{"id":22423,"date":"2017-03-23T11:41:05","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T15:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/?p=22423"},"modified":"2026-07-09T06:04:37","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T13:04:37","slug":"the-shack-tbn-and-the-new-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/the-shack-tbn-and-the-new-age\/","title":{"rendered":"“The Shack,” TBN, and the New Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Warren B. Smith<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n William Paul Young with TBN hosts\n

Trinity Broadcasting Network has seen fit to provide The Shack<\/em> author William Paul Young with the world’s largest “Christian”\u00a0stage\u2014his very own television series<\/a> on TBN. Young’s “Restoring the Shack” episodes are masterfully produced on location in beautiful Montana. His presentations are usually underscored and enhanced with soothing music that is clearly designed to evoke a strong\u00a0emotional response and positive\u00a0assent from viewers\u00a0to whatever Young may be preaching or teaching.<\/p>\n

In what could also\u00a0be described as “The Shack Show,”\u00a0Young brings his own weekly brand\u00a0of Shack promotion, Shack theology, and Shack therapy to TBN viewers as he hopes to convert them from their own “Great Sadness” to his own “relational” take on what used to be biblical Christianity. The real sadness is that Young’s \u00a0Shack\u00a0\u00a0theology\u00a0and Shack therapy have more to do with his love for universalism\u00a0and New Agey\u00a0trinitarianism\u00a0than it does with scriptural truth.\u00a0 Why New Agey?\u00a0Because when Young\u00a0teaches about “relationship” he is, by his own Shack definition, referring to the Trinity\u00a0within\u2014a God and Christ and Holy Spirit that are said to be “in” everyone and everything.1<\/p>\n

Somewhat elusive about exposing his own\u00a0personal universalism\u00a0in the past, Young has recently made himself very clear on the matter. In his March 2017 book Lies We Believe About God<\/em>, he asks two\u00a0rhetorical questions of himself\u2014”Are you suggesting that everyone is saved? That you believe in universal salvation?” His immediate and almost defiant\u00a0response in the book\u00a0is\u2014”That is exactly what I am saying!”2 Nevertheless,\u00a0TBN has been only too\u00a0pleased\u00a0to not only\u00a0promote his new book on every\u00a0episode,\u00a0but to simultaneously\u00a0use it as a fundraiser for themselves at the same time.\u00a0Obviously, with TBN becoming a showcase for Wm. Paul Young and his creative, relational,\u00a0universalistic,\u00a0New\u00a0Agey\u00a0take on the Trinity,\u00a0TBN is giving new meaning to the “Trinity” in Trinity Broadcasting. And it looks like Wm. Paul Young and TBN\u00a0are in for the weekly\u00a0long haul as most\u00a0Christian leaders look on with apparent indifference.<\/p>\n

Endnotes<\/strong>
\n1. William P. Young, The Shack<\/em> (Los Angeles: Windblown Media, 2007), p. 112.<\/p>\n

2. Wm. Paul Young, Lies We Believe About God<\/em> (New York, NY:\u00a0Atria Books, An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.), p. 118.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Warren B. Smith Trinity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,66,165,95],"tags":[766,3568,3587,3588,21,49,2923,67,134,216,342],"class_list":["post-22423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookfilm-reviews","category-the-shack","category-spiritual-deception-defending-the-faith","category-the-new-age-movement","tag-tbn","tag-lies-we-believe-about-god","tag-crouch","tag-trinity-broadcasting-network","tag-new-age","tag-christian-leaders","tag-the-shack","tag-william-paul-young","tag-universalism","tag-warren-b-smith","tag-paul-young","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-66-id","wpcat-165-id","wpcat-95-id"],"yoast_head":"\n"The Shack," TBN, and the New Age - From the Lighthouse<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com\/blog\/the-shack-tbn-and-the-new-age\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""The Shack," TBN, and the New Age\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Warren B. 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