Lies We Believe About God

I should have known better, you know. I'm like the cat who just made it to his eighth life. It was on the shelf at the bookstore, and I had to poke my nose in and see if it was decent or not. Not even being able to finish The Shack, because of theological issues and bad writing, you'd think I could have inferred where he stood theologically.

I guess I just wanted to give him a chance to say he actually did believe in the God of the Bible, the God of the New Testament. To share that the Bible is the only way to life.

At least I can say that the sentence structure of his writing is better.

Well, he didn't. Some of the chapters were innocuous enough, but then (flipping from the back) one of the “lies” is “God wants you to be more like Him.” Errrrrr. Then was Jesus shooting the wind when he said, “Go, and do likewise”? Hardly. Of course, Young doesn't use Scripture to back himself up. A couple of generic verses and several paragraphs of his own personal view of who God should be and how no human can ultimately affect God, and how God is sovereign and doesn't need us.

Then the doozy chapter, a bit earlier in the book. “God wants us to be saved.” Wow! I have to admit, I was a bit surprised that he came right out and said it straight. He says there's nothing to be saved from, that Jesus dying laid the entire cost and we have nothing to fear. He didn't even deign to address the many verses of “Ye must be born again” and so on. Yes, people, Paul Young is a universalist. He's proud of it.

Apparently this book should have been titled Lies Paul Young Believes About God.