Building a Shack
Remember when Sundays were sacred in America? I do.
Besides solid Bible teaching in Sunday school and from the pulpit, Sundays were for rest. That actually was the norm in America at one time.
No more.
I am outraged that TBN airs a program by William Paul Young on Sunday evenings at 7. The bestselling author of The Shack (now a staggering 19 million copies in print, helped in no small part by those identifying as evangelical Christians), Young was and is a straight-up universalist, believing that “in the end,” all will be redeemed.
This worldview makes the Cross unnecessary. Do you understand that?
I interviewed Young several years ago, when he was being coy about his universalist predilections. Today, now that he has successfully infiltrated the evangelical community, Young has no such desire to mask his true motives. He is pandering to the same itching-ears community targeted by others in the evangelical community, like Jen Hatmaker and Ann Voskamp and Jonathan Merritt.
And let me relate this to Israel. The erosion of Bible teaching and study in this country is directly affecting support for Israel. As people move farther from a biblical worldview, they will logically abandon Israel. Israel’s title deed to the land, future promises, and specialness come from the very Word of God. Teachings like Young’s take people far away from that reality, so let me make that point in this space this week.
TBN of course is the empire of the Crouch family. I do not think the late Paul and Jan Crouch were biblical, but I’d be surprised if they’d have allowed a pagan like Young to appear on the network. Of course, the Christian Booksellers Association hosted and fawned-over Young in 2007 at their annual summer convention.
Lighthouse Trails Research has plenty on Young and The Shack; I encourage you to check out the research already done to expose Young as anything but Christian.
I watched his show this past Sunday and his obvious anger at the “old-time religion” was palpable. He panders to those who have hurt feelings from church, or who have “low” self-esteem. I recognize that people are sometimes legitimately hurt by others. I get that. But a wholesale program based on that, while eliminating any talk about sin, repentance and holy living, is flat-out dangerous.
What is TBN thinking, you ask?
They are thinking about cash and expanding the audience. Period.
Further, what do Charles Stanley and Jack Graham think about these things? They have programs on TBN. How do they justify participating in this flow of philosophical sewage?
You likely will never find out, because they won’t comment. If they did, it would be along the lines of “we must take the Gospel wherever we can, using any means we can.”
Okay. Associate with blasphemers and apostates if you choose.
The deck is currently stacked against Christians who look to Scripture as their Final Authority. The Spirit of the Age is against us and will be for some time. This comes at a time when evangelical leadership in America is at an all-time low.
The Evangelical community is bursting with “leaders” who will not call-out TBN, or Steven Furtick, or Hatmaker, or…etc. They won’t do it.
T.T. Shields, a Canadian pastor a couple generations back, once said that liberal New York City pastor Harry Emerson Fosdick was an enemy of the Cross of Christ. Fosdick was every bit of that and more. Shields knew what Fosdick was, and he called him out. In those days, many more people had discernment and the country was strong.
Today, we are weak because the leadership cowers and is cowardly. In some cases, the leadership itself is debased. Worst of all, the shepherds allow the sheep to be devoured by wolves.
It is unconscionable that TBN allows Young a slot on its network. It is not possible to be a Bible-believer and allow this to happen. It’s that simple.
Many TBN types love to talk about earthly mansions and heavenly mansions. They’d better enjoy the ones on Earth. Any heavenly digs they might inherit will be decidedly less glamorous.
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