Problem #2: Whitewashing the Human Heart

The second major problem is with Eldredge's main point—the core of the message he hopes to get across to Christian men. While inviting them to "know and live from" their deep hearts (pg. 8), Eldredge seems to have forgotten (or else he doesn't really believe) that the preeminent thing that comes out of the human heart is sin. Jesus said, "What comes out of a man, that defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed [all kinds of wickedness] . . . All these evil things come from within and defile a man" (Mark 7:20-23).

Eldredge's central message also argues with Jeremiah who wrote, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked" (Jeremiah 17:9). Jeremiah's condemnation is immediately followed by his rhetorical question regarding the heart of man: "Who can know it?" The answer, assumed by the question and supplied in verse 10, is that only the Lord can search the heart of man and know it. Nevertheless, the message to men in Wild at Heart is that they should "know and live from" their deep hearts.

Later in the book Eldredge seems to think he has found a loophole in Jeremiah's negative portrayal of the human heart when he denies the notion that the human heart remains corrupt after regeneration. On pages 133-134 he writes, "Too many Christians today are living back in the old covenant. They've had Jeremiah 17:9 drilled into them and they walk around believing my heart is deceitfully wicked. Not anymore it's not." On pg. 144, he continues this idea when he writes, "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."

When I first read this section, I was forced to carefully think through what Eldredge was saying. There is some truth in what he says. We are new creations in Christ. We have been given new hearts. We have been given new desires, new loves, and a new distaste for sin. The New Testament does call us saints. So what are my objections to his teaching here?

First, on pages 143-145, as a means of absolving the regenerate human heart of any sinfulness, Eldredge creates an unwarranted distinction between "the real you" (your heart) and "the false self" (the flesh). Basing his divided man on one verse of Scripture (Romans 7:20, NLT—"I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it"), Eldredge writes, "your flesh is a weasel, a poser, and a selfish pig . . .Your flesh is not the real you" (pg. 144). In the same section, he paints a far more flattering portrait of "the real you" (the heart): "You are not your sin . . . Your heart is good . . . In the core of your being you are a good man" (pg. 144). "The real you is on the side of God against the false self" (pg. 145).

I recognize that Christians are in an ongoing battle against the flesh. What I do not recognize, and what certainly cannot be drawn from the Scriptures, is such a clear dichotomy between the flesh and the heart. In fact, whenever Scripture mentions such a battle, or any kind of distinction in that battle, it is between the flesh and the Spirit (Romans 8:1, 4, 5, 9, 13; Galatians 5:17).

I understand, especially in light of Romans 7:17-23, that there is a certain degree of mystery regarding the exact nature and relationship of the terms flesh and heart. The problem, though, is not the presence of the mystery. The problem is that John Eldredge thinks he has solved it. He so boldly declares the regenerate heart to be good—God's ally in the battle against the evil flesh—that the unwary reader might rush headlong to follow its dictates. After all, who would not want to follow such a noble leader as the Eldredge version of the regenerate heart?

But before anyone does that, please consider carefully the words of several wise Christian men from our past. Jonathan Edwards, possibly the greatest theologian America has ever known, wrote,

" . . . it is a mysterious thing which has puzzled and amazed many a good Christian, that there should be that which is so divine and precious, [namely] the saving grace of God and the new and divine nature, dwelling with so much corruption, hypocrisy, and iniquity, in the heart of the same saint."¹

Charles Spurgeon, in commenting on Jeremiah 17:9, said, "There is within our nature that which would send the best saint to hell if sovereign grace did not prevent. There is a little hell within the heart of every child of God . . ."²

And George Muller—the beloved preacher of the 19^th century, in recounting one of the times when he, as a long-time Christian, fell into sinful behavior, said this about the human heart:

"If the believing reader does not know much of his own heart and of man's weaknesses, he will scarcely think it possible that, after I had been borne with by the Lord so long, and had received so many mercies at His hands, and had been so fully and freely pardoned through the blood of Jesus, which I both knew from His word, and had also enjoyed; and after that I had been in such various ways engaged in the work of the Lord; I should have been once more guilty of great backsliding, and that at the very time when the hand of God was lying heavily upon me. Oh! how desperately wicked is the human heart."³

In portraying the regenerate human heart the way he does—in teaching men that they should "know and live from" that heart, Eldredge certainly seeks to refute what these men have said.

He also completely ignores two other important facts: Scripture never glorifies the heart the way he does, and nowhere does the Bible advise or encourage Christians to trust, or "live from" even their regenerate hearts. On the contrary, the eternal wisdom of Proverbs 28:26 tells us that "He who trusts in his own heart is a fool."

Consistently in the New Testament, we are commanded to live, not from our hearts, but rather by the Spirit of God as He directs our lives through the Word of God. In telling the Christian man to "know and live from" his deep heart, Eldredge, even if unintentionally, minimizes the necessity of the Holy Spirit and denies the sufficiency of Scripture. And it is not just by implication that he directs men away from the Spirit and the Word. On page 200, I found this statement:

"God is intimately personal with us and he speaks in ways that are peculiar to our own quirky hearts—not just through the Bible, but through the whole creation. To Stasi he speaks through movies. To Craig he speaks through rock and roll…God's word to me comes in many ways—through sunsets and friends and films and music and wilderness and books. But he's got an especially humorous thing going with me and books. I'll be browsing through a secondhand book shop when out of a thousand volumes one will say, 'Pick me up'—just like Augustine in his Confessions. Tolle legge—take up and read."

He goes on to explain how such a message from God came to him through a book (title not given) by an author named Gil Bailie. Bailie related a piece of advice given to him years earlier by a spiritual mentor. The message read like this: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

I would like to point out first of all that when Augustine heard children chanting the words, "Tolle legge," (take up and read) the book that he was moved to read was the Bible—Romans 13:14 to be exact.

Secondly, the words given to Bailie, and then through his book, to Eldredge, are hardly biblical. They seem to encourage self-fulfillment—not the appropriate kind that seeks personal fulfillment in Christ, but rather the selfish kind that opposes the consistent message of self-denial and sacrifice contained in the New Testament.

Nevertheless, another statement, found on page 201, makes it clear that John Eldredge really believed that the words in Bailie's book were a direct message from God:

"Reading the counsel given to Bailie I knew it was God speaking to me. It was an invitation to come out of Ur. I set the volume down without turning another page and walked out of that bookstore to find a life worth living."

Apparently he saw no need for prayer or the guidance of the Scriptures in making this life-changing decision. A bit of questionable second-hand advice from a man named Gil Bailie was more than sufficient.

All of this is very bad, but the worst problem with Eldredge's whitewashed understanding of the regenerate human heart is found on page 134. Immediately following his comment about the error of applying Jeremiah 17:9 to the Christian, Eldredge makes this statement: "What God sees when he sees you is the real you, the true you, the man he had in mind when he made you."

Notice that Eldredge is speaking of "the real you" in the present tense. He is talking about right here, right now—not some point in the future. Now listen carefully to the very next sentence, where he poses this question: "How else could [God] give you the white stone with your true name on it?"

To what "white stone" is Eldredge referring? Though he does not give the reference, I'm certain that he was referring to Revelation 2:17 which says, "To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it." The white stone is given to saints—those who overcome—those whose faith is proven true, and who will spend eternity in heaven.

According to Eldredge, how can you or I get that white stone? What is the only possible way to enter heaven? God must see the purity of your own heart—a heart that is no longer "desperately wicked and deceitful above all things." He must see "the real you, the true you, the man he had in mind when he made you," if he is to grant you entrance into heaven. "How else could he give you the white stone with your true name on it?"

If you do not see the problem here, you may want to study carefully the biblical doctrine of justification. Read Romans chapter 4, where Paul writes of "the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works" (v. 6). "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin" (v. 8).

Imputation is to have something charged or credited to your account. As believers in Christ, our sin was charged to Christ's account, while His righteousness is credited to our account. "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When God looks at you—when He justifies you as a Christian—when He accepts you as righteous—what He bases that declaration on is most certainly not "the real you," as Eldredge asserts. God does not justify you on the merits of your regenerate heart. God justifies a person, by grace through faith, on the basis of Christ—on the basis of His death which paid the penalty for sin, and His righteousness by which we are covered or clothed. That is the only way God could give us the white stone.

Martin Luther once said that Christians are like "snow-covered dung." It is only the purity of the covering—the righteousness of Christ—that God sees as the basis of our justification. Does God give you a new heart in regeneration? Yes! Does He then justify you on the basis of that heart as Eldredge claims? Most certainly not! As Paul wrote in Romans 4:5, God "justifies the ungodly." Were it not for that beautiful truth, neither you, nor I would have any hope of heaven.

John Eldredge never does proclaim the gospel in this book. But for those who are familiar with the discussion, his apparent attempt to explain the core doctrine of justification sounds more like the Roman Catholic position—justification through an infused righteousness. Faith is necessary, along with righteousness, Rome insists. But the righteousness required is that of the believer, not the alien righteousness of Christ.

In Rome's view, unless you are actually righteous—unless God sees "the real you" as a good person, you have no hope of heaven. However strongly Rome denies this, in their man-made religious system justification is not granted by God's grace; it is given as a deserved reward. Theirs is not the Christian gospel, but it is the view Eldredge seems to be affirming.