Should you see "The Shack?"

My family and I went to see a movie together over the weekend (Lego Batman, which was very good), and one of the previews for coming movies was a rendering of the book, The Shack, which many people, including many Christians, loved.

I remember the many conversations when the book first came out and that is why I read the book at the time. Many people claimed that the book helped them get closer to God and / or understand God better, especially the Trinity. I suspect that this movie will have a similar impact, and so I wanted to encourage Christians to use discernment when evaluating whether to go to this movie and how to use it or the book.

Frankly, we need to use discernment with all the media that we consume, because none of it is neutral. Every bit of media has a perspective and we should be aware of the messages, however subtle they are, because if we don't we might end up accepting as true things that are wrong or that contradict other things we believe.

In this case for instance, "The Shack "teaches" about the doctrine of God's nature, salvation, good, evil, and dealing with grief to name a just a few ideas. Now one of the reasons I think the book had such a wide reach is that in the western world we do not often think it is appropriate to talk about such topics. People who are really hurting like the main character of this book, often do not have safe people in their lives with whom to discuss their pain. Further, questions about the ultimate nature of things and who is God are often too controversial to bring up in polite company, so we never discuss them with anyone.

Therefore, the book or the movie might be a good tool to start a conversation with someone who has questions or who is hurting. On the other hand, if you are using as a guide to learn who God is and what the Trinity is like, then you need to compare it to what the Bible has to say about these topics. Rather than dismissing its message as heresy or accepting its message as truth without knowing why, use it to educate yourself from biblical and theological sources that make things more clear. It is simply not true that no one understands these doctrines, rather it often takes effort to understand any idea that is true, but knowing the truth about God is worth the effort. Knowing the true God personally through His son Jesus is more than worth any effort!

To that end, here are a couple of links that discuss the book in more detail:

Tim Challies has a thoroughly review here.

Albert Mohler has a shorter review here.

If the book or movie spurs any thoughts that you want to discuss more personally, please email me at my personal email littlemas2@gmail.com or my pastor account pastormike@oaklandefc.com .

As Mohler says in his review, Christians do not need to fear any book, but we must be ready to answer them. Let this movie spur you to go deeper into the true nature and character the God of the Bible.