The Shack, the book, the movie how it can heal (or how it can help to heal me)

Mario,
My question had nothing to do with the Incarnation,,.. the point is Jesus is God and man and I wanted Mark to acknowledge Jesus as God who is also man. Regardless of when He became man does not give Mark the authority to say that God can not be considered a male because He is. The Holy Trinity are One and should never be portrayed in the female sense.
Mother Angelica would agree that The Shack is very bad theology indeed!

 

Paul Young is responding to his experiences of Christian who make God into their own image and likeness and then worship it. I do believe that we are judged by Love, for as St. John says in his 1st letter, those who love are of God, for God is love. I do think what one believes is important, nor do I think all religions are the same, yet God works through all of them, becasue of the Word, which is Jesus Christ, who is owned no one. Yes that goes for JW's and Mormons, Hindus etc. I have met many Godly people from other faiths.....I have also met many people from other faiths who sort of think and talk the way you do about Catholics and others who believe differently.

Jesus is one with the Father, those who see Jesus see the Father, so on the cross who is revealed.....yes the Father.

Jesus said fear is useless, what is needed is trust. If you want to fear God, go ahead, it is normal, of the flesh. Fear is the beginning of wisdom. Do children fear their loving parents in the way you are speaking of. Perhaps you do ;-), if so, I am sorry. It is hard to trust in God, to fear him is easy, it is understandable, to let go of fear is a true death to self. God's love of us is beyond comprehension, what we fear we comprhend, we fear a God is who is like us. Bigger, meaner and capable of punishing for all eternity. However God does not punish, we do ourselfs. The Churches statment on hell is that it is when someoned makes a definite choice to reject God, the punishiment is that God allows them to choose hell. As it says in the Shack, "No one gets away with anything". God's justice is based on absolute truth, so is mercy

Cursing or the use of cuss words (not taking God's name in vain) is not sinful, but could be in very poor taste or indicates a lack of skill in expressing oneself. When in the Navy, people cursed so much, that it as not cussing at all. Rude language is cultural, to take God's name in vain is a sin if the person knows what he is doing.

You need to read the book, if not to change your mind, but to get a more objective understanding why it has touched so many people. You can think whatever you want, but others have been deeply touched by the book and that needs to be taken seriously.

Peace
mark

 

A response on the shack from EWTN:
Evangelical Christians certainly believe in the Holy Trinity. Quite a few take this teaching very seriously and will use the Scriptures to illustrate it. But others, Catholic included, take the misguided approach of trying to make the Holy Trinity more attractive, human, and approachable to believers and non-believers alike. There is great danger of irreverence here, of cutting God down to size. Why don't they write about the lives of the saints instead and leave God in his mystery? The danger today is not that God is mysterious. It is that he is trivial, nice, cute, puppy like, every bodies buddy. There are plenty of topics for good fiction writers. The human scene should be interesting enough. Let's get some educated taste here!

Dr. Geraghty



COPYRIGHT 2017

 

You need to show me where the Church teaches that God is male.

Peace
Mark

 

On another note, I felt the same way when I read Poem of the Man God. Then I was crushed when I found out it was not recommended reading. So I talked to my Parish Priest about it and he told me to throw it away, it was full of heresy. I had spent $150 for all the books, but I did throw them out. It was a battle of wills, and as a Secular Carmelite I let God's will be done and not my will. Obedience to a higher educated authority is the better path. Perhaps discussing this book with your Parish Priest or Bishop would be a better approach, and not just getting support from a blog. Sometimes we look for love in all the wrong places.

 

The Shack is an admitted work of fiction, the Poem of the Man God is pupported to be a revelation. I have never read the book and don't plan on it, however some priest and Biships I believe say it is ok to read as long as it is known as an imagintative work only.

Peace
Mark

 

Open the bible. Look at Genesis, Ch 1. It refers to God as "He", not "She". The bible is a divinely inspired work of the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot err in regards to the Truth.

Can you can find a place where the bible refers to God as "she"?

 

The church teaches that God is pure spirit, the Jews believed that God had no form, hence no imge could be made of him, so no, God is not male.....again ;-), show me where the church states that God is Male.

Peace
Mark

 

I'm not concerned with what the Jews think of God's bodily form or lack thereof, especially since we know that they've gotten things wrong in the past (i.e. the Messiah). I'll stick with the Holy Spirit and the bible.

By the way, can you show us where the bible refers to God as female? Until then your arguement is pure conjecture.

 

Well you have male, female, and it. Show me where the Catholic Church says God is male:

However, to be fair, in Catholic and I believe in most Christian traditions consider the soul, all souls are femminein in relation to God, since God is our creator, brings us life and salvation. All Masculine traits. The soul of each of is called to surrender to Gods overtures, His love and in that we gain life. So in a sense you can and should use "Father", that is not male however. Jesus is male, he is God Incarnate.

(the entire Christian understanding of salvation presupposes a masculine conception of God. Individual human souls (whether those of men or women) have, given their dependence on God, always been conceived of in the Christian tradition in female terms, e.g. as virgins awaiting their Bridegroom (Matthew 25: 1-13). The faithful are also characterized as children of Holy Mother Church, who is the Bride of Christ. The point of this imagery is that the role of the Church relative to the faithful is comparable to that of a mother who nourishes her child in the womb in preparation for birth – the “birth” in the case of the faithful being their entry into eternal life. And God protects and provides for the Church and the faithful as a husband and father does his wife and children.) Fr. Edward Feser
http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2010/05/god-man-and-masculinity.html

Peace
Mark

 

I think Mark just likes to argue. I am done with this.

 

My soul ain't female...bunch of nonsense. It has a tradition as a bride of Christ but that is only a metaphor for a union with God. I must put my foot down.

But then again souls are not male or female. So God is not either. But we are all at different levels spiritually. So yes God is male.

Brother al

 

All I know is that God chose to be referred to as Father.
Is it not then disrespectful to alter that and make Him "mother"?
He chose to Incarnate as a Man.
Would it be okay to have a woman play the Incarnation in a movie?
I think not.

It seems that portraying the "Father" as "mother" is at best extremely disrespectful and at worst Blasphemous.

Especially in this day and age when society is trying to replace the idea of a Paternal God with a maternal one. They want to destroy Paternal Christianity and replace it with maternal Gaia nature worship.

What EWTN says about God being the Father:
http://www.ewtn.com/library/theology/notmothr.ht

 

Our Lord never said 'fear is useless'.Fear of the Lord is a gift of the Holy Ghost.
Some modern Bible translations may have lead you astray.

 

The devil sure has some agenda's in our age..... It saddens me that Christians are so lacking in their knowledge of their faith that they also fall for this "gender" attack. Honestly, to even suggest that God the Father is female is so blatantly demonic! Can't we Christians come up with movies/books that actually tell the whole truth without offending our Lord??

 

"Fear is useless; what is needed is trust." (Luke 8: 50; Mark 5: 36)

 

I don't think God is female, l am not sure the shack is saying that......no it is not saying that ;-).

“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.”
― William Paul Young, The Shack

“I am what some would say 'holy, and wholly other than you.' The problem is that many folks try to grasp some sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can perceive, which often isn't much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, the truth is that it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I'm not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think.”
― William Paul Young, The Shack

“An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children. He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”
― William Paul Young, The Shack

“If you try to live this without me, without the ongoing dialogue of us sharing this journey together, it will be like trying to walk on the water by yourself. You can’t! And when you try, however well intentioned, you’re going to sink.” Knowing full well the answer, Jesus asked, “Have you ever tried to save someone who was drowning?” Mack’s chest and muscles instinctively tightened. He didn’t like remembering Josh and the canoe, and the sense of panic that suddenly rushed back from the memory. “It’s extremely hard to rescue someone unless he is willing to trust you.” “Yes, it sure is.” “That’s all I ask of you. When you start to sink, let me rescue you.”
― William Paul Young, The Shack



Peace
Mark

 

Mark ,
Why is it you will not answer the simple question,..Is Jesus God? Could it be that you don't believe Jesus is God the Son? The second person of the Blessed Trinity. If you could then you would have to admit that God is male, period! But I will not try to convince you.
A tree does not bend

John 14 tells us this,...

8Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." 9Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, and still you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father?' 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me; or else believe because of the works themselves. 12Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son

 

Of course Jesus is God, the second person of the blessed Trilnity, the creator of the Universe and the savior of the world.

Peace
Mark

 

Here is Luke 8;50...
And Jesus hearing this word, answered the father of the maid: Fear not; believe only, and she shall be safe.

Here is Mark 5;36
But Jesus having heard the word that was spoken, saith to the ruler of the synagogue: Fear not, only believe.


What Bible do you use Mark?
And what do you make of these actual words Mark?...And fear ye not them that kill the body, and are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him that can destroy both soul and body in hell.