This is another chapter with a lot of great stuff packed in-
There’s a great discussion of how we deal with darkness, how we keep it inside because we think it’s safer there, that we’re best equipped to deal with it, while we would be far better off letting others, and especially God, in to free us of our burdens.
There are some intriguing comments about heaven. Would about those visions of pearly gates? What is heaven like now? What will the new earth/new heaven be like when Jesus returns? Will it be more garden or city?
And of course, there is the really provocative, but somewhat vague comment by Jesus, “those who love me come from every system that exists. They were Buddhists or Mormons, Baptists or Muslims, Democrats, Republicans and many who don’t vote or are not party of any Sunday morning or religious institutions. . . . I have no desire to make them Christian, but I do want to join them in their tranformation insto sons and daughters of my Papa. . .” Mack asks, “Does that mean that all roads will lead to you?” Jesus responds, “Not at all. Most roads don’t lead anywhere. What it does mean is that I will travel any road to find you.”
Is that universalism? Hard to say, given his comments about where people “come from” or that they “were” part of different beliefs, and that “most roads don’t lead anywhere”. At the same time that does seem to be the tilt, that even if people are going down wrong paths, God in his mercy will go down the path to find them and redeem them even in their path is going away from them. There’s definitely truth to the idea of God going out to look for us, but especially given his remarks on the Church in this chapter, I’d say my honest interpretation is that he’s leaning in the direction of universalism. What you believe doesn’t matter because God loves you regardless. What do you think? How do you read him here?
Also, what do you think about his statements on the Church? He’s kind of pushing the, “it’s ok to like Jesus but not the Church” agenda. The Church is just an institution. He seems to jump on this popular bandwagon, that the church is about manipulating people and does more hard than good. Not the way God talks about the Church in the Bible. Not the way he talks about his people Israel or churches that he had his apostles set up, which most certainly were institutions. How do we deal with this negative perception of church institutions? How do we own up to the failures, but help people understand that institution isn’t a dirty word, but that this is one way the body of Christ is expressed?
Tags: like Jesus but not church, salvation, The Shack, universalism
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There is the church visible, and the church invisible consisting of the real believers. At the time the New Testament was being written, even the church visible was a very different animal to what we see now, and arguably much less of an Institution. So God’s comments about the Church in the Bible are not primarily about the visible church today. Surely he has a lot of new things to say to us about our structures?
Not wanting to make us Christians is interesting. It is only Agrippa who talks about being made a Christian in the Bible, but much more about sharing the Good News. Before Acts 11:26, in Antioch, no-one was called a Christian – maybe most still thought of themselves as Jews? So the label is not essential.