This book found me at the time I needed it most. Young is best known for his spiritual novel, The Shack. In "Lies We Believe About God", Young lays out 28 key beliefs he believes modern evangelical Christians have wrong. If you lean towards universalism you will find a lot of good material in this book. If you are a more traditional Christian, you may find a lot of challenges to your beliefs here.

As with all books of this type, you have to fact check and approach with an open-mindedness to the subject and material presented. This is a man's view of doctrine and interrupted through his vision, that said again another great read by WM Paul Young, I loved the Shack and Crossroads, the fictions really shook me and challenged me to get through and I enjoyed them. This time Young walks through the Biblical truths as he has seen them and backs up most, will conflict with other readers, but I enjoyed it.

I didn't love The Shack by William Paul Young. I liked that it challenged me to think more deeply, but I fundamentally disagreed with a lot of the theological aspects about God as described by it. Truly the only way I made it through reading The Shack was to remind myself that it was a work of fiction. I wish I'd re-read my review of The Shack before deciding to request Lies We Believe About God, but I didn't. What I did was remember that while I didn't agree with everything William Paul Young said...it did cause me to think. And since I've been overwhelmed with a feeling of how much and how often so many people believe things about God that just flat aren't true, I was intrigued by this book. I was hoping that it would be a great reference to be able to refer people to when they misunderstand God's nature. Yet again...I was WRONG. Instead what I found was that William Paul Young himself believes quite a few lies about God.

You guys...there was SO SO SO much wrong with this book. I truly wish I could break down every single lie within this book...every single misrepresentation and present you with a rebuttal. I wish that I could, but it isn't the purpose of my blog to do so. My purpose is to review the book and what I thought about it. So I'll do my best to do so.

If you choose to believe in God there has to be a standard or a place where you receive your information about Him. You can't just make it up...although many people have. So...where do you go? Where do you find the information needed to find out who God is and what His character is like? HIS WORD. He has revealed Himself to us through His Word--The Bible. God revealed Himself and divinely inspired over 40 different authors from all manners of vocations over a period of 1500ish years using 3 different languages. For this book to be cohesive and non-contradictory is impossible without Him. Yet it is because of Him. So what I expected to find when reading Lies We Believe About God was a bunch of Scripture to back up these "lies". Instead what I found was William Paul Young quoting his own works of fiction. There are 32 references to/quotes from The Shack in Lies We Believe About God. This is not including any references to William Paul Young's other books (Eve and Cross Roads). In a 272 page book, that's roughly every 8.5 pages that he references his own book, his own thoughts as a source of information about who God is. In comparison there were roughly 14 references to New Testament Scripture within the main chapters of this book. That's roughly every 19.5 pages. So William Paul Young references his own books more than 2 times the frequency of Biblical text. (Granted, I didn't search for Old Testament Scripture references, but I also didn't cite his references to his other two books either.) He does have a chapter at the end of book that has an additional 33 references from The Bible. This means that overall the Bible is only used within Lies We Believe About God 15 more times than his own books. You guys...this is unacceptable. If you want to learn about God, you don't go to a human's work of fiction. That's no better than making things up yourself. You go to the Source. God's own Word about Himself.

There were many times when I felt like William Paul Young was arguing over semantics. Yes, I'm a firm believer that our words mean something and it is important to choose to right words in our conversation and speech so that we convey the message we mean to convey. Let's take one chapter titled "God is disappointed in me." He argues that there is a difference between disappointment and grief. "Disappointment largely revolves around expectations and imagination. I expect you to act a certain way, or I expect a specific outcome..." "This is precisely why God is never disappointed in you. God has no such imaginations or illusions. God knows you, completely, fully, and with unrelenting affection. You don't surprise God. God delights in you, as you delight in your own children; God also grieves for and with you when you act inside your lies and darkness--but not because God expected more of you." This is semantics. Whether we "disappoint" or "grieve" God because of our behavior, the outcome is the same. He is not pleased. Yes, He can and does still love us despite our actions, but William Paul Young is giving off the impression that it doesn't matter what you do...how you act...and I don't see how anyone who has read the Bible can come to that conclusion. In fact, if you've read the Bible, you don't get 3 chapters in (on page 3 in my own personal Bible) before man's actions make a huge impact and "grieve" God. Semantics. And this isn't the only time this happens. It happens frequently throughout this book.

In connection with my point about William Paul Young quoting and referencing himself and his own published books more frequently throughout the main body of Lies We Believe About God, I felt often times that he was just "making things up because they sounded good." There were often times when his thoughts were poetic. And that's hard because I believe that God is a poet. His Word is beautiful. His thoughts are beautiful. The magnitude of His knowledge and planning and working is beautiful. He is so multi-layered. Everything about Him from the way that He thinks and acts to His very character. He can be 100% Love while also being 100% Justice at the same time. And so there were times when the poetry of what William Paul Young suggested about God sounded good to my human ear, but when bounced against the Scripture it just didn't add up. I don't claim to know all there is to know about God. I don't claim to be perfect or to have a perfect understanding of Him, but having read The Bible cover to cover each year for the last 5 years and I'm working on my 6th straight read-through I feel pretty confident in being able to spot false teaching about God like this.

I don't want to judge his person...his heart. That's not my job or my duty or my desire. God is the judge. However, I felt like pride and arrogance were pouring from the pages of this book. Nearly every chapter felt full of both. I even read his acknowledgements where he says "I am surrounded by people who love me, but aren't impressed. Thank you!" Even though this was an attempt to appear humble, it didn't read so to me. It read falsely. Or at the very least "thank you all for not being impressed by me because I'm so impressed with myself." It's funny because I told Husband that this felt so starkly contrasted against Shaken by Tim Tebow where humility truly poured off every page. I felt like Tim Tebow is a truly humble person from his book and where he might struggle with pride, the effort to crush it was palpable. And this is not the same vibe that I got from William Paul Young.

I mentioned earlier the chapter at the end of Lies We Believe About God. He titles it "A Catena" which means "a connected series or chain". And ironically, because I've read The Bible from cover to cover it felt so obvious to me that these verses used to convey a specific message were pulled so completely out of context. You can use Scripture to prove just about any point sadly. The Bible even says "There is no God" (Psalm 14:1). But that's pulled out of context because the verse says "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" I think we've all witnessed how words and phrases taken out of context can give a completely unintended and false meaning. Watch any court TV show where a witness's words are twisted by a stealthy lawyer. You'll see it happen. I told Husband that reading those series of verses, Words from God's mouth, strung together out of context made my stomach hurt. Seeing God's Word twisted to mean something that it doesn't...it made those words ugly. And the sad part is that someone who might not know better could be misled by them. Context is so important. I myself have used a verse here and there to prove a point, and I don't know that doing so is wrong if you're not using those verses to make a point outside of what Scripture as a whole harmonizes to say. Yet the person unfamiliar with the Bible and what the context should be would never know. This is why reading it (the Bible) for yourself is so important. It is crucial. Not just taking the word of a preacher or family member. Definitely not taking the opinion of an unbeliever who might have "thoughts" about God and who He is and how He thinks. And not even taking the word of someone who appears to know much about God. You have to search and read the Bible for yourself.

I feel certain that there was much more that I wanted to say about William Paul Young and Lies We Believe About God, but what it truly boils down to is "this man does not know God." Don't read this book to learn about God. Read The Bible. William Paul Young references his own (FICTION) books more frequently throughout the meat of Lies We Believe About God than he does any other source--especially The Bible. This is not the book, nor the man, to go to if you want to know God. And I personally won't be reading any more of his work myself. Lies We Believe About God gets 1 Star. Have you read Lies We Believe About God? What did you think? Let me know!

I have read The Shack and Eve, both gifted from my mother. I was so happy to be gifted this ARC of Lies We Believe About God. Very thought provoking, and definitely a great addition to my library!

Young, author of The Shack, gives us his thoughts on the character of God. He says he is not presenting certainty but is establishing a conversation over rearranging his theology. Each chapter contains a statement he once believed and then his exploration of his change in belief.

While I do not agree with much (or most) of what Young says, I do think this book is good in that it makes us look at what we do believe about God. Young portrays a God he can live with, understand, and like. He is a God who likes us and behaves the way we think He should. He is a God who wouldn't “use” anyone and is submissive in His love relationship with us. He is a God who creates only good things so we humans are all good, we are all children of God.

Young presents us with many thought provoking ideas. These ideas are not a result of an exposition of Scripture but rather Young's thought process. That makes us think about our own ideas of God, where we get them and how we can evaluate them. It makes us think of where we should be getting our information about the character of God. Is it from our own reasoning or is it from the Bible?

Young does identify some areas where Christian have, I think, gotten it wrong. We have sometimes given people the wrong impression of God. Young has come across many who have been hurt by people misrepresenting God's character. That should make us stop and think about how we view God and how we represent Him to others.

Does this book contain what evangelical Christians would call heresy? Definitely. But this is not a theological treatise. This is one man's attempt to define a God with which he is comfortable, one that is rational and behaves the way he would like Him to behave. Is this the God of the Bible? That is what readers must decide.

It would be so nice if God were like the one Young describes. It is up to readers to evaluate what Young says against their source of truth. For me, it is the Bible, the one that says my human thoughts don't even come close to God's. I'll not presume to understand God nor attempt to define Him in a way that conforms to my expectations.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars because it is thought provoking without being dogmatic.

I received a complimentary egalley of this book from the publisher. My comments are an independent and honest review.

Paul Young is an extraordinary writer. This book is just another example of his ability to take the mess we make of our ingrained beliefs and his knack of picking them apart to show what he sees as truth. I loved this book.
The topics he chose to use I felt were some of the more common lies we have been fed and believe, reasons for which most people can't explain. His dissection of that learned lie is also superb; particularly in the short span of the book. He doesn't digress into some theology that would lose the general readers interest. He is clear, concise and right on target. This book is a good jump off point for those who seek to understand why they may believe the way they do, and the pain they feel and yet, don't understand the why behind it.
It is as Paul so aptly tells, hard to get people to take God out of the box, without trying to shove him into yet another. It is as he said, much easier to get people to discuss what they are not (believe), rather than what they are (again believe), or in this case, their beliefs about God. Add to that his explanation of the triune. I still use that one. Simplifies things for students and everyone else and a far better reach than any scholarly approach.
It is enough to say that this book is from cover to cover one amazing read and one that should be read, no matter where you are on your journey and what your beliefs are.
I thank you Paul for your humility, wisdom, wit and honesty. Fondly.

**arc from Net Galley and Publisher in exchange for a fair review**

Wm. Paul Young takes twenty-six phrases that are found in many parts of traditional Christianity and shows why they are lies. Some of the phrases are commonly spoken verbatim, while others may not be said aloud very often, but are still strongly implied. A few of the phrases are twists on more traditional sayings, but what many actually mean to say or heard. Each of the twenty-six are composed as short essays which can be read in a few minutes.

Having spent a large part of my life in a mostly traditional and conservative Christian denomination, I could relate to quite a few of the phrases. Some others I have seen or heard from a number of popular Christian books and speakers. Finally, there were a handful of essays that didn't speak to me.

Young is the author of <i>The Shack</i> and <i>Eve</i>. That alone should provide readers with a frame of reference: that these essays will challenge the traditional readings of scripture and traditional theological assumptions, especially the Western form of Christianity. That should not, however, dissuade someone honestly wanting to challenge their assumptions about Christianity and her theology from picking up the book and working through the essays.

Readers who have appreciated (or even if they have had argument against) <i>The Shack</i> will find many of the essays enlightening to the theological backgrounds that forms the novel, its characters, and the plot.

This is a very challenging and enlightening book that opened my eyes to viewpoints in myself and around me that needed to be challenged and enlightened. Mr. Young has a unique ability to challenge the status quo and offer readers a different lens with which to view not only themselves, but God as well. I highly recommend this book to all readers who want to take their faith and understanding of the Lord to the next level.