Those who once stood firm on the solid foundation of biblical doctrine have gone soft. So soft, in fact, that one can hardly differentiate between the so-called born-again Christ followers and the carnal world.
Jesus is not surprised at all, as He warned that this would happen.
A writer named Gregory Reid has penned an insightful article on the great falling away that is happening in Christendom. He has allowed us to reprint his excellent article:
The Progressive Disease of Spiritual Deception in Our Time
There was a time when ideas like yoga or eastern meditation in the church were only associated with Christ Science churches, Universalist Churches, and a few spurious non-biblical fringe places. In a few scant decades, the walls have been so completely torn down that we not only see no harm in these things, we promote them. This is exactly what Theosophist (Luciferian) leader Alice Bailey predicted would be part of the new age infiltration into the church: ““The three main channels through which the preparation for the new age is going on might be regarded as the Church (emphasis mine) the Masonic Fraternity and the educational field.” (The Externalization of the Hierarchy, Page 511.)
So, in fact, this has been underway for some time. It probably began to get a real foothold in our present time with Norman Vincent Peale’s “Power of Positive Thinking” theology, quickly adapted by Rev. Robert Schuller who was really the first modern “megachurch” and “Seeker Friendly” church pastor.
Their ideas were once considered a bit of an aberration from mainstream Christian doctrine. But here we are decades later, and seeker friendly and power of positive thinking is normal and unchallenged. The crack into Bible-based evangelical churches had begun to open just a little…
Fast forward: In the last three decades we have opened our doors to things like the laughter movement, barking like dogs and oinking like pigs and calling it the “anoinking of the Spirit,” and worse. A number of leaders challenged these things, but its promoters did not repent of it.
Little girl meditating
A few years later, spiritual formation, “be still” meditation, breathing techniques, “Christian” yoga, “the sacred feminine,” labyrinths, circle making – all an extension of exotic religions, eastern mysticism, and Buddhist/Hindu tools to reach “the divine within” – all began to creep into church media, books, music and movies. Even Father Thomas Merton came to be revered by many evangelicals – a man who said at the end of his life that he wished to ““to become as good a Buddhist as I can,” as well as Henri Nouwen, who influenced millions of evangelicals but at the end of his life denied that Jesus was the only way to the Father.
The door opened a little wider…where were the watchmen? Where were the Shepherds? One at a time, I began to see even pastors welcome these things. And as these things crept in, the Word of God began to become an addendum to our lives, a devotional nicety but not central in our walk with Jesus, and no longer our final determination of truth.
Slowly, the poison seeped into our ranks…one book, one DVD, one movie at a time. Everyone ignored the subtle twisting of the Word of God in Rob Bell’s “Velvet Elvis,” hailing it as “groundbreaking.” And indeed, it was, but not in a good way. His next book, “The Sex God” raised a few eyebrows, but youth pastors everywhere still adored him and emulated him and bought glasses and cool clothes just to look just like him in an attempt to “relate to youth.” Millennial youth pastors began diluting the Word of God and preparing little mini-messages to justify their increasingly party-like youth group atmosphere which was strong on entertainment and weak on the Word of God.
Then Rob Bell wrote “Love Wins,” denying hell and proclaiming universalism – the idea that everyone gets saved. And now, he is speaking at conferences alongside New Age guru Deepak Chopra at conferences titled things like, “The Seduction of Spirit.” [1]
When he was exposed as being truly a non-evangelical false teacher, I heard nothing but crickets from all those who formerly sang his praises. But by then, everyone was off chasing the next big thing anyway, the next bestseller, the next circle-making, ear-tickling, scripture-diluting thing. We had begun forming a pattern of going after the latest “it,” or hot speaker, or bestselling book, and then when it turned out the thing or person was fraudulent, in error or full of deception, almost no one took responsibility for originally supporting or promoting them – least of all the Christian media and those who peddled their products – even when these false teachers were fully exposed. Very few took responsibility for an evangelist’s crazy, ungodly antics in Florida that hundreds of thousands of believers flocked to see, while behind the scenes he was conducting an affair that shredded his wife and kids. (For the record, I deeply believe in restoring fallen servants of the Lord.) They gave him a short time-out (“restoration process”) and bam! He was back on the circuit – new wife, new life. And few took responsibility for calling him – no, for laying hands on and anointing him – as the “world apostle” in front of an international audience.[2]
Very few called a well-known “prophet” to account for his 1998 prophecy that Obama would be a mighty man of God – a Christian – who would set everything right. They just said, “Oh well, nobody’s perfect” and kept supporting and following his ministry anyway.
Rarely do people say, “we were wrong.” Rarely do leaders say, “We were in error.” And because of that, unrepentant error in discernment has led to greater and greater error, because deception is a PROGRESSIVE DISEASE.
The more error we receive, the more the ability to discern goes numb and then dies in us. It applies to us as individuals. It applies to churches.
Nobody was alarmed that Roma Downey was still attending a new age college at the same time she was working on their television series “The Bible” or that she never renounced her new age beliefs, despite the fact that these concerns were brought to some of the highest levels of leadership in the church and corporate Christian world possible. They gave her a pass on those issues because, as I was told, the benefits of how it would reach people outweighed the theological problems. And nothing kept several bits of clear gnostic teaching from being inserted into their movies, including giving a prominent role to Mary Magdalene, whom new agers consider the “thirteenth apostle.” And to be honest, by the time these concerns were raised, even certain denominations had invested far too much money in promoting the movies to retract, recall product and repent at that point. In the end, I believe financial concerns were more important than truth.
By the time The Shack came around, we had already been prepped through years of “felt need” theology, experiential-based faith and cherry-picking scriptures we liked while ignoring the ones we didn’t.
As the internet grew, I began to understand the power of the appeal to our emotions. More than once, I had seen almost an entire five to ten-minute video on some issue and found myself in tears before I found out at the end that not only was it not a Christian video and did not have a Christian message, but it was produced by people and represented a view that was unbiblical, new age and worse. I got emotionally hooked before I learned the truth. Those without a biblical foundation of truth just get hooked.
People loved The Shack because it replaced the God of the Bible (which deep down they possibly didn’t feel comfortable with, because His ways are beyond our understanding and bad things happen, and it upsets our sunshine version of Christianity) and gave them a God who made them feel good, who took the God of the Bible and said, “That’s not really God, this is what God is like…” and gave them a diluted, false version of Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and a dose of Sophia, Greek goddess of wisdom.
I was sure that anyone with even a modicum of discernment would throw the book in the trash. I had underestimated how wide the door of deception had opened. I lost friends who were pastors who were furious at me for questioning the book. One pastor railed at me, “I haven’t had a relationship with God for years, but now I have my ‘Papa’ back! You can’t take that from me!”
Nothing jarred me more than seeing grown men of God just abandoning clear truth because something tugged their heart, justifying the scriptural butchering by saying, “It’s just fiction, it’s not the Bible!” I confronted someone on this the other night. “What about the satanic Necronomicon. Can I read it? It’s just fiction. Can I read pornography? It’s just fiction.” They thought that a bit extreme. Of course it was.
My point was, where what was their criteria, where was their own event horizon they were not willing to cross because it was just too obviously wrong? How much scripture bending or ignoring would they accept and justify as ok because it was “just fiction” before they had enough and said no more? The demonic genius of The Shack is how cleverly it has clothed itself in a loose and nebulous garment of scriptures – just enough to justify the complete butchering of the true nature of God and morphing Him into a Trinitarian hybrid god that represents whatever will make you feel better about your horrible tragedies and “great sadness.” The fact is, though, God will not appear as whatever we want. One person said, “God appeared as a fiery bush, but I know he’s not a bush!” But He appeared in the bush. He wasn’t a bush. God will not appear as Shiva, Buddha, or Sarayu, because He is “I AM WHAT I AM.” We can say God is like a rock, but we cannot say God is like Baal. It’s not about imagery, it is about the nature and character of God. And The Shack gives a false representation of both of those.
Look, I get it. I’ve suffered innumerable losses my entire life, and every one of us at some point cries out, “WHY, GOD?” And in those moments, people either reject Him as uncaring, or He brings us into His Kingdom, and we learn to trust Him in the midst of, sometimes in spite of tragedies that seem to have no reason. And we may find ourselves once again crying out in pain, “WHY, GOD?” And His response is, “You don’t need to know all the answers. Trust Me, trust My Word. Trust in My love.” It’s called FAITH. But The Shack is a shortcut to feeling better, a panacea, a spiritual drug that allows you to embrace a conception of God that may temporarily take away the pain but leaves you with an open door to deception because it is not the God of the Word. IT IS NOT THE REAL JESUS.
Is The Shack the God portrayed in scripture? Is God a woman? Is Jesus a clumsy Jewish kid with a hook nose? Is the Holy Spirit a Japanese girl named after a Hindu river? Is the judge of our lives Sophia? Is everyone saved? Is Jesus just the best way to the Father, as the book suggests, or is He what the Bible says – the only way?
“But they’re just parables! Stories! It’s not the Bible!” some argue. So is it acceptable to distort the truth in the guise of fiction just to make a point? How is that ever acceptable? Someone said, “CS Lewis did The Chronicles of Narnia, they were spiritual allegories! It wasn’t scripture!” True, that; but unlike The Shack, when Lewis did touch on the nature of God or Jesus, he kept it fairly consistently in line with scripture and the biblical character and nature of God. The Shack has a radically different version of God: One who does not judge, one who can change, one who suggests Jesus is simply a better way to God, not the only way. But feeling trumped truth, and the book has become a multimillion bestseller. To simplify the responses I have heard, “Don’t confuse me with biblical facts. It made me feel good!”
It did not bother leaders and publishers that Young’s second book, Eve – a “reimagining” of the Adam and Eve story – was laced with kabbalistic themes and occultic, gnostic fairy tales. “It’s just a story.” The door opened wider….
You see, Satan keeps pushing the goalpost deeper and deeper into the center of the church, and every time he sees no resistance, he is emboldened and takes it to “the next level.”
Now, the movie is out. The arguments as to why it’s such an amazing life-changing story despite the clear unscriptural aspects that were brought up when the book came out are the same. The difference seems to be that those who support it are much angrier at those of us who pose the crucial questions. “You’re so judgmental! Who do you think you are? You must be looking for a book deal or something. You’ll never lead anyone to Christ, and I doubt if you ever did before.” I’ve had it all thrown at me the last few weeks as I tried to reason it out with folks on Facebook. And I realize that the level of deception had gone so deep that not only were people willing to embrace a lie and ignore the error, but worse – they saw themselves as fully biblical believers who were completely loyal to the Word of God, while at the same time promoting a story by a man who claims that everyone is “in Christ” already. And you cannot reason with that level of delusion. It seems to bother devoted Shack followers not at all that the author is a universalist.
Universalism, the “all paths lead to God” religion, is exactly what is needed to turn the Christian church into part of the one-world antichrist mystery religion that Alice Bailey wrote about and all Luciferian world leaders are counting on.
We did not accept Rob Bell’s universalism. But now we are willing to ignore William Paul Young’s. That is the malignancy of deception unchecked.
This movie comes at a time when the next level of eastern meditation techniques under the guise of “mindfulness” are being pushed into the educational system,[3] and now are coming into the church. (Mindfulness is a Buddhist technique of detachment, leading to realizing the “divine within,” which eventually leads to Nirvana – nonexistence. There are several new “Christian” books promoting meditation and mindfulness practices with devotional books and coloring books, and a new book on spiritual formation and meditation called The Wired Soul: Finding Spiritual Balance in a Hyperconnected Age by Tricia McCary Rhodes which “reintroduces us to the classic disciplines of Scripture reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation.” In other words, it’s just more repackaged eastern religious teaching and techniques for the church which will further it on the road to the new age goal of “east meets west,” where we all become one under a false one world religion and we all recognize the “Christ spirit” or godhood in each other (Namaste – the divine in me bows to the divine in you.)
Add to that, a new book is being used in Christian youth groups called, God in My Everything: How an Ancient Rhythm Helps Busy People Enjoy God by Ken Shigematsu, who “draws on both eastern and western perspectives in writing and speaking.” Those are buzzwords for introducing a mixing of eastern religion thought processes with Christianity and bringing it into the church.
All of this is producing Christian minds that are malleable, soft, undiscerning, half-drugged, feeling good, and completely open to the power of suggestion from…whoever, and whatever. That is what eastern meditation techniques do. You empty your mind and accept that whatever comes must be good and right and from God.
The church has become an entity seeking to have their ears tickled. Seeking to feel better about their painful lives. Seeking to be successful, happy and prosperous. What is it you seek? Step right up folks…we’ve got it all now.
Everything except the whole truth of the Word of God, the way of the cross, the power of the blood to save and heal and forgive, the altar of God where we come to be broken and changed, healed and set free. Everything which made the Gospel powerful has and is being systematically removed by the enemy of our souls – not because it is not powerful, but because we no longer wish to bow to its demands, its holiness or its truth.
We are seeing the fruit of nearly thirty years of dumbing-down and de-prioritizing the Word of God, giving it a mini-place in our lives while shiny things and baubles and the newest “move” catch our attention and send us off on a fruitless quest for the next experience. The seed of the Word of God has corporately fallen on stony ground, without depth, where it grows up quick, shrivels and dies.
I know I am very passionate about this, reluctant to even use the word passionate, so overused it is. I have a right to be. I grew up in the occult, a world of delusions, lies, and darkness. Even when I tried to turn to new age thought to dispel the darkness, turning to Hinduism, Buddhism, and becoming an avid follower of Paramahansa Yogananda in my little bedroom devouring his every word as “truth,” I ended up deceived, wrecked and in utter darkness, even though some of it temporarily numbed my pain and made me “feel good.”
I understand many of these Christians who are so emotionally bound to The Shack that they have thrown caution to the wind and ignored the dangerous reality that it in fact promotes unbiblical lies and is being promoted by someone who has rejected Biblical truth about hell and salvation. I was one of those Christians after I was saved. I was totally brainwashed. I was a universalist. Then came this “mean man,” this “judgmental Christian” Bible study leader named Dave Malkin, who dared to get out the Word of God and without holding back challenged me about my beliefs. This “judgmental, mean man” saved my spiritual life. (I thank God for Dave, may his memory be blessed!) I needed a hard word to break through the lies.
In all my dealings with everything from Rob Bell to The Shack, I understand that simple logic and reason isn’t working with people who are emotionally invested in the teachers or the stories. People need a wake-up call, and that may not feel good or seem loving. But I cannot apologize for my approach because I see that in the end, The Shack is not just a book or a movie but a game-changer that is extinguishing some of the last lights of discernment out of the hearts of thousands of believers. I know how they feel. I have been there. And I thank God that someone cared enough to hurt me with the truth. When a house is burning down and people are asleep inside, one cannot afford to meekly whisper, hoping the people hear. You have to shout at the top of your lungs, “Get out, quickly!” In dealing with these new delusions, it may be necessary to jar people awake.
Jesus said in Matthew 24 that all of this would happen. Paul said, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils”. (1 Tim. 4:1) The great falling away is at hand. But a remnant will remain faithful. I can only pray humbly not to be one who falls for the lies in a moment of vulnerability, or weakness, or pain or giving up, for we are all vulnerable. That is where I understand the motto of the French foreign legion that a friend shared with me. “If I falter, straighten me out. If I stumble, pick me up. If I retreat, shoot me.”
Blunt, but as a spiritual warrior it resonates in my heart. None of us are exempt from having to diligently guard against the lies of this age, outside and inside the church.
I believe all these progressive deceptions over the last few decades have been just the build-up to the next great delusion, which could be the final one. God help us to turn away from the slow poisoning of the church through breath-prayers, eastern meditation, mindfulness, yoga, etc. God help us to surrender our soulish ways of perceiving God based on a book that was written by a wounded man, William Paul Young – unhealed from abuse and bitter church hurts – whom those seeking to make a profit have promoted regardless of his spiritual fragility and woundedness – who rejected the God of the Bible for a god who would somehow ease his pain – one that eases your pain as it kills your soul. The Shack is the spiritual Jack Kavorkian of our age.
Pray for William Paul Young, that God would pull him out of this most dangerous and deadly strange fire. Pray for the multitudes who are believing lies. And may God deal with those mercenaries and moneychangers who care more about what sells and profits them then about the care and protection of the flock of God.
Alice Bailey’s plans are about to come to full fruition. The greatest lie is just around the corner.
Stay strong, saints. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. (Luke 21:28) He is coming soon!
By Gregory Reid (Originally posted here and republished with permission)
[1] http://www.carlsbadlifestylepubs.com/…
Thank you for speaking the truth!
I think what you say is very true in this article. I am old, and like many others my age have been through many trials and such to lure us away from the word of God. I guess that I can no longer understand why I would want the God described in these books. The love, power, and holiness that the God who created and loved this world so much that he gave his son to die in our stead is far greater than the false gods created by these writers.
When I was young, over half a century ago, I regularly attended church and Sunday school and vacation bible school. In retrospect, I think far to little emphasis was placed on reading and study of the Bible. As a preteen and teenager I was trained on simplified Bible stories and Sunday school lessons. The Bible was not stressed. Bible reading should have been stressed at a much younger age. As I got older, I found that the Bible is the real reference book and any teaching must be based on the scriptures. A lot of the TV preachers, that I once watched on TBN seemed to fail that standard too.
Finally! Someone who can verbalized what I have felt ever since the book, The Shake came out. I started it. It made me extremely uneasy. The handling of the trinity concerned me. I could not finishe it – not even halfway through. I will not ever read it or see the movie.
The philosophy is so insidious. It sneaks in silently through our eyes, ears, and feelings. Lots of positive thinking. I see “sending you positive thoughts”, instead of praying.
It seems that everyone is to be tolerant. However Christians are considered intolerant because of our beliefs.
I saw the quote today, “I’m strong because I had to be.” OK , kind of. We’re really strong because God is with us. Because he fights for us.
Thanks for being honest
Hi from Australia. 34 yes born again. I have watched the last 3 decades and apostasy change from a time of you must be born again mr16 with signs following. I have tried to stay faithful to this calling shows the Way as it is in Scripture. . SO many have started this WAY but now the Romans Road to salvation confess with your mouth and you will be saved.???????
WHere has Repent and be baptized confessing your sins+++++++++++++acts 2/ 38 ??????
how long will the lord tarry for his Elect mth24 . ???? Because if he doesn’t cut short these days all flesh will perish. There is a verse in of every mans Way is right in his own Eyes.
how true today. shalom my bro/ sis. Noel rochford an overcoming each and every day that lays ahead.
What language do they speak in Australia?
???English with a Aussie accent. But I am finding that languages mainly English is and has become the universal language of easy Compromise with itsambugiguity of scriptural context .???? How about you.?????
Great writing. I read The Shack when it first came out. I was troubled by it and said so to others who were reading it. I got shot down. My first objection is God is father. A he. Holy Spirit is HOLY. Jesus is the way ,the truth and the light and NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT BY HIM. Thank you for sounding the alarm. Let’s pray some hear it.
I wouldn’t be too quick to list C.S. Lewis as a beacon of scriptural integrity. He believed that someone could be a sincere buddhist and still enter heaven. He believed that the book of Genesis was inspired by pagan religions. He believed in purgatory and transubstantiation. Even his alleged conversion from atheism to Christianity is highly suspect. He merely grew tired of denying the existence of God and decided to acquiesce and admit the existence of God, Mere Christianity, indeed.
I have no expectation of seeing Mr. Lewis in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Well said. Lewis also mocked Jesus for saying that some will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God. He used witchcraft and magic all throughout his writings, despite a multitude of scriptural warnings against such things, and against mixing light with darkness. People give him a pass for some reason.
Mr. Reid,
Thank you very much for your timely, appropriate and accurate assessment of the current delusion and movement towards outright apostasy in the so called “church” today.
With all respect, at the same time, you need to do some thorough research on C.S. Lewis. Any astute, discerning Christian who investigates C.S. Lewis will realize he was NOT a Christian. Unfortunately he continues to be held up as a shining example of an intelligent Christian.
Please expose him as you have the other apostates.
Agree Dr. Coon, if anyone knows anything about the beliefs of C.S. Lewis, he wouldn’t hokd him up as a defender of the faith:
1. Believed in purgatory, therfore denying the complete work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
2. Believed in grace after death, people in hell could somehow achieve grace in hell and migrate to heaven. Again, that’s not what Jesus said.
These are just two, there are many more.
Amen to that! I have never read anything from C.S. Lewis, but I did some research about him. Is it not alarming that he appeals to people who are into the occult and atheists? There is no evidence he was born again by anything he has said as far as I know other than saying he was baptized into the Church of Ireland. He returned to Anglicanism at 32. His mother was a daughter of a priest. He was much into the occult, mythology, Norse mythology, the occult in which he claimed to exit when he went back to the Anglican Church. He had a fondness for W.B. Yates who he said was an “author exactly after his own heart” as he told a friend. W.B. Yates and his wife were into automatic writing. Yates had mystical inclinations, informed by Hindu Theosophical beliefs and the occult provided much of the basis of his late poetry. C.S. Lewis was Ecumenical, He spoke highly of the theology of George MacDonald who rejected penal substitutionary atonement, he was a universalist. C.S. Lewis regarded him as his “master”. wiki
Good article!
In recent years, when I FINALLY learned how to study the Bible properly, I had to do a major overhaul of all the teachings I had learned over the years and re-examined closely what the Bible actually says about major doctrines, such as salvation, hell, heaven, water baptism, etc.
It started with Christian discernment websites when I was looking for info regarding false teaching. Then it led to my reading works by Bible scholars and Bible commentaries. I came to understand good teaching can be gleaned from respected Bible scholars (especially ones from an earlier era–and Rick Warren is NOT one of those to be trusted), but no one person has everything right; they have their strong and weak areas and it is ultimately our own responsibility to study the Bible prayerfully and not look to just any one teacher. In the future, I’m hoping to learn how to use translations of Greek and Hebrew to aid in my study. It has helped a lot to be in a church body of believers who are like minded and we spur each other on in our understanding of Scripture.
What a waste it was to have attended small group meetings over the years where we studied ABOUT Christianity and the Bible, but were not studying the Bible itself!
Thanks Amy for posting this article and thanks Gregory. I just found this article and yes, all this is going on, deception, deception. It’s sad that so many are being deceived. I pray their eyes are opened and that God will take the spiritual blinders off their eyes. Fulfillment of what God’s Word said would happen before His return. For the most part, the visible church is a mess. And every book, every movie that comes out that’s pure heresy is being promoted in so many many churches. And sad to say but lots of Pastors are joining in the “bandwagon ” that’s headed on a downhill slide. 1 Timothy 4:1 And we must stand firm in our faith, because Satan is definitely trying to kill, steal and destroy in these last of the last days. Thanks be to God for these watchmen , we need many more watchmen to sound out the warnings. God bless you all.
A sister-n-Christ
Every Christian Leader and Pastor should read this entire article to hopefully understand what has happened and is happening with the churches and even possibly with themselves and get back on track and really be a Shepherd to their flock.
David looked out for and fought and won over the enemies of the sheep and kept watch over the sheep continually.
Where is Discernment today? Discernment is not possible without doctrine and doctrine is rarely taught.
Someone once said to me; “how will the falling away of many people happen? Simple, because the leaders have fallen away and people follow them!”. People are typically like sheep, they follow the shepherd. People are deceived, including leaders and pastors, because they don’t know they are deceived. Someone who knows it wouldn’t be, obviously.
Where is the teaching of the Holy Spirit in the sermons? He came to convict of Sin, Righteousness and Judgment, but you rarely hear any of that. We like to be comfortable and feel good and most sermons cater to that. It also does not offend people and therefore and hopefully the finances will be looked after. If you spoke of sin, sexuality, marriage, abortion, warned about eastern practises like mediation, yoga and many other practises as well as books and movies that teach or have woven into it a “different gospel” you might offend people, and offended people leave, so the finances will suffer. Money rules!
Thanks again for clearly laying it out. Hopefully it will open the eyes of those who have not been awake to what has been going on.
Hi:
Thanks for the informative article. At my local assembly, I learned that a group were going to “study” the Shack. I protested to the group leader regarding its unsoundness
and presented to her a three pager of objections to its non biblical content.
To date, no stoppage of that pending study group.
I e mailed the pastor about this pending study group and my concerns and to date, the pastor has been mum about it.
I will send him your article with the hopes that he will get a little starch in his shirt and
speak out about this book not being a book worthy of any “study” by Christians. There are far superior books by which in which one can immerse themselves and get better results than plumbing the depths of the Shack.
Saints of God…hold the line and color within the lines!
Lafe,
I believe it would help your cause if you were not the sole member complaining about studying The Shack. In my experience, it is too easy to disregard one person, unless perhaps that person is in a position of authority.
Another way to “study” The Shack would be to point out the heresies in the book, countering with what the Bible actually teaches. I’m not advising you to do this, but I would be sorely tempted to speak up this way in the group. (And I probably would be asked to leave.)
Also, Lighthouse Trails Publishing has a booklet you can order, entitled “The Shack and Its New Age Leaven.” http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=12290
Thank you for contending for the faith!
I pray this article may be read and then re-read by many pastor’s and elder boards.
Then several sermon series done on this subject to bring awareness to the church today. Seeing blasphemous books like “The Shack” being “studied”? Within a church!
Is akin to bringing in False Teaching Jesus never taught or recommended. And insisting HE DID! Jesus warned Christians this would happen at the end of days.
Yet? A previous post shows that person attempted several warnings to Their Pastor,
With Zero interest or concern for His own congregation being deceived about “The Shack” of lies. Entering right into that Church! No wonder their are so few churches that teach actual factual Scripture. Pastor’s: false doctrines are growing worse
every day. Would a few of you? Get on some apologetics web pages and put a stop to these false teachers, authors and teachings from destroying your churches
strong Foundation.
these days.
Thanking for your accurate article. I have been a researcher since 1983 and I am so glad to know that you’re familiar with Alice Bailey. The quote that you gave is from 1919, the first year she began taking dictation from her “ascended master” DK. At that time she (the demon) published the little booklets under “Lucifer Publishing” (Later changed to Lucius Publishing). These little letters were circulated among the disciples and only later collected into books colored indigo blue with a design in white that I believe can be seen as a Christian Cross that has been broken at the intersection, broken again on the staff and then bound with a triangle and finally covered with a “prevent” sign. The New Age Movement started with H. P. Blavatsky in 1875 when she founded The Theosophical Society with the main goal of destroying Christianity with the teaching of “The Secret Doctrine” which is Gnosticism, Mysticism, The Perenial Religion, etc. As you have noticed, once a believer turns to Mysticism, they don’t turn back. The erotic experience that they are having is with an angel, and ultimately Satan, whom they encounter in perfect stillness and silence, in the depths near the abyss. I would love to hear from you. In Christ, Gail Todd
Apologetics web sites worth looking over: Watchman’s Bagpipes, Berit Kjos, Sola Sisters, Lighthouse Trials Research, Pastor Gary Gilleys Book Reviews, Pirate Christian Radio online.
I am an administrative Assistant at a Baptist church, and was encouraged to read the shack by another admin. I immediately was on alert with the female “god.” I have been reading articles like yours to help me in conversing with the person who encouraged me to read the book. Thank you for your perseverance in bringing us truth. Having come from a Catholic background, I am continually seeking the truth. No matter how painful, I want to know the truth! Thank you again for your ministry.
C.S. Lewis has rejected Biblical truth about hell and salvation. Purgatory and Ransom theory are heretical beliefs.