The Shack and Salvation

I have not read the Shack. I don't plan on ever reading it. I don't have to go in a bathroom with a stopped up toilet that has been used and cannot be flushed to know the room is going to stink. I have read quotes from the book that are totally heretical. The truly sad part is this book has spread like a cancer through the church. Micheal W. Smith, Gloria Gaither, and other high profile Christians are raving about what a wonderful book this is. I know a Southern Baptist Church that has asked the author to "preach the gospel" during a Sunday morning service knowing full well that the man denies the penal substitution of Jesus' death on the cross. How do you have a "gospel" without penal substitution? You don't.

People have argued that the book is a book of fiction and, therefore, people who criticize it are making a mountain out of a proverbial molehill. However, I submit that the book, while having fictional elements in it, is a far representation of the theology of the author. To demonstrate that, listen to this interview with the author where he says in his own words what he thinks about the cross, the substitutionary death of Christ, and the punishment of sin. As John Piper said "We must separate from error before we can unite in the truth".