The Shack: Good, Bad, Or Ulgy?

The people here were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, since they welcomed the message with eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Acts 17:11 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

The Shack, people I find either love it or hate it. I read it and was bothered. Now being bothered by what you read can be a good thing as it challenges your ideas and beliefs. The challenge made me think through conceptions of God, made me think about the interrelation of the Trinity, and made me think through the ever-present problem of evil. All big and weighty matters are good to sort through, but as they are sorted out the basis of belief has to be based Scripture and not fiction. Because it is so popular and people have asked me about it, I am going to post a critical review of the book. Now, the review I am going to post is a bit long and nit-picky, but I think it will cause you think through these matters presented in the book a bit more biblically. I don’t necessarily see all the problems the writer of this review presents, but Norm Geisler is a leading Christian theologian and far smarter than myself.

The Shack: Helpful or Heretical?A Critical Review by Norman L. Geisler and Bill Roach

The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity by William P. Young (Wind Blown Media, 2007, 264 pp) is a New York Times best seller with well over a million copies in print. Literally hundreds of thousands have been blessed by its message, but its message is precisely what calls for scrutiny. Responses to The Shack range from eulogy to heresy. Eugene Peterson, author of The Message predicted that The Shack “has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!” Emmy Award Winning Producer of ABC Patrick M. Roddy declares that “it is a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separated me from God and from myself.” (http://theshackbook.com/endorsements.html). People from all walks of life are raving about this book by unknown author “Willie” Young, son of a pastor/missionary, and born in Canada. He is a graduate of Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon.

The Background of the Book
The Shack is Christian fiction, a fast-growing genre in the contemporary Christian culture. It communicates a message in a casual, easy-to-read, non-abrasive manner. From his personal experience, Young attempts to answer some of life’s biggest questions: Who is God? Who is Jesus? What is the Trinity? What is salvation? Is Jesus the only way to Heaven? If God, then why evil? What happens after I die? In the final section of the book titled “The Story behind THE SHACK,” he reveals that the motivation for this story comes from his own struggle to answer many of the difficult questions of life. He claims that his seminary training just did not provide answers to many of his pressing questions. Then one day in 2005, he felt God whisper in his ear that this year was going to be his year of Jubilee and restoration. Out of that experience he felt lead to write The Shack. According to Young, much of the book was formed around personal conversations he had with God, family, and friends (258-259). He tells the readers that the main character “Mack” is not a real person, but a fictional character used to communicate the message in the book. However, he admits that his children would “recognize that Mack is mostly me, that Nan is a lot like Kim, that Missy and Kate and the other characters often resemble our family members and friends” (259).

The Basic Story of the Book
The story centers around a note that Mack, the husband and father in the story, received from “Papa,” who is supposed to be God the Father. It reads, “Mackenzie, It’s been a while. I’ve missed you. I’ll be at the shack next weekend if you want to get together” (19). From this, the story moves through the personal struggles Mack has with such questions as: Why would someone send me this letter? Does God really speak through letters? How would my seminary training respond to this interaction between God and man? The story takes a turn when Mack’s son almost drowns while canoeing. During the chaos his daughter is abducted and eventually killed. This is what caused Mack to fall into what the book calls “The Great Sadness.” This time period is supposed to reflect his spiritual condition after the death of his daughter and the questions he has been asking for many years. Grieved with the death of his daughter and the possibility that the note might be from God, Mack packs his bags and heads for the shack. The point of this journey is to suggest that his traditional teaching, Sunday prayers, hymns, and approach to Christianity were all wrong. He comes to the conclusion that “cloistered spirituality seemed to change nothing in the lives of people he knew, except maybe Nan [his wife]” (63). In spite of being an unlikely encounter with God, Young uses this fictional encounter as a vehicle for Mack’s spiritual journey and encounter at the shack. While at the shack, Mack discovers that God is not what we expect Him to be. In fact, God the Father is a “large beaming African-American woman,” Jesus appeared to be “Middle Eastern and was dressed like a laborer, complete with tool belt and gloves,” and the Holy Spirit is named Sarayu, “a small, distinctively Asian woman.” The book identifies these three people as the Trinity (80-82). After trying to reconcile his seminary training with this new encounter with God, he concludes that what he had learned was of no help.

A Brief Evaluation of the Book
Young’s point is clear: forget your preconceived notions about God, forget your seminary training, and realize that God chooses to appear to us in whatever form we personally need; He is like a mixed metaphor. We cannot fall back into our religious conditioning (91). The Shack attempts to present a Christian worldview through the genre of religious fiction, but just how Christian it is remains to be seen.

Problem One: A Rejection of Traditional Christianity
Beneath the surface of The Shack is a rejection of traditional Christianity (179). He claims that traditional Christianity did not solve his problem. Even Seminary training didn’t help (63). He insists that Christianity has to be revised in order to be understood, reminiscent of McClaren’s Emergent Church book titled, Everything Must Change. However, one might question whether it is Christianity that needs revision or Christians that need to be revitalized. One thing is certain, Christianity should not be rejected because it has some hypocritical representatives. To be sure, some Seminary training is bad, and even good Seminary training doesn’t help, if you don’t heed it. But the baby should not be thrown out with the bathwater. Christ established the Church and said the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Mt. 16:16-18). The Shack, as gripping as its story is, trades a church occupied with people who hear the Word of God preached for an empty shack where there is neither.

Problem Two: Experience Trumps Revelation
An underlying problem with the message of The Shack is that it uses personal experience to trump revelation. The solutions to life’s basic problems come from extra-biblical experience, not from Scripture (80-100). Non-biblical voices are given precedent over the voice of God in Scripture. These alleged “revelations” from the “Trinity” in the shack are the basis of the whole story. While biblical truth is alluded to, it is not the authoritative basis of the message. In the final analysis, it is experience that is used to interpret the Bible; it is not the Bible that is used to interpret experience. This leads to a denial of a fundamental teaching of Protestantism.

Problem Three: The Rejection of Sola Scriptura
The Shack rejects the sole authority of the Bible to determine matters of faith and practice. Rather than finding a Bible by the altar in a little old country church and getting comfort and counsel from the word of God, he is instructed to go to an empty shack in the wilderness with no Bible and get all he needs to cope with the tragedies of life from extra-biblical voices. The Shack’s author rejects what “In seminary he had been taught that God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them only listen to and follow sacred Scripture…. God’s voice had been reduced to paper…. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients…. Nobody wanted God in a box, just in a book” (63). However, the Bible clearly declares that “Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:16-17, emphasis added). Indeed, our comfort is not found in extra-biblical revelations but is realized in that “through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Rom. 15:4). In short, the Bible is sufficient for faith and practice. No new truth beyond the Bible is needed for doctrine or living the Christian life. Of course, this does not mean that God cannot bring biblical principles to our minds when needed through various experiences, even tragic ones. He can and He does. Nor does it mean that God cannot guide in circumstances that help us in the application of biblical principles to our lives. He can and He does. But these experiences bring no new revelation. They are merely the occasion for God focusing our attention on the only infallible written source of His revelation, the Bible and the Bible alone.To forsake this fundamental principle is to leave Protestantism for Mysticism.

Problem Four: An Unbiblical View of the Nature and Triunity of God
In addition to an errant view of Scripture, The Shack has an unorthodox view of the Trinity. God appears as three separate persons (in three separate bodies) which seems to support Tritheism in spite of the fact that the author denies Tritheism (“We are not three gods”) and Modalism (“We are not talking about One God with three attitudes”—p. 100). Nonetheless, Young departs from the essential nature of God for a social relationship among the members of the Trinity. He wrongly stresses the plurality of God as three separate persons: God the Father appears as an “African American woman” (80); Jesus appears as a Middle Eastern worker (82). The Holy Spirit is represented as “a small, distinctively Asian woman” (82). And according to Young, the unity of God is not in one essence (nature), as the orthodox view holds. Rather, it is a social union of three separate persons. Besides the false teaching that God the Father and the Holy Spirit have physical bodies (since “God is spirit”—Jn. 4:24), the members of the Trinity are not separate persons (as The Shack portrays them); they are only distinct persons in one divine nature. Just as a triangle has three distinct corners, yet is one triangle. It is not three separate corners (for then it would not be a triangle if the corners were separated from it), Even so,God is one in essence but has three distinct (but inseparable) Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Problem Five: An Unbiblical View of Punishing Sin
Another claim is that God does not need to punish sin. He states, “At that, Papa stopped her preparations and turned toward Mack. He could see a deep sadness in her eyes. ‘I am not who you think I am, Mackenzie. I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It is not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it’” (119). As welcoming as this message may be, it at best reveals a dangerously imbalanced understanding of God. For in addition to being loving and kind, God is also holy and just. Indeed, because He is just He must punish sin. The Bible explicitly says that” the soul that sins shall die” (Eze. 18:2). “I am holy, says the Lord” (Lev. 11:44). He is so holy that Habakkuk says of God, “You…are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong…” (Hab. 1:13). Romans 6:23 declares: “The wages of sin is death….” And Paul added, “‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). In short, The Shack presents lop-sided view of God as love but not justice. This view of a God who will not punish sin undermines the central message of Christianity—that Christ died for our sins (1 Cor. 15:1f.) and rose from the dead. Indeed, some emergent Church leaders have given a more frontal and near blasphemous attack on the sacrificial atonement of Christ, calling it a “form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful father, punishing his son for offences he has not even committed” (Steve Chalke, The Lost Message of Jesus, 184). Such is the end of the logic that denies an awesomely holy God who cannot tolerate sin was satisfied (propitiated) on behalf of our sin (1 Jn. 2:1). For Christ paid the penalty for us, “being made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God through him” (2 Cor. 5:21), “suffering the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God” (1 Pet. 3:18).

Problem Six: A False View of the Incarnation
Another area of concern is a false view of the person and work of Christ. The book states, “When we three spoke ourself into human existence as the Son of God, we became fully human. We also chose to embrace all the limitations that this entailed. Even though we have always been present in this universe, we now became flesh and blood” (98). However, this is a serious misunderstanding of the Incarnation of Christ. The whole Trinity was not incarnated. Only the Son was (Jn. 1:14), and in His case deity did not become humanity but the Second Person of the Godhead assumed a human nature in addition to His divine nature. Neither the Father nor Holy Spirit (who are pure spirit--John 4:24) became human, only the Son did.

Problem Seven: A Wrong View of the Way of Salvation
Another problem emerges in the message of The Shack. According to Young, Christ is just the “best” way to relate to the Father, not the only way (109). The “best” does not necessarily imply the only way, which then means that there may be other ways to relate to God. Such an assertion is contrary to Jesus’ claim, “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes unto the Father except through me” (John14:6). He added, “He who believes in Him [Christ] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn. 3:18). Jesus is not merely the best way, but He is the only way to God. Paul declared: “There is one God and one mediator between God and Men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

Problem Eight: A Heretical View of the Father SufferingThe book also contains a classic heresy called Patripassionism (Literally: Father Suffering). Young claims that God the Father suffered along with the Son, saying, “Haven’t you seen the wounds on Papa [God the Father] too?’ I didn’t understand them. ‘How could he…’ ‘For love. He chose the way of the cross… because of love’” (p. 165). But both the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) made it very clear that it was Jesus alone who “suffered” for us on the Cross. And that He did this only through His human nature. To say otherwise is to engage in “confusing the two natures” of Christ which was explicitly condemned in the Chalcedonian Creed (A.D. 451). Suffering is a form of change, and the Bible makes it very clear that God cannot change. “I the Lord change not” (Mal. 3:6). “There is no shadow of change with Him” (Jas. 1:17). When all else changes, God “remains the same” (Heb. 1:10-12).

Problem Nine: A Denial of Hierarchy in the Godhead
The Shack also claims that there is no hierarchy in God or in human communities modeled after Him. He believes that hierarchy exists only as a result of the human struggle for power. Young writes of God: “‘Well I know that there are three of you. But you respond with such graciousness to each other. Isn’t one of you more the boss than the other two…. I have always thought of God the Father as sort of being the boss and Jesus as the one following orders, you know being obedient….’ ‘Mackenzie, we have no concept of final authority among us; only unity. We are in a circle of relationship, not a chain of command…. What you’re seeing here is relationship without any overlay of power…. Hierarchy would make no sense among us’” (121). However, Young cites no Scripture to support this egalitarian view of God and human relations—and for good reasons since the Bible clearly affirms that there is an order of authority in the Godhead, the home, and the church. Submission and obedience are biblical terms. Jesus submitted to the Father: “O My Father,… not my will be done but yours” (Mt. 26:39). “He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death…” (Philip. 2:8). In heaven “then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him, that God may be all in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). Children are to submit to their parents: Paul urged, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord…” (Eph. 6:1). Likewise, women are urged: “Wives submit to your own husband, as to the Lord” (Eph. 5:22). “The head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Cor. 11:3). Members are to “obey your leaders” (Heb. 13:17). Indeed, citizens are commanded “to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient…” (Titus 3:1). The hierarchial order in the Godhead is the basis for all human relationships. And pure love does not eliminate this; it demands it. The Bible declares; “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments” (1 Jn. 5:3). Portraying God as a Mother, rather than a Father, reveals an underlying anti-masculinity in Young’s thought. He wrote, “Males seem to be the cause of so much of the pain in the world. They account for most of the crime and many of those are perpetrated against women…. The world, in many ways, would be a much calmer and gentler place if women ruled. There would have been far fewer children sacrificed to the gods of greed and power” (148). He does not explain how this would not be a hierarchy if women “ruled” the world.

Problem Ten:Ignoring the Crucial Role of the Church in Edifying Believers
The Shack is totally silent about the important role the community of believers plays in the life of individuals needing encouragement. In fact there is a kind of anti-church current born of a reaction to a hypocritical, legalistic, and abusive father who was a church leader (1-3). However, this is clearly contrary to the command of Scripture. A bad church should not be replaced with no church but with a better church. God gave the church “pastors and teachers, to equip the saints…for building up the body of Christ…” (Eph. 4:11-12). Paul said, “To each [one in the body] is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7). Young replaces a Bible-based church in the wildwood with a Bible-less shack in the wild. Comfort in bereavement is sought in a lonely, Bible-less, empty shack in the wilderness where one is to find comfort by heeding deceptive presentations of God. At this point several scriptural exhortations about being aware of deceiving spirits come to mind (1 Tim. 4:1; 1 John 4:1; 2 Cor. 11:14). As for the need for a church, the Scriptures exhort us “not to forget the assembling together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as we see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25). Without the regular meeting with a body of edifying believers, proper Christian growth is inevitably stunted.

Problem Eleven:An Inclusivistic View of Who Will be Saved
While The Shack falls short of the universalism (“All will be saved”) found in other emergent writings, it does have a wide-sweeping inclusivism whereby virtually anyone through virtually any religion can be saved apart from Christ. According to Young,, “Jesus [said]…. ‘Those who love me come from every system that exists. They are Buddhists or Mormons, Baptist, or Muslims, …and many who are not part of any Sunday morning or religious institution…. Some are bankers and bookies, Americans and Iraqis, Jews and Palestinians. I have no desire to make them Christians, but I do want to join them in their transformation into sons and daughters of my Papa….’ ‘Does that mean…that all roads will lead to you?’ ‘Not at all…. Most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you’” (184).Again, there is no biblical support for these claims. On the contrary, the Scriptures affirm that there is no salvation apart from knowing Christ. Acts 4:12 pronounces that “There is no other name under heaven, given among men, by which we must be saved.” 1 Tim. 2:5 insists that “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” And Jesus said, “unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins” (Jn. 8:24). For “whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (Jn. 3:36). And “whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God” (Jn. 3:18).

Problem Twelve: A Wrong View of Faith and Reason
The Shack embraces an irrational view of faith. It declares: “There are times when you choose to believe something that would normally be considered absolutely irrational. It doesn’t mean that it is actually irrational, but it is surely not rational” (64). Even common sense informs us that this is no way to live the Christian life. The Bible says, “’Come now let us reason together,’ says the Lord” (Isa. 1:18:). “Give a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Pet. 3:15); “Paul…reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:2). “These were more fair-minded [because] they searched the Scriptures daily…whether these things be so” (Acts 17:11). “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God” (1 Jn. 4:1, emphasis added in above quotes). Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living,” and reasonable Christians would add, “The unexamined faith is not worth having.”
Problem Thirteen: It Eliminates Knowledge of God According to Young, God is wholly other; we can’t really know Him. He wrote: “I am God. I am who I am. And unlike you…” (96). “I am what some would say ‘holy and wholly other than you’” (97). “I am not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think” (97). One basic problem with this view is that it is self-defeating. How could we know God is “wholly other”? Wholly other than what? And how can we know what God is not unless we know what He is? Totally negative knowledge of God is impossible. Further, according to the Bible, we can know what God is really like from both general and special revelation. For “Since the creation of the world his invisible attributes are clearly seen…even his eternal power and Godhead…” (Rom.1:20). As for special revelation, Jesus said, “If you had known me, you would have known my Father also” (Jn. 14:7) and “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father” (Jn. 14:6). God does speak of Himself in His written Word (2 Tim. 3:16), and when He does it tells us something about the way He really is. His words are not deceptive but descriptive.

Problem Fourteen: It Entails Divine Deception
According to The Shack, God is revealed in ways contrary to His nature. The Father is revealed as a black woman and having a body when He is neither. The reason given for this is that in love God revealed Himself in ways that would be acceptable to the recipient (who had a bad father image) but were not so. But this is case of divine deception. God is a spirit (Jn. 4:24) and He has no body (Lk. 24:39). God is never called a “Mother” in the Bible. It is deceptive to portray God’s Nature in any way that He is not, even though ones motive is loving (91-92). A lie told with a loving motive is still a lie. Of course, when God speaks to finite creatures He engages in adaptation to human limits but never in accommodation to human error. Portraying God as having a black female body is like saying storks bring babies. Young calls it a “mask” that falls away (111). But God does not have masks, and He does not masquerade. “It is impossible for God to lie” (Heb. 6:18). Paul speaks of the “God who cannot lie” (Titus 1:2). It is only the Devil, the Father of lies, who engages in appearing in forms he is not. “For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). To be sure, there are figures of speech in Scripture, speaking of God as a rock or a hen, but they are known to be metaphorical and not literal, since there are no immaterial rocks and God does not have feathers.

Conclusion
The Shack may do well for many in engaging the current culture, but not without compromising Christian truth. The book may be psychologically helpful to many who read it, but it is doctrinally harmful to all who are exposed to it. It has a false understanding of God, the Trinity, the person and work of Christ, the nature of man, the institution of the family and marriage, and the nature of the Gospel. For those not trained in orthodox Christian doctrine, this book is very dangerous. It promises good news for the suffering but undermines the only Good News (the Gospel) about Christ suffering for us. In the final analysis it is only truth that is truly liberating. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32). A lie may make one feel better, but only until he discovers the truth. This book falls short on many important Christian doctrines. It promises to transform people’s lives, but it lacks the transforming power of the Word of God (Heb. 4:12) and the community of believers (Heb. 10:25). In the final analysis, this book is not a Pilgrim’s Progress, but doctrinally speaking The Shack is more of a Pilgrim’s Regress.

Here is another review that I probably like better and is worth reading as well.

Do you agree or disagree with this critical assessment of the book? Is this a mountain out of a molehill? What do you think? Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week.

I finished reading and am actually rereading Tim Keller’s “The Reason For God.” Some books that attempt to show the validity of the Christian faith are deeply philosophical and rough reading. But, Keeler is warm, humble, engaging, and thoughtful, the book is just amazingly well written. The chapters are short enough to engage you each page, but leaving you thinking and wishing for more. You really owe it to your self to check out this book. He deals with the exclusivity of Christianity, evil and suffering, the Bible and science, morality, and the theme through of the book is the centrality of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Here are some great quotes from the book.

“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”

“Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken. Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us.”

“The Bible’s purpose is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The Bible’s purpose is to show you how God’s grace breaks into your life against your will and saves you from the sin and brokenness otherwise you would never be able to overcome… religion is ‘if you obey, then you will be accepted’. But the Gospel is, ‘if you are absolutely accepted, and sure you’re accepted, only then will you ever begin to obey’. Those are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible shows the difference.”

Buy the book! One of the best I have read all year! Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week VII

I also just finished The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life by Ramesh Ponnuru. It is an amazing resource on all issues pertaining to life: abortion, stem cell research, and euthanasia. If you are not informed on these salient issues it alone is valuable for this.

Ponnuru also takes us through how the popular notions of the history of abortion in America have become utterly distorted and he provides some good information to straighten out these false notions. He addresses infanticide and how people now argue seriously that parents should have the right to kill children during the first months after birth. He talks about the works of Peter Singer of Princeton University (recounted in chapter 15 in this book) and you will be aghast that such a person is given tenure and is shaping the minds of young adults for the next couple of generations.

It also deals with the changing of political tide in the Democratic Convention. He argues the party for the little man has forgotten the littlest man, namely the unborn. He shows how they made the killing of infants a part in their political machine. I loved this book because it is a secular defense of life. I can argue a Biblical defense of life, but the writer uses reason, history, and the courts, to show how un-American and devastating our nations killing of our unborn are. It was deep reading at times. It was a ton of information, which was so interesting I read faster than I should have and did not process it as well. But, I can reread it later.

Anyways, now I am moving on the The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowell. It deals with the blind ideas of liberals, how they implement them and refuse to admit their failure. Also, just cracked Why I Am Not A Calvinist by Jerry Walls and Joseph Dongell, name says pretty much what this book is about.

So, as Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 But beyond these, my son, be warned: there is no end to the making of many books, and much study wearies the body. (13) When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is: fear God and keep His commands, because this is for all humanity. (14) For God will bring every act to judgment, including every hidden thing, whether good or evil.

Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week VI

“"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.” I have started trying to re-read great books. I just finished re-reading Gospel and Kingdom by Graeme Goldsworthy it is a great book. He argues in the whole Bible you are looking for who are God’s people, where are God’s people, and are God’s people enjoying His promises. This all culminates in Jesus who is the focal and centerpiece of all Scripture and all of Scripture has to be interpreted in light of Him.

• Look at what Jesus says about this "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me" (John 5:39).
• "Beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, [Jesus] interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself" (Luke 24:27; cf. v. 44).
• "What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled" (Acts 3:18; cf. vv. 21, 24).
• "I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures" (I Corinthians 15:3f).

In all of these cases, the writer quoted is saying that the Old Testament teaches the gospel. There is grace and continuity between the two Testaments It is a very simple easy to follow and very short. He has a longer version that is on my “to buy and to read list.” If you are not familiar with the whole story Scripture this would be a good book for you. Another book in the same view is God’s Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts. I have re-read it and I love. I encourage you to seek to understand the Bible as beautiful tapestry as opposed to disjointed devotional fragments.

Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week V

The age of the earth and questions about dinosaurs are very common. There is a broad difference between 10,000 years and 14 Billion years. It is very common in some conservative circles to make the age of the earth a divisive issue. If some one believes in an old earth they are liberals and heretics, but this should not be the case. Plainly stated Moses and God are not concerned about telling when the earth was created, but they are very concerned with conveying copious amounts of information about whom that Creator is. I personally am open minded and critical of both positions and I am still seeking God's guidance on the matter.

So, in hopes of finding more information on the subject, I read and am rereading A Biblical Case for an Old Earth by David Snoke. Snoke spends some time with the scientific arguments for an old earth, which he summarizes quite well. These include arguments from starlight, from magnetic domains on the ocean floor, and from other phenomena on Earth showing the passage of time. He also spends some time showing how flood geology will not account for the geological layers we observe. I liked this book quite a bit, and it challenged many of my assumptions about creation, sin and death. The crux of his Biblical argument is that very good creation of Genesis contained both positive, helpful, parts, and dark, dangerous parts. He argues this by explaining the place of the "sea" and "sea monsters" in Hebrew biblical thought which is neglected by most and crucial to understanding Genesis.

He also deals very nicely with the "appearance of age" theory (that God created the earth with the appearance of age). He agress that God created Adam miraculously with a 30-year-old body. That would make sense because in order to exist, Adam had to exist at some stage of physical maturity. But, he argues that it does not seem plausible that God would create the universe with the appearance of huge numbers of specific prehistoric events, from supernovae down to the life and death of individual animals.

The best part of this book was that Snoke attempts to make a Biblical case. I am fairly ignorant when it comes to science, but competent when it comes to Scriptures. I found most of his exegesis refreshing and seemingly accurate. He is PCA and very conservative. He completely denies evolution, holds to a literal Adam & Eve. This is a worthwhile read, but it takes time to consume and digest his ideas, which are new to me. I appreciated the headache the book gave me, and the book gave me much food for thought.

Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week IV

I love buying Bibles and I just got a new one in the mail last week. It is the New Living Translation Study Bible. The New Living Translation is a good reading translation and the Editorial & Study Note Contributors were very impressive scholars, so I bought it. You can check it out for free online free for 30 days here. I have been impressed, they have as their goal to goal to help scripture to speak for it's self and not bring in theological or denominational bias. Of course I have not read the whole thing, but I have the Book of Zephaniah in it, as well as Philippians and have been impressed. The Introductions to the books are some of the most concise and helpful I have ever read. This study Bible is big, Cason picked it up and said "Heaby!" But, it would a nice aid to anyone with their everyday reading of Scripture. I am going to pass along a more detail review of the review from B. Stan Mccullars, Jr..

Introduction to the NLT Study Bible
In the Introduction, there is a NLT Study Bible Features Guide. There is also a six page Master Timeline which covers the historical period from creation to approximately AD 330. The timeline is quite detailed and gives an overview of what was happening during the periods covered by books of the Bible. Not only does it list the Kings of Israel and Judah, but it also covers the kings of Assyria, Babylonia, Media-Persia and Rome.

The introduction also includes a list of NLT Study Bible Contributors. I'm no scholar and my library is limited, but several names managed to catch my eye: Daniel Block, Tremper Longman III, John Oswalt, Grant Osborne, Robert Stein, Mark Strauss, Douglas Moo, Sean Harrison and Philip Comfort.

Book and Section Introductions
The book introductions cover the usual Setting, Summary, Authorship, Setting and Date information to be found in most Study Bibles. There are several features of the Book Introductions which stood out to me as special. Each book introduction includes a map showing the geographic region covered in the book. There is a timeline for each book.

As in most Study Bibles, there is an Outline. The NLT Study Bible takes the Outline a step or two further than most in that it is a running outline. I have found this to be a very helpful feature. To quote from the Features Guide:

"Each book includes an outline with up to three levels of headings. In the introduction, we provide the first level of the outline to give the reader an overview. The full outline is embedded in the NLT text as running headings."

The Book Introductions also include a Further Reading section which has book recommendations for further study. In skimming the recommendations from several introductions, the books seem to be solid. I even own several of them so of course I like the lists.

In addition to the Book Introductions, there are Section Introductions. These include:

Old Testament
The Pentateuch
Historical Books
Books of Poetry and Wisdom
Books of the Prophets
New Testament
The Four Gospels
Letters of Paul
Paul's Letters to Timothy and Titus

There are also other informative articles of an introductory or chronological nature throughout, including:

Archaeology and Sources for OT Background
Abraham to Joshua
Time of the Judges
Israel's Monarch
Israel's Exile and Return
Life of Jesus
Harmony of the Four Gospels
Apostolic Age
Time After the Apostles

Miscellaneous Features in the Text
Scattered throughout the text are numerous helpful features including additional maps, genealogies, additional timelines, various charts and illustrations. You have to really try hard to get lost in this Study Bible. They keep everything pretty close at hand.

I have found the notes to be surprisingly relevant to the text. I say "surprisingly" because in other Study Bibles it seems that a rather large percentage of notes seem to be more filler than helpful. The notes in this Bible have been more consistently helpful to me personally.

Theme Notes and Person Profiles
Throughout the text there are notes regarding important themes and people. For instance, looking in the Gospel According to John there are numerous notes and profiles including:

The Word
John the Baptist
Miraculous Signs
Nicodemus
Believing
Living Water
The Jewish Leaders
That gets me through chapter 5.

Cross-References
I have found the cross-references to be more useful than that of most other Bibles. The references appear to be more consistently related to the idea of the verse rather than an individual word which is what was claimed in the introduction. Using them I have found it to be true. Parallel passages are clearly marked with parallel lines(//). Verses in the New Testament which are quotes of the Old Testament are marked with an asterisk (*).

Word Study System
Located within the cross-reference column are references to the Hebrew and Greek dictionaries in the back of the Study Bible. They are referenced to the Strong's Concordance numbers. The dictionaries include 100 Hebrew words and 100 Greek words. I wish there were more words included but I also want to be able to carry the NLT Study Bible without throwing out my back if you know what I mean. I would consider the words included to be rather significant, relatively speaking. The definitions are fairly broad in scope and at the end of each definition are a list of Biblical references where the words can be found. This has been a favorite, and helpful, feature of mine.

Subject Index
Following the Hebrew/Greek dictionaries in the back of the back there is a very comprehensive Subject Index which takes up 142 pages, slightly less than the TNIV Study Bible's Topics Index and Notes Index combined.

Dictionary / Concordance
The Dictionary/Concordance may be another favorite. Not only is it a concordance but it actually does contain definitions of many of the words, words from the KJV are so marked to aid someone (wisely) transitioning to the NLT, and brief biographical sketches of people.

Maps
In addition to the maps in the Introductions and in the text, there is a good collection of maps at the end of the Study Bible. There is no index included. However, given the other maps mentioned having an index in the back might be overkill. While I appreciate the inclusion of the extra maps in the back, I find myself using the Introduction and in text maps far more frequently as I find them much more convenient.

Concluding Remarks
Overall, I have found the NLT Study Bible to be an exceptional work. Beyond overall, each individual part of the work has truly impressed me. Perhaps I'm biased. When it was first announced and the features were listed on the NLT Study Bible website it seemed to me that someone had been reading my mind as to what features I had always wanted. It's almost like we were made for each other.

I give the NLT Study Bible my most enthusiastic endorsement and gladly recommend it to all.

Buy more Bibles, but most importantly read your Bible everyday! Love it, enjoy it, wear them out!
Got to get ready to Go Preach, Pastor Phillip

Also, I will be getting the ESV Study Bible on October 15 as well!

Forming and Filling

Here is a helpful graphic way to think about the seven days of creation we talked about Sunday Morning. This is a study note from the new NLT Study Bible. The NLT is a great reading translation: I don't use it for study as I like a translation to be a little more literal. But, it is accurate and refreshing to read. I have new NLT Study Bible coming to me in the mail now. You can check it out, with the notes and all online for free for 30 days. I will post a review on the Study Bible in the next few weeks after I receive it.

Below Is Taken From The NLT Study Bible

The Structure of the Creation Account (1:1–2:3). God transformed chaos into the present cosmos. In the first three days, he transformed the formless void into the structured universe—the HEAVENS (outer space), the WATER and SKY, and the EARTH (cp. Exod 20:11; Ps 135:6). In the second three days, he populated each empty realm. The seventh day (2:1-3) stands apart: As God’s day of rest, it provides the weekly pattern for human activity (Exod 20:8-11; 31:12-17) and speaks of the rest that God promised to those who live by faith in him (see Heb 3:7–4:11).Be Ready For a Sabath Rest and the Creation of Man On Sunday, Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week III

I have been immersed in the book of Genesis all week in preparing for Sunday Morning. I have been reading a ton, but most sermon prep reading is sections of commentaries that explain just one portion of Scripture. But, this week I became immersed in a little book by the name of "How To Read Genesis." I almost did not buy the book, because I thought “I know how to read the Bible,” right? But, this book is not a commentary, but a guide to get your mind in the right mindset as you read the book of Genesis.

Now, I had some disagreements with some of the points of the author Tremper Longman III, but he offers great insight. He shows interpretative errors that people are prone to make (treating Genesis though modern scientific paradigms), and thoughts to keep in your mind as you read. Most important of these is the cultural background of the book of Genesis, which includes the other pagan religious creation stories of that day from Babylon, Egypt and Mesopotamia. He says you have to keep in mind constantly the message to the original hearers the Israelites who just been freed from slavery and now are wondering 40 years in the desert. Genesis would establish their beginnings and their understanding of the foundations of the entire world. It also shows the book of Genesis pointing us to Jesus. As my OT prof would tell us in seminary “If a Jewish Rabbi could preach your sermon, you have done something wrong.” The New Testament and Jesus tell us all scripture points to Him. It also offers small sections of commentary to aid in understanding large blocks of scripture. I have found it very valuable and will turn back to it through out our study.

I hope you are excited Sunday Morning at Antioch! Pastor Phillip

Book Of The Week

I read Crazy Love by Francis Chan this week. It is a good book in ithe says his goal “is written for those who want more Jesus. It is for those who are bored with what American Christianity offers. It is for those who don’t want to plateau, who would rather die before their convictions do.” He spends the first three chapters of the book examining our understanding the character and relational aspects of God. The next seven are devoted to fleshing out a relationship with God. He achieves the by causing the reader to spend time in uncomfortable realizations at how anemic the Christianity we practice is and how much Jesus calls us to.

I found the basis of this weeks sermon (Rev 3:14-22) on one of the themes he addressed in the book. He said “a lukewarm Christian is an oxymoron; there’s no such thing. To put it plainly, churchgoers who are ‘lukewarm’ are not Christians. We will not see them in heaven.” I am not completely certain of the statement, but I don't want to test it, so the solution is to give all to God.

He then calls for us to put faith into practice. He says that we order our live so that we don't need God. Sure God is nice, but we have a back up plan if our plan does not go through. He argues that “God doesn’t call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if He doesn’t come through.” I know in my life, I love the secure and frankly get afraid of putting myself in those positions. How about you?

I will make one critique, he addresses our need to serve the poor around us. This is good and Jesus did identify with them, but the Biblical poor are different that the poor we find today in our society. Not to jettison our responsibility to help, but some of the equations he makes are a little weak. I do agree that helping the poor is as much about us growing in obedience in faith and lessening our love material things as it is helping the person in need.

But, Crazy Love is overall a very challenging, but easy reading book. Pastor Kyle says that Chan is an amazing preacher and that you can get his sermons for free offline. This book offers a message that Christians desperately need to hear. As another reviewer of this book said "Too many of us are living too safely and too easily. But for the brief moments we spend at church each week, we are practically indistinguishable from the unbelievers around us. This is not the way it is meant to be."

Put yourself in positions to step out in faith, Pastor Phillip

Book of The Week

One of my best friends and former college roommate is an awesome guy by the name of Travis Agnew. He is worship pastor at Northside Baptist Church in Greenwood. He also maintains an awesome blog and I pretty got my idea for this blog from him. So, I am going to further rip him off and start a book of the week section of my blog as well.

So, I read Stop Dating The Church by Josh Harris. The book is short (140 small pages, good sized font) and you can read it a few hours, which is a plus. But, Harris makes the point that people today have a fear of fully committing themselves to a church. Instead they want to "date" the church and take whatever they can from the church, all the while having their eyes on the look out for something better to come along. He admits that when you commit to a church, you open yourself to be hurt by the church and how many people are hurt deeply by churches. He also acknowledges the many problems the church can posses. But, he makes the point that we have to learn to see church as God sees the church and that is as a beautiful bride.

As I read that part of the book I remembered seeing Rebecca on our wedding day come through the doors of the church. She was amazing! I had a sense joyful anticipation of our life together. I had overcoming sense of pure love, and I would have done anything in the world for her. There was a hope that she and I would do amazing things for God . I could only wonder at the mom and the wife that she was going to be and she has never let me down yet! These feelings sum up the reason why God’s most powerful metaphor for the church is as his bride.

You see God sees our imperfections but God is exited at all that we stand to accomplish (Phil 1:6). You see God loves us (the church) with a true and real deep love. God sees us made in His image and He see us as beautiful. I believe that God in this relationship, like a good marriage can become frustrated, but he will never leave us or divorce himself from us. This is the reason Harris argues that we should love be fully committed to the church, because God is.

He also includes what kind of church to look for, when to leave a church, how to participate in church, and a great section on how to listen to a sermon and get the most of it. I loved to book and it is valuable for committed church goers, church daters, and those who are wondering if church is for them.

Happy For All The Committed Christians At Antioch Baptist Church!! Pastor Phillip