Shack attack

So I've known about the supposedly-wildly successful book "The Shack" for about a month now, and in that month I've heard some pretty disturbing things. This book has supposedly sold millions of copies, is being handed out by churches, has people saying that it has changed their lives and that they prefer it over the Bible. Now that alone would appall me, but it only gets worse.

The book is basically about a guy who has gone through tragedy in his life, and God invites him to meet in a shack. And in this shack, he meets "god". "god the father", "god the son" and "god the spirit", all as separate people, all talking to him and each other throughout the book. Oh yeah, "the father" starts out being a woman named Papa. An older, black, grandma-type woman (think the Oracle in the Matrix movies, baking cookies and everything). "Jesus" is a middle-aged middle-eastern man, and "the spirit" is a tiny oriental lady.

I've read a great review about this book on Tim Challies' blog (a link to his blog is over on the right), but then I found out that Dr. Michael Youssef preached on it less than a month ago. He conveniently listed 13 heresies that are in the book (which is not exhaustive), but I thought I'd list them here:

1. God the Father was crucified with Jesus
2. God is limited by His love and cannot practice justice
3. On the Cross, God forgave all of humanity, whether they repent or not. Some choose a relationship with Him, but He forgives them all regardless
4. Hierarchical structures, whether they are in the Church or in the government, are evil
5. God will never judge people for their sins
6. There is not a hierarchical structure in the Godhead, just a circle of unity
7. God submits to human wishes and choices
8. Justice will never take place because of love
9. There is no such a thing as eternal judgment or torment in hell
10. Jesus is walking with all people in their different journeys to God, and it doesn't matter which way you get to Him
11. Jesus is constantly being transformed along with us
12. There is no need for faith or reconciliation with God because everyone will make it to heaven
13. The Bible is not true because it reduces God to paper

Here is a link to Dr. Youssef's page about the book: link
Here's a link to Tim's review: link

I could go on and on about this, each of those 13 above could be a post all by itself. Needless to say, DON'T buy this book, DON'T read this book, and DON'T let your friends read it either. As Dr. Youssef put it, blatant evil is one thing, subtle heresy is even worse, don't kid yourself or listen to anyone that would say "it's just a fictional book".