Having addressed Young’s misrepresentation of the Trinity and the truth of hierarchy in God’s created order, next is Young’s misrepresentation of the cross of Christ. Let me first say that the three days that included the death, burial and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ are the most important days in all of human history. Nothing has been more significant to the human condition than these three days. We must accurately understand these days as the Bible presents them lest our profession of faith be hollowed out with error and worthless for salvation.
In what amounts to a mere half-page of text, Young distorts the cross of Christ and its purpose in God’s work of salvation for his people. These few words, imbedded in a 248 page book, can be subtly embraced by the complacent reader if read too quickly. This is why I urge you to read The Shack with the Bible beside it. This is why I urge you to not promote this book to the non-Christian.
Let me give you the context for this topic. Mack, explaining the hurt he feels for the loss of his daughter questions God’s compassion and empathy for him. Here is what Young writes:
“How can you really know how I feel?” Mack asked, looking back into her eyes.
Papa didn’t answer, only looked down at their hands. His gaze followed hers and for the first time Mack noticed the scars in her wrists, like those he now assumed Jesus also had on his. She allowed him to tenderly touch the scars, outlines of a deep piercing, and he finally looked up again into her eyes. Tears were slowly making their way down her face, little pathways through the flour that dusted her cheeks.
“Don’t ever think that what my son chose to do didn’t cost us dearly. Love always leaves a significant mark,” she stated softly and gently. “We were there together.”
Mack was surprised. “At the cross? Now wait, I thought you left him—you know—’My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’” It was a Scripture that had often haunted Mack in The Great Sadness.
“You misunderstand the mystery there. Regardless of what he felt at that moment, I never left him.” (p. 96)
Problem #1 – Only Jesus Has a Body That Can Scar
The idea that the Father and the Spirit both bear the scars of Jesus is unacceptable fiction. Only Jesus became human and has a body that can bear scars (even while maintaining his deity). Only Jesus was nailed to the cross. The Father struck him and afflicted him (Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12). The Father did not do this to himself; he did this to his Son. Nor were the Father and the Spirit there together with the Son. The Son was forsaken. The Son was isolated, abandoned, and alone. (More will be said about this below.)
To some, the Father (and the Spirit) bearing the scars of the Son may sound emotionally appealing. It may cause some to shed sweet sentimental tears of sympathy, but it is against the Bible and should not be embraced. Yes, it grieved the Father to give up his one and only Son. But the Father and the Spirit were not with him, they do not have bodies, and thus they do not bear scars.
Problem #2 – Forsaken Means Forsaken
Strangely, throughout the book Young portrays Mack as a man who knows his Bible. It is astonishing to me that he would have a character correctly quote and apply Scripture only to refute him with heresy. One can only conclude that his apparent disdain for “intelligenstia” is driving this practice. The Scripture that “haunted” Mack is found in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. Here is what Mark was inspired to write:
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Mark 15:34]
In this verse, Jesus is quoting from Psalm 22 which reads:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? [Psalm 22:1]
While Jesus hung on the cross, the Father was far from saving him. The Father’s presence was removed. The Father had forsaken him. Jesus knew it. Yet Young has his fictitious Father figure refute this understanding of Scripture when he writes:
You misunderstand the mystery there. Regardless of what he felt at that moment, I never left him.
This is not faithful to Scripture! In the original Greek, the verb “forsaken” (ἐγκαταλείπω) is used 10 times in the New Testament and can be translated as follows: abandon, desert, leave in straits, leave helpless, totally abandoned, utterly forsaken. If we trust the Bible, we can only conclude that the Father abandoned the Son. Any other interpretation requires the reader (Young in this case) to project his desired meaning on the word and reject the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God.
The truth is, God did leave him and forsake him…for the moment. Why? We see in Isaiah that “the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” [Isaiah 53:6] Because God is holy and cannot be associated with sin, he abandoned him as he punished the sins of the world. The Son was bearing the sins of his people and therefore enduring God’s wrath.
Problem #3 – Jesus Felt Reality
Before moving on, we must zero in on Young’s amazing extra-biblical insight into what Jesus felt on the cross versus what was reality. Recall that in response to Mack’s inquiry about the Mark 15:34 passage, Young fictitiously quotes the Father as follows:
Regardless of what he felt at that moment, I never left him.
As I see it, there are two options for understanding Young’s statement and both are horrifyingly wrong! Consider these two options:
1.) God inspired the writers of Scripture to lie. If Matthew and Mark were inspired to write “forsaken” in their accounts when it was merely a wrong feeling that Jesus had, then God has inspired the writing of non-truth. Such is not possible since we know from Scripture that God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18). If we were to conclude otherwise (and against Scripture), then where else could we discover lies (or “misunderstandings”) in Scripture? Not surprisingly, people like Young will conveniently find ”misunderstandings” in every place that Scripture says something they don’t like.
Consider some examples of this heretical practice:
Heresy #1: “So you don’t like authority? Well that’s just a human concept that comes from total depravity. God didn’t intend for there to be any hierarchy in his creation. What about all those verses about hierarchy that quote Jesus, Paul and Peter? Well, they were just what they felt and, regardless of what they felt, there is no hierarchy in God’s creation.” See The Shack vs. The Bible 2.
Heresy #2: “So you don’t like what Scripture says about homosexuality? Well, those verses are just the words of Paul and Paul’s words don’t mean as much as Jesus’ words and, since Jesus never speaks to the issue, it’s a non-issue. What’s more, those words against homosexuality in the Old Testament were written under the conditions of a different covenant. We are new covenant people today and are freed from those words.”
Believing that God inspired writers to write something other than true reality is exactly what the Adversary wants as he strives to destroy the kingdom of God.
2.) Jesus was just flat wrong in his prayer. If this is true, what else could he have been wrong about? Maybe that statement of “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” [John 14:6] is another area where he “felt” wrong. (Watch out for this one in The Shack! Perhaps I will address this in the next post…)
Neither of these options is acceptable! You must believe that God did forsake Jesus as the Bible tells us. Let us commit to make no allowance for the manipulation of Scripture to say what we want it to say!
Here is the raw truth: When Young quotes his fictitious Father saying, “Regardless of what he felt at that moment, I never left him” the feelings that Young is focused on are his own! He does not like a God who will abandon the Son (or anyone for that matter). He does not want to believe that God punishes sin. This reveals to us that he does not have a true and honest grasp on the wickedness of sin and the holiness of God. Watch where this will take you…
What’s the Big Deal?
What is the danger of believing as Young writes? The danger is that we won’t see God for who he really is and we won’t see sin for all that it really is. It lessens the severity of sin if we believe that the Father did not remove his presence from the Son as he dealt with the sins of the world for all time. Sin is so bad that the Father forsook the Son unto death, and death on a cross. Now, to the praise of God, once that sin was dealt with, the Father resurrected the Son (in bodily form) who became the first of those who will walk in newness of life…for eternity (see Romans 6:3-4)! This is the greatest news ever told! But for it to be fully great, the Father had to forsake (abandon) the Son.
Yet on this topic, Young reveals his anti-biblical position once again:
I am not who you think I am, Mackenzie. I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it. (p. 120)
This is exactly what the enemy would like for us to think. He would like for us to focus on sin and it’s punishment upon on us apart from God and his punishment for sin. He would like for us to not see sin as it really is: against God.
Taken at face value, Young’s comment that “sin is its own punishment” is an affront to God. It gives power and recognition to sin and this power and recognition is taken from God. To borrow from Young’s language about the Trinity, the enemy would like for us to see sin as a “circular relationship” whereby sin is committed and sin punishes the sinner for sin. All the while, there is no role for God to play in punishing sin. After all, as Young and many others would have it, God is no punisher, he is only a lover. The Bible is very clear on this: he is BOTH!
Conclusion
It is God’s purpose to punish sin. He punishes the sin of every human being in one of two ways:
1.) For Christians, he punished sin for eternity on the cross of Christ. Those who believe are the beneficiaries of Christ’s substitutionary atonement for their sins. Those who believe will overcome sin and death for eternity just as Jesus did when the Father raised him from the dead.
2.) For non-Christians, he will punish sin for eternity on the final Day of Judgment. Those who do not believe will be punished; will be forsaken; will be abandoned; for all eternity (Matthew 13:47-50).
So I urge you to this end: believe in God who punishes your sins. Believe that he made provision for you on the cross of Christ where he forsook his one and only Son for a time. Believe and you will be delivered from an eternal existence in which you will be fully and finally forsaken by God. Believe and you will be saved!
