The Shack

I have been in a few discussions about the book the Shack. Its been a while since I've read it and just want to express myself on the book. Our men and women in the armed forces are reading the book and many see nothing wrong with it. I personally was enthralled by the way the book kept me going. I didn't want to put it down. In that regard it was well done. It touched my emotions. I felt for the father who lost his daughter and in the way that he did. I was angry at the one who did it and thought he deserved God's judgement, as we all do. Finally it was thought provoking. Forgiveness and justice and judgement and compassion are things to think about especially in a combat zone. Many kids see violence in a way they wouldn't back home. We experience things that turn our stomachs upside town. What about the enemy? How do we treat them? What about the one who killed or wounded my buddy...I just want to get even or just get someone for what happened. There often is not forgiveness, at least not expressed so this is good also. It can get a discussion going that may help a soldier, but I have to look at it theologically.
Again, I don't have the book in front of me so I can't quote chapter and page but I know that universalism is taught. That everyone is saved. Now I can say that the killer could be forgiven through the cross. He concievably could make a deathbed confession/conversion. But he is not saved by virtue of being a human being. That is one area I struggle with. The other is the depiction of the Trinity. I understand it is just a book....saying that, God is not Della Reese. The father in the book was depicted as a black woman and I read into that "Touched by an Angel." Della Reese played the top angel and I heard her voice when the Father talked. Jesus was a black man and the Holy Spirit was an oriental woman. In "Touched by an Angel" they were angels and didn't bother me as much as the depiction in the book. In the New Testament in Revelation Jesus does not remind me of Morgan Freeman. Jesus was treated and still to be treated as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the Old Testament we see in Isaiah 6, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is filled with His glory." Isaiah almost disintegrated. We don't need books to continue weak views or blasphemous views of God.

I probably said enough for now, so I will wait to get some responses and continue the post. In His Almighty Grip, even from Afgahnistan, Chaplain Don.