From Killer to Kinkade, A Review of the Shack, Part 2

Killer

I won't go into a lot of details about the book's plot. It is horrendously sad and I cried several times as it forced me to think about my own daughter. In truth, there is probably no worse thing on the planet than having your tiny child ripped from your protection by a psychopath and being needlessly abused and probably murdered (the 'probably' lighting the pain on fire). And so Young makes his task ambitious: he's gonna take The Problem of Evil to the shed, or The Shack, as it were. That is either incredibly hubristic, painfully dumb or rightly ambitious.

But I have to admit, he hooked me. I want to know that there is some sort of emancipation at the end of Mack's hell. I want to know what glory awaits those who persevere despite the suffering. Though the whole premise is exceedingly fantastical (read=unbelievable), you don't really care because you want answers. I want answers.

Da Plot

Anyway, you should know that upon the disappearance and determined death of his daughter, Mack gets a note, beckoning him to hang with 'Papa' (his family's word for God) at the shack, where they found the only remnants of the tiny girl. Now that is, by far, the creepiest part of the book. It reminds of that horrible Silent Hill video game where a dead wife sends a note to her husband to meet her in a godforsaken location. And, yet, Mack decides that it would be a grand idea to go.

Mack, we had come to find out at this point, was seminary trained but kind of non-religious. I.e., he was normal. He knew a lot but didn't "know" a lot, if you catch my drift. And yet, he was a conscientious family man who loved his wife and kids desperately. That was until he had entered The Great Sadness, as it is referred to throughout the book. And that is, of course, understandable. It is honestly surprising that Young didn't have him fall further. Though he experienced deep pain, he seemed to be holding up quite well. But not well enough, I guess. And so he heads out to the shack with a gun.

Kinkade

Now you know how the story goes. When Mack finally returns to the malevolent shack, he gets teleported, or transported, or something, to a new world. Think Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 70's version, of course) where the kids descend into fantasy, a sugar laden utopia. What was there is now gone. The snow, the cold, the ominously evil shack. The scene Young depicts is really what you see in any Kinkade painting. And this is exactly what is needed. This is exactly what you want to happen, to feel. Warmth, safety, grace.

Soon Mack is inside the boisterous log cabin, conversing with God.

Sowell on What it Means to Be a Judge, Parts 1 & 2

I linked to Sowell's excellent piece yesterday and he has a follow up today. If you have the time, read him. The articles are fascinating and good precisely because they are true.

1. 'Empathy' vs. Law: When you buy words, you had better know what you are buying.
2. 'Empathy' vs. Law: Part II: Obama vs. Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The reason I love the idea of the law being something fixed--that is, they cannot be added to or taken away from, but only adjudicated--is because, in many ways, this is exactly the way we must interpret the Bible. Though there are things in it that will undoubtedly make us shutter or revolt, we must believe that it is fixed. These are not the words of men but of God, and he is perfect. Our job, then, is only to interpret what he said, not take away from or add to (on the contrary, doing either of those things will get you into serious trouble; see Gal. 1:8). And upon these words we must base our lives.

Now, God is not only perfect. He is also good. And that means that his words must also be good. This is different from Holmes' sometimes visceral reaction to judgments he was forced to make (e.g. “I loathed most of the things in favor of which I decided”). Though our job is to interpret and put into practice the fixed words of God, we must also learn to believe that those words are preeminently good. Holmes' did not like aspects of the law probably because he deemed it unjust. But we cannot follow suit. We must believe that God's purpose for us in adhering to the scriptures is not just good for him; it is also good for us. Our sometimes angry reactions to certain parts of his word are not unlike a child's angry reactions to the commands of her parent. Though we admit that these commands are often difficult, they are designed, ultimately, to benefit us. Similarly, God's word is intended to turn us away from idols and to him. And that, my friends, is the greatest thing in the world.

Let Us Drink Our Fill From This Fountain

From Calvin's Institutes, 2.16.19:

19. Christ alone in all the clauses of the Creed!

We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ [Acts 4:12]. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is "of him" [I Cor. 1:30]. If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing. If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects [Heb. 2:17] that he might learn to feel our pain [cf. Heb. 5:2]. If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Gal. 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his Kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given to him to judge. In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other. Some men, not content with him alone, are borne hither and thither from one hope to another; even if they concern themselves chiefly with him, they nevertheless stray from the right way in turning some part of their thinking in another direction. Yet such distrust cannot creep in where men have once for all truly known the abundance of his blessings.

(If you'd like to know, Calvin's 500th birthday was this year and, in celebration of his life and work, many are taking a year to read his Institutes. If you are feeling ambitious and exceedingly reformational, you can get daily readings here.)

Americans are Usually Well-Informed Ignoramuses | UPDATE | 2ND UPDATE

Check out this highly provocative and probably prophetic interview with Doug Groothuis on the perils of technology. For example:

You said “Ours is an age infatuated with, addicted to, and voraciously hungry for ever-increasing doses of information.” Is this hunger for information in some way dangerous to the soul?

Yes, since we have limited capacities for knowledge and wisdom. Knowing what matters most—truths about God, ourself, and creation—takes time and effort. Being awash in information is not the same as gaining knowledge (truth received in a rational way). Americans are usually well-informed ignoramuses. We have oceans of facts or information at hand, but little knowledge. Wisdom is the proper use of knowledge. Americans typically have no idea how to handle all the data thrown at them: the more information, the less meaning.

Whole thing.

UPDATE:

Coincidentally, while I was going through my reader (I know, ironically), I came upon this post over at Wired: Five Technologies that Our Kids Won't Recognize. After reading the aforementioned interview, two of the five stood out:

Books

This one will take a while, but paper books will eventually be the written equivalent of the vinyl record — loved, collected and sold in small numbers, but really just a niche market. The e-reader isn’t nearly ready enough yet, but if the Kindle Magnum (or DX, or whatever) makes its way into schools and colleges, the formative experience of reading will be electronic, not paper, and that will be the beginning of the end.

Death Rating 2/5

Letters

More paper, and more words. A letter that comes in the mail is so rare these days that we can probably declare it extinct, with a few unsubstantiated sightings every year — much like Bigfoot. It’s a shame — writing a letter was a longer, more considered affair than banging out an email, an act which itself already seems out-of-date in these days of the Twitter. And receiving one from a friend or loved one is magical.

This romantic, personal method of communication has also formed a good chunk of history, something that will be lost — can you imagine the collected e-mails of a famous person being published after their death?

Death Rating 5/5

Whole thing.

2ND UPDATE:

Goodness.

Pray Widely

Randy Alcorn posted an email over at his blog from his friend, Barry Arnold, on praying not just for the healing of physical infirmities:

I think our prayers are unbalanced—in the direction of just physical needs. We can and should pray for people with infirmities—but it might be wise to change the emphasis of our prayers from physical healing alone to God accomplishing His purposes in and through afflictions.

Here’s a partial list of things the New Testament tells us to pray for:

Pray for people who give you a hard time (Matthew 5:43-44; Luke 6:28)

Pray for children (Matthew 19:13)

Pray for strength to endure difficult times (Luke 21:36)

Pray you will not fall into temptation (Luke 22:40)

Pray for all Christians (1 Thessalonians 5:25; Hebrews 13:18)

Pray that God's Kingdom will come and His will be done (Matthew 6:10)

Pray God will provide your daily needs (Matthew 6:11)

Pray for God's forgiveness as we forgive others (Matthew 6:12)

Pray we will not be led into temptation, but delivered from evil (Matthew 6:13)

Pray for boldness in proclaiming the gospel and for God to do miracles in people's lives (Acts 4:29-31)

Pray all the time, be alert, pray for fellow believers (Ephesians 6:18)

Pray for fearless teaching of the Word (Ephesians 6:20)

Pray to be filled with the knowledge of His will (Colossians 1:9)

Pray for open doors for the gospel (Colossians 4:3)

Pray that the Word of God may be glorified (2 Thessalonians 3:1)

Pray for deliverance from evil men (2 Thessalonians 3:2)

Pray for everyone, government leaders, peace, quiet, godliness, holiness (1 Timothy 2:1,2)

Pray for sinners to find life in Christ (1 John 5:16)

Ask God for wisdom (James 1:5)

It’s hard to break habits, and we’re very much in the habit of just asking God to cure people. Here’s a suggestion: When you pray for a physical need, also include at least one of the “spiritual needs” listed above.

In doing so we may begin to see physical infirmities the way God does, realizing that sometimes He heals, and many other times, for wise and holy reasons, He doesn’t.

Only in Christianity

Thabiti Anyabwile, on the Five Things Christians Do That Other Religious Adherents Don't:

1. Turn their sacred Scripture into coloring books for children, or bedtime stories with full color sketches.

2. Reduce the central message or teachings of their religion to a T-shirt slogan.

3. Tweet that central message or those key teachings.

4. Wear sandwich boards with their messages placarded on them.

5. Record sacred music that sounds like cheesy love songs.

So Many Links (05 May 2009)

Emergent church, RIP.

Swine flu hysteria.

Dubious record there, dude. Coffins? Seriously?

Bell might not understand the gospel, but he gets nukes.

Come on, Judge. Let him do it!

May it not be so.

Bandwidth not so wide anymore.

I'm just sayin':

Justice David Souter’s retirement from the Supreme Court presents Pres. Barack Obama with his first opportunity to appoint someone to the High Court. People who are speculating about whether the next nominee will be a woman, a Hispanic, or whatever, are missing the point.

That we are discussing the next Supreme Court justice in terms of group “representation” is a sign of how far we have already strayed from the purpose of law and the weighty responsibility of appointing someone to sit for life on the highest court in the land.

That President Obama has made “empathy” with certain groups one of his criteria for choosing a Supreme Court nominee is a dangerous sign of how much farther the Supreme Court may be pushed away from the rule of law and toward even more arbitrary judicial edicts to advance the agenda of the Left and set it in legal concrete, immune from the democratic process.

Would you want to go into court to appear before a judge with “empathy” for groups A, B, and C, if you were a member of groups X, Y, or Z? Nothing could be farther from the rule of law. That would be bad news, even in a traffic court, much less in a court that has the last word on your rights under the Constitution of the United States.

Appoint enough Supreme Court justices with “empathy” for particular groups and you would have, for all practical purposes, repealed the 14th Amendment, which guarantees “equal protection of the laws” for all Americans.

We would have entered a strange new world, where everybody is equal but some are more equal than others. The very idea of the rule of law becomes meaningless when it is replaced by the empathies of judges.

Barack Obama solves this contradiction, as he solves so many other problems, with rhetoric. If you believe in the rule of law, he will say the words “rule of law.” And if you are willing to buy it, he will keep on selling it.

Best:

Colossians 1:15-23 as Prayer

Pray this today:

Jesus, you are the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by you all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through you and for you. And you are before all things, and in you all things hold together. And you are the head of the body, the church. You are the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything you might be preeminent. For in you all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through you to reconcile to yourself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of your cross.

And we, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, you have now reconciled in your body of flesh by your death, in order to present us holy and blameless and above reproach before you, if indeed we continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that we heard.

Def: Ineffability of God

From the Theological Word of the Day:

[in-ef-uh-buhl]

(Lat. ineffabilis, in “not” + effabilis “utter”)

The ineffability of God refers to those characteristic of his nature and his plan that are beyond comprehension and unable to be expressed through human means of articulation. When we speak of God’s nature we quickly move into this realm. God said that there are many things that have been revealed, but there are also many “secret” things that remain and will always remain an ineffable mystery (Deut. 29:29). Christian theology is filled with ineffable beliefs and concepts.

From Killer to Kinkade, A Review of The Shack: Part 1

I readily admit that I have read a good number of the Left Behind books. I started reading Mr. Jenkins and Mr. LaHaye long before I had actually read Revelation, and definitely before I had read Hoekema. I passed their books out at Christmas, quipped in theological conversations about who the anti-christ would be, debated whether or not our clothes would be neatly folded upon our rapture, and thought it was good common sense to slap a "Car Will be Unmanned in Case of Rapture" sticker on bumpers.

When I got to seminary, I heard a different story. "The worst piece of fiction in the history of earth" "So theologically unsound that one might gain more insight into the mind of God by drinking acetone" "I don't know about you, but Jerry B. Jenkins' prose makes me want to unlearn English". What had happened to me is quite common. I believed that, for no good reason, popularity equaled rightness. I believed that because Left Behind was evangelical, because it was heralded by some churches, and because it was always sitting in the front bookshelves of bookstores, it must have been the truth and nothing but the truth. But of course the syllogism 'if popular, then true' is about as fallacious as it gets. Fortunately, I know now that pre-tribulational/pre-millenial eschatological theology is, technically speaking, crap-o-la.

And yet I continue to admit to people, unashamedly, that I read and listened to all but the last two Left Behind novels. Why? Simply, because they were fun and partially true. Yes, Jenkins is about a good a writer as I am a trapeze artist, but he knows a thing or two about plot development, suspense and people. And that makes for some interesting reading. Moreover, there was a good amount of biblical Christianity there. While their notions of Israel and the end were all wrong, the more basic stuff about God and the gospel were fine. So what am I saying? Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, of course.

And that's the case, too, with The Shack. I just finished it over the weekend and had two reactions: (1) It is better than I thought it would be, and (2) It is worse than I thought it would be. But that is just the thing William P. Young wants to elicit from his readers: Your preconceived notions limit you, especially when it comes to relating to God. And that sort of overarching proposition makes for fun reviewing. Though I will take Young to "the shack" on some issues, I will praise others. His polarizing work is quite interesting and brings to the forefront the issue of art and accuracy in biblical theology. I hope that it will help us engage this issue and our own beliefs on a new level.

Part 2 coming soon...