Well, I just recently finished reading “The Shack”, by William Young. In a nutshell, this book is wrestling match with the problem of evil and the nature of God, set in a murder mystery. It is also set in my favorite place and old home, Wallowa County, Oregon. Installment #1 - Problems. Installment #2 - Delights.
MY PROBLEMS WITH “THE SHACK”:
1) There are no stop lights in Joseph, Oregon - in fact the nearest stop light is about 70 miles away, so it would be difficult to have the critical accident at the end of the book.
2) Reading about such a great evil (even if fictional) that occurred in places that I both love and frequent, gave me the creeps.
3) More seriously, I am unsettled reading any extra-biblical book where the author purports to speak for God. Some do this masterfully, such as CS Lewis in “The Chronicles…”, or “Dinner With A Perfect Stranger” by David Gregory. Others, such as Frances Roberts in “Come Away My Beloved” fall on their face. I personally could never write in such a genre, utterly lacking the courage to put words in God’s mouth. If it is done with orthodoxy and broad strokes it may be appropriate, but when unorthodox, or speaking on controversial details, it seems to be treading on dangerous (ie. holy) ground.
4) The transitions of the book are quick and stilted making the conversations with God seem preachy. The wonders and pleasures of being in the presence of God are not as skillfully woven as other authors.
5) The author apparently goes off the rails into universalism on pg. 182, but then partly recovers in this exchange:
“Does that mean,” asked Mack, “that all roads will lead to you?”
“Not at all,” smiled Jesus as he reached for the door handle to the shop. “Most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.”
I much preferred a similar exchange in “Dinner With A Perfect Stranger” where the skeptic asks his dinner host, Jesus, if all roads lead to God. The response in this book - “There are no paths to God.”, the point being similar that it is God who reaches out to man and not the reverse.
6) One of the major and recurring themes in this book is the predestinating decrees of God.
“Mack, just because I work incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn’t mean I orchestrate the tragedies. Don’t ever assume that my using something means I caused it or that I need it to accomplish my purposes. That will only lead you to false notions about me. Grace doesn’t depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors.”
The Westminster Confession of Faith summarizes what has become the Presbyterian position on this topic. A portion from Chapter 3, “Of God’s Eternal Decrees”.
“God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”
“Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions; yet has He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.”
There isn’t room in a blog post to go through all the Scripture proof texts that were used to support this position. If you are curious, go to this link and head to chapter 3. http://reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/
The author of “The Shack” does not seem comfortable with this degree of God’s involvement in the affairs of men. Instead he settles for the position that God has foreknowledge of man’s sinful choices, but they are not His choice, yet he is able to turn all of them for good. This position is certainly more comfortable, in that it avoids the difficulty of explaining how God is then not the author of evil. Do I have an answer that is satisfying? No. Do I purport to know the secret counsels of God? No. Young captured many of the nuances of this argument and does a better job than most limp wristed modern theologians, yet he still needs to wrestle with passages like Amos 3: “Does a bird fall into a trap on the ground where no snare has been set? Does a trap spring up from the earth when there is nothing to catch? When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD caused it?”
Both Scripture and William Young have a lot more to say on this topic than I can cover here. The Bible most famously confronts the problem of evil in the book of Job. Job suffered much more than Mackenzie. He too confronts God. The answer to Job's charges is not an answer, but a question:
“Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation?”
In the end Job is forced to the same place that Young finally arrives – trusting in the person of God.