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Here are 18 reasons why.
1. Eldredge prays that men and women live the life they want (page xii).
2. Wild at Heart says that salvation comes from pursuit of fights, adventure, and beautiful women. (p. 9).
3. Wild at Heart twists the biblical version of The Fall and trashes the doctrine of Original Sin.
4. Wild at Heart says the old heart of man is good and that the central message of the Bible is for man to get back his old heart (p. 129).
5. Eldredge's "bondage" of the heart has nothing to do with sin.
6. Eldredge assures all his readers that they are saints and holy ones (p.144).
7. The warped soteriology of Wild at Heart.
8. Wild at Heart misuses Scripture and changes meanings of words.
9. Wild at Heart says "We don't need accountability groups"(p. 175).
10. Wild at Heart indiscriminately mixes the profane with the sacred.
11. Wild at Heart recommends that you listen for "voices".
12. Eldredge on sex.
13. Wild at Heart says "A man must know that he is powerful"(p. 18) and "Let people feel the weight of who you are"(p. 151).
14. Eldredge blames everything on the devil.
15. Eldredge makes up his own Bible stories, and says that Jesus speaks of "the deep and holy goodness of masculine aggression" (p. 177).
16. Eldredge says that God has given him and his partners a special message.
17. Wild at Heart says women must be rescued by "knights in shining armor" (p. 16).
18. Wild at Heart says we have not taken myths and fables "seriously enough" (p. 182).
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1. Eledredge prays that men and women live the life they want (page xii).
The introduction to Wild at Heart reads as follows:
"We need permission.
"Permission to be what we are - men made in God's image. Permission to live from the heart
and not from the list of "should" and "ought to" that has left so many of us tired and bored.
"Most messages for men ultimately fail... They ignore what is deep and true to a man's heart,
his real passions, and simply try to shape him up through various forms of pressure. 'This is the man you
ought to be. This is what a good husband/father/Christian/churchgoer ought to do.' Fill in the blanks from
there. He is responsible, sensitive, disciplined, faithful, diligent, dutiful, etc. Many of these are good
qualities. That these messengers are well-intentioned I have no doubt. But the road to hell, as we remember,
is paved with good intentions...
"So I offer this book, not as the seven steps to being a better
Christian, but as a safari of the heart to recover a life of freedom, passion, and adventure. I believe it
will help men get their heart back - and women as well. Moreover, it will help women to understand their men
and help them live the life they both want. That is my prayer for you." [All emphases his.]
(Wild at Heart pp. xi-xii)
Let's summarize:- John Eldredge gives you his permission to live from
your heart and not from that restrictive list of "should" and "ought to" that bores you and
makes you tired.
- " ...responsible, sensitive, disciplined, faithful, diligent, dutiful, etc. Many of
these are good qualities." I'm still trying to figure out which of these is not a good quality.
Eldredge says the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the
people who say that these are good qualities have good intentions. What is he trying to say here? You fill in
the blanks.
- Eldredge does not offer his book as steps to being a better Christian,
but as a "safari" to recover freedom, passion, and adventure.
- Eldredge prays that his book
helps men and women live the way they want.
2. Wild at Heart says that salvation comes from pursuing your heart's childish desires to fight battles, seek adventure, and rescue beauties (p. 9).
"There are three desires I find written so deeply into my heart I know now I can no longer disregard them without losing my soul. They are core to who and what I am and yearn to be. I gaze into boyhood… and I am convinced these desires are universal, a clue into masculinity itself… in the heart of every man is a desperate desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue. I want to you to think of the films men love, the things they do with their free time, and especially the aspirations of little boys and see if I am not right on this." (WaH p. 9)
It doesn't appear that Eldredge is talking here about the biblical heart upon which God has written his laws because the laws, taken together, would resemble the annoying list of "should" and "ought to" that Eldredge can't stand. Note his rendition of "salvation by pursuit of three desperate desires": Eldredge says that if he doesn't become what he yearns to be, he will lose his soul. That is, if he doesn't pursue the boyish desires written in his heart, his salvation is lost.
But Eldredge has a problem with nagging laws being written in your heart. Those laws just keep getting in the way of your deepest personal desires. The heart that Eldredge seeks is the heart of the fallen Adam.
3. Wild at Heart's twisted version of The Fall and trashing of the doctrine of Original Sin.
"The story of Adam's fall is every man's story. It is… almost mythic in its brevity and depth. And so every man comes into the world set up for a loss of heart. Then comes the story we are much more aware of - our own story…the outcome is always the same: a wound in the soul…every man carries a wound. And the wound is nearly always given by his father." (WaH p.60)
Eldredge teaches that every man's life repeats that of Adam's, that Adam's story "is every man's story". But the fact is that Adam's story is not every man's story: every man except Adam is born of his fallen parents; no man but Adam is responsible for Man's Fall from Grace. The Bible teaches that the opposite of what Eldredge says is true: all men are born into sin but can be spiritually reborn by grace through faith. If it were true that "Adam's fall is every man's story", then every man is created pure but falls during his lifetime ("the wound") and loses the pure heart he was born with. This is clearly unbiblical, and dead wrong.
Eldredge treats the sinful heart that one is born with as though it were pure, and he brands the heart of the New Creation as "false". His description of the Fall isn't just unbiblical, it is anti-biblical, and his theology is diametrically opposed to the biblically rendered description of God's plan for our salvation. To build his upside-down theology, Eldredge meshes the "Fall" into his "Wound" (loss of heart) concept, so that all men experience the Fall from Grace during their lifetimes when they are "wounded" by their daddies.
"every little boy and every little girl comes into the world set up for a loss of heart." (WaH p.57)
The truth is that little boys and little girls are not "set up" for the fall to occur later in life. They do not have to wait for daddy to wound them in order to become fallen. Every little boy and every little girl is born into the consequences of the Fall. In fact, they are born into sin and are "set up" to accept a new heart given by God (Psalm 51). Eldredge either doesn't understand or doesn't accept this. The Fall has already occurred; the Fall occurred once; the Fall occurred with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3; Romans 5:12-19).
The Apostle Paul exhorts those who are in Christ to behave in a manner befitting the new nature that the Lord has given them, not the old:
"Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts… put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:22-24 RSV)
But Eldredge, on the other hand urges a man to recover and put back on the old nature that belongs to his former manner of life. He rants on about "recovering" and "getting back" the heart. But nobody should try to get back the sinful heart that God has replaced with His Body. The description of salvation in Wild at Heart isn't just spin on the Bible's message about salvation; it is antithesis. Eldredge, by his arguments in Wild at Heart, would have you crucify the New Creation and resurrect the wild fallen Adam.
4. Wild at Heart says the old heart is good and that the central message of the Bible is for man to get back his old heart (p. 129).
How does Eldredge propose you chuck those silly "should's" and "ought to's" to get the life you want? Well, he says you've got to get back your own heart. Since it's the heart containing your childish boyhood dreams, it must be the heart you had before you accepted Christ into it. According to Eldredge, you've got to get back the heart you had before the Lord wrote His boring list of "should" and "ought to" in it, then you can be "free" to do the things you really want: fight battles, live adventures, and chase beauties.
"For if you are going to know who you truly are as a man [emphasis his], if you are going to find a life worth living, if you are going to love a woman deeply and not pass on your confusion to your children, you must simply get your heart back." (WaH p. 18)
"That is why I have written this book. I am here to tell you that you can get your heart back." [Emphasis his.] (WaH p.87)
"I want to you to think of the films men love, the things they do with their free time, and especially the aspirations of little boys and see if I am not right on this." (WaH page 9)
But the Bible disagrees. There's nothing biblical to support Eldredge's assertion that you should pursue the normal egocentric aspirations of a child's heart to be saved:
"Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." (Proverbs 22:15 KJV)
"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways." (1 Corinthians 13:11 RSV)
"Shun youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart." (2 Timothy 2.22 NRSV)
Eldredge insists the person must "get back" the old heart in order to save his soul. He states that all people are saved according to the new covenant but makes no mention of faith or of repentance anywhere in his book. Therefore, in Eldredge's theology, people must look to the heart of youthful former days to discover their true godly desires. He misuses Scripture to back up his absurd claim that you must recover the old heart of your youth for salvation. He says on page 129 that recovery of the heart was the purpose of Christ's mission and is the central message of the Bible:
"The core of Christ's mission is foretold in Isaiah 61:
" 'The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners.'
"The Messiah will come, he says, to bind up and heal, to release and set free. What? Your heart [emphasis his]. Christ comes to restore and release you, your soul, the true you. This is the central passage in the entire Bible about Jesus [emphasis his], the one he chooses to quote about himself when he steps into the spotlight in Luke 4 and announces his arrival." (WaH p.129)
Again and again, Eldredge emphasizes that the goodness of man lies within his juvenile heart that is buried when a man is "wounded" - Christ the Savior comes to save you by releasing and setting free your pristine heart, "the true you", so that you can take care of your sacred urges to fight battles, live adventures, and chase women. Eldredge's Website, www.ransomedheart.com, repeats this point:
"Our goal is simply this: 'Help people get their hearts back.'
"The heart is the central theme in Scripture and the most important part of any person - including God. We cannot truly live, or love, or even know God without freedom of, and without trusting His heart towards us. In fact, Jesus described the core of his own ministry as healing the brokenhearted and setting people free from the bondage that every human heart falls into in this world (Isaiah 61:1-3). Sadly, a loss of heart describes most men and women in our day - even those within the church. Maybe especially those within the church. The passion and the strength God intended for men to live by has been replaced with a passive 'niceness.' The beauty and tenderness he meant for women has been buried under a weariness, duty and rigidity. We want to see men and women set free to live from their true heart, designed in the image of God."
I've never known any theologian who has believed that your "heart is the central theme in Scripture". Jesus never mentioned that freedom of the heart is necessary to know God. On the contrary, all indications in the Bible are that we are in bondage until we know Him (John 8:32; Romans 8:2). Furthermore, the human heart does not "fall into" bondage; it starts out that way from day one. It has already happened with Adam and Eve, and we are born into the consequences (Genesis 3, Psalm 51).
With respect to Eldredge's views on the youthful heart, the Bible disagrees emphatically:
"the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21 KJV)
"remember all the commandments of the LORD, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to go after wantonly." (Numbers 15:39b RSV)
"He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool" (Proverbs 28:26 KJV)
"evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart" (Jeremiah 13:10 RSV)
"For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly." (Mark 7:21-22 NRSV)
Bible passages such as these must make Eldredge restless. He recommends that you rebuff the new heart that God gives you when you accept Him and are imbued with the Spirit, and get back your own old heart.
Eldredge gives his reason for writing Wild at Heart on pp. 87-88. It is a defense of the old self (the old heart which was replaced by the new) and a formal declaration of war against his opponents:
"That is why I have written this book. I am here to tell you that you can get your heart back. But I need to warn you - if you want your heart back, if you want the wound healed and your strength restored and to find your true name, you're going to have to fight for it. Notice your reaction to my words. Does not something in you stir a little, a yearning to live? And doesn't another voice rush in, urging caution, maybe wanting to dismiss me altogether? …That's part of the battle, right there. See? I'm not making this up." (WaH pp.87-88)
5. Eldredge's "bondage" of the heart has nothing to do with sin.
Before salvation, we were all "slaves to various passions and pleasures" (Titus 3:3 RSV). After salvation, we become slaves to God. But Eldredge invites you to "recover" the passion from before (WaH pp.xi-xii).
Isaiah 61:1-3, which Eldredge cites as the "central passage in the entire Bible about Jesus" (p.129), does not refer to the redemption of man from the "wound" of the father. What it does refer to is Christ's role in redeeming man from the bondage of sin. People pray for Christ to release them from the captivity of sins that burden and enslave them. But Eldredge's prayer is for people to get their old hearts back so that they can live the life they want (pp.xii, 129).
Eldredge never indicates man ever has to ask forgiveness for sin, because he asserts that man is without sin and were it not for that nasty wound from daddy, there would be no need for redemption. Eldredge, who cannot possibly know where each reader is in his spiritual walk, tries to convince all readers that they are saved (page 133). But in his reckless book he neglects to mention indwelling of the Spirit, grace, repentance, and faith. He describes salvation as a done deal, requiring no faith from the recipient. Regardless of where the reader is in his walk, even if he is a nonbeliever, he can simply sit back and believe that he is saved based on Eldredge's personal demagogic assurance. On pages 133-134, Eldredge makes this point absolutely clear:
"God sees… my sin. That's wrong on two counts.
"First off, your sin has been dealt with…When God looks at you he does not see your sin. He has not one condemning thought toward you (Rom 8:1)…You have a new heart. That's the promise of the new covenant: 'I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees [would these be those should's and ought to's?] and be careful to keep my laws' (Ezek. 36: 26-27). There's a reason that it's called good news.
"Too many Christians today are living back in the old covenant. They've had Jeremiah 17:9 drilled into them and walk around believing my heart is deceitfully wicked. Not anymore it's not. Read the rest of the book. In Jeremiah 31:33, God announces the cure for all that: 'I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.' I will give you a new heart…Sin is not the deepest thing about you. You have a new heart. Did you hear me? Your heart is good." [All emphases his.]
In this offensive homily, Eldredge forgets to mention, as he does throughout his entire book, that it is through the blood of Christ that our sins are washed away, and that it is through a person's faith in Him and by grace that the person is saved (Ephesians 2:8). Rather, Eldredge insists that your heart is already good and that there's no need to pay attention to such annoying details.
6. Eldredge assures all his readers that they are saints and holy ones (p.144).
When we become Christians our sins become obvious to us; we realize how sinful we are and how far from perfection we have always been. But Eldredge says that when you get on God's team, it is Satan who tells you that you are sinful:
"So long as man remains no real threat to the Enemy, Satan's line to him is You're fine. But after you do take sides, it becomes Your heart is bad and you know it." (WaH p. 162)
Does Eldredge think that it is Satan who speaks through Jesus when He says that evil comes from the heart (Mark 7:21-22)? Is it Satan who speaks through the prophet Jeremiah in 17:9 of the eponymous book? Eldredge actually quotes this verse in his book, knowing he must address it since it challenges his theology, but he dismisses it as entirely irrelevant in today's world (page 134). Eldredge assures his readers that they are all saved, mentioning neither faith nor grace integral to salvation, and dismisses biblical references to the sinful nature of man as passé and misleading. He instructs readers to ignore such passages:
"The Big Lie in the Church today is that you are nothing more than a 'sinner saved by grace.' You are a lot more than that. You are a new creation in Christ. The New Testament calls you a saint, a holy one, a son of God. In the core of your being you are a good man." (WaH p.144)
Eldredge tells all of his readers that the Bible says they are saints, holy ones, sons of God, and good to the core. But repentance, remission of sin, and a desire to follow the Lord do not figure into Eldredge's formula. In his theology, man is sinless, at least in the biblical sense. But Eldredge doesn't excuse man from Eldredge's own special brand of sin, which includes "sins" such as circumspection, prudence, selflessness, meekness, humility, and temperance. On page 143, Eldredge gives his account of Original Sin:
"Ever since that fateful day when Adam gave away the essence of his strength, men have struggled with a part of themselves that is ready at the drop of a hat to do the same. We don't want to speak up unless we know it will go well, we don't want to move unless we're guaranteed success. What the Scriptures call the flesh, the old man, or the sinful nature, is that part of Adam that always wants the easiest way out… It's much easier to go down to the driving range and attack a bucket of balls than to face the people at work who are angry at you. It's much easier to clean the garage, organize your files, cut the grass, or work on the car than it is to talk to your teenage daughter."
Thus, Eldredge asserts that the truly sinful man is the man who avoids confrontation by golfing, cleaning the garage, organizing his files, cutting the grass, and working on his car. This is the legacy of Adam.
Eldredge's theology strays so far from the Bible that he uses peculiar vocabulary such as "essence of strength", which actually could be Eldredge's own euphemism for sexual desire, as we will see later. Using his own strange vocabulary such as "essence of strength", Eldredge makes up his own account of the Fall.
7. The warped soteriology of Wild at Heart.
Eldredge urges the reader to chuck the New Creation, which he calls a weak "nice guy", and recover the old heart. But the old heart is the immature heart of the child, and children are born into sin (Psalm 51:5).
Eldredge counters this challenge by simply positing that children and young adults are without sin. He mocks the truth that man is sinful as "old covenant" (p.175), despite the fact the "New Covenant" writer Paul does more to push this point than any of his Old Testament predecessors. Eldredge finally deconstructs the biblical rendering of the Lord's plan for salvation and replaces it with his own, in which he posits that people are all born with good and pure hearts. According to Eldredge, salvation is a one-time historical event accomplished by our Lord Christ so that after Him, all people are saved because they are born into grace. Conversely, Eldredge takes the one-time Fall and portrays it as an event that happens to every person during a person's lifetime. That is, all people, having pure hearts from birth, encounter obstacles that threaten the salvation that is their birthright, and they must as adults seek to recover their juvenile hearts in order to overcome these obstacles, which Eldredge calls the "wound" and the "false self".
On pages 65-66, Eldredge talks about one of the many Hollywood movies that he believes contain important Christian messages from God, A Perfect World starring Kevin Costner. Eldredge writes, "as the story unfolds, we see that what looks like a boy's ruin is actually his redemption" (page 65). Kevin Costner plays the role of the Redeemer, who is "an escaped convict who takes the young boy hostage and heads for the state line". In the movie, a young boy's pride has been wounded because the boy's daddy probably said that the boy's penis is small. But Costner redeems the boy when he assures the little boy that his "pecker" is sized well (pp. 65-66).
Eldredge's soteriology is thus: - A person is born into grace and salvation.
- But then the person falls sometime during the person's childhood or young adulthood, and becomes a wimpy, weak, and boring "false self". This usually happens because of mean things that daddy must have said (page 60).
- The person needs to recover his passionate wild heart (before his fall) or else the person will lose his soul and his salvation that he was born with.
The central message in Wild at Heart is that we should seek to satisfy the dreams and desires of our own "wild" hearts, because according to Eldredge, our wild hearts are like God's own "wild" heart since we were created in His image. Eldredge claims that the wild heart has been lost, replaced by a more tame heart that holds discipline and restraint in some esteem. And according to Eldredge, the central message of the Bible is that Jesus came to set free man's wild heart (page 129) along with the youthful passions for battles, adventure, and beauties, that it contains.
8. Wild at Heart misuses Scripture and changes meanings of words.
Eldredge misquotes Scripture when he paraphrases the Bible on page 133: "He has not one condemning thought toward you (Rom 8:1)". In the Bible, Romans 8:1 actually reads: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" (KJV). If a man is not in Christ Jesus (and Eldredge has no way of knowing where each of his readers is) then he's in trouble, and to have him run around fulfilling his deepest masculine desires would be catastrophic. Furthermore, Eldredge twists the passage's meaning for the word "condemnation", which leads to even more egregious fallacy:
"We stand on what Scripture says about us…The Father's voice is never condemning." (p.136)
Here we see the real damage that is wrought by Eldredge's deliberate misuse of Romans 8:1 on page 133. Beginning with his paraphrasing of Romans 8:1, he twists the Apostle Paul's intended meaning of the word "condemn" so grotesquely that he makes assertions about God having no biblical support whatsoever. He then misuses Scripture, using his new meanings for words, to defend the lie that his assertions have biblical support. In Romans 8:1, by "condemnation" (Greek "katakrima") Paul means "punishment", or "judgment" - the serious kind. But by misquoting Scripture on page 133, Eldredge distorts Paul's meaning of "condemnation" so that mild "disapproval" is the definition indicated. He uses this new definition on page 136. The absurd result from his new definition is that not only won't God ever punish you, He won't ever speak or even think disapprovingly about anything. Even worse, Eldredge uses his postulate that "the Father's voice is never condemning" to test the identity of voices he hears, and he encourages you to do the same. If the voice says something like: "Stop doing it. It's harmful," it can't be God who is making such a condemning statement, so it has to be the devil who speaks. If the voice says something like: "It's good because it makes you a bigger man," then it is Eldredge's god who speaks.
9. Wild at Heart says "We don't need accountability groups"(p. 175).
Eldredge ridicules the aim of church accountability groups, which he disparages as obsolete and meaningless. Of what use are accountability groups if nobody ever sins? He says on page 175:
"the church understands now that a man needs other men, but what we've offered is another two-dimensional solution: 'Accountability' groups or partners. Ugh. That sounds so old covenant: 'You're really a fool and you're just waiting to rush into sin, so we'd better post a guard by you to keep you in line.'
"We don't need accountability groups; we need fellow warriors, someone to fight alongside, someone to watch our back."
Again, Eldredge's twisted version of the "new covenant" is that a man is born into grace and does not sin at all unless the devil makes him do so (more on this later). Eldredge takes any implication of the sinful nature of man, in any context, and discards it as irrelevant, obsolete, and "so old covenant" (p. 175). But the fact is many people, believers as well as unbelievers, church-going or not, struggle with sin. And there is nothing wrong with accountability groups where friends help to strengthen the spiritual walks of friends.
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." (Proverbs 27:17 NASB)
"Brothers, if someone is caught in sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.” (Galatians 6:1 NIV)
Eldredge thinks we need fellow warriors to watch the backs of our sinless brethren from attacks by the devil, or from people who disagree with Eldredge.
10. Wild at Heart indiscriminately mixes the profane with the sacred.
Eldredge is proud to admit that God speaks to him through Hollywood:
"My answer came through several movies." (WaH, p.126)
"God's word comes to me in many ways - through sunsets and friends and films and music and wilderness and books." (WaH p.200)
Eldredge doesn't just use movies for merely illustrative purpose, which is a fine way to use movies. Rather, he insists that through movies come epiphanic answers to life's toughest questions. In Wild at Heart, Eldredge seats movies such as Braveheart and Gladiator at the right hand of the Bible as sources of wisdom and life, and Eldredge could do hardly less to distinguish them. In Eldredge's book, Jesus takes a back seat to Mel Gibson's William Wallace in Braveheart, or to Kevin Costner's Redeemer who saves little boys by assuring them that that they have good-sized penises in the movie A Perfect World.
On page 134, Eldredge references a Hollywood movie that has been particularly inspiring to him:
"After I saw Gladiator, I longed to be a man like Maximus…I wept at the end, pierced to be like him."
Many Christians strive to walk as Jesus walked. And the Lord Jesus, by Eldredge's own account, is a wild man. But Eldredge feels "pierced" to be like the Russell Crowe rendition of Maximus from Gladiator. Eldredge wants so bad to be like Crowe's starring role in the movie that he cries about it. What's really silly is that Eldredge's deep-hearted desire to be like the fictional movie character Maximus from Gladiator is so strong that both the Almighty God and the devil are compelled to speak to him about it at all.
11. Wild at Heart recommends that you listen for "voices".
Eldredge recommends that you seek divine revelation by sitting around listening for voices (pp.135-136). How does Eldredge always know when it's God's voice he hears? Even Eldredge himself says on page 203:
"people hear voices all the time and who really knows whether it's God or just one's imagination."
Except for the fact that most people do not "hear voices all the time", Eldredge makes a good point. But then why is it Eldredge never has a problem knowing that it is God's voice that he hears? Does Eldredge enjoy an exclusive personal relationship with God that other Christians do not? Indeed, the Lord speaks to Eldredge so much that one can hardly help but to conclude from Eldredge's report that he believes he's a prophet. Don't forget Eldredge's assertion that the Father's voice is "never condemning" (page 133). So any critical word about anything has got to be from the devil.
Eldredge goes on to describe a sappy prayer where God answers that He is pleased because Eldredge is Maximus, and is His friend (page 135). So the Lord Almighty gives Eldredge comfort by likening him to a fictional movie character played by Russell Crowe and by telling Eldredge that he is His buddy.
There was an instance when Eldredge was struggling about whether to accept a "plum job" with a firm in Washington DC. Eldredge was ambivalent, so he went into the mountains for the weekend to sort things out. And as God had spoken to Moses on Sinai, so God spoke to Eldredge that weekend:
"On the second day God began to speak. John, you can take that job if you want to. It's not a sin. But it'll kill you and you know it." [Emphasis his.] (WaH p. 202)
Eldredge's method of receiving answers to his prayers about what to do regarding his plum job is to hike up into the mountains and listen for voices. I'm still not convinced that it is the Lord's voice that Eldredge hears in the wilderness. From this example, we know that Eldredge's god uses words like "kill" with startling levity. This is consistent with Eldredge's description of his god, who uses words such as life, soul, law, sacred, and save, as though they were words without real meaning. The words sin, guilt, forgiveness, and repentance, are not in his vocabulary at all. Eldredge and his wild wilderness god choose words more for the way they sound than for what they mean.
12. Eldredge's sex-centered world.
Some of Eldredge's use of sexual imagery occurring in rambling discourse about male-female relationships is disturbing. Like many pagan religions centering on male virility and fertility, Eldredge implies that a man's real strength is his phallus, and Eldredge extols the man's "strength" for its life-giving qualities:
"The man comes to offer his strength and the woman invites the man into herself, an act that requires courage and vulnerability and selflessness for both of them. Notice first that if the man will not rise to the occasion, nothing will happen. He must move; his strength must swell before he can enter her. But neither will the love consummate unless the woman opens herself in stunning vulnerability…the man enters his woman and offers her his strength. He spills himself there, in her, for her [emphasis his]; she draws him in, embraces and envelopes [sic] him. When all is over he is spent; but ah, what a sweet death it is.
"And that is how life is created. The beauty of a woman arouses a man to play the man; the strength of a man, offered tenderly to his woman, allows her to be beautiful; it brings life to her and to many. This is far, far more than sex and orgasm. It is a reality that extends to every aspect of our lives." (WaH p.185)
There you have Eldredge's version of the birds and bees, and to Eldredge, sex is a "reality that extends to every aspect of our lives" and ejaculation is "ah, what a sweet death". Edredge and Sigmund Freud have a lot in common.
Eldredge describes sexual intercourse as a "selfless" act. Perhaps men who make frequent visits to brothels should receive citations for their selfless acts of valor and charity.
Another passage appearing in a section of Eldredge's book entitled "Desperate for Initiation", contains more of Eldredge's sexual gobbledygook, and denigration of Christians that doesn't even merit response:
"A man needs to know his name. He needs to know he's got what it takes. And I don't mean 'know' in the modernistic, rationalistic sense. I don't mean that the thought has passed through your cerebral cortex and you've given it intellectual assent, the way you know about the Battle of Waterloo or the ozone layer - the way most men 'know' God or the truths of Christianity. I mean…the kind of knowing that comes when you have been there, entered in, experienced firsthand…The way 'Adam knew his wife' and she gave birth to a child." (WaH pp.99-100)
13. Wild at Heart says "A man must know that he is powerful"(p. 18) and "Let people feel the weight of who you are"(p. 151).
On page 151, Eldredge says enigmatically, "Let people feel the weight of who you are and let them deal with it." In Wild at Heart, excessive pride is portrayed as more than a virtue: it is requirement for life.
"A man must know that he is powerful [emphasis his]; he must know he has what it takes [emphasis his]. A woman must know she is beautiful [emphasis his]; she must know she is worth fighting for [emphasis his]." (WaH p.18)
"We need to know who we are and if we have what it takes [emphasis his]. What do we do now with that ultimate question? Where do we go to find an answer? … a man's core question does not go away…It is a hunger so essential to our souls that it will compel us to find a resolution. In truth, it drives everything we do." (WaH p.88)
Eldredge says our "need to know who we are and if we have what it takes" is a hunger that is "essential to our souls" and "drives everything we do." If our need to know if we have what it takes is essential to our souls, does that mean we lose our souls if we're not sure we've got what it takes? This is salvation?
We learn on page 91 that for many men the "The Question" feels "hardwired to his penis". He also says on page 100 that when it comes to our question, we need to "know" the way Adam knew Eve, "intimately, through flesh-and-blood experience". Those of you who know (in the modern sense) the English of King James understand what Eldredge is driving at.
Eldredge recommends that you seek God with rigorous self-exploration of your own deepest desires, especially of your childhood years. Eldredge talks about quiet time listening for God and about quiet time listening to yourself, but he doesn't clearly differentiate God from self:
"To recover his heart's desire a man needs to get away from the noise and distraction of his daily life for time with his own soul. He needs to head into the wilderness, to silence and solitude. Alone with himself, he allows whatever is there to come to the surface." (WaH p. 207)
Eldredge sums up his view of all-powerful man on page 138:
"We thought that the power of our life was in the golden bat [phallic symbolism probably not here intended], but the power is in us [emphasis his]. When we begin to offer not merely our gifts but our true selves, that is when we become powerful."
And of course, to Eldredge, Hollywood movies are at least as good a source of truth and inspiration as the Bible. On page 142, Eldredge writes:
" 'I'd love to be William Wallace [from the movie Braveheart], leading the charge with a big sword in my hand," sighed a friend. 'But I feel like I'm the guy back there in the fourth row, with a hoe.' That's a lie of the Enemy - that your place is really insignificant, that you really aren't armed for it anyway. There is no other man that can replace you in your life… If you leave your place in line, it will remain empty. No one else can be who you are meant to be. You are the hero in your story [emphasis his]. Not a bit player, not an extra, but the main man."
Few motivational speakers, real or not, can top that sermon for self-worship. Incidentally, Eldredge's use of double entendres is legendary. But in any true Christian's story the Hero, the main Man, isn't you, it's Jesus.
In one of the many instances in which Eldredge says God speaks to him through non-biblical books, Eldredge received the following message from God through Gil Bailie:
" 'Don't ask what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that'…Reading the counsel given to Bailie I knew it was God speaking to me." (WaH pp.200-201)
Eldredge knows that he must listen to his god. He adds to his god's divine "counsel" on page 206:
"You see, a man's calling is written on his true heart, and he discovers it when he enters the frontier of his deep desires. To paraphrase Bailie, don't ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive because what the world needs are men who have come alive…I've met men who've used advice like it to leave their wife and run off with their secretary. They are deceived about what it is they really want, what they are made for." [All emphases his.]
Unfortunately, Eldredge doesn't explain how these adulterous men have been deceived by the messages that he embraces. The fact is: those men are doing exactly as Eldredge's theology tells them to do, encapsulated in maxims such as Bailie's, and Eldredge admittedly knows this. Eldredge actually begins on page 206 to speak of the closest thing to sound theology contained in his book, because he needs to defend his caveat that one should not use his advice to leave one's wife and rescue the beautiful secretary:
"Because our hearts have strayed so far from home, He's given us the Law as a sort of handrail to help us back from the precipice. But the goal of Christian discipleship is a transformed heart; we move from the boy who needs the Law to the man who is able to live by the Spirit of the law."
Bingo. The goal of Christian discipleship is a transformed heart; we grow from the boy with the "wild" untamed heart, needing the Law to bridle him, into the man upon whose heart the law is written, who is then able to live by the Spirit.
If Eldredge could stick to this theme in his book, he'd be on track. But he can't. It contradicts everything else in his book. Except for this brief paragraph that Eldredge inserts to point up that most adulterers are immature, he urges men to get back their boyish lawless heart and then to trash the Law because it is "so old covenant" and irrelevant. The fact that maturity occurs later in an individual's life after the person is born again of the Spirit is utterly inconsistent with the theology that Eldredge propounds in Wild at Heart, and he buries this understanding on page 206 where most readers will doubtless miss it since his reason for having mentioned it at all is because he knows that he must pay some lip service to condemnation of adulterous affairs, against the tenor of his book.
After having made mention of sound theology, Eldredge immediately reverts to his dim blabber about recovering dreams and desires long buried deep in the childish heart.
"the whole thing takes on a transcendent purpose when he releases control in exchange for the recovery of the dreams in his heart. Sometimes those dreams are buried deep and it takes some unearthing to get to them. We pay attention to our desire." (WaH p.207)
14. Eldredge blames everything on the devil.
Eldredge blames everything on the devil because he believes the human heart is too good to sin; people are not responsible for any of their actions, or for sinful behavior. But Adam and Eve were not absolved of their momentous sin by impugning the serpent that had deceived them; they were punished, and the consequences of the Original Sin are felt to this day. Similarly, even if the devil is ultimately to blame for all the world's ills, that doesn't absolve the people that he beguiles into sinful behavior. Eldredge even projects his own mad finger pointing onto the devil:
"He simply loves to blame everything on us, get us feeling hurt, misunderstood, suspicious, and resentful of one another." (WaH p.160)
Eldredge is outraged that the devil blames people for their own problems in life.
In Eldredge's world, it is the devil who makes you feel guilty after you have committed a wrong. Repentance is not part of Eldredge's version of salvation, nor is it even in Eldredge's vocabulary. Eldredge blames the devil for any difficulties he has in his marriage (pp.151-152, 161), and since Eldredge does not like to be told when he is making mistakes in his marriage, only the devil himself tells Eldredge that he is "blowing it" (page 161).
On page 163, Eldredge speaks about a man's lust:
"This can make a good man feel so awful because he thinks he's a lustful man when he's not; it's an attack [from the devil] through and through."
Eldredge says that a man who thinks himself to be lustful is not actually lustful. It's an attack from the devil, through and through. Eldredge himself notices that he is blaming everything on the devil, so on page 163, like a guilty man speaking in his own defense, he says eloquently:
"Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not blaming everything on the devil."
Actually, that's exactly what he's doing. He goes on:
"In almost every situation there are human issues involved. Every man has his struggles; every marriage has its rough spots; every ministry has personal conflicts. But those issues are like a campfire that the Enemy throws gasoline all over and turns into a bonfire…All the while we believe that it's us, we are blowing it, we're to blame, and the Enemy is laughing because we've swallowed the lie 'I'm not here, it's just you.'" (WaH p.163)
Eldredge therefore concedes that humans aren't perfect (which is a startling admission, since up to this point in his book humans were described as totally pure in heart), but whenever anything really bad happens, it's the devil's fault. On page 194, Eldredge returns to this theme, where a "campfire" disagreement between himself and his wife is turned into a "bonfire" fight because of the devil, not because Eldredge nor his wife have any weaknesses that they need to work on.
The bottom line is that the Eldredge version of the sacred heart has written on it the urges to do battle, have adventure, and rescue beauties. But one's own conscience, in Eldredge's world, is not written in the heart. According to Eldredge, one's own conscience is the voice of the devil.
15. Eldredge makes up his own Bible stories.
Eldredge makes up his own versions of Bible stories so that they synch with his principles that man is fundamentally good and that the devil is responsible for each and every sin of all persons.
"Bored, sated, and fat, he [David] strolls around on the roof of the palace looking for something to amuse him. The Evil One points out Bathsheba, and the rest is history-which as we all know, repeats itself." (WaH, p.170)
But the Bible indicates events where the devil directly intervenes in the lives of men, such as in the troubles of Job, and in the sinful behavior of Judas Iscariot - and of Adam and Eve for that matter. In 2 Samuel 11, the Bible does not indicate that the devil had anything to do with David's affair with Bathsheba, nor is it even implied. Furthermore, in the biblical account, King David himself does not blame the devil for his sins with Bathsheba, but repents for his own adultery and for the role he himself played in the death of Bathsheba's husband Uriah.
Eldredge, on the other hand, makes sure to point out that the Evil One was responsible for the illicit tryst of David and Bathsheba, and that since everyone knows history repeats itself, no man is ever responsible for his adulterous affairs. History repeats itself, so it's always "the Evil One" who makes men do it.
But this is only the beginning of Eldredge's perversion of the biblical account of King David's reign. Remember that Eldredge says every man has a "fall" that occurs sometime early in a man's life; there was no single Fall that occurred only with Adam & Eve, because Adam's story "is every man's story" and "history repeats itself". Like all of Eldredge's men, David was born pure, but he had a fall, and it wasn't when he committed adultery with Bathsheba or put her husband in harm's way. No, David's adultery wasn't his fault, since the devil made him do it; David fell when he stopped being a warrior:
"Notice this - when did King David fall? What were the circumstances of his affair with Bathsheba? 'In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army' (2 Sam. 11:1). David was no longer a warrior; he sent others to do his fighting for him." (WaH p. 170)
David was bored, and according to Eldredge we just simply cannot allow men to be bored - that's when they are victimized by the devil.
But even David himself disagrees with Eldredge's assertion that David had a "fall". David knows that he didn't "fall" as Adam fell. David affirms that he, unlike Adam, was sinful from the very beginning:
"Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; And in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psalm 51:5 ASV)
On pages 190-192 Eldredge gives his account of the biblical Ruth as a loose and scandalous gold-digger. As usual, Eldredge embellishes the biblical account with his own details.
"Boaz is not giving Ruth what she really needs - a ring.
"So what does Ruth do? She seduces him. Here's the scene: The men have been working dawn till dusk to bring in the barley harvest; they've just finished and now it's party time. Ruth takes a bubble bath and puts on a knockout dress; then she waits for the right moment. That moment happens to be late in the evening after Boaz has had a little too much to drink." (WaH p.191)
Eldredge then goes on to say on page 192 that the Bible cripples women:
"I'm telling you that the church has really crippled women when it tells them that their beauty is vain and they are at their feminine best when they are 'serving others'. A woman is at her best when she is being a woman [such as Eldredge's Ruth]."
It is the Bible that says in Proverbs 31:30 that "beauty is vain": "Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised" (NASB). And it is actually a woman's quest for beauty, not the Bible, which is crippling. Never before has this country seen so much self-mutilation, artificial augmentation, eating disorders, and depression, as women strive to achieve vain, empty beauty that can never bring fulfillment. Only Jesus can fill the void, and Eldredge wreaks lots of damage when he misrepresents Ruth as heroic by virtue of her seductiveness, perfumes, and "knockout dress". The fact is Ruth was a selfless hard-worker whose devoted service to others made her a worthy ancestress of David and of Jesus.
And of course, there is Eldredge's account of Creation. Eldredge claims that Adam was at first a wild man with a wild man's heart, until the Fall. Then Adam became a passive wimp. But the biblical account disagrees. According to the Bible, Adam lived in a paradisiacal garden where all of his basic needs were met until the Fall, at which time Adam was banished to the wilderness where he had to explore the land, fight and kill animals, and probably had to rescue Eve from all kinds of dangers and potential mishaps. Eldredge has taken the story of the Fall and turned it upside down. And by distorting the story of the Fall and of Original Sin, Eldredge perverts the biblical explanation of salvation.
Eldredge uses Proverbs 4:23 as an identifying verse for his ministry at his Website, www.ransomedheart.com, and quotes this verse on page 164:
"Our goal is simply this: 'Help people get their hearts back.'
"For it is from the heart that a person finds intimacy with God and with others, and it is in our heart that we discover our life’s purpose and calling. As Proverbs 4:23 urges us, we are to 'watch over our heart' as though it were our most precious treasure, 'for from our heart flows the wellsprings of life.' "
Eldredge says that it is in this heart that we discover life's purpose and calling, and then he misuses Proverbs 4:23 to defend his point. There is no biblical passage that urges us to search our own hearts if we want to discover life's purpose and calling. If we want to understand what Proverbs 4:23 means, let's do something Eldredge doesn't talk about - let's open up the Bible and look at the context of Proverbs 4:23:
Solomon urges us to guard our hearts not because the heart holds our deepest desires but because we have put his divinely inspired Words of wisdom into them (4:21), Solomon's God-breathed Words are life for those that find them (4:22), so that the heart is, as the container for these Words, the wellspring of life (4:23). It is God's Word that is the wellspring of life and we must search God's Word if we want to know about life's purpose. One of the Bible verses that Eldredge loves most to misuse is Matthew 11:12, where Eldredge emphasizes that Jesus speaks of "the deep and holy goodness of masculine aggression".
" 'The kingdom of heaven suffers violence,' said Jesus, 'and the violent it take it by force' (Matt 11:12 NKJV)… Hopefully by now you see the deep and holy goodness of masculine aggression and that will help you understand what Christ is saying." (WaH p.177)
16. Eldredge says that God has given him and his partners a special message.
At his Website www.ransomedheart.com, Eldredge proclaims that he and his business associates hold the key to redemption of men and women. They have a special "methodology" that God has given them to exalt the human heart:
"God has entrusted to us a very powerful and beautiful message and methodology. Our message brings the heart back to center stage."
Eldredge and his business associates claim to redeem men and women through stories. Sound Christian principles have no place in their redemptive methodology. They also attempt to misrepresent catechism and hermeneutics as silly and worthless methods of instruction:
"Our methodology allows us to reach the heart through story. Principles and propositions do not free the heart; tips and techniques do not convey the Gospel."
17. Wild at Heart says women must be rescued by "knights in shining armor" (p. 16).
"childish dreams of a knight in shining armor coming to rescue her are not girlish fantasies; they are the core of the feminine heart and the life she knows she was made for." (WaH p. 16)
So, Eldredge says that "childish dreams" of being rescued by a knight in shining armor are "core" to women's lives. He reemphasizes this business of rescuing beauties being written in the heart on page 181:
"From ancient fables to the latest blockbuster, the theme of a strong man coming to rescue a beautiful woman is universal to human nature. It is written in our hearts, one of the core desires of every man and every woman."
Illustrated above is one of Eldredge's most egregious errors in his book, and I'm not talking about his notion that a core desire of every man and every woman is for the strong guy to grab the beautiful woman: he treats the profane as sacred, craftily blending the two. He treats core, universal desires of every man and every woman, regardless of faith, as sacred.
Unremarkably, since Eldredge's desire of spending his life rescuing a beauty is written into his heart, he concludes that it must be written into everybody else's heart too. Eldredge universalizes his own selfish thoughts, desires, and experiences. Needless to say, they are not always universal. But his line of thinking should be no surprise, as psychologists would admit that it would naturally result with regression of the adult mind back to the heart of the egocentric child.
Indeed, this urge that men have to "rescue a beautiful woman" might be universal to human nature, but that is a reason Eldredge should not include it in discourse of behavior he purports to be biblical and Christian. That which is holy and that which is universal to human nature are not the same. The sacred and the profane must be clearly distinguished. Yes, perhaps the theme of strong men chasing after beautiful women is written in our old hearts, but it is irresponsible of Eldredge to intermingle desires of human nature with the laws that the Lord writes in the heart of the New Creation. Eldredge attempts to give equal weight to the base urge to chase beautiful women as to the Law by saying that, like the Law, it too is written in the heart. Here is the real deception: Eldredge equates the old heart governed by universal urges of human nature with the new heart in which the Lord writes His laws. Eldredge thus distorts the biblical account of rebirth.
18. Wild at Heart says we have not taken myths and fables "seriously enough" (p. 182).
In Chapter 10, Eldredge strengthens his "back to childhood" argument by using myths and fables to support his endorsement of puerile ambition. He recounts the well-known "Once upon a time" story of the "beautiful maiden, an absolute enchantress" on page 180. He then continues:
"Every little girl knows the fable without ever being told… Little boys rehearse their part with wooden swords and cardboard shields. And one day the boy, now a young man, realizes that he wants to be the one to win the beauty. Fairy tales, literature, music, movies, all borrow from this mythic theme. Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Helen of Troy, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Arthur and Guinevere, Tristan and Isolde…Our culture has grown cynical about the fable. Don Henley says, 'We've been poisoned by these fairy tales'…No, we have not been poisoned by fairy tales and they are not merely 'myths.' Far from it. The truth is, we have not taken them seriously enough." (WaH pp.180-182)
If it isn't enough that Eldredge promotes fables and fairy tales as guidebooks for life, he has the arrogant audacity to include notorious adulterers in his pantheon of legendary lovers. The adulterous relationship of Antony and Cleopatra is historical; it isn't a fairy tale, and it resulted in disaster (they commit suicide). Furthermore, over half of the persons that Eldredge lists, mythical or historical, commit suicide for the sake of sexual "love": Tristan and Isolde, Romeo and Juliet, and Antony and Cleopatra. Is this the kind of fable/history that Eldredge wants us to embrace as exemplary for our lives? Why does he praise these characters?
Eldredge says that the truth is that we have not taken myths and fables seriously enough. But actually, the opposite is true. The Truth is: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." [Emphasis mine.](2 Timothy 4.3-4 KJV)
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