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* Warning * If you have not seen The Shack yet, stop reading this and come back to read it after you have seen the movie! I don’t want to ruin the rawness of seeing it without reading someone’s view on it.
I read The Shack about 10 years ago without knowing anything about it. I really enjoyed it then but did have some mixed views on some of the content. I was excited to see they were making this novel into a movie, but I couldn’t remember what those mixed views were until I went back to see the movie this week.
Let me start out saying that I genuinely loved this movie! The novel flooded back to me as I watched each scene unfold. I loved the realness of Mack and true portrayal of how deep some heartaches reach. I also loved the portrayal of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. I loved how accurately it portrayed the heart of God, how much He loves us and cares for us, and how willing He is to reach into our own personal hurt to give us comfort and hope. I loved how Jesus was portrayed as our friend and someone who we can actually do life with. I appreciated the portrayal of the trinity - how the three are still one, and I loved the funness and unstuffiness of all three of them.
For anyone reading this, I am not against this movie whatsoever. I think it could really help someone who has been distant from God be interested in getting to know Him better. However, there were a few aspects of this movie that I thought may be confusing to some and really outright went against specific parts of the Bible. This is not the end of the world as this movie is fiction and doesn’t claim to be reenacting the Bible, but I wanted to offer some clarification because this book and movie feel so spiritual that it can be hard to separate the truth from the fiction.
CONFUSING PART #1:
God the Father tells Mack that He is not a God who is interested in wrath. He dismisses the very thought of that as something of a misunderstanding about Him. However, we do see numerous times that the Bible talks about the wrath of God. The Bible does say that God is slow to get angry and that where sin abounds grace does much more abound, but we can’t really ignore the fact that the Bible does indeed talk about God’s wrath.
Romans 1:18
For [God does not overlook sin and] the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who in their wickedness suppress and stifle the truth,
Romans 2:5
But because of your callous stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are [deliberately] storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed
The Bible tells us that our sins bring death. That if we do not repent, we will receive wrath from God in judgment for our sins. This is the exact reason Jesus came and died for us! To remove the penalty for our sins is to remove our need for Jesus. Jesus came to take on the punishment for our sins and unless we are willing to repent and turn to Jesus to rescue us, we will face that wrath.
This is what Jesus Himself said:
Mark 16:16
He who has believed [in Me] and has been baptized will be saved [from the penalty of God’s wrath and judgment]; but he who has not believed will be condemned.
Why was Jesus even in this novel and movie? According to the writer, we really didn’t need Him because God wouldn’t punish anyone for their wrongs. But when I read the Bible, I realize that I desperately need Jesus and what He did for me what the greatest act of love in the history of the world.
Now we have to be balanced, I am not saying this to try to say that God is waiting to zap people with a lightning bolt whenever they sin.
Romans 2:4
Or do you have no regard for the wealth of His kindness and tolerance and patience [in withholding His wrath]? Are you [actually] unaware or ignorant [of the fact] that God’s kindness leads you to repentance [that is, to change your inner self, your old way of thinking—seek His purpose for your life]?
God will definitely withhold His wrath for a time and show us His immeasurable goodness so that we can experience true life with Him. This is His greatest desire – not to pour out His wrath, but to draw us close to Him.. and that is why I loved that this movie showed that. But to say that God would never address sin is to not accurately relay what the Bible tells us.
CONFUSING PART #2:
God tells Mack that all people are His children, even the murderer, and in essence loves all His children and would never punish them. The Bible never calls all people God’s children. The Bible calls humans God’s creation. God desires for His creation to want to become a part of His family by believing in and following His Son, but He will not force them to do this. Humans have the free will to accept God or reject Him. They have the choice to become His sons and daughters or live a life separate from Him.
John 1:12
But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the right [the authority, the privilege] to become children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name—
When we receive and welcome Him, we get to become His children. If the murderer in this movie did not repent and receive Jesus’s salvation, he was not a child of God and would indeed receive the wrath of God. If he did… let’s address that :-).
CONFUSING PART #3:
I really felt like in the movie, God was telling Mack to forgive the murderer because he was just the victim of parents who twisted him and it’s not really his fault; that God wouldn’t punish one of His children more than the other and Mack should forgive him, too. Now, I did love the part where God instructed Mack that sometimes we have to make a choice to forgive and then make that choice over and over again until it gets easier. However, in the Bible, it doesn’t say that God doesn’t punish anyone.
Romans 12:19
Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord.
The Bible doesn’t say that people never get what’s coming to them. Sometimes, vengeance will come. But what the Bible does say is that it doesn’t come from us. We need to let go of the need for revenge and trust a just, holy God to determine what, how much, and if any vengeance is needed. Mac needs to trust God to do with the murderer what He deems is right. If the murderer had repented and turned his life around, it would be up to God to judge the motives and intentions of his heart and whether any retribution was needed. If the murderer had not repented, we already see in the Bible that there are consequences for his sins.
Luke 17:14
And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
We see here that we are instructed to forgive someone when they come to us and tell us that they repent. Here we see repentance occurring and then the forgiveness. This is not to say that someone can't forgive someone who hasn't repented, but is more to say that the Bible does bring up an association with the two that The Shack does not.
Luke 17:3
Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him
If he repents, we are to forgive him. I think in the case of The Shack, where someone has committed a great travesty against someone without repenting, this is where we let go of anger and bitterness and trust God with vengeance because it is too great of a burden for us to bear. Holding onto anger can really open the door for the devil to work in our lives.
Ephesians 4:26 & 27
… “don’t sin by letting anger control you.”… for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Hebrews 12:15
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.
I hope I didn’t overwhelm you with scripture, but I really wanted to back up my thoughts on clarifying these parts of the movie that could be confusing. I honestly loved how this movie showed the heart of God as so loving. I have experienced this love personally from Him and I love that this is being shown to so many people so that they might get to know His love, too. But on that note, God is also a just God and part of justice is addressing unbridled, selfish acts that cause pain and hurt to the very people God loves. This is just as much an illustration of love as forgiving someone who has repented.