John Osteen, was old-school Word-Faith, with its unconcealed heresies, and Joel was his media director. Joel learned how to avoid his father’s excesses in his own presentations, although they are still much the same. 

In my last visit to Bethel Church in Redding, CA, I could see the same things taking place. It’s not that anything had changed regarding its false theology, beliefs, or practices. It’s just that they were no longer as obvious as they’d been in the past. A visit to Bethel’s bookstore revealed what was foundational to its teachings for the 3,000 students who are enrolled on its campus. There were books by the Word-Faith, Positive Confession old guard of Kenneth Hagin, Charles Capps, E.W. Kenyon, Smith Wigglesworth, John G. Lake, etc. However, those writings were buried under current books by Bill Johnson, Kris Vallotton, Heidi Baker, Che Ahn, Randy Clark, and others better known to the millennials and the upcoming generation.

The May 2019 Charisma issue includes an example of that “new tactic,” and it gives me great concern. The two-page article was titled “The Send Mobilizes Tens of Thousands to Kingdom Evangelism,” and the subtitle declared, “We are here for the greatest move of God in human history.” That grandiose overstatement “outdoes” the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus! Sadly, it is claimed to be for the sake of the evangelization of the lost, something that most Christians would be blessed to participate in. According to the article, “Over 50,000 people gathered on Saturday, Feb. 23, in Orlando, Florida, for The Send, a charismatic mega-event that continued for nearly 12 hours straight.” Andy Byrd, of Youth With A Mission (YWAM), one of the event’s primary directors who also emceed, declared, “We are here because we are crazy enough to believe that we are here for the greatest move of God in human history!”

What Christian could object to the stated goal of The Send, which is to equip people to evangelize “high schools, universities, neighborhoods, the mission field, and the foster care system?” Speaker Banning Liebscher “urged Christians to take everyday evangelism seriously, emphasizing it as a matter of personal responsibility.” He added, “It is not your pastor’s job to see your friend saved.” 

Another speaker, Francis Chan, exhorted the young gathering to make sure that they were not responding to an event manufactured by man rather than the Holy Spirit, that they were being faithful in little things (sharing the gospel with their neighbors, friends, etc.) before desiring to go to the ends of the earth to evangelize, and most importantly that they were disciplined in reading the Word of God daily. Without knowing the Word, he noted, they would have nothing of value to share.

Who wouldn’t agree with at least some of the concerns of those speakers? So what’s the problem…or problems?

The fundamental problem is that the crowd of 50,000 or so is being preached at to fulfill the great commission, i.e., “Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” (Matthew:28:19) by sharing the gospel. Yet the gospel being preached by most of the speakers is false, and the Jesus being exalted is “another Jesus” (2 Corinthians:11:4)! 

What is this false gospel? Nearly all of the older Word-Faith preachers (Hagin, Copeland, Price, the Crouches, et al.) were and are heavily influenced by E.W. Kenyon, Smith Wigglesworth, and Paul E. Billheimer. Of Jesus, the latter wrote, “He was ‘made’ sin….impregnated with sin, and became the very essence of sin; on the Cross He was banished from God’s presence as a loathsome thing. He and sin were made synonymous…. [I]t was not sufficient for Christ to offer up only His physical life on the cross. His pure human spirit had to ‘descend’ into hell…. His spirit must not only descend into hell, but into the lowest hell…. The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death of Calvary, but to the satanic torturers of His pure spirit as part of the just dessert of the sin of all the race. As long as Christ was ‘the essence of sin’ he was at Satan’s mercy in that place of torment.... While Christ identified with sin, Satan and the hosts of hell ruled over Him as over any lost sinner. During that seemingly endless age in the nether abyss of death, Satan did with Him as he would, and all hell was ‘in carnival.’” 

Dave Hunt, noting the blasphemy and absurdity of such a belief, pointed out that “That would make Satan our co-redeemer!” Yet there’s much more to that shameful heresy in contradiction to the biblical gospel. Jesus paid the full penalty for the sins of mankind as He hung on the cross—not in hell. Following the three hours during which the sky had turned black, He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He, and only He, as the sinless God/Man could personally experience what was necessary to fulfill divine justice. When that payment for the infinite penalty for sin was completed, His last words were, “It is finished” (tetelestai—paid in full), and “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Notice that it was into the Father’s hands that Jesus committed His spirit, not into Satan’s in order to be punished.

There is nothing in Scripture that even hints at Satan torturing Jesus as His payment for sin, especially in hell, which is the last place the father of lies wants to be (although that’s where he will spend eternity). That is a false gospel—a doctrine of demons. It also includes a false Christ. What those who hold to such a belief write about Him never happened to the biblical Jesus.

Is that the gospel The Send wants the 50,000 young people to take to the ends of the earth? Someone might argue that not all the speakers believe that gospel. Not all? How many such preachers of a false gospel would it take to lead the young people astray, especially when they are up there with the leader they like? Perhaps some of the younger leaders don’t believe that false gospel, but no one can be certain, because a clear biblical gospel was never given throughout the twelve hours of the conference. Since some of the elder statesmen of the Word-Faith and Healing and Prosperity “gospel” were there to influence those gathered, there’s little doubt that they held to that heretical belief.

As mentioned earlier, one of the speakers, Francis Chan, encouraged the crowd to discipline themselves to read the Scriptures daily, as he does. One value of that important habit is biblical discernment, which somehow seems to be seriously missing from Chan’s stated diligence. His history of defending the Roman Catholic Church, with its false gospel of works, seems to pale in light of a staggering number of heresies held and practiced by those among whom he preached at The Send. Their heretical examples have filled volumes, especially those of Benny Hinn, Rodney Howard-Browne, Mike Bickle, and Bill Johnson. Where were Chan’s warnings as a biblical watchman (Ezekiel:3:17-21; 33:7-11; Mark:13:21-23) regarding the false teachers and false prophets with whom he shared the stage? Why was there no mention of Paul’s warning to the Ephesian elders?: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears” (Acts:20:28-31).

The doctrinal errors among the speakers, in addition to the false gospel, as noted, are numerous and can only lead their followers away from the Word of God. Most of them, and the ministries they represent, are into Kingdom Dominionism. They believe that God is going to use them to bring about a great end-times revival and that Christians will rule the earth prior to the return of Jesus. No! The Bible states that there will be a “great” tribulation, not a great worldwide revival! The next kingdom, according to the Scriptures, is the kingdom of the Antichrist. Kingdom building is a major belief of Bill Johnson and Bethel Church. That fact is made clear in the songs of Jesus Culture. Those who buy into these false teachings will be contributing to, albeit unwittingly, the religion and the kingdom of the “man of sin.”

False teachings run through the entire history of the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, not because the Bible doesn’t teach the very critical and necessary work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of every true believer but because that activity has been distorted and abused by many who seem to endorse the Spirit-filled life. Christianity, without the true working of the Holy Spirit, is not biblical Christianity—it is vanity.

The leaven of false prophecies abounds among many of the The Send’s speakers, of whom Benny Hinn may be chief among them (see The Confusing World of Benny Hinn). Fake healings at his meetings are well known. The young leaders of The Send emulate their elders, including Michael Koulianos, who is Hinn’s son-in-law. Todd White claimed to have a word from the Lord that a healing was going to take place among all those in the crowd who had physical scars and needle tracks from past drug use. God, he claimed, was going to remove the scars and needle marks as he spoke! After what seemed like an endless harangue for God to heal, and a besieging of the audience for proof of God’s healing, no one manifested what White had declared.

Another article in the May 2019 issue of Charisma was related to the claim that God was bringing about revival throughout the world. The article was titled “God Is Shaking Europe.” We’re told, “Hundreds of thousands of people in Europe are beginning to respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ through massive evangelization efforts.” Sounds really good! But we need to be Bereans and discern which gospel is being preached, and by whom. The leader of Awakening Europe is Ben Fitzgerald, a former pastor from Bethel Church. The article notes that “numerous houses of prayer, similar to the International House of Prayer [IHOP] in Kansas City, Missouri…have spread to most major European cities.” IHOP’s beginnings were steeped in the beliefs and spiritual abuses of the “Kansas City Prophets.” Yet a leader of the European IHOP comments that “the growth is driven by the next generation…. The younger generation loves worship and is drawn to real Spirit-filled worship.”

The article opens with a statement related to the thoughts of Todd White and Ben Fitzgerald. I don’t think they recognized the potential—and even frightening—irony of what came to their minds. They “felt oddly compelled to visit the field where Adolf Hitler had held Nazi rallies decades earlier. On that field, Hitler had indoctrinated tens of thousands of youth into the lies behind his murderous regime.” If those individuals who are behind The Send are not preaching the truth of God’s Word to the “tens of thousands of youth” who are attending their rallies, the consequences are more than merely temporal—they’re tragically eternal.

TBC

Getting the Gospel Right

Is your heart burdened for the many professing Christians who have never experienced the second birth? Do you have compassion for people who honor Jesus with their lips, but their hearts are far from him? These false converts are tragic victims of a subtle, yet potentially fatal deception. Unless they are confronted with the truth, they may never know they have been deceived. One day they may hear the most terrifying words anyone could ever hear when Jesus says: "I never knew you; depart from Me" (Mat. 7:23). These precious souls have either been led astray by a compromised gospel or manipulated to make a decision with unbiblical methods of evangelism. 

By Mike Gendron of  proclaiming the gospel 

The blame must fall on church leaders who have discovered they can gain a larger following by making the Gospel more appealing and more inclusive. By broadening the narrow road, they have found they can build bigger churches by exchanging God's Gospel for an "easy to believe" gospel. This watered-down version of the Gospel is hardly worth living for and certainly not worth dying for. Yet, it is gaining popularity within evangelical circles and must be exposed and confronted with the truth of God's Word. 

These compromises are helping Satan plant his tares among the wheat (Mat. 13:39-40). The devil loves to see false converts deceiving and being deceived in the name of Christ. He continues to raise up false teachers to teach false gospels, about false christs, for the purpose of producing false Christians, with a false hope. The apostle Paul warned us that the same serpent who deceived Eve by his craftiness also sends his workmen to preach another Jesus and a different gospel (2 Cor. 11:3-4). Satan hates the Gospel of grace and has been using men filled with religious pride to pervert the message ever since it was first announced. That is why Paul informed us that the Gospel he preached was not according to man's traditions or philosophy. He received it directly from God through a pure revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:11-12).

Rather than calling sinners to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, church leaders are asking unbelievers to repeat a prayer, sign a card, raise their hand, come forward, or "accept" (rather than trust) Jesus as their Savior. None of these modern traditions have any biblical foundation. Not only do they dishonor the Savior, but they often mislead souls into a false hope of salvation. We must warn those who are misleading people that they must not go beyond what is written (1 Cor. 4:6). No one has the right to lower God's entrance requirements into His Kingdom. Unless we evangelize God's way, we run the serious risk of deceiving people about their eternal destiny.

Biblical evangelism requires making disciples, not decisions. This involves teaching people to observe all that Christ commanded (Mat. 28:18-20). His first command was to "repent and believe the Gospel" (Mark 1:15). Repentance is a change in mind that is granted by God and leads to a knowledge of the truth (2 Tim. 2:25). It results in turning from idols to God, from dead works to faith, from sin to righteousness and from the traditions of men to Christ and His Word (Acts 26:20; Col. 2:8; 1 Thes. 1:9; Heb. 6:1, 9:14). The importance of calling sinners to repentance is also confirmed in the last command Jesus gave: "Repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations" (Luke 24:47). Remember, Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32). Those who respond to the Gospel with repentance and faith will escape from the kingdom of darkness and follow the Light of the world (John 8:12). They will turn from the broad road and enter the narrow way that leads to life everlasting (Mat. 7:13-14).

Have you noticed that modern evangelism puts too much emphasis on God's love and too little on His holiness and righteous justice?This is a stark contrast to first century evangelism where, in the Book of Acts, the word "love" is never even mentioned. Clearly, without a true and balanced knowledge of all God's attributes, sinners will not know the God they have offended or the God who controls their destiny. 

It is the duty and responsibility of every disciple of Christ to fight the good fight of faith. We must keep the imperishable seed of God's Word from being corrupted and contaminated by foolish men who are chasing after their own agendas. We must contend for the purity and exclusivity of the Gospel for the glory of Christ and the sanctity of His Church. We now have a book that will equip you and encourage you to fight the good fight of faith! 

Ecumenism and Catholicism

Published on thebereancall.org (https://www.thebereancall.org)

Home > Ecumenism and Catholicism 

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First published in September 1990
We have noted that the ecumenical movement plays a key role in forming the Antichrist [1]’s world religion, which will be a paganized Christianity such as was developed under Constantine and became Roman Catholicism [2]. It is therefore not surprising that behind the scenes, the Catholic [2] Church has been pushing ecumenism for years. It is not only drawing the “separated brethren” of Protestantism back into the fold but uniting all religions under Rome, as Revelation 17 indicates.
Catholic [2] popes have been the leaders of worldwide ecumenism. As such, they present an altogether different picture from the inflexible dogmatist determined to convert the world to Catholicism [2] that most people imagine a pope to personify. On the contrary, John Paul II has taken the initiative in contacting leaders of the world’s religions, accepts them as working toward the same goals of social justice, ecological wholeness, and world peace, suggests that their prayers are as effective as those of Catholics, and has not attempted to convert any of them. He seems content to be acknowledged as the spiritual leader of the world’s religions uniting for peace.
Such a stance on the part of the pope is entirely consistent with the religious system he represents. As we document in Whatever Happened to Heaven?, Catholicism [2] was formed through a union of “Christianity” and paganism and has always adapted itself to whatever religion it Christianized. Haiti, for example, is said to be 85 percent Catholic [2] and 110 percent Voudun. Every voodoo ceremony begins with Catholic [2] prayers. Likewise, the deadly spiritist cult of Santeria is a blend of African witchcraft and Catholicism [2] carried on in the name of “saints” who front for African gods. In Rio de Janeiro, Catholic [2] faithful visit cemeteries to petition the spirits of their ancestors along with the Catholic [2]“saints,” etc.
Catholicism [2]’s paganized Christianity was developed by Constantine to unite his empire. His genius was knowing the value of religious concord in bringing political unity. He seems to have been the first to understand the necessity of ecumenism in arriving at such harmony. Gorbachev apparently had the same insights and, like Constantine, found a willing partner in the Roman pontiff.
John Paul II traveled the world to promote Catholicism [2]’s traditional tolerance of pagan religions. At the Universities of Calcutta and New Delhi in his 1986 visit to India, the pope told huge Hindu audiences that he had not come there to teach them anything but to learn from their “rich spiritual heritage.” As worldwide ecumenism’s diplomat-at-large he went on to declare,
India’s mission...is crucial, because of her intuition of the spiritual nature of man. Indeed, India’s greatest contribution to the world can be to offer it a spiritual vision of man.
And the world does well to attend willingly to this ancient wisdom and in it to find enrichment for human living.
Such praise of Hinduism by a leader of world Christendom seems inconceivable. Yet such tolerant acceptance of all religions is exactly what will be required to unite mankind under Antichrist [1]. We cannot stop the ecumenical movement, but we must rescue as many individuals as possible before it is too late. The pope has repeatedly made his intentions clear. Speaking in Geneva, Switzerland, to leaders of the World Council of Churches representing 400 million Protestants worldwide, John Paul
II declared:
From the beginning of my ministry as bishop of Rome, I have insisted that the engagement of the Catholic [2] Church in the ecumenical movement is irreversible.
The pope also makes it clear that there can never be any “compromise on the issue of papal authority.” Yet this fact seems not to deter Protestant participation in the pope’s ecumenical movement. Nor has it diminished the praise heaped upon him, even by prominent evangelicals, for his “spiritual and moral leadership.”
John Paul II openly promoted New Age pantheistic ideas. Although the New Age movement has been thoroughly exposed by a number of writers, its basic tenets continue to gain an ever-wider acceptance, even among evangelicals, and will play an important role for Antichrist [1]. As early as 1961, James I. McCord, president of Princeton Theological Seminary, urged Christians to accept as a gift from God the New Age, with its accompanying syncretization of Christianity and other religions. McCord was pleased to note that “Our most widely read historian, Arnold Toynbee, is an apostle of an amalgam of Christianity and Mahayanian Buddhism.”
The energetic pope is several steps ahead of both McCord and Toynbee in his personal diplomacy with Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and the adherents of many other religions. Nor was he out of line with such New Age events as The World Instant of Cooperation and Harmonic Convergence. As we have earlier pointed out, John Paul II openly promotes the same belief: That united prayers for peace of every kind, from yoga to witchcraft rituals, are releasing powerful “spiritual energies” to heal our planet. The Roman Catholic [2] Church, like the World Council of Churches, has been promoting global cooperation among all religions for many years.
Toynbee’s penchant for a Buddhist-Christian partnership is shared by many prominent religious leaders. Consider the following from Newark’s Episcopalian Bishop John S. Spong:
In the fall of 1988, I worshipped God in a Buddhist temple. As the smell of incense filled the air, I knelt before three images of the Buddha, feeling that the smoke could carry my prayers heavenward. It was for me a holy moment for I was certain that I was kneeling on holy ground....I will not make any further attempt to convert the Buddhist, the Jew, the Hindu or the Moslem. I am content to learn from them and to walk with them side by side toward the God who lives, I believe, beyond the images that bind and blind us.
“His Holiness” the Dalai Lama of Tibetan Buddhism has long been the pope’s trusted friend and has been well received by Roman Catholic [2] leaders around the world. In 1979, at the start of his first US tour, the Tibetan God-king-in-exile was feted at Roman Catholicism [2]’s New York City landmark, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where he participated in a “prayer service” described by Time magazine as “an extraordinary interreligious festival.” New York’s Terence Cardinal Cooke was the host. The Dalai Lama, who declared that “all the world’s major religions are basically the same,” was given a standing ovation by the overflow crowd of nearly 5,000. Said Cardinal Cooke, who “shared his sanctuary with a rabbi and a Protestant minister as well as his Buddhist guest”:
This is one of the dramatic movements of the Spirit in our time. We make each other welcome in our churches, temples and
synagogues.
Which “spirit”? The Cardinal could not have meant the Holy Spirit, whom Christ said would lead His own into all truth (John:16:13
). Another ecumenical cardinal was Augustine Bea, a Jesuit and nineteen years rector of Rome’s Pontifical Biblical College [Institute]. Along with Rome’s Pro Deo University, Bea annually co-hosted “Agapes of Brotherhood,” attended by hundreds of guests from scores of countries representing the world’s major religions from Buddhists and Muslims to Shintoists. Typical of Cardinal Bea’s speeches was one at the Seventh Agape, in which he “stressed the brotherhood of man and the Fatherhood of God, which, he said, embraces all men....”
Cardinal Bea was Pope Pius XII’s personal confessor, close advisor to several other popes, and president of the Secretariat for Promotion of Christian Unity until his death in 1968. He sought out David DuPlessis (known as “Mr. Pentecost”), whom he invited to the third session of the Second Vatican Council.Bea saw the blossoming charismatic movement as a vehicle for Rome’s ecumenical goals. DuPlessis and other leading protestant charismatics fell like ripe fruit into his hands. Bea’s supporters included such wealthy and influential Americans as Henry Luce of Time, Life, and Fortune and shipping magnate J. Peter Grace.
Another guiding hand behind the Charismatic movement who likewise used it to further Rome’s ecumenical aims, was Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens, recipient of the 1976 Templeton Award for Progress in Religion. He called Cardinal Bea one of “the ‘prophets’ of our own age.”¹¹ Suenens was given a special mandate to oversee the worldwide charismatic “renewal movement” in the Catholic [2] Church, an assignment that was reconfirmed by John Paul II.
The Cardinal was influential in the General Council formed in the early 1970s by Shepherding and Protestant/Catholic [2] charismatic leaders. This Council guided the ecumenical charismatic movement for years from behind the scenes. The minutes for its May-June, 1977, meeting reveal that a “covenant relationship” was entered into with Cardinal Suenens, which included the following:
We, as a Council, are committing ourselves to work together with the Cardinal for the restoration and unity of Christian people and world evangelization in projects to be mutually agreed upon. In each project, headship, authority and method of functions will be mutually determined by the Cardinal and the Council in the light of the requirements of each situation.
“World evangelization” with Suenens? What naiveté! Cardinal Suenens hosted and gave the opening speech at the Second World Conference on Religion and Peace in Louvain, Belgium in 1974, which received Pope Paul VI’s blessing. Delegates were particularly impressed with the important role that religious unity will play in establishing the coming world government. A continual call was sounded for “a new world order.” Under Catholic [2] leadership, the Louvain Declaration stated,
Buddhists, Christians, Confucianists, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Shintoists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and still others, we have sought here to listen to the spirit within our varied and venerable religious traditions...we have grappled with the towering issues that our societies must resolve in order to bring about peace, justice, and ennobling quality of life for every person and every people....
We rejoice that...the long era of prideful and even prejudiced isolation of the religions of humanity is, we hope, now gone forever.
We appeal to the religious communities of the world to inculcate the attitude of planetary citizenship....
The World Conference president for many years was a Catholic [2] archbishop from India. The Third World Conference, held in Princeton in 1978, concluded “with a worship service at [New York’s] Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, where Cardinal Terence Cooke [was] the host” to members of dozens of religions “worshiping” together.
Even the prayer breakfasts that are bringing political and religious leaders together across America and patterned after the one that began in Washington, D.C.—originally conceived by evangelicals as opportunities for a clear witness to Jesus Christ—have largely deteriorated into ecumenical platforms for the acceptance of all religions. “Participating groups” at Los Angeles’s annual Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, for example, “range from the Board of Rabbis and the Buddhist Sangha Council to...the Baha’i faith.”
An entire volume could be filled with similar examples. The pope’s gathering of leaders from twelve world religions at Assisi in 1986 to pray for peace inspired similar efforts worldwide. Typical is the North American Assisi: A Multi-Religious Meeting, sponsored by the North American Interfaith Network, started by The Temple of Understanding. North American Assisi’s promotional material boasts of bringing together on an equal footing “Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jains, Jews, Muslims, Native North Americans, Shintoists, Sikhs, Unitarian Universalists, and Zoroastrians.”
At such gatherings it would be in very bad taste, if not forbidden, for Jesus Christ to present Himself and declare, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Jn:14:6
). Such dogmatism is not tolerated by those who preach tolerance for all beliefs. Yet who is the more dogmatic—the One who made this true statement, or those who ban it?
The proper Christian attitude toward such gatherings is easily ascertained. Try to imagine the Apostle Paul’s reaction if he learned that Timothy was sponsoring an “interfaith” prayer service to which he invited participation by the Jewish Sanhedrin, excommunicated “Christian” heretics, and priests from pagan temples!
The confusion when those who call themselves “Christians” go along with such compromise for the good cause of world peace is illustrated by the third annual World Instant of Cooperation as it was celebrated in Wichita, Kansas, December 31, 1988. This worldwide “prayer service” was held simultaneously “in over 70 countries and in cities throughout the United States.” The official program, which included talks and prayers by Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and Christians, opened with the hymn “Amazing Grace” and concluded with “a song by the Community Baptist Choir.”
Jesus warned that “strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth to life,” but “broad is the way that leadeth to destruction” (Mt 7:13). The Apostle Paul was so concerned for the truth that while at Ephesus he “by the space of three years...ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.” (Acts:20:31
). Jesus told those who claimed to believe in Him, “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn:8:31-32
). Let us be lovers of truth, and disciple others in the

What is Your Authority?

One of the most important decisions anyone makes in this life is choosing which authority to trust for their eternal destiny. We can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive, but if we are wrong about which authority to trust for our life after death, we will pay for that mistake for all eternity. As ambassadors for Christ, we must ask people if they have a reliable source for discerning truth from error. Has that source ever been wrong before? Is it possible for that source to ever mislead or deceive people?

Since every religion has an authority, and every person has an opinion, we need to ask people about their source for truth when we share the Gospel. Some will say their authority is a person, a book, a religion, a spirit, or their own understanding. Some will say they rely on their popes, rabbis, religious leaders, religious traditions, human reasoning, church history, church fathers, or Google. Any of these sources might be right some of the time, but there is only one source that is right all the time. Our holy and omniscient God has never been wrong, and He has given us His Word as our only infallible source for truth. Scripture's supreme authority is established by its divine origin. There is no higher authority than our almighty God and creator.

"All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16). In other words, Scripture is our supreme authority for knowing truth and correcting all that opposes it. Every word was breathed out by God, who cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). Because of this, His inerrant Word must be the standard by which we discern truth from error (1 John 4:6). We also know that Scripture is sufficient to function as the sole infallible rule of faith, because it does not refer us to any other rule of faith. Everything we must know, understand, and believe to be saved is found in Scripture (2 Tim. 3:14-16; 1 Cor. 15:1-4). Therefore, after considering any other source for truth, we must ask, "But what does the Scripture say?" (Gal. 4:30). 

No other source for truth can do everything that Scripture does. It brings conviction, gives wisdom, produces faith, refutes error, and can be used as a sword to slay the devil's lies. For everyone who believes Scripture, it converts, saves, frees, guides, reproves, trains, corrects, sanctifies and equips for every good work. Therefore, we must use it to test the veracity of all of the following:

The teachings of men (Acts 17:11)

Religious traditions (Mark 7:7-13)

The spirits (1 John 4:1)

Church fathers (Acts 20:29-31)

Wisdom of men (1 Cor. 2:5)

Your own understanding (Prov. 3:5)

Why would anyone who is earnestly searching for the truth look anywhere other than the Lord Jesus, who is the personification of truth, who came into this world to testify to the truth, and whose Word is truth (John 14:6, 17:17, 18:37). Scripture is what God says; religion is what man says God says. Therefore, we embrace Scripture as The Supreme Authority for Truth.

Source: Mike Gendron

The Compromise and Fall of Francis Chan

Francis Chan, the founder and former pastor of Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California, is now a well-known author and conference speaker. Despite his solid theological educational background, he is highly compromised in many ways, and not just because he regularly shares the stage with heretics such as Benny Hinn, Todd White and Mike Bickle. Chan aims to be a people-pleaser. It's understandable that a man in the flesh would desire the praise of other men, but God dislikes this attitude and the Apostle Paul warns against it (Galatians 1:10). "Woe to you when men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets" (Luke 6:26).

An article from Reformation Charlotte reports that Chan is no stranger to ecumenism. "In 2003, Mike Gendron, a Christian apologist best known for his polemics and evangelistic resources for Catholics, was invited to speak at Chan's church. Gendron, a man who knows and loves Catholics enough to speak truthfully about the serious and damning theological errors they hold to, spoke to Chan's audience truthfully about the errors of purgatory, Mary, and the Eucharist, and then explained the biblical way of salvation. This prompted Chan to rebuke Mike Gendron in front of the entire gathering, stating that it 'was a mistake' to host Gendron. Chan's obvious discontent with biblical truth shows that he is not only theologically inept and lacks serious discernment, but that he also seeks to not offend man, effectively offending God much worse. In his never-ending crusade to please the world, Chan continues to praise well-known, well-liked heretics while throwing solid men of God under the bus. Chan knows that men like Gendron are less popular with the world and the culture because they see the truth of Scripture as black and white, without compromise."

Recently, Chan removed his shoes and invited a Catholic priest to pray over him. Later he declined to give the Gospel to a Catholic because "the Holy Spirit doesn't want me to." See video here. 

As the attacks on the exclusivity of the Gospel continue, it is of utmost importance that we stand firm on the sure Word of God and not the shifting sand of Christian personalities.

Falling to Peaces

DVD by Word On The Street

Falling to Peaces 12 Part Series - 3 DVDs - 8Hrs    

Our everyday world offers many paths to peace — on an individual level to a global scale — but although they may feel and sound good, not all paths lead to the peace they promise. Falling to Peaces is a tool that anyone can use to be intentional about choosing the right path. It is no coincidence that we are seeing an explosion of spiritual alternatives in our world — in fact, this was predicted long ago.

With today's uncertainty, it is important to know what the future holds. There are many contradictory prophecies and spiritual alternatives — determining what to believe is like putting together a 10,000 piece puzzle. Falling to Peaces identifies many pieces of the puzzle and presents the big picture so that you can make informed decisions. Viewpoints from the Bible and alternative spirituality are weighed.

Is God Behind the World Peace Movement?
Would Jesus Preach the Coexist Gospel?
Is the Holy Spirit Part of the Mind/Body/Spirit Fascination?

Falling to Peaces offers a unique format that uses footage of conversations with everyday people on the street to create healthy discussion about difficult and often divisive questions. This DVD series weaves together everyday dialogue, opposing viewpoints, historical background, chalkboard visuals, and teaching moments to "peace" together each subject. Topics are presented in a non-threatening, engaging format that is ideal for participation by a wide audience.

Falling to Peaces can be used for individual or group study

FALLING TO PEACES 

3 DVDs - 12 PARTS - 40 MINS EACH - 8 HRS TOTAL

Part 1: Coexist Concept

Part 2: Bible: Truth or Fiction

Part 3: Answer to Peace

Part 4: The Fall to Peaces

Part 5: Serpent Energy

Part 6: Wheels of Wisdom

Part 7: Secret within Self

Part 8: Masterful Mimic

Part 9: Counterfeit Light

Part 10: Unholy Fire

Part 11: Passing the Torch

Part 12: Peace or Pandemonium

To buy DVD: https://brokenbutnotcrushed.com

The Shacks Cool God

Enlarged April 18, 2019 (first published March 3, 2009)

David Cloud, Way of Life Literature, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061
866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org

The Shack, authored by William Paul Young, is a novel that explores the issue of why God allows pain and evil. It is a fictional account of a man who is bitter against God for allowing his youngest daughter to be murdered and who returns to the scene of the murder, an old shack in the woods, to have a life-changing encounter with God. The "God" that he encounters, though, is not the God of the Bible. 

Published in 2007, The Shack was Number One on the New York Times bestseller list for 50 weeks. By 2012, it had sold 18 million copies internationally. It is being translated into 30 languages. 

The movie was released in March 2017, and the power of film has doubtless impelled the novel's heretical message to an even larger audience.

The soundtrack features "Christian rapper Lacrae, Skillet, Hillsong United, Francesa Battistelli, and Laurene Daigle. 

William Young is not a member of a church and is even reticent to call himself a Christian. He describes himself as "spiritual but not religious" ("After The Shack, a Crossroads: William Paul Young," Publishers Weekly, Sept. 21, 2012).

Yet the novel has been touted widely as a helpful Christian book. 

The Shack has been endorsed by Pat Robertson's 700 Club, CCM artist Michael W. Smith, Mark Batterson (senior pastor of National Community Church in Washington, D.C.), Wayne Jacobson, author of "So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore," sports star Tim Tebow, Gayle Erwin of Calvary Chapel, James Ryle of the Vineyard churches, Gloria Gaither (who hosted a reading of The Shack as reported in the New York Times), Mark Lowry (former singer with the Gaithers), and Greg Albrecht, editor of Plain Truthmagazine. The premier issue of Rick Warren's magazine, The Purpose Driven Connection, refers to The Shack as a "notable best-selling Christian" book (p. 24). The Shack is recommended by Frank Viola and Leonard Sweet, authors of The Jesus Manifesto. Viola said, "I will shamelessly throw my hat in the ring with those who are giving unqualified praise for The Shack" (http://frankviola.wordpress.com). 

In March 2013, Christian Today published a positive interview with Young in which there was not a hint of criticism of or warning about his rank heresies ("The Love Shack," Christianity Today, March 4, 2013). 

Eugene Peterson, Regent College professor and author of The Message, is profuse in his praise of the book: "When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" did for his. It's that good!"

Many Southern Baptists love The Shack, which is irrefutable evidence of the deep spiritual apostasy that exists in that Convention. I received the following frightful testimony from a pastor who came out of the Convention in 1996:

"Concerning the question about The Shack, I have been shocked at the willingness of many of my former SBC friends and acquaintances to receive it as a 'great' book. As you know, and have taught, the book presents a picture of 'God' that is not biblical. The ready acceptance of this book by the vast majority of those I know, is indicative of a serious lack of discernment. It seems that spiritual discernment is a rapidly dissipating quality today. I have questioned several folk on their acceptance of 'The Shack' and its false teaching. Their response has been, 'But it teaches a good truth about how God loves us.' This is characteristic of the modern church-growth movement that focuses solely on the 'love of God,' and relegates His holiness, righteousness and judgments to the 'unimportant'" (Marty Wynn, Lighthouse Baptist Church, Columbus, Georgia, e-mail to D. Cloud, May 21, 2011).

In February 2017, Wade Burleson, pastor of the Southern Baptist Emmanuel Baptist Church of Enid, Oklahoma, published a report praising Paul Young and The Shack, both the book and the movie. Burleson has had Young preach to his congregation. He concluded the article with these words: "[G]o and enjoy The Shack. It is not heresy" (Burleson, "The Shack and Universal Reconciliation," February 2017, http://wmpaulyoung.com/universal-reconciliation).

In October 2017, the Gospel Music Association's Dove awards selected The Shack as the "inspiration film of the year."

William Young was one of the speakers at the February 2009 National Pastor's Convention in San Diego, sponsored by Zondervan and InterVarsity Fellowship. The 1,500 attendees were pastors and Christian workers. Other speakers included Bill Hybels, Leighton Ford, Brian McLaren, and Rob Bell. Young had his own break-out session and was interviewed in one of the general sessions by Andy Crouch, a senior editor of Christianity Today. It was said that 57% of the attendees had read The Shack, and Young was enthusiastically received. Crouch treated Young as a fellow believer and did not even hint that there might be a damnable theological problem with the way that God is depicted in the book. When Young said, "I don't feel responsible for the fact that it [The Shack] is tampering with people's paradigms" or how people think about God, the crowd responded with clapping, cheers, and laughter. The emerging church loves to tamper with traditional Bible doctrine, and there is no fear of God for doing so! 

Young was born in Alberta in 1955 but spent most of the first ten years of his life in Papua New Guinea with his missionary parents, who were ministering to a tribal group called the Dani. He graduated from Warner Pacific College, affiliated with the Church of God (Anderson, Indiana), with a degree in religion. 

BIBLE-BELIEVING CHRISTIANITY HURTFUL

In The Shack, Young presents traditional Bible-believing Christianity as hypocritical and hurtful. The book's main character grew up under "rigorous rules," and his father, who was an elder in the church, was "a closet drinker" and treated his family with cruelty when drunk (p. 7). 

Hypocrisy is very injurious to the cause of Christ, but hypocrisy on the part of Christians does not disprove the Bible. Let God be true and every man a liar (Romans 3:4)! All too often this type of thing is used as an excuse by rebels. I know this by personal experience. In my youth I used the inconsistencies that I saw in Baptist churches to excuse my rejection of the church. The chief problem, though, was not the hypocrisy of others but my own rebellion and love for the world. When I repented of my wickedness at age 23 and turned to Christ and received the Bible as God's holy Word, I stopped blaming others and took responsibility for myself before Almighty God. 

Rules and obligations under God's grace are not wrong. They are an integral part of Bible Christianity. We are saved by grace without works, but we are saved "unto good works" (Ephesians 2:8-10). The New Testament epistles are filled with rules and obligations that believers are expected to keep and filled with warnings about disobedience. The true grace of God does not let us live as we please. It teaches us, rather, "that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world" (Titus 2:11-12). That is a very strict standard of Christian living.

There is hypocrisy in churches and there are false gospels that are law-based rather than grace-based, and most churches today are corrupt, just as the Bible warns they will be in the end times (e.g., 2 Timothy 4:3-4), but the solution is not to reject the literal interpretation of Scripture and create a new God! God is amazingly compassionate and loving, and He has proven that on the cross, but God is also holy and just and requires obedience and hates and punishes sin, and that side of God cannot be ignored without creating a false God. 

The flesh wearies greatly of the holiness of God! I can testify to that. From time to time in my Christian life I have gotten discouraged at God. It is not a simple thing to reconcile God's love and grace with His awful holiness and justice. On one hand, the New Testament tells us that the believer is forgiven, redeemed, justified, accepted in the beloved, blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ, holy and without blame before God, and seated in the heavenlies (Ephesians 1-3). On the other hand, the same New Testament tells us that the believer must be exceedingly careful about how he lives before God. We are to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1), which is the highest conceivable standard. The believer who does not pursue this is in danger of being judged (e.g., 1 Cor. 3:13-17; 9:26-27; 11:27-32; Hebrews 13:4; 2 John 8-11; Revelation 2:4-5, 16, 22-23; 3:15-16). There is even a sin unto death (1 John 5:16-17; Acts 5:1-11; 1 Corinthians 11:30). Thus there must be many warnings in the Christian life (Acts 20:31; Colossians 1:28; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:13; 2:15).

These things seem to be contradictory to the fallen flesh and to the natural man, but they are two sides of the same thrice holy God, and to reject either one is to reject the living God for an idol. 

In an interview with the 700 Club in February 2009, Young described a "huge personal failure" that occurred in his life at age 38. He says, "My life crashed and burned, and I had to go back and deal with some stuff from being a child on the mission field along with other stuff in my life." He speaks of "secrets" that he kept from his childhood and guilt that he carried. He doesn't describe any of this in detail, but it appears that he felt guilty for not obeying God's Word and perhaps went through psychological therapy. He talks continually of "pain," "damage," healing childhood memories, and such. 

REDEFINING GOD

Fundamentally, The Shack is about redefining God. Young has said that the book is for those with "a longing that God is as kind and loving as we wish he was" (interview with Sherman Hu, Dec. 4, 2007). What he is referring to is the desire on the part of the natural man for a God who loves "unconditionally" and does not require repentance, does not require obedience, does not judge sin, and does not make men feel guilty for what they do. 

In that same interview, Young stated that a woman wrote to him and said that her 22-year-old daughter came to her after reading the book and asked, "IS IT ALL RIGHT IF I DIVORCE THE OLD GOD AND MARRY THE NEW ONE?" 

Young therefore admits that the God of The Shack is different from the traditional God of Bible-believing Christianity. He says that the God who "watches from a distance and judges sin" is "a Christianized version of Zeus." This reminds me of the modernist G. Bromley Oxnam, who called the God of the Old Testament "a dirty bully" in his 1944 book "Preaching in a Revolutionary Age." 

Young depicts the triune God as a young Asian woman named "Sarayu" * (supposedly the Holy Spirit), an oriental carpenter who loves to have a good time (supposedly Jesus), and an older black woman named "Elousia" (supposedly God the Father). God the Father is also depicted as a guy with a ponytail and a goatee. (* The name "Sarayu" is from the Hindu scriptures and represents a mythical river in India on the shores of which the Hindu god Rama was born.)

Young's god is the god of the emerging church. He is cool, loves rock & roll, is non-judgmental, does not exercise wrath toward sin, does not send unbelievers to an eternal fiery hell, does not require repentance and the new birth, puts no obligations on people, doesn't like traditional Bible churches, does not accept the Bible as the infallible Word of God, and does not mind if the early chapters of the Bible are interpreted as "myth."   

Note the following quotes from "The Shack" as we contrast The Shack God with the God of Scripture:

THE SHACK GOD - "Don't go because you feel obligated. That won't get you any points around here. Go because it's what you want to do" (p. 89). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2).

THE SHACK GOD - "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..." (p. 120). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible" (Isaiah 13:11).

THE SHACK GOD - "There are lots of people who think it [Eden] was only a myth. Well, their mistake isn't fatal. Rumors of glory are often hidden inside of what many consider myths and tales" (p. 134). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16).

THE SHACK GOD - "[Your heart] is wild and beautiful and perfectly in process" (p. 138). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man" (Mark 7:21-23).

THE SHACK GOD - "To force my will on you is exactly what love does not do. ... True love never forces" (pp. 145, 190). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth" (Hebrews 12:6). "Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Revelation 2:16).

THE SHACK GOD - "Our final destiny is not the picture of Heaven that you have stuck in your head--you know, the image of pearly gates and streets of gold" (p. 177). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass" (Revelation 21:21).

THE SHACK GOD - "My church is all about people and life is all about relationships. ... You can't build it. ... I don't create institutions--never have, never will" (pp. 178, 179). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18).

THE SHACK GOD - "Those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims, Democrats, Republicans and many who don't vote or are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. ... I have no desire to make them Christian" (p. 182). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). "Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds" (Acts 26:28-29).

THE SHACK GOD - "Through his death and resurrection, I am now fully reconciled to the world ... The whole world. ... In Jesus, I have forgiven all humans for their sins against me ... When Jesus forgave those who nailed him to the cross they were no longer in his debt, nor mine" (pp. 192, 225). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3:36). "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31). "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life" (1 John 5:12). "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15).

THE SHACK GOD - "The Bible doesn't teach you to follow rules. ... Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. ... That is why you won't find the word responsibility in the Scriptures. ... because I have no expectations, you never disappoint me" (pp. 197, 203, 206).

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus" (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2).

In Ephesians 4-6 alone there are more than 80 specific rules and obligations that believers are exhorted to keep.

THE SHACK GOD - "I don't do humiliation, or guilt, or condemnation" (p. 223). 

CONTRAST THE BIBLE'S GOD - "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil" (John 3:19). "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God" (Romans 3:19). "Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Corinthians 11:27). "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation" (James 3:1). "And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth" (Revelation 11:18).

Paul Young told Southern Baptist Wade Burleson, pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Enid, Oklahoma, that he is "a hopeful universalist." Young "believes that our loving God sent His Son to die for every single sinner without exception. One day God will effectually reconcile every sinner to Himself. Paul uses the term 'hopeful' universalism because he understands that the Scriptures speak of judgment, but Paul is 'hopeful' that even in judgment, the love of God will eventually bring the sinner being judged to love for Jesus Christ. Paul Young is 'hopeful' that the fire of God's love will eventually and effectually persuade every sinner of God's love in Christ" (Burleson, "The Shack and Universal Reconciliation," February 2017, http://wmpaulyoung.com/universal-reconciliation).

Many who hold the heresy of universal salvation like to couch the issue in terms of a possibility. They pretend that the Bible does not settle this issue, but that is nonsense. When the Bible has spoken clearly on an issue, as it has on eternal redemption and eternal judgment, there is zero possibility that anything else will happen. 

Young's "hopeful universalism" is a blind "hope" of his own vain imagination, because the Bible plainly refutes it. The Bible says that those who believe on Jesus Christ savingly have eternal life, and those who reject Him have eternal judgment. 

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him" (Joh. 3:36).

THE SHACK'S GOD IS EMERGENT AND NEW AGE

Not only is The Shack god suspiciously similar to the one described in the books of the more liberal branch of the emerging church (e.g., Rob Bell, Donald Miller, Brian McLaren), it also has a strong kinship to the New Age god promoted by John Lennon and Oprah Winfrey. 

Lennon's extremely popular song "IMAGINE" (1971) proclaims: 

"Imagine there's no heaven … No hell below us, above us only sky … no religion too/ You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one/ I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will live as one." 

William Young imagines the same thing in "The Shack." If there is a God, he is non-judgmental. There is no hell. God just wants people to do their own thing and be happy. 

Oprah preaches the same gospel to millions. Man is not a sinner; God is not a judge; all is well with the universe; and I just need to surrender to the flow. Her message is the celebration of self. She grew up in a traditional Baptist church, but she has reinterpreted the Bible and moved beyond its restrictions. She says, "As I study the New Age movement, it all seems to say exactly what the Bible has said for years, but many of us were brought up with a restricted, limited understanding of what the Bible said" ("The Gospel according to Oprah," Vantage Point, July 1998).

Many of the statements in The Shack are out and out New Age philosophy. As Gary Gilley observes:

"The very essence of God is challenged when Young, quoting from Unitarian-Universalist, Buckminster Fuller, declares God to be a verb not a noun (pp. 194, 204). In a related statement, Young has Jesus say of the Holy Spirit, 'She is Creativity; she is Action; she is Breathing of Life' (p. 110). Yet the Bible presents God as a person (noun) not an action (verb). When this truth is denied we are moving from the biblical understanding of a personal God to an Eastern understanding of God in everything. Thus, we are not surprised when Mack asks the Holy Spirit if he will see her again he is told, 'Of course, you might see me in a piece of art, or music, or silence, or through people, or in creation, or in your joy and sorrow' (p. 198).  This is not biblical teaching. This idea seems repeated in a line from a song Missy creates, 'Come kiss me wind and take my breath till you and I are one' (p. 233). At what point do we become one with creation?  Again, this is an Eastern concept, not a biblical one. 

"Young reinforces his Eastern leanings with a statement right out of New Age (New Spirituality) teachings: Papa tells Mack, 'Just say it out loud. There is power in what my children declare"'(p. 227). Rhonda Byrne would echo this idea in her book, The Secret, but you will not find it in the Bible.

"Further, we are told Jesus 'as a human being, had no power within himself to heal anyone' (p. 100). So how did he do so? By trusting in the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the Spirit says, 'is just the first to do it to the uttermost--the first to absolutely trust my life within him…' (p. 100). There is enough truth here to be confusing but not accurate. Jesus, never ceasing to be fully God, had all Divine power dwelling within Him. That He chose to limit His use of that power and rely on the Holy Spirit while on earth in no way diminishes His essence. While Jesus is our example He is not a guru blazing a trail in which in this life we too can be like God. This idea smacks of New Age teaching, not Scripture. Jesus even tells Mack that 'God, who is the ground of all being, dwells in, around, and through all things--ultimately emerging as the real' (p. 112). This is pure New Age spirituality" (Gilley, "The Shack - A Book Review").

DENYING THE INFALLIBILITY OF THE BIBLE

Another foundational problem with The Shack is its denial of the Bible as the absolute and sole authority. Note the following quote:

"In seminary he [the book's main figure, Mack] had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. ... Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?" (pp. 65, 66).

To believe that the Bible is the infallible Word of God and the sole authority for faith and practice is not to "put God in a box." It is to honor God by receiving the Scripture for what it claims to be and what it has proven itself to be. If a father goes on a journey and leaves behind a written statement of his will for the family during his absence, the family that truly honors the father submits to that written record. To reject the Bible as the infallible Word of God is to launch out upon the stormy waters of subjective mysticism. It allows man to be his own authority and to live as he pleases, which is an objective of both the New Age movement and the emerging church. 

REDEFINING DOCTRINE

It is typical for false teachers to redefine Bible doctrine in order to hide their heresies from the gullible (Romans 16:17-18). They use Bible terms but interpret them with a heretical dictionary. That William Paul Young is adapt at this practice was evident in his interview with Christianity Today in the context of his new book Cross Roads (FaithWords, 2012). 

When asked, "What does Jesus accomplish on the Cross and in the Resurrection?" Young replied:

"For me, salvation is fully accomplished in the work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It was God in the hands of angry sinners—that's the phrase that I would use. I'm not a penal substitutionary guy. But I am a substitutionary guy. But I don't see the Father pouring out his wrath on the Son. I see the human race pouring out their wrath on the Son. So I see the only hope for the entire cosmos is what the Son chooses to accept, crawling upon the instrument of our greatest wrath. He met us at the deepest, darkest place" ("The Love Shack," Christianity Today, March 4, 2013).

In this mash of mumbo-jumbo, Young uses the term "substitutionary atonement" but gives it a meaning different from the one described in the Bible. 

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed" (Isa. 53:5).

When asked, "But the Bible is replete with language of divine wrath, not just the Old Testament but the New as well; what do you make of that?" Young smoothly replied:

"I am not opposed to wrath at all, but what's changed for me is this: I grew up inside a paradigm that said wrath was punitive and retributive in nature. I now see it as restorative."

Thus, Young uses the term "wrath" but he gives it an entirely different meaning from that which we find in Scripture. 

"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness" (Rom. 1:18).

"For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience" (Col. 3:6).

"For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" (Rev. 6:17).

"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:15).

CHANGED LIVES

The author of The Shack points to changed lives as evidence of the truth of the book and the grace of God in using it. At the National Pastors' Conference, William Young told Andy Crouch that the book was setting people free from "addictive bondages and doctrinal bondages." He said, "Even people who have been vocally against the book, people in their own family have been healed."

Healed of what and healed in what way? 

What is happening is that people who don't like Bible Christianity, don't want to obey the Bible, don't want to feel guilty for their sin, and have rejected the "angry" God of Scripture, are responding enthusiastically to the man-made idol presented in The Shack. The following is typical of the postings at Young's MySpace site by readers of the book:

"Your book, The Shack, is amazing! It has changed so many people's idea of what God is really like! It has set some of my friends free!"

Miracles do not prove that something is of God. There is one that the Bible calls "the god of this world" (2 Corinthians 4:4), and he can do miracles and answer prayers. I saw miracles and experienced answers to prayers when I was the member of a Hindu meditation society before I came to Christ. Miracles are not the proof of the truth; the Bible alone is the proof. The prophet Isaiah said, "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah 8:20).

CONCLUSION

The Shack is another building stone of the end-times Tower of Babel. 

God's people must be exceedingly careful in these days of awful apostasy. The Bible warns: 

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins" (Hebrews 10:25-26).

The willful sin described in this verse points back to the sin referred to in verse 29. It is the sin of counting the blood of salvation an unholy thing. It is the rejection of personal salvation through the blood of Christ, which many in the emerging church are doing. You can't be saved if you reject the substitutionary atonement. 

In these days we need to stay in the Bible every day and be in sweet communion with Jesus Christ, confessing our sins and walking in the light. 

And we need to capture the heart of the next generation and educate them so they will not be taken captive by the wiles of the devil and the guile of false teachers.