Will the real author of 'The Shack' please stand up?

James B. De Young is author of the WND Books title "Burning Down the Shack."

Older readers will recall that black and white television once carried a popular show called "To Tell the Truth." A panel of "experts" would question three individuals, all of whom claimed to be a certain celebrity. Only the real celebrity had to swear to "tell the truth," to answer truthfully every question. The two impostors could lie and pretend to be the actual celebrity. At the end of the show, the panel voted for whom they believed the actual celebrity was. The climax came when the three were asked: "Would the real [whoever], please stand up." It often happened that the panel had voted wrongly. The impostors were usually able to conceal their true identity and assume another's.

It is ironical to realize that something like this quiz game is being played out again today about who the real author of "The Shack" is. There is William P. (Paul) Young, whose name appears on the cover as the author, and two others who claim they are co-authors.

According to court documents filed in California this past summer, Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings are suing Paul Young over an agreement made in 2007. These two men now claim to deserve to be recognized as co-authors of the novel.

Earlier, on their website, these two men described their involvement in the production of "The Shack" as an attempt to remove universalism from a novel Paul Young had written for his children.

Universal reconciliation is the teaching that all people go to heaven. Even the wicked angels and wicked people will repent in hell and get to heaven. The most heinous evils committed by the Hitlers of history find forgiveness. Even the embodiment of evil, Satan, the devil himself, will finally repent and enter heaven. God's love conquers all. Hell ceases to exist.

Unfortunately, this teaching overlooks the "little matter" of God's justice and holiness. In my book, "Burning Down the Shack," I expose the universalism still embedded in the novel.

Until recently, most people thought that the rewriting of "The Shack" was nothing more than an editing of some sort, an attempt to remove the universalism.

But the court documents filed by the two plaintiffs reveal that in 2007, as the book was first appearing, Young agreed with the other two that in its final published form "The Shack" had only 40 percent of Young's original novel and that the remaining 60 percent was due to the joint effort of the three. Thus Young's final publication was only 60 percent his and 40 percent theirs. They also agreed that the other two names should appear with Young's name as co-authors on the title page, that all three persons should own the copyright, and that all three should share equally in the ownership and proceeds to come from a forthcoming movie of the book.

But then they claim that Paul Young backed out of this agreement. The rest is a matter of court record. Jacobson and Cummings are suing Young for breach of contract, with upwards of $5 million at stake. Young is countersuing the other two, and the distribution company is suing both parties so that the courts decide to whom it should pay millions of dollars.

All of this is somewhat ironic for a group of men whose writing in "The Shack" virtually rejects the institution of government, along with the institutions of the church and marriage, because it stands in the way of relationships. With large sums of money involved, the judicial arm of the evil government suddenly looks pretty good! It is even worse than ironic that all kinds of people have come to hear Young's public confession of transparency and have bought millions of his book, thinking that the novel was truly his alone.

To his credit Young, at the back of his novel (p. 249), acknowledges that he brought to the other two men a "chunk of boulder" and they made it into a "wonder." They did most of the "three major rewrites." They brought to it "energy, creativity and skill" and made it a "quality" work. Yet never does he identify them as co-authors.

It is now unclear who the real "author" of "The Shack" is. So we join a panel of questioners in asking: "Will the real author of 'The Shack' please stand up?" The audience, the public, is waiting to have the author identified – to tell the truth.

James B. De Young, a graduate-level professor of Greek and biblical studies for 30 years, is the author of "Burning Down the Shack." He is a former colleague and neighbor of "The Shack" author Paul Young.