Concerns raised over new movie that depicts God as a woman

Octavia Spencer is part of the movie cast. The depiction of God as a woman (played by Octavia Spencer) in the upcoming Lionsgate faith-based film “The Shack,” which is an adaptation of the best-selling book by William P. Young. A grieving man receives a mysterious, personal invitation to meet with God at a place called “The Shack.”

Concerns are being raised as the popular and blasphemous novel “The Shack” will be released this March 2017 as a film —a book that portrays God the Father as a woman, and that some say contains universalistic doctrine and other unbiblical material. The movie also features music by Hillsong United.

“The Shack” by William P. Young is stated to have sold approximately 20 million copies and has been translated into 39 languages.

In 2013, Lionsgate Entertainment obtained the rights to turn the book into a film, which is now scheduled to be released in March 2017 and is currently being promoted nationwide.

“The Shack” tells the story of a man named Mackenzie “Mack” Phillips who faces a crisis while on a family vacation as his youngest daughter Missy is abducted and presumably killed in an abandoned shack.

Years later, the grieving father receives a note from “Papa,” who tells Phillips that it has “been a while” and to meet up at the shack the following weekend.

Reluctantly, Phillips returns to the site, where he meets the Godhead, portrayed as what Young called a “fat black woman,” another young woman named Sarayu, and a carpenter named Jesus, who seek to help him deal with his faltering faith and to learn to forgive.

The movie producers told reporters prior to the film’s production, “[P]eople have to remember it’s a manifestation of God—how [the film subject] sees God—not necessarily how or who or what God is.”

But some have expressed concern not only over the portrayals in “The Shack,” but also the numerous messages that they state are unbiblical.

“A relationship with God comes only by personal trust or faith placed in Jesus Christ. For the book to ignore this core of faith is to propound another and different gospel to that of Jesus and the Apostles. It is the heart of the gospel, but it is ignored in the heresy of universal salvation.” ames De Young, a professor of New Testament Language and Literature in USA told reporters..

Others have also noted that “The Shack” suggests that God is all love and no justice, and will never judge men for their sins, nor will any be tormented eternally in Hell.

The trailer;