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Eldredge’s ‘wildly’
popular Wild at Heart has been on the Christian
best seller list for months and has spawned seminars across the
nation complete with workbooks and training for group leaders. Popularity however is NOT an indication
of doctrinal or biblical soundness. On the contrary, popularity
is too often the result of man’s never ending sinful desire to
either create God in man’s own image, or to place human desires
above obedience to God.
The following is a
brief examination of Wild
at Heart. For those wanting a more thorough analyses, I have
provided references at the end of this article.
An Age
Old Error
In
Wild at Heart, Eldredge correctly highlights
the confusion and frustration of many men today about their purpose
and role in life. Feminism has greatly influenced the culture
in its attempt to emasculate men, as if masculinity were a disease
to be treated. The Church has been feminized, as has the picture
of Jesus presented within Christian culture. However, Eldredge’s
errors and his unbiblical viewpoints negate any value this book
may have had for a Christian man.
First Corinthians
5:6 states, “Your glorying [is] not good. Know ye
not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” Wild at Heart has a lot of leaven in the
nature of serious, fundamental error and misinterpretation of
Scripture. Eldredge’s overlying problem is ‘syncretism’ – an ancient
error rampant in today’s Church of attempting to integrate the
'wisdom of men' in the form of psychology, humanism and other
religions with Christianity. This is an error we are warned about
in Scripture. (Exo.
20:2-5, Isa. 55:8, 2 Chr. 20:33, Prov. 3:5, Col. 2:8)
Fast and Loose with Scripture
Eldredge
gets off to a bad start with the first words of Chapter One by
deliberately changing Scripture to support his view.
He opens Chapter One with “The heart of a man is like deep
water . . .” (Prov. 20:5 - NKJV). The actual verse says: “Counsel
in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding
will draw it out.” (NKJV) It is not “the heart of a man,” but “Counsel in the heart of a man,” that
is like deep water, which means something entirely different.
Apparently, changing Scripture isn’t a problem for Eldredge, and
God and His Word are not adequate for finding a true picture of
manhood anyway. So, where is a fellow to turn for the
truth about how to be a man? He should turn to Eldredge, of course,
as the main source. Eldredge declares that he
has discovered that “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.” (Lose
his soul?) These three desires are: “a battle to
fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.” And where
does he find support for his revelation you may ask?
Try the instruction and insights of a pagan poet, psychology,
movies, television, advertising, his own desires, and above all,
the dreams and fantasies of his boyhood. (See 1Cor 13:11)
Making God in the Image of Man
Eldredge
elevates the nature of man and denigrates the nature of God, a
heresy that presents a low, weakened God vs. the true God of the
Bible. In Chapter Two he offers the following
views about the nature of God.
God is
a risk-taker: God is all-knowing and all-powerful, yet Eldredge
declares “God is a person who takes immense risks" (pg. 30) and
that He “prefers adventure, danger, risk, the element of surprise.”
By definition, an action can only be “risky”
or a “surprise” if the outcome is unknown. Comments one reviewer,
Randy Stinson, “if God is taking risks, there are no assurances
that God’s purposes will actually be accomplished. If God is uncertain
about how His creatures will respond, then how can we really be
guaranteed that He will be ultimately victorious over evil in
the end?”
God is a needy whiner: “And after years
of hearing the heart-cry of women, I am convinced beyond a doubt
of this: God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to someone.
How could we have missed this? From cover to cover, from beginning
to end, the cry of God's heart is, 'Why won't you choose me?'
It's amazing how humble, how vulnerable God is on this
point." (God vulnerable?)
Eldredge paints a
pathetic picture of God not out of Scripture, but from listening
to women he has counseled (page 36). Men
and women may whine and complain, but God has never been a whiner
or complainer. In fact, God calls complaining (murmuring) a sin,
which is totally contrary to His nature.
Also on page 36, Eldredge
asks the question, “Do you know why he doesn’t answer prayer right
away?” and answers it with, “Because he wants to talk to us, and
sometimes that's the only way to get us to stay and talk
to him." There are a number of reasons why God may or may not
answer prayer right away. Usually, it is to teach us something.
It is never that He is desperate for our attention or lonely!
God is NOT desperate for anything!
Man’s
True Heart is “Good”
Eldredge’s
views on the nature of man come directly from pagan mythopoet
Robert Bly and occultic psychologist Carl Jung, NOT from Scripture.
According to Bly and Jung, man’s “true self” or “true heart” is
good, but men have been corrupted into creating “false selves”
to cover the “wounds” that have been inflicted on them by others,
most notably by their fathers. Eldredge’s dismissal of Jeremiah
17:9 (“The heart [is] deceitful above all [things],
and desperately wicked: who can know it?”) is theologically unsound. He mangles
the doctrines of justification and sanctification, and their effect
on the heart and mind.
Why
are Christian men struggling? Eldredge tells us that they have
“lost their true hearts” because of their “wounds” and that he
can help them to reclaim their “true hearts.” Eldredge claims
that men are not struggling because of their fallen state, their
own sin and disobedience; rather they are simply victims of someone
else’s sin. This is pure psychobabble coming from
the world’s wisdom and is diametrically opposed to what Scripture
says about the nature of man’s heart.
(Gen. 6:5, 8:21;
Num. 15:39; Prov. 28:26; Ecc. 9:3, 11:9; Matt. 15:19)
Doctrinal Nazis and Other Problems
Eldredge
has a method for dealing with those who would disagree with him
by standing on Biblical Truth – people he calls “Doctrine Police”
and “Doctrinal Nazis.” In the Wild at Heart Facilitator’s Guide for
“facilitators” of his workshops, Eldredge recommends a psychological
technique of manipulation used to control and direct the outcome
of small group discussions. By
the use of marginalization and isolation, he instructs facilitators
on how to “shut down the doctrine cop” (page 4). Again
on page 5, he warns the facilitator to watch out for the “…doctrine
Nazi – a guy who’s got some theological ax to grind.” Here again Eldredge instructs the facilitator
to dismiss and evade any doctrinal issues being made and to marginalize
and isolate the man who brings them to the group’s attention.
“Doctrinal Nazis” and
“doctrine cops”, as Eldredge calls them, must be silenced because Eldredge’s teachings
will not stand up to the light of Scriptural Truth. If readers and seminar attendees are to
accept Eldredge’s worldly indoctrination, they must turn away
from sound biblical teaching and from the illumination of the
Holy Spirit.
Other
problems in Wild at Heart
include:
1)
Eldredge and his friends seem to have a lot of unresolved personal
“issues” and hang-ups with their own masculinity, and they assume
that all men are like them.
2)
His ‘battles’ either seem to be internal, vague, or fantasies
such as in movies like Braveheart and Gladiator. Unfortunately, many Evangelical
men seem to prefer this fantasy world, instead of the very real
battles raging in our culture today. Any vestige of Christian
philosophy and ethic is systematically being removed from American
culture while the Church sticks its head in the sand, or even
worse -- participates. If men truly want ’battles,’ they can turn
away from the movies and spectator sports, and join in the battle
for the hearts and minds of this nation-a battle rapidly being
lost to the forces of darkness.
3)
Eldredge’s view of women as a “beauty waiting to be rescued” is
ridiculous and unbiblical. God created Eve as a helpmate, not
as a passive, weak victim awaiting rescue.
4)
Like Larry Crabb, he presents Adam’s fall as a sin of abdication
(not stopping Eve), rather than of Adam’s own rebellion and disobedience.
The text only tentatively supports this view.
5)
He commends examples of “risk taking” that are simply reckless
stupidity.
6)
His discussion of penis size in the book, and his use of profanity
in the lecture series, including the ‘F-word,’ ‘G__ damn,’ and
‘sh__’ should be objectionable to Christian men, and a warning
signal that Eldredge is not qualified to impart wisdom about biblical
manhood.
Conclusion
There is a definite need for Christian men to learn the concept
of biblical manhood, but Wild
at Heart takes men in the wrong direction. If men truly want
to know the truth, the Bible
is sufficient. And, if they need help with discernment and interpretation,
there are books that are far more biblically grounded. Those by
Douglas Wilson are excellent (Federal Husband, Reforming Marriage, etc.).
It is difficult to be in a position of disagreement with
so many Christian leaders and a top-selling author, but when the
choice is between them and Scripture, the choice is clear. Just
call me a “Doctrinal Nazi.”
“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; “ (2 Ti. 4:3)
References:
The Bible, King James Version and the
New King James Version
Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge
Wild at Heart Field Manual, by John Eldredge
Wild at Heart Facilitator’s Guide, by
John Eldredge
Wild at Heart Boot Camp
CD series, by John
Eldredge
Is God Wild at Heart? A Review of John Eldredge's,
Wild at Heart, by Randy Stinson
at http://www.cbmw.org/resources/articles/eldredge_wah_review.html
A Critical Review of the Book,
Wild at Heart,
by John Eldredge, by
Daryl Wingerd at http://www.ccwonline.org/wild.html
Wild
at Heart, a Critique by Jim Harmon at http://www.psychoheresy-aware.org/wahbkrev.html
Wildly
Unbiblical. By Don Veinot, Midwest
Christian Outreach, Inc. Journal, Summer 2003
Robert Bly's Iron John & The U.S. Men's Movement
at http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~germ270/Lecture%20Notes/4-29.html
Male Spirit,
Pagan Federation Online at http://www.paganfed.demon.co.uk/information/malespirit.html
John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart: A Critique by Byron Borger at http://www.ccojubilee.org/minexfolder/minex2002/june2002/Borger_June02.html
Unfounded
Bias, a review by Charles Sell, Professor at Trinity
Evangelical Divinity
School
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