A View of Scripture from The Shack

In the Forward to William P. Young’s great story The Shack the protagonist Mack’s longtime best friend Willie offers his perspective on Mack’s journey.  He reveals that he is actually the ghost-writer of Mack’s story and that the two of them have spent many, many hours over the story.  He closes his Forward with this comment on their work:

“Memory can be a tricky companion at times . . . and I would not be too surprised, in spite of our concerted effort toward accuracy, if some factual errors and faulty remembrances are reflected in these pages.  They are not intentional.  I can promise you that the conversations and events are recorded as truthfully as Mack can remember them, so please try and cut him a little slack.  As you’ll see, these are not easy things to talk about.” (13)

I rather like that.  If we apply that to scripture, and posit that it is these words, “factual errors and faulty remembrances” included, that God has “commandeered” (John Webster) to reveal himself and “all things necessary for . . . salvation” (Westminster Confession of Faith) - for why can God not reveal himself truly even through “factual errors and faulty remembrances,” this seems a perfectly adequate statement that neither claims too much or requires overlooking the humanity of the biblical documents.