Judgment is Coming

Rev. 20: 12, "And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books."

I realize that I am a "day late and a dollar short", but there is something that has been gnawing on me about, both the book and the movie, The Shack. This issue has been brought up but it keeps bugging me that it's a much more important issue than has been made of it. That is the part about Mac, as a boy, murdering (or at least, attempting to) his father by lacing his dad's liquor with poison.
In the book, it was one short sentence. The movie, however accentuated and dramatized it as the opening scene. It is never brought up again and Mac is never required to deal with what he had done.

The thing is, that scene could have been left out entirely and it wouldn't have made any difference. Just leave it that Mac ran away from home to escape his abusive, alcoholic father. It would have made sense to omit that part because after the book came out, some of the detractors made mention of it as a problem.  But rather than remove the scene, the producers highlighted it.

WHY??

I'm convinced that it was left in on purpose even though it really had nothing to do with the actual story because it sends a very clear message:

THERE IS NO COMING JUDGMENT.

Therefore, there is no need for us to repent of our sins.
This is all too common in modern evangelical Christianity today. We've abandoned the true gospel and adopted a "therapeutic deism", where salvation means that God sent his son to die for us to remove our pain and suffering. In other words, we are victims; not villains.

Now some might say, "But that wasn't what The Shack was about. it was about dealing with incredible pain and grief" I agree. So why was that part in there if not to promote that philosophical view of the gospel? It would have taken nothing away from the issues of pain and grief to leave it out.

Another might say, "Well people won't respond to the gospel if we talk about the negative aspects like judgment and the need to repent of sin. That sounds so harsh, unloving, and uncompassionate". That's, no doubt true. But if it is the truth, shouldn't we tell people the truth, regardless? What would you think of the weatherman on the radio if he KNEW that all the computer models showed that by tomorrow, we were going to have a very strong storm system coming through which could produce some of the worst, severe weather we'd had in recent memory. But in the interest of not alarming people and wanting to give a "positive, uplifting" forecast, decided to predict a beautiful day full of sunshine. People would be outraged. And he would undoubtedly be fired. When it comes to the weather, we want to know the truth so we can be prepared. Doesn't it seem that when it comes to people's eternal future, that the most loving thing we can do is tell people the truth?

The message the early apostles preached contained a lot of warning, Acts 2:40, "With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation' ". As Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones said, "The gospel has only one message for the unrepentant sinner:

JUDGMENT IS COMING!" (my caps)

Sadly, we've come to the time that Paul spoke about in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths".

I read The Shack and I saw the movie. I enjoyed both. But some things in it are a serious problem. And even though this is a work of fiction, too often these are the views that are coming from pulpits. And it is easy to fill a church up with this type of message. Yes, God intends to heal and great wholeness is found in following him. But man has a FAR greater problem that the hurts, grief and pain he experiences in this life. We are condemned (John 3:18) before we come to saving faith in Jesus Christ. Having all of the other things restored won't do us any good if ultimately we are going to face judgment and be lost for eternity anyway. And preaching the "therapeutic" gospel message that leaves out the all important parts about judgment and repenting of works that lead to death (Heb. 6:1), while sounding kind and loving, is actually the most hateful thing anyone can do.

Well, I'm finished, and I don't have a nice, neat way to conclude this so, because I am done, I'll stop.

May God bless you all.