On 12/15/2019, the sermon preached by Pastor Joe Rosales was based on Romans 10:14-21.

We read the account of Christ’s birth:

Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (‭‭Luke‬ ‭2:4-11‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

The church must remember her first love—Christ: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent” (Revelation‬ ‭2:4-5‬ ‭NKJV).

Pastors are called to preach the Word and not be concerned with trends to draw people in. We draw people in with the Truth. On the other extreme, Hyper-Calvinists deny the necessity of preaching the Gospel for men to get saved. But God ordains both the ends and the means, and uses means to achieve His ends:

How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “LORD, who has believed our report?” So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. (Romans‬ ‭10:14-17‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

Don’t expect for a voice from Heaven to come down and automatically convert the elect. In fact, the pastor noted that the preaching of God’s Word is the voice from Heaven! The reformers believed that faithful biblical preaching carries the same weight and authority as the Words of God Himself. Here’s Calvin:

The word goeth out of the mouth of God in such a manner that it likewise “goeth out of the mouth” of men; for God does not speak openly from heaven, but employs men as his instruments ….

When a man climbs up into the pulpit, is it so that he may be seen from afar and that he may have a higher place than the rest? No, no! But so that God may speak to us by the mouth of man and be so gracious to us to show himself here among us and will have a mortal man to be his messenger. (Qtd. in Glen Clary, “John Calvin: Servant of the Word of God,” https://reformedforum.org/john-calvin-servant-of-the-word-of-god/)

It’s also common for churches to stray whenever the founders pass away. If a strong biblical plurality of elders is not installed in the church, it’s only a matter of time till they fall away or close down, as some of the very first church plants in the Book of Revelation attest:

When Christ said, “I will build my church, and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it,” he was not speaking of any institutional church. The Gates of Hell have prevailed against thousands of institutional churches in the past two millennia. They have become apostate and in most cases have disappeared. The churches to which Paul wrote his letters—Ephesus, Corinth, Thessalonica, Rome, Galatia, Philippi, Colosse—no longer exist as Christian churches. The Gates of Hell prevailed against the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, and the Lutheran Church. Christ’s church is not be be confused with any visible organization. (John Robbins, “The Church Irrational,” http://trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=290)

The Apostle Paul lost some of his battles. When Paul preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the synagogues, he was persecuted by the original antichrist, Judaism. We do not know, but tradition says that Paul died a violent death. (Jesus himself was almost murdered on the Sabbath by devout synagogue-going Jews who did not like his sermon; see Luke 4.) Most of the Jews of the first century rejected Christ; only the remnant was saved. The wrath of God, exercised through an unbelieving and unwitting General Titus, ended the apostate Temple cult – the vaunted Second Temple Judaism of the New Perspective on Paul. It was only through the writing of new Scriptures, the divinely inspired New Testament, and the establishment of new institutions – churches to propagate the doctrines of the Scriptures, both Old and New – that the Gospel survived the first century. As a Christian, Paul did not use force (as Saul he had). He lost battles, but he won the war. (Robbins, “Why Heretics Win Battles,” http://trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=207)

On 11/10/2019, the sermon preached by Pastor Joe Rosales continued from Romans 9:14-29.

The doctrine of predestination has always been controversial, especially in our democratic and increasingly socialist nation, which demands equality of outcome for all, so God is obligated to save everyone. Romans 9 disposes of such unbiblical views. And if you have a problem with what Paul wrote, you have a problem with God Himself: “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (‭‭I Corinthians‬ ‭14:37‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). We should expect objections when explaining the doctrine of election:

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. (Romans‬ ‭9:14-16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

So what does it mean that “the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he did not let the children of Israel go”? (Exodus‬ ‭10:20‬ ‭NKJV‬‬) Does it mean that God abandoned pharaoh to his already hardened heart? That God removed his hand of restraint from pharaoh and left him to his destruction? Is it the mere wrath of abandonment? If God actively hardened pharaoh’s heart, would that make him the author of sin? Does not God say that “the king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes”? (Proverbs‬ ‭21:1‬ ‭NKJV).‬‬ Does the Potter form jars of dishonor in an indirect manner? Who is the One who forms/makes (Romans 9:21 (Byz): ποιῆσαι) and prepares (Romans 9:22 (Byz): κατηρτισμένα) the vessels of wrath? The clay or the Potter?

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? (Romans‬ ‭9:20-24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

According to God, “I form light and I create darkness; I make peace and I create evil; I am Yahweh; I do all these things” (Isaiah‬ ‭45:7‬ ‭LEB‬‬). Gordon Clark explains:

This is a verse that many people do not know is in the Bible. Its sentiment shocks them. They think that God could not have created evil. But this is precisely what the Bible says, and it has a direct bearing on the doctrine of predestination.

Some people who do not wish to extend God’s power over evil things, and particularly over moral evils, try to say that the word evil here means such natural evils as earthquakes and storms. The Scofield Bible notes that the Hebrew word here, ra, is never translated sin. This is true. The editors of that Bible must have looked at every instance of ra in the Old Testament and must have seen that it is never translated sin in the King James Version. But what the note does not say is that it is often translated wickedness, as in Genesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the Earth.” In fact, ra is translated wickedness at least fifty times in the Old Testament; and it refers to a variety of ugly sins. The Bible therefore explicitly teaches that God creates sin. This may be an unpalatable thought to a good many people. But there it is, and everyone may read it for himself. As this becomes a major point in predestination, and forms one of the main objections to the doctrine, we shall discuss it later. But let no one limit God in his creation. There is nothing independent of him. (Predestination, http://www.trinitylectures.org/predestination-p-128.html)

And Gary Crampton:

Standing on the “rock foundation” of the Word of God as our axiomatic starting point (Matthew 7:24-25), we have an answer to the problem of evil. God, who is altogether holy and can do no wrong, sovereignly decrees evil things to take place for his own good purposes (Isaiah 45:7). Just because He has decreed it, his action is right. As Jerome Zanchius wrote: “The will of God is so the cause of all things, as to be, itself without cause, for nothing can be the cause of that which is the cause of everything. Hence we find every matter resolved ultimately into the mere sovereign pleasure of God. God has no other motive for what He does than ipsa voluntas, His mere will, which will itself is so far from being unrighteous that it is justice itself.”

Sin and evil therefore exist for good reasons: God has decreed them as part of His eternal plan, and they work not only for His own glory, but also for the good of his people. With this Biblical premise in mind, it is easy to answer anti-theists, such as David Hume, who argue that the pervasiveness of evil in the world militates against the existence of the Christian God. (“A Biblical Theodicy,” http://trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=141)

And Clark again:

…God [is] the cause of sin. God is the sole ultimate cause of everything. There is absolutely nothing independent of him. He alone is the eternal being. He alone is omnipotent. He alone is sovereign. Not only is Satan his creature, but every detail of history was eternally in his plan before the world began; and he willed that it should all come to pass. The men and angels predestined to eternal life and those foreordained to everlasting death are particularly and unchangeably designed; and their number is so certain and definite that it cannot be either increased or diminished. Election and reprobation are equally ultimate….

The secondary causes in history are not eliminated by divine causality, but rather they are made certain. And the acts of these secondary causes, whether they be righteous acts or sinful acts, are to be immediately referred to the agents; and it is these agents who are responsible.

God is neither responsible nor sinful, even though he is the only ultimate cause of everything. He is not sinful because in the first place whatever God does is just and right. It is just and right simply in virtue of the fact that he does it. Justice or righteousness is not a standard external to God to which God is obligated to submit. Righteousness is what God does. Since God caused Judas to betray Christ, this causal act is righteous and not sinful. By definition God cannot sin. At this point it must me particularly pointed out that God’s causing a man to sin is not sin. There is no law, superior to God, which forbids him to decree sinful acts. Sin presupposes a law, for sin is lawlessness. Sin is any want of conformity unto or transgression of the law of God. But God is “Ex-lex.” (Religion, Reason, and Revelation, in The Works of Gordon Haddon Clark: Christian Philosophy, Vol. 4, pp. 267, 268-69, http://www.trinitylectures.org/christian-philosophy-the-works-of-gordon-haddon-clark-volume-paperback-p-145.html).

“The LORD has made all for Himself, Yes, even the wicked for the day of doom” (Proverbs‬ ‭16:4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

On 11/3/2019, the sermon preached by Pastor Joe Rosales was based on Romans 9:14-29.

The pastor commented on the use of creeds and confessions, which reflect order and consistency. Some don’t like order or being tied down by a coherent system of doctrine, but when you ask them what they believe about the Bible or the doctrines it teaches, they will inevitably recite to you a statement of faith, likely an incomplete and inconsistent one.

The doctrine of predestination, of sovereign election, is offensive to many today, including church folk. And there are many perverted notions of fairness, ranging from socialism, communism, and Marxism, to Arminianism or synergism and the doctrine of free will, that are completely at odds with Scripture.

Many have trouble with the doctrine of hell too. How can a good God predestine people to hell? That’s like asking, How can a good judge send criminals to prison? The amazing thing about God is not that he sends people to hell, for we’re all natural-born sinners in rebellion against a thrice holy and just God who deserve nothing but hell; it is that He, out of his sheer grace and mercy, decided to save any of us!

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:6-10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

The pastor also clarified the meaning of an often misinterpreted passage: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter‬ ‭3:9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). This does not mean that God desires all men to come to repentance, but that He “is longsuffering toward us”—toward believers, and desires believers to come to repentance. Even so, “these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead”” (‭‭Acts‬ ‭17:30-31‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

But just because God commands all men to repent doesn’t necessarily mean He desires all men to repent. God ultimately neither loves nor desires all men to repent because He hates and hardens the reprobate:

For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? ‭‭(Romans‬ ‭9:17-24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬)

The pastor warned against people who attempt to reconcile difficult doctrines prematurely, like the Trinity or Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, since these doctrines are often considered “mysteries.” He admonished us to stick to the Scriptures, and if the person you’re discussing this with continues to object, then use Paul’s retort: “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God?” (Romans 9:20). A biblical mystery, however, is something that God obscured in the Old Testament but reveals or explains in the New:

Unbeknownst to the people of Moses' day (it was a "mystery"), marriage was designed by God from the beginning to be a picture or parable of the relationship between Christ and the church. Back when God was planning what marriage would be like, He planned it for this great purpose: it would give a beautiful earthly picture of the relationship that would someday come about between Christ and His church. This was not known to people for many generations, and that is why Paul can call it a "mystery." But now in the New Testament age Paul reveals this mystery, and it is amazing. (George Knight, qtd. in https://thorncrownministries.com/blog/2017/08/08/review-of-when-sinners-say-i-do)

And while Paul does rebuke his opponents, he continues to demolish their objections in verses 21 and following. He answers them squarely with some of the strongest statements in the Bible. I appreciate the wisdom of men like Gordon Clark, who unabashedly deals with the problem of evil, and A.W. Pink when it comes to harmonizing difficult doctrines, which is why their writings are classic contributions that build up the church:

This is, admittedly, the most difficult branch of our subject. Those who have ever devoted much study to this theme have uniformly recognized that the harmonizing of God's Sovereignty with Man's Responsibility is the gordian knot of theology.

The main difficulty encountered is to define the relationship between God's Sovereignty and man's responsibility. Many have summarily disposed of the difficulty by denying its existence. A certain class of theologians, in their anxiety to maintain man's responsibility, have magnified it beyond all due proportions until God's Sovereignty has been lost sight of, and in not a few instances flatly denied. Others have acknowledged that the Scriptures present both the Sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man but affirm that in our present finite condition and with our limited knowledge it is impossible to reconcile the two truths, though it is the bounden duty of the believer to receive both. The present writer believes that it has been too readily assumed that the Scriptures themselves do not reveal the several points which show the conciliation of God's Sovereignty and man's responsibility. While perhaps the Word of God does not clear up all the mystery (and this is said with reserve), it does throw much light upon the problem, and it seems to us more honoring to God and His Word to prayerfully search the Scriptures for the completer solution of the difficulty, and even though others have thus far searched in vain that ought only to drive us more and more to our knees. God has been pleased to reveal many things out of His Word during the last century which were hidden from earlier students. Who then dare affirm that there is not much to be learned yet respecting our inquiry! (The Sovereignty of God, https://reformed.org/books/pink/index.html?mainframe=/books/pink/pink_sov_08.html)

On 10/27/2019, the sermon preached by Pastor Joe Rosales was based on Romans 9:6-13.

Man is corrupt to the core, Radically Depraved. The word radical means root. It doesn’t mean that man is as bad as he can be, but that every part of his being—including his legal standing before God—is affected and corrupted by sin.

The pastor also touched on the claim that the Old Testament God of wrath is different from the New Testament God of love, which is a very popular understanding of the Bible, even in evangelical churches. This is the ancient heresy of Marcion:

Marcion supposed two or three primal forces (ἀρχαί): the good or gracious God (θεὸς ἀγαθός), whom Christ first made known; the evil matter (ὕλη) ruled by the devil, to which heathenism belongs; and the righteous world-maker (δημιουργὸς δίκαιος), who is the finite, imperfect, angry Jehovah of the Jews….

He was chiefly zealous for the consistent practical enforcement of the irreconcilable dualism which he established between the gospel and the law, Christianity and Judaism, goodness and righteousness. He drew out this contrast at large in a special work, entitled “Antitheses.” The God of the Old Testament is harsh, severe and unmerciful as his law; he commands, “Love thy neighbor, but hate thine enemy,” and returns “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth;” but the God of the New Testament commands, “Love thine enemy.” The one is only just, the other is good. Marcion rejected all the books of the Old Testament, and wrested Christ’s word in Matt. 5:17 into the very opposite declaration: “I am come not to fulfill the law and the prophets, but to destroy them.” In his view, Christianity has no connection whatever with the past, whether of the Jewish or the heathen world, but has fallen abruptly and magically, as it were, from heaven. Christ, too, was not born at all, but suddenly descended into the city of Capernaum in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, and appeared as the revealer of the good God, who sent him. He has no connection with the Messiah, announced by the Demiurge in the Old Testament; though he called himself the Messiah by way of accommodation. His body was a mere appearance, and his death an illusion, though they had a real meaning. He cast the Demiurge into Hades, secured the redemption of the soul (not of the body), and called the apostle Paul to preach it. The other apostles are Judaizing corrupters of pure Christianity, and their writings are to be rejected, together with the catholic tradition. In over-straining the difference between Paul and the other apostles, he was a crude forerunner of the Tübingen school of critics. (Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume 2: Ante-Nicene Christianity, pp. 485-86, Logos edition)

In a similar vein, Thomas Jefferson denounced the apostle Paul as “the great Coryphaeus, and first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.”

The pastor also made a bold but biblical claim. Some say that it’s not fair for God to choose some and not others. But if God were truly fair, then everyone would be condemned to hell, for we are all guilty in Adam, rebellious sinners—criminals—according to God’s law. God hates the wicked, in both Testaments: “The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity” (Psalms‬ ‭5:5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

“God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day. If he does not turn back, He will sharpen His sword; He bends His bow and makes it ready. He also prepares for Himself instruments of death; He makes His arrows into fiery shafts.” Psalms‬ ‭7:11-13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? “I have trodden the winepress alone, And from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, And trampled them in My fury; Their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, And I have stained all My robes. For the day of vengeance is in My heart, And the year of My redeemed has come.

I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, Made them drunk in My fury, And brought down their strength to the earth.”” Isaiah‬ ‭63:2-4, 6‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“I, the LORD, never change” (Mal. 3:6).

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” ‭‭John‬ ‭3:36‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!” Luke‬ ‭12:4-5‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” ‭‭II Peter‬ ‭3:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“…since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.” II Thessalonians‬ ‭1:6-9‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“…as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”” Jude‬ ‭1:7, 14-15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

“Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.” Revelation‬ ‭19:11-15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

On 10/20/2019, the sermon, “A Heart for the Lost,” preached by Pastor Joe Rosales, was based on Romans 9:1-5.

The pastor gave a good comment on labels: Some Christians are too fundamentalistic, insisting, like some of the immature and divisive Corinthians, that they have no labels, no creed, because they are “of Christ”:

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians‬ ‭1:11-13‬ ‭NASB‬‬)

The point is that these men are all part of the body of Christ, so these factions are divisive fabrications. None of the men listed are at odds with each other. We are all one in Christ. Those who deny any subscription to a creed or confession only need to be asked, “Which Jesus do you believe in?” “Who do you say that Christ is?” (‭‭Matthew‬ ‭16:15‬ ‭NKJV‬‬).

In keeping with the sermon’s title, the pastor stressed that Hyper Calvinism is not Calvinism. Paul clearly expresses his longing to see his native people, the Jews, saved, wishing even “that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh” (Romans‬ ‭9:3‬ ‭NASB‬‬). But Paul also recognizes that it’s ultimately up to God, who “has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires” (Romans‬ ‭9:18‬ ‭NASB‬‬).

The pastor also emphasized that Jesus taught a Limited Atonement, for “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep” (John‬ ‭10:14-15‬ ‭NASB‬‬). Christ died only for His sheep, not for the goats. The term “Limited” Atonement is misleading, however, because, while monergists or Calvinists limit the scope of the atonement, in that it was only for the elect, synergists or Arminians also limit the atonement of Christ, namely its power to save, because it doesn’t become effectual unless the sinner ultimately chooses Christ out of his own free will. So Jesus died even for Judas, but because Judas didn’t believe, his redemption was in vain. So Christ died in vain for all those who end up in hell, because their redemption ticket was never “redeemed” by their free will choice.

On 10/6/2019, the sermon, “God’s Everlasting Love, Part 2,” preached by Pastor Joe Rosales, was based on Romans 8:31-39, and continued from Part 1.

The pastor said that if we truly love God, then we would also love His bride, the church. Some claim they don’t need the church to love God. But that’s a lie; we need God’s people, in part so we can fulfill the numerous “one another” commands in Scripture:

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor;” Romans‬ ‭12:10‬ ‭NASB‬‬

“Be hospitable to one another without complaint.” 1 Peter‬ ‭4:9‬ ‭NASB‬‬

“Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.” ‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:11‬ ‭NASB‬‬

“This I command you, that you love one another.” John‬ ‭15:17‬ ‭NASB‬‬

The Christian life, I’ve often said, is not a solo enterprise.

Another excellent point the pastor made is that the gospel is not an invitation, but an effectual call. God’s love and purpose precede the call to repent and believe, just as regeneration precedes faith. Coming to Christ does not ultimately depend on us,

for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls…. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. Romans‬ ‭9:11, 16‬ ‭NASB‬‬

Contrary to advocates of the “well-meant offer,” which leads to contradictory Calvinism, the gospel is issued by God and the apostles first and foremost as a command, not an invitation, for

those who defend the “well-meant offer” are two-faced in that they seek to maintain conflicting aspects of two contradictory and mutually exclusive systems of salvation. While at times “well-meant offer” defenders appear to be Calvinistic in their belief in God’s sovereign election and particular atonement, they also maintain a belief in the universal desire of God for the salvation of those God predestined to perdition; the reprobate. It is this combination of particularism and pluralism, or simply Calvinism and Arminianism that make up the two faces of Janus. (Sean Gerety, “Janus Alive and Well: Dr. R. Scott Clark and the Well-Meant Offer of the Gospel”)

God also “commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts‬ ‭17:30-31‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Arminians are similarly inconsistent, though neither are necessarily heretical. “An Arminian may be a truly regenerate Christian,” writes Gordon Clark, “in fact, if he is truly an Arminian and not a Pelagian who happens to belong to an Arminian church, he must be a saved man. But he is not usually, and cannot consistently be assured of his salvation. The places in which his creed differs from our Confession confuse the mind, dilute the Gospel, and impair its proclamation” (quoted in https://www.douglasdouma.com/2016/10/03/gordon-clark-and-the-salvation-of-arminians/).

This also relates to the use of theological labels derived from men in church history, i.e., Calvinism (John Calvin) and Arminianism (Jacobus Arminius). Labels can be used responsibly if they refer primarily to the doctrines they represent, rather than to the men who formulated or taught them, although it is still important to study church history and know who these men are and what they taught. Some prefer to use different labels, such as the Doctrines of Grace, or monergism (salvation is solely God’s work) and synergism (man cooperates with God to be saved). Either way, labels are necessary to make important theological distinctions, because everyone calls themselves Christians nowadays, even Mormons. When used responsibly, labels help to specify more precisely what you mean.

The pastor also touched on the means of sanctification. One of the means God uses is the church—people—to edify and build us up, as ‭‭1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:11 and numerous other verses attest. In a similar vein Martin Luther said that marriage and family are a school of character. God used my own marriage early on to show me how selfish I was, like a well that draws out and brings to the surface deep-rooted sins that need to be mortified.

The pastor also explained that God uses different personalities to build up His church. Luther was a hammer, bold and aggressive enough to defy the emperor and to write the first principles and manifesto of the Reformation. And Melanchthon was the gentle scholar who smoothed out Luther’s rougher spots. But both men were deeply flawed. Luther never fully bridled his temper, which was so vicious that he condemned fellow Protestants like Zwingli as heretics because they didn’t agree with him on the Lord’s Supper, consequently fracturing the Reformation; and “in Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, Luther condemned the violence [of the peasant’s revolt] as the devil's work and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs.” Towards the end of his life, Luther also became embittered towards the Jews after repeated failed attempts to evangelize them, and reserved some of his most ungodly expressions for them. As for Melanchthon, he

fell out of favor because of his compromises with the Papists and Reformed on matters of ceremonies, Christ’s presence in the Supper, and the role of human will in conversion. With regard to the compromises with the Papists specifically, Bente writes, “The plan of Melanchthon therefore was to yield in things which he regarded as unnecessary in order to maintain the truth and avoid persecution.”[5] Sadly, his sincere efforts at peace and compromise on matters that he considered insignificant ended up compromising the central truth for which he and Luther had fought. The price of peace with the world by waffling on the central article of faith, justification by grace through faith, also meant uncertainty regarding peace with God the Father in heaven. (https://lutheranreformation.org/history/philip-melanchthon/)

The pastor then defined sanctification as progressive conformity to Christ. There is a growing awareness of our sin as we grow in sanctification. But we also grow in holiness and sin less, “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians‬ ‭2:13‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). When you are truly saved, God regenerates you and “will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezekiel‬ ‭36:26-27‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). Even so, believers still sin, and should be corrected lovingly unless they stubbornly refuse to repent.

The pastor concluded with Assurance:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Romans‬ ‭8:31-34‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

Christians have the supreme privilege of knowing God as Father and Christ as Advocate, rather than as Judge. There’s nothing left to prove! Christ has done it all and paid it all on our behalf.

This is the start of my thoughts and reflections on the Lord’s Day. The sermon, “God’s Everlasting Love,” preached by pastor Joe Rosales, was based on Romans 8:28-39.

One of the foci was sanctification. It’s important for believers to understand that what we go through in this life, including suffering, is necessary, not for our justification, but for our sanctification, and ultimately consummates in our glorification. “The reason believers inevitably suffer in this life is so they can be sanctified because they must wait in a fallen world for Christ to return before they are glorified, not because it’s a condition they need to fulfill for their glorification [or justification]” (“When Protestants Err on the Side of Rome, Part II”):

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him….

And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body….

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. (Romans‬ ‭8:16-17, 23, 28-30‬ ‭NASB‬‬)

Unbelievers, however, have no such consolation, because it can only be found in Christ. “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke‬ ‭13:3‬ ‭NASB‬‬).

A related theme in the passage is election. My pastor gave the best explanation of foreknowledge I’ve heard so far. Divine foreknowledge does not mean, as Arminians claim, that God foresaw those who would believe in the future based on their free will, as if God had no determinative influence on them. Gordon Clark thoroughly refutes this view in God and Evil: The Problem Solved. Rather than mere detached knowledge, foreknowledge signifies an intimate relation, such as when “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain” (‭‭Genesis‬ ‭4:1‬ ‭NKJV‬‬). It really means that God foreloved us—He intimately knew and loved us in His mind, even before he created us. “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah‬ ‭1:5‬ ‭NASB‬‬). “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him” (‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:3-4‬ ‭NASB‬‬). Amazing Grace: The History and Theology of Calvinism also discusses this in depth.

Another good point the pastor made is that God is not on our side. If He were, He would be sinful and wicked. We therefore need to be on God’s side and get on His terms. Prosperity preaching promotes man-centered self-worship. Our focus must be on glorifying God, not ourselves. Soli Deo Gloria.

Logic also came up. God is logical—God is logic—and thinks according to the laws of logic. A sorites, explains Elihu Carranza, is “a series of propositions in which the predicate of each is the subject of the next.  The conclusion consists of the first subject and the last predicate.  The chain of propositions is arranged in pairs of premises to make explicit the suppressed conclusion, thereby revealing the syllogism.  The validity of the entire chain will depend on the validity of each syllogism in the chain.” The Bible contains many sorites, perhaps most notably:

Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. (‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭15:15-18‬ ‭NASB‬‬)

One final thought is the importance of order in exegetical preaching. It’s good to start the sermon with the Biblical text, and continuously build and preach from the text, and apply the text throughout. There’s so much to unpack from Scripture that it’s important to stay grounded in the passage. When that happens, the entire sermon becomes a cogent sorites, in which concluding exhortations are more relevant and authoritative because they’re closely and intentionally based on the text.

The sermon ended with Philippians 1:6: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Wills, Garry. What Jesus Meant. New York: Viking, 2006. Print.

It's not uncommon for liberal scholars who can read the New Testament in its original language to remain utterly clueless as to what it truly teaches. Garry Wills, a historian and classicist who is proficient in Greek, ironically wrote What Jesus Meant to dispel popular cultural misunderstandings of Jesus, not realizing that his polluted theological presumptions grossly distort Christ's teachings and promote a perverted anti-Christ agenda.

This book is terrible, but it's interesting how Wills, a practicing Catholic--albeit an unorthodox one according to Roman Catholic dogma, though ironically he and Pope Francis seem to have much in common (see Richard Bennett, "Francis: Stalwart Reformer or Diehard Pontiff?", http://trinityfoundation.org/journal.php?id=297)--criticizes and rejects the papacy, knowing that Jesus would have too (15), and argues that the New Testament has no sacrificial system of priests like the Roman Catholic church does (67ff.). He also provides his own translations of all the New Testament passages he quotes, which are sometimes, though not always, better than popular translations, such as John 3:16: "Such was God's love for the creation [world] that he gave his only-begotten [unique] Son to keep anyone believing in him from perishing, to have a life eternal" (122). This does a better job of rendering πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων--"everyone believing"--into the present progressive, which delimits "the world" to refer to believers only.

Unfortunately, Wills completely distorts what Jesus really meant.

The Money-Hatin' Jesus

Wills rightly says "that Jesus wore no gorgeous vestments. He neither owned nor used golden chalices or precious vessels. He had no jeweled ring to be kissed" (44); but then he goes too far, claiming that, "though the gospels make it clear that riches are the enemy of the spirit, they raise an even more urgent warning against power, and especially against spiritual power" (44). According to the Bible riches in themselves are not evil; "the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs" (1 Tim. 6:10). Jesus even promised: "There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life" (Mark 10:29-30).

The Rebellious Ahistorical Jesus

Wills imposes his irrational, mystical unbelief--"Jesus as a person does not exist outside the gospels, and the only reason he exists there is because of their authors' faith in the Resurrection.... So this book...will treat the Jesus of faith, since there is no other. The 'historical Jesus' does not exist for us" (xxvi, xxviii)--and his anti-Christian ethics into the Gospels, resulting in a pro-homosexual, social justice, pacifistic, egalitarian, inclusive, disobedient, rebellious Jesus who

went a different way,...neglecting (no doubt) the family business of cabinetmaking.... Though we are not explicitly told anything about "the hidden years" beyond Luke's description of his running away from his parents when he was twelve, the stance of the rebel who would not be contained in the expectations of his hometown comes out again and again when family ties are mentioned. (6, 7)

In an effort to criticize Christian leaders who "have often rebuked the rebelliousness of young people by offering them a pastel picture of the young Jesus as a model of compliance and good behavior" (7), Wills eisegetes the Gospels. The Bible never says that Jesus was disobedient and ran away from his parents. On the contrary, Jesus "went down with [His parents] and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them; and His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men" (Luke 2:51-52). Jesus never broke God's law; He is the only person in existence that has kept the law fully and perfectly:

Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.... For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.... For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. (Matt. 5:17, Rom. 5:19; Heb. 5:14)

The Cultic Jesus

Wills also claims that "when [Jesus] moved from the spiritual isolation of the Essenes to the activist denunciations of [John] the Baptist, that would have dismayed his family even more profoundly. They would have felt what families feel today when their sons and daughters join a 'cult' " (11). But the Bible says nothing about Jesus being an Essene, and why would Jesus' family think that He joined a cult with John the Baptist if "everyone considered John to have been a real prophet"? (Mark 11:32) Far from being Essenic, "cultic" leaders, prophets played an integral role in Jewish society.

Additionally, Wills claims that John the Baptist mentored Jesus, though the Bible says that they were almost the same age, and John himself said he wasn't worthy to untie Jesus' sandals: "One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16). Wills promotes the typical Catholic portrayal of Jesus as a weak and frail ascetic, though neither He nor His disciples fasted (Luke 5:33); but He did do the hard work of a carpenter and was strong enough to turn tables over and whip money changers out of the temple (John 2:13ff.). Wills seems to forget that Christ couldn't carry the cross because He was beaten mercilessly beforehand, not because He was naturally weak (23).

The Quixotically Pacifistic Jesus

Next, Wills claims that, "though [Jesus] is opposed to war and violence, he is choosing followers for a form of spiritual warfare.... Jesus consistently opposed violence. He ordered Peter not to use the sword, even to protect his Lord... he never accepted violence as justified" (25, 53-54). Jesus Himself, however, told the disciples to buy swords so that, when the time came, they could defend themselves, not Him:

"Whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one. For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, 'And He was numbered with transgressors'; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment." They said, "Lord, look, here are two swords." And He said to them, "It is enough." (Luke 22:35ff.)

Wills, furthermore, doesn't believe in demons and tries to explain away certain passages which describe demons possessing people: "Many of Jesus' miracles are worked for outsiders...with whom observant Jews are to have no dealings...with those made unclean by their illnesses (therefore "possessed").... He casts the uncleanness out of one man into forbidden animals, into pigs (Mk 5.13), to show that no person made in God's image should be treated as unclean" (30). But if demons don't exist, then why was Jesus "choosing followers for a form of spiritual warfare"? (25) If Wills was consistent, he would have to say that Jesus was certifiably insane for talking to Satan, who, according to Wills, doesn't actually exist because he is merely evil personified (120).

Wills also argues that the Father's "love is undiscriminating and inclusive, not graduated and exclusive" (29). But doesn't God love Esau and hate Jacob, and prepare vessels of wrath that are fitted for destruction? (Rom. 9) Are not "the wicked reserved for the day of doom" and also "be brought out on the day of wrath"? (Job 21:30, cf. Prov. 16:4) Wills asks:

Why did the payment [of sin] include Jesus' death, and such a horrible death? Was the creditor so exacting? Behind this conclusion lies the imagery of an angry God, hard to appease but by the most terrible of sacrifices. This is a view that some people call 'gruesome.'... If we talk of salvation as sacrificial in the sense of appeasement or propitiation, there is a note of assuaging an angry God. If we talk of it as rescue, the power from which mankind has to be rescued is not God but the forces at work against God--all the accumulated sins that cripple human freedom.... He sheds his blood with and for us, in our defense, not as a libation to an angry Father.... God initiates [Christ's sacrifice] to conquer sin, not to placate himself.... it is a proof of God's love, not his anger. (115, 121, 122)

Here Wills denies the most fundamental doctrine of the Biblical Gospel--propitiation. He tries to impose his passive god into the Bible and fails miserably, completely ignoring all the verses that speak of God's wrath. I would like to see how Wills would reconcile his pathetic, pacifistic Jesus and Father with passages like

Romans 12:19--"Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord" (NASB);

2 Thessalonians 1:7-9--"the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power";

2 Peter 3:7--"But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men";

Jude 14-15--"the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him";

and Revelation 19:11-16--

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS."

And let's not forget the passage where Jesus violently whips the money changers out of the temple (John 2). Or this one: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36). Or this one: "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life" (Rom. 5:9-10). This one too: "The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity" (Ps. 5:5). And last but not least: "God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day" (Ps. 7:11).

Wills rejects the doctrine of propitiation, even though it's clearly taught in the Bible, because it means that God is angry with unrepentant sinners, and the only way He could forgive them is by crushing His unique Son: "The LORD was pleased To crush Him [Christ], putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering...whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness" (Isa. 53:10; Rom. 3:25) and to satisfy His wrath, the wrath that we deserve, so "that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26).

The Social Justice Jesus

Wills asks another important question but gives another horrible answer:

What are the tests for entry into the reign or exclusion from it? They are very simple. One will not be asked whether one voted, whether one was a good citizen, or even whether one dealt justly. That is not enough.... The simple test is this. Did you treat everyone, high and low, as if dealing with Jesus himself, with his own inclusive and gratuitous love... "Whenever you did these things to the lowliest of my brothers, you were doing it to me." [This] means that...those who despise the poor are despising Jesus. Those neglecting the homeless are neglecting Jesus. Those persecuting gays are persecuting Jesus.... Our test for entry into heaven's reign is whether we fed Jesus in the hungry, clothed him in the naked, welcomed him in the outcast. (58, 137)

Contrary to the Biblical teaching of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (Eph. 2), according to Wills' social justice Jesus, if we don't love everyone, help the poor, and affirm homosexuals, then we will not be saved. But it gets worse: "How can we tell who among us is securely affixed to the Vine? We cannot. He [Jesus] told us as much" (140). The real Jesus, however, told us, "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out" (John 6:37), and John the apostle wrote his letter "to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13, bold emphasis always mine). Wills continuously misapplies verses to make them fit his fictional Jesus. Matthew 25:35-40 does not command Christians to help the poor; it commands Christians to help other Christians--brothers--when they are in need, especially during persecution. Jesus also said,

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'... For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. (Matt. 7:21-23, John 6:40)

According to the Bible, salvation is by grace "through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:8-10).

The Unclean Jesus

This is one of the worst parts of the book. Wills asks:

Who are the Jews of our day? Who are the cursed? Some Christians tell us who. At the funeral of a well-known gay man who died of AIDS, a "Christian" group showed up with placards saying "God hates fags." In the San Diego diocese, a Catholic bishop forbade Christian burial to an openly gay man. Is there any doubt where Jesus would have stood in these episodes--where, in his mystical members, he was standing then? He was with the gay man, not with his haters. This is made all the clearer by the fact that gays are called unclean for the same reason as were other outcasts of Jesus' time--because they violate the Holiness Code of the Book of Leviticus. (32)

Unless they become new creatures by repenting of their sins and believing in Christ, God is with neither the gay man nor his haters, "for unless you believe that I [Jesus] am He, you will die in your sins...unless you repent you will all likewise perish" (John 8:24, Luke 13:3). And if gays are called unclean (an abomination, actually, cf. Lev. 18.22, 20.13) because they violate the Holiness Code of Leviticus, then why does God still condemn homosexuality in Genesis 19, Ezekiel 16:50, Romans 1:26-28, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 1 Timothy 1:8-10, Jude 7, etc., none of which are a part of the Holiness Code? Because homosexuality violates God's natural order and is done outside of the Biblical definition of marriage. Wills, however, conveniently leaves these passages out.

The Heretical Jesus and Heroic Judas

Wills also makes a blunder I'd never seen before. He claims that Jesus shared His divinity with the Father, implying that He was not fully divine in Himself:

[Christ's] own divinity is a divinity in the Father, not apart from him. He will not test the Father, because he is too closely identified with him. It would be putting himself on trial. As he says in John's gospel: "The Son, I tell you the truth, can do nothing but what he sees the Father doing. And whatever he does, the Son does in his turn. For the Father loves the Son, and shows him whatever he does" (Jn 5.19-20). (16-17)

Wills distorts this passage, which actually teaches that the Father and the Son are so close that they are united in will, not that they share divinity. Christ Himself is fully God, just as the Father and Holy Spirit are, "For in Him [Christ] all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form...and He is the head over all rule and authority" (Col. 2:9, 10). Wills should read the Athanasian Creed:

We worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the Persons; nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal.

But Wills doesn't just fictionalize Jesus; he turns the traitorous thief, Judas Iscariot, into a good guy as well:

There must have been some good in the man for Jesus to have chosen him not only to follow him but to be one of the Twelve and the trusted bearer of the common purse (Jn 13.29). Judas is a practical man, who deplores the waste of money on precious oils, but he seems idealistic as well, wanting to save money for the poor (Jn 12.4-5).... Jesus knows that Judas is fulfilling the plan of the Father, which leads to the disgraceful death and burial of both men. He says of his followers in general: "Not one of them is lost but the one marked out to be lost to fulfill the scripture" (Jn 17.12). Judas is involuntarily following the will of the Father, as Jesus does voluntarily. (101)

Wills doesn't believe in radical depravity either, the Biblical teaching that all men are naturally evil and thus unable to do any good (Rom. 3, Rom. 8). Jesus chose Judas to fulfill the prophecy, not because there was something good in him: "I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition [Judas], so that the Scripture would be fulfilled" (John 17:12). Judas was not an "idealist" at all. The reason he didn't want the money to be wasted on precious oils was "not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it" (John 12:6). Judas was not "involuntarily following the will of the Father" because he himself "was intending to betray Him [Jesus]" (John 12:4). He also claims that Judas

killed himself for having killed God. It was an act of contrition that redeems him, makes him a kind of comrade for all of us who have betrayed Jesus. He is our patron. Saint Judas.... I believe the Shepherd [Jesus, when He supposedly descended into hell after He died] was first seeking out his special lost one, Judas. (104)

Aside from the fact that we're saved by grace through faith, not by "acts of contrition," Judas was not redeemed; he was the "son of perdition," which means he was damned to hell for being a wicked, God-hating sinner who betrayed Christ. "Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place" (Acts 1:25 NKJV).

What Jesus Meant is the worst interpretation of the Gospels I've ever read. I find it fitting to conclude with a message for Garry Wills from the historical, complementarian, divinely just, exclusive, obedient, King of kings and Lord of lords Jesus: "You blind guide, who strains out a gnat and swallows a camel!" (Matt. 23:24) That's what Jesus meant.

Rev 5/17

William P. Young, in collaboration with Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings. The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity. Ca: Windblown Media, 2007. Print.

One of William P. Young’s major themes in The Shack is how God relates to people in diverse ways. “For any created being, autonomy is lunacy. Freedom involves trust and obedience inside a relationship of love” (Young 132). Young makes humans incredibly powerful and autonomous when compared to God, to the point where God Himself (or herself, according to Young) must work out His own will “without the violation of one human will” (125). The nature of God, how God relates to man and how He communicates to us, obedience, free will, expectations, election and predestination, submission, and the law of God are some of the Christian doctrines that Young severely, even blasphemously and heretically, distorts in The Shack.

Young seems confused at best when he answers important questions about Christianity. The following quote contradicts the one previously stated: “To force my [Jesus’] will on you [Mack]…is exactly what love does not do… Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect. In fact, we [the Trinity] are submitted to you in the same way” (145).[1] Young stresses a “relationship of love” with God and claims that submission is not about obedience or authority—even though Christ commanded, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15)[2]—yet he also asserts that freedom is about obedience, so is obedience part of it or not? Despite these contradictions, we will see that Young ultimately does not advocate any type of obedience.

The Shack’s passive and pagan mama-god complex

According to the Bible, God does force or impose His will on people: “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes” (Prov. 21:1). He has no alternative because “there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside” (Romans 3:10-12). Moses did not want to stand up to Pharaoh, but God never gave him a choice: “Moses said to the LORD, ‘I am slow of speech and slow of tongue’… Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses, and He said…‘You are to speak to [Aaron] and put the words in his mouth; and I, even I, will be with your mouth and his mouth, and I will teach you what you are to do” (Exodus 4:10, 14-15). And contrary to what the god of The Shack teaches, the God of the Bible does get disappointed with people, including His own, because He holds all of them accountable for their thoughts, words, and actions, and will judge them according to the standard He has set forth in Scripture:

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent… It is for discipline that you [believers] endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are [bastards] and not sons… For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome…let us [therefore] keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. (Revelation 3:19; Hebrews 12:7-8; I John 5:3; Philippians 3:16)

If a person is not disciplined and rebuked by God, then he is not God’s adopted son, which is the exact opposite of what Papa—Young’s blasphemous and idolatrous portrayal of God the Father as an overweight black woman—tells Mack: “Honey, I’ve never placed an expectation on you or anyone else… And beyond that, because I have no expectations, you never disappoint me” (206). The reality is quite the contrary, for it would be impossible to grieve and disappoint the Spirit of God if He never places any expectations on us as Young alleges: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). God judges unrepentant sinners and condemns them to hell because they are guilty criminals who have broken His righteous, holy law (Psalm 7:11; John 3:36; I Corinthians 6:9-10). The reason repentant, born-again believers are no longer condemned is that they have the blood of Jesus as a propitiation—appeasement of God’s holy wrath—for all their sin. They are thus forgiven and are no longer sinners and criminals in God’s eyes but have been regenerated, washed, and sanctified through the Holy Spirit, and become adopted sons and daughters, and saints of God (Galatians 4:5; Titus 3:5). Contrary to what Papa says about expectations, the God of the Bible expects many things from His people,

for we [believers] are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them… [Jesus] appointed [us] that [we] would go and bear fruit… Therefore, beloved, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless… Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification [holiness] without which no one will see the Lord. (Ephesians 2:10; John 15:16; II Peter 3:14; Hebrews 12:14)

Believers are constantly exhorted throughout the Scriptures to be obedient followers of Christ and to maintain a holy, righteous, loving, and godly standard in their lives. The end of almost every New Testament letter commands believers to do something that God expects of them. Christians are called to be “the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men” (Matthew 5:13).

To choose, or not to choose, that is the question

Just as it was in the Old Testament with Moses having no choice, so it is in the New. God did not give Mary a choice because she was already chosen, and there was nothing she could do to change that: “Behold, you [Mary] will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:31, 35). God did not ask Mary permission to use her womb, just as He never asked Paul to go to Damascus—He commanded them. In fact, God has never given anyone a choice because He “commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man [Jesus] whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31, cf. Luke 13:3, John 14:15), even though He has already chosen whom He will save:

All that the Father gives Me [Jesus] will come to Me… No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… You did not choose Me [Jesus] but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit… He [God the Father] predestined us [believers] to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will…having been predestined according to His purpose [not ours]… For many are called, but few are chosen…who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God [alone]. (John 6:37, 44, 15:16; Ephesians 1:5, 11; Matthew 22:14; John 1:13, NASB)

The Bible teaches election and predestination, for God “has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires… So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” (Romans 9:18, 16). Ultimately it is up to God to determine whether he will save someone because he has foreordained all things to come to pass according to his will: “and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed” (Acts 13:48). God does not consider human free will because it doesn’t exist; the will has been in complete bondage to sin ever since the curse of sin came into the world,

because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God… Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good who are accustomed to doing evil… The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked… Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. (Romans 8:7-8; Jeremiah 13:23, 17:9; Romans 5:12, 15; cf. Genesis 3, Romans 3, 8:18-25)

The Jesus of The Shack, however, tells Mack the very opposite: “You’re not supposed to do anything. You’re free to do whatever you like” (89). I’ll address this antinomianism (lawlessness) shortly, but Sarayu—Young’s blasphemous and idolatrous feminine portrayal of the Holy Spirit as a “windy” oriental woman—also tells Mack, “Relationships are never about power… We carefully respect your choices,” and Papa later tells him, “We won’t use you [without your consent]” (106, 123-124). All of this blatantly contradicts the Bible, which states that a person must become a “born-again” slave of righteousness to become a true follower of Jesus Christ:

Most assuredly, I [Jesus] say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God… Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. (John 3:3; Romans 6:16-19)

Do what thou wilt

Concerning the relationship that Jesus wants with His chosen people, the Jesus of The Shack once again tells Mack the opposite of what the real Jesus says in Scripture: “I don’t want slaves to my will; I want brothers and sisters who will share life with me…[but] we will never force that union on you” (146, 149). This is partly based on the assumption that “true love never forces” (190). Yet the Jesus of the Bible says, “No one is able to come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross day by day and follow Me… No servant can serve [Greek douleuein, derived from doulos ‘slave’] two masters… A pupil is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master… He who has My orders and observes them loves Me” (John 6:44; Luke 9:23, 16:13; Matthew 10:24; John 14:21, MLB; see also Phillips’ New Testament in Modern English). Christians are commanded to “glorify God in [their] bodies” (1 Cor. 6:20) and to present themselves “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…[for] [they] were bought with a price” (Romans 12:1; I Corinthians 6:20). The Bible commands sinners to repent, deny themselves, and follow Christ, who becomes their Master, “for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25, cf. 16:24). Young contradicts Scripture when he has Jesus say things like, “I don’t want slaves to my will,” because that’s exactly what God wants.

Moreover, Papa and Sarayu teach Mack antinomianism, or lawlessness:

“The Bible doesn’t teach you to follow rules… Just don’t look for rules and principles; look for relationship…

…………..

“Are you saying I don’t have to follow the rules?”...[Sarayu answers,] “Yes. In Jesus you are not under any law. All things are lawful….”

“Trying to keep the law is actually a declaration of independence, a way of keeping control….”

“Enforcing rules, especially in its more subtle expressions like responsibility and expectation, is a vain attempt to create certainty out of uncertainty. And contrary to what you might think, I have a great fondness for uncertainty. Rules cannot bring freedom; they only have the power to accuse.”

“Whoa!” Mack suddenly realized what Sarayu had said. “Are you telling me that responsibility and expectation are just another form of rules we are no longer under? Did I hear you right?”

“Yup”, Papa interjected again.  (197-198, 203)

To Young’s dismay, the Bible does teach you to follow rules and obey commands—obedience is the very mark of a Christian’s love for Christ: “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (I John 2:3-4). Young is promoting the heresy of antinomianism, or, in the words of Jesus, the doctrine of those “who practice lawlessness” (Matt. 7:23). Jesus warns against this kind of false teaching: “Many will say to Me on that day [of judgment], 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness' ” (Matthew 7:22-23). Yet the Jesus of The Shack also tells Mack, “Seriously, my life was not meant to be an example to copy. Being my follower is not trying to ‘be like Jesus,’ it means for your independence to be killed…. But, we will never force that union on you” (149). Young clearly has no regard for what the Bible says, for he is at odds with the Apostle Paul: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1). It’s no wonder that he attacks and undermines Sola Scriptura—the Bible as the supreme authority in all matters of doctrine and practice—all throughout The Shack:

Try as he might, Mack could not escape the desperate possibility that the note just might be from God after all, even if the thought of God passing notes did not fit well with his theological training. 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, 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. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners’ access to God was mediated and controlled by the intelligentsia. 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?  (65-66)

Can’t we all just get saved?

The Shack contradicts the Bible on numerous levels and presents an entirely different God. Young flirts with universalism, the belief that everyone—including unbelievers—will eventually be saved, regardless of their belief about Christ. This is evident when Papa tells Mack, “Son, this is not about shaming you. I don't do humiliation, or guilt, or condemnation. They don't produce one speck of wholeness or righteousness, and that is why they were nailed into Jesus on the cross" (223). It gets worse when Jesus tells Mack:

“I am the best way any human can relate to Papa or Sarayu. To see me is to see them. The love you sense from me is no different from how they love you. And believe me, Papa and Sarayu are just as real as I am, though as you’ve seen in far different ways.”

“Speaking of Sarayu, is she the Holy Spirit?”

“Yes. She is Creativity; she is Action; she is the Breathing of Life; she is much more. She is my Spirit.” (110)

It doesn’t take much to see that the Bible reveals an altogether different God:

The boastful shall not stand in Your [God’s] sight; You hate all workers of iniquity… God is a just judge, and God is angry with the wicked every day…God [is] the Judge of all… For the LORD is our Judge, The LORD is our Lawgiver, The LORD is our King; He will save us… God is the Judge: He puts down one, And exalts another… He who believes in Him 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… He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him (Psalm 5:5, 7:11; Hebrews 12:23; Isaiah 33:22; Psalm 75:7; John 3:18, 36)

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).[3]

What’s worse is that Young calls God the Father “Papa” yet blasphemously and idolatrously portrays and embodies Him as an obese black woman:

I am neither male nor female, even though both genders are derived from my nature.  If I choose to appear to you as a man or a woman, it’s because I love you.  For me to appear as a woman and suggest that you call me Papa is simply to mix metaphors, to help you keep from falling so easily back into your religious conditioning. (93)

My criticisms are not based on racism or sexism. The problem is that Young wants us to shake off the “religious conditioning” that the Bible itself imposes on us, since it always and only refers to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with masculine pronouns, and whenever He appeared in human form it was always and only as a man. Not to mention that the reason God expresses and manifests so much wrath and retribution on sinners is because of the rampant idolatry and “humanizing” of God that The Shack shamelessly promotes:

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:2-4)

…although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 1:22-25)

Look! It’s the Father! No, it’s the Son! No, it’s the Spirit! No, it’s all three!

Young attempts to affirm the orthodox view of the Trinity when Papa explains to Mack: “We are not three gods, and we are not talking about one god with three attitudes, like a man who is a husband, father, and worker. I am one God and I am three persons, and each of the three is fully and entirely the one” (101). But he disregards this definition by promoting the heresy of patripassionism:

Patripassionism is a theological error dealing with the Godhead which states that the Father became incarnate, was born, suffered, and died on the cross, hence, the Father's (patri) passion (suffer) on the cross.

This is an error because we know that Jesus spoke to the person of the Father, and that it was Jesus who went to the cross. If the Father and Son are the same person, that how is it possible for the Father and Son to speak to one another and have separate wills? It is not. Therefore, the doctrine of patripassianism is incorrect and heretical.[4]

The Shack unabashedly promotes this heresy, such as when Sarayu (Young’s version of the “Holy Spirit”) says, "Haven't you seen the [crucifixion] wounds on Papa too?" (164). But Young doesn’t stop there; he compounds his heresy by including the Holy Spirit in Christ’s suffering for good measure, as if portraying all three persons as humans, two of them as women, wasn’t bad enough:

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 created universe, we now became flesh and blood… Don’t ever think that what my son chose to do didn’t cost us dearly.  Love always leaves a significant mark… We were there together.  (99; 96)

Patripassionism also presupposes the heresy of modalism:

Modalism is probably the most common theological error concerning the nature of God.  It is a denial of the Trinity. Modalism states that God is a single person who, throughout biblical history, has revealed Himself in three modes or forms. Thus, God is a single person who first manifested himself in the mode of the Father in Old Testament times. At the incarnation, the mode was the Son; and after Jesus' ascension, the mode is the Holy Spirit. These modes are consecutive and never simultaneous. In other words, this view states that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit never all exist at the same time--only one after another. Modalism denies the distinctiveness of the three persons in the Trinity even though it retains the divinity of Christ.[5]

These are illogical heresies because, rather than suffer with Christ, God the Father was pleased to pour out His own wrath on Christ to satisfy His perfect justice, for

it pleased the LORD to crush Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin… (Isaiah 53:10)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  (Romans 3:23-26)

It should be obvious that God the Father has no body because “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24), and the Holy Spirit is, well, spirit. Another odd Trinitarian heresy promoted in the book is that all of the persons in the Trinity are equally submitted, not only to each other, but to mankind as well: “Papa is as much submitted to me [Jesus] as I to him, or Sarayu [Young’s “Holy Spirit”] to me, or Papa to her. Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect. In fact, we are submitted to you in the same way” (145). This denies in the worst possible way the orthodox understanding of the economic Trinity regarding authority and order: that the Father is preeminent—“My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28)—that the Son submits to and proceeds from the Father, and "who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a slave, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 1:6-9). And that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son[6]:

“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me." (John 15:26)

1. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten.

2. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten.

3. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. (The Athanasian Creed)[7]

But it’s just fiction...

It’s convenient to say that The Shack is just a novel because it gives Young plausible deniability. Earlier self-defensive poets like Geoffrey Chaucer used dream visions and allegory, partly to detach themselves from their writing and avoid suspicion from church and state:

And afterward the story I engage

To tell you of our common pilgrimage.

But first, I pray you, of your courtesy,

You'll not ascribe it to vulgarity

Though I speak plainly of this matter here,

Retailing you their words and means of cheer;

Nor though I use their very terms, nor lie.

For this thing do you know as well as I:

When one repeats a tale told by a man,

He must report, as nearly as he can,

Every least word, if he remember it,

However rude it be, or how unfit;

Or else he may be telling what's untrue,

Embellishing and fictionizing too.

He may not spare, although it were his brother;

He must as well say one word as another.

Christ spoke right broadly out, in holy writ,

And, you know well, there's nothing low in it.

And Plato says, to those able to read:

"The word should be the cousin to the deed."[8]

Many defend The Shack in a similar way that some defend Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code because they are novels, even though they promote anti-Christian agendas. After all, it’s just a dream, right? It’s just a work of fiction, right? Here’s one prominent example from CBN:

The Shack's depiction of God is an interesting portrait that isn’t meant to be taken literally as much as it is meant to capture many of the attributes of God that we read about in the Bible. These characters’ interactions with Mack show that God is compassionate, loving, and that He desires a close relationship with each of us.

God relates to us in the ways that we will best be able to hear Him. Because of Mack’s painful childhood memories of an abusive dad, perhaps he would not have embraced God the way we typically see Him portrayed, as a Father-figure.[9]

The problem is that the ways in which Young “captures” the many attributes of God are utterly opposed to what “we read about in the Bible.” God relates to us through His Word, and the Word reveals God as a holy, just judge and a Father who rebukes those he loves, so if Young cannot embrace God as a “Father-figure,” then he’s embracing an idol of his imagination, which is what The Shack is a product of.

The Shack is such a wild and synergistic concoction of heresies that new theological terms and categories must be coined to accommodate them. I couldn’t find hardly anything in the book that was Biblical. I marvel how so much heresy, blasphemy, and idolatry can be packed into one book and be marketed as Christian literature and, in the words of Eugene Peterson,[10] author of The Message bible, even be compared to Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, which has virtually nothing in common with The Shack, because The Shack has virtually nothing in common with the Bible. I have never read a book claiming to promote Christianity that is so blatantly blasphemous and offensive. It is no wonder that Scripture warns how “false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect…. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light” (Matt. 24:24; Luke 16:8).

Don't stop here! Put on heresy repellant with these resources:

• The Shack: Uncovered (Full Sermon) - Michael Youssef, https://vimeo.com/4479699

• Paul Flynn’s The Shack: Its Dangerous Theology and Error (Full Documentary Film), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epEQv6-5u0U

• Matt Slick’s book review of The Shack and interview with the author, William P. Young, https://carm.org/the-shack

• Tim Challies’ book review of The Shack, http://www.challies.com/book-reviews/a-review-of-the-shack-download-it-here

• Theology Gals | Episode 5 | The Shack & Christian Discernment, http://biblethumpingwingnut.com/2017/03/07/theology-gals-episode-5-shack-christian-discernment/

• Coleen Sharp, “Why The Shack Isn’t for Christians,” http://biblethumpingwingnut.com/2017/02/23/why-the-shack-isnt-for-christians/

• Tim Hurd, “Is Paul Young (Author of “The Shack”) Really A Universalist?”, http://biblethumpingwingnut.com/2017/03/10/paul-young-author-shack-really-universalist/

• Al Mohler, “The Shack — The Missing Art of Evangelical Discernment,” http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/01/27/the-shack-the-missing-art-of-evangelical-discernment/

• David Ruzicka, http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-shack-book-was-totally-whack-will-the-movie-be-like-that-175857/

• http://inplainsite.org/html/the_shack.html

Notes

[1] Bold emphasis always mine.

[2] Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from the New King James Version (NKJV).

[3] “The Shack: Helpful or Heretical?” A Critical Review by Norman L. Geisler and Bill Roach, http://inplainsite.org/html/the_shack.html#Shack4

[4] Matt Slick, “Patripassianism,” https://carm.org/patripassianism

[5] Matt Slick, “Modalism,” https://carm.org/modalism

[6] See Matt Slick’s “What is the filioque clause controversy? Is it biblical?”, https://carm.org/what-is-the-filioque-clause-controversy-biblical

[7]http://reformed.org/documents/index.html

[8] Geoffrey Chaucer, “The General Prologue,” The Canterbury Tales, Translated by Edwin Duncan, Lines 723-742, https://tigerweb.towson.edu/duncan/chaucer/duallang8.htm

[9] Belinda Elliott, “What’s So Bad about The Shack?”, CBN, http://www1.cbn.com/books/whats-so-bad-about-the-shack

[10] “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!” –Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., quoted in Ken Silva, “STAY AWAY FROM ‘THE SHACK,’” http://apprising.org/2008/09/15/stay-away-from-the-shack/