John Eldredge's Dangerous Theology Part 2
Assertions and Claims
My critical review of John Eldredge’s book, Moving Mountains: Praying with Passion, Confidence, and Authority will be in a four-week series.
In week one I showed how Eldredge misuses, misinterprets, and misapplies the Bible by using eisegesis and disregarding basic hermeneutics.
This week, I will show that Eldredge makes assertions and claims he cannot biblically substantiate.
Next week, we will unpack Eldredge’s dangerous practice of listening prayer, and the ability to hear from Jesus in various ways.
Finally, in part four, you will see that Eldredge has a skewed, unbiblical view of a Christian’s authority and our ability to bring heaven to earth by declaration and proclamation.
#2 Eldredge makes assertions and claims he cannot biblically substantiate.
An assertion is a statement made confidently but fails to provide evidence to support the statement. A claim is a statement made that can be supported by evidence. One offers little space for intellectual banter. The other is a foundation for an intellectual argument.
In a day and age of sources at our fingertips, Christian teachers should be able to back their statements biblically, and possibly academically, to create a claim worth defending. This is not always the case. Many times, leaders, pastors, and teachers make assertions about God, His Word, the spiritual realm, or our spiritual lives without providing strong biblical evidence for such an assertion.
It is one thing to share a personal experience with the caveat that would explain that what one is teaching is just that - an experience. It is another to make theological assertions based on those personal experiences and expect people to just accept it. Still, I have often taken someone’s assertion as truth. I have taken their word and assumed they were speaking biblical truth.
This is what I did with Eldredge and his ideas around prayer. He made such compelling assertions that I wanted to be a part of what he was teaching. I wanted it to be true.
It was not.
Eldredge makes assertions he cannot substantiate, and I will provide you with evidence to show this to be true. While I cannot cover all the assertions and claims, I will lay out a few of the most outstanding (I say a few because there are so many).
Secret Insight
Eldredge claims he has some unique insight and knowledge concerning prayer. While there is room for us to learn from others, the hubris of Eldredge tends to come through in a few places.
Eldredge says that he can put a “far, far more effective understanding of prayer” into our hands (11). Though he uses the 1 Kings story of Elijah to substantiate his claim, it seems that he does not think the Scripture is sufficient to explain to us all there is to know about prayer, hence his book. His claim is primarily based on personal experience that should provide ways to ensure us that we are praying the best way possible. This assertion is quite astounding. He is saying that a mortal man can provide a “more effective understanding” of prayer beyond the prophets, the Psalms of David, the very words of Christ, and the examples of the apostles. His hubris is showing.
Eldredge says that understanding authority is “the secret to the kingdom of God, and one of the essential secrets to prayer that works” (58). If this is so, why do the New Testament authors not teach us this? At the end of his chapter called “The Prayer of Intervention” Eldredge writes, “If you will pray like this, you will begin to see far greater results” (89). He asserts that if you pray the way he says to pray, using this “secret” of understanding authority, you will get greater results.1 This is a far cry from teaching the biblical principles of prayer.
On page 99, after giving an example of a prayer of consecration, Eldredge writes, “Trust me — it makes a difference.” This by no means should be any approach to convince someone you know something secret about prayer. One’s personal experience does not always warrant trust. While there is nothing wrong with acknowledging our position before a good and holy God, it by no means should be taught that consecration is “the first step before God’s protection and provision can flow” (98).
At the end of this chapter (called “Consecration”), Eldredge claims that those who pray the way he has written out for them to pray and “make it a regular practice report wonderful results” (111). Results he does not provide.
Using personal experience or a “just trust me” approach should raise a large, red flag of discernment over the pages of this book. Be aware that any teacher or author uses this tactic of baiting you into thinking they have opened some sort of secret to prayer, hearing from God, or whatever the next thing may be.
Prayer
In weeks three and four, I will cover Eldredge’s teaching on “listening prayer,” but it’s worth noting a few assertions Eldredge makes regarding prayer.
In his chapter “The Prayer of Intervention,” Eldredge writes, “Intervening prayer often takes time. And it takes repetition, repeatedly intervening and invoking…” (79). On the surface, there is nothing wrong with returning to God with repeated prayer. However, Eldredge uses a personal story to propose something different.
Eldredge tells of how God woke him up to pray for a friend and sensed the Spirit urging him to pray this, “Your resurrection life and glory to fill him now, Lord. I invoke your resurrection life and glory to fill him now” (79). (Throughout the book, Eldredge writes many times that we need to “invoke” the power of God. More on this later.) While the definition of “invoke” can mean that one petitions a higher power or appeals to authority, it can also mean to call forth by incantation. Based on the context of Eldredge’s story, it does not seem as though he is petitioning as much as he is using an incantation. He writes, “Settling into the task, I simply stayed with the invocation: ‘your life, your life, your life’… Over and over again, Your life, your life, your life… and I was called upon to invoke it, over and over and over again… (79). If this was a way we were to pray, why do the biblical authors never show us how to do this or command us to do so? What does Eldredge think this accomplished? He does not say.
Eldredge supports his claim of repetitive, “mantra-like” prayer by presenting the repetition found in Psalm 136. The Psalmist writes a line, and in return, there is the repeated phrase, “His love endures forever.” This is hardly a prescription for repetitive prayer to be powerful and effective. Regardless, Eldredge makes his case even though he ensures the reader that he “wasn’t chanting magic spells” (81). Why would it be necessary to clarify this? He says he was practicing the “Prayer of Intervention,” which “requires sticking with it” as it takes “repeated blows” to be effective (81). On what Biblical principle, command, or even practice does Eldredge base his argument other than the one story of Elijah? Does our repetition move God in some way that our petition cannot? Why do we need “repeated blows” to make something change? Is it some sort of force or magic? Where does Eldredge get the idea that we need to “tune in and align ourselves with God as his partner” so that we are “not simply begging God to move, but partnering with him in bringing his kingdom to bear on the need at hand”? (81) How does one ensure they are doing it right?
As we explore his ideas around prayer over the next two weeks, you will see how he mixes the truth of prayer with what seems to be some form of man’s ability to pull the things of God down into the human space. He writes, “Enforcing that kingdom often requires much ‘staying with it’ and repetition” (81). This man-centric theology is quite exhausting.
Aligning and Enforcing
As a reminder, this post is to show how often Eldredge makes assertions and claims. The context and content of those claims will be covered more extensively over the coming weeks (unless you want to grab the book and read it for yourself).
To continue, Eldredge asserts in his chapter called “Consecration” that we are to think of consecration as “‘aligning’ and ‘enforcing’ — aligning yourself, or the subject in question, with Jesus and all the laws of his kingdom, then enforcing his rule and those laws over the matter in question” (109). This assertion is followed by another one, “But often the enforcing requires a bit more oomph, especially if you are having difficulties there.” Here, he introduces the “power of proclaiming.” Eldredge writes that “we enforce by proclaiming what is true over the subject at hand” (110). To make his point, he says, “We proclaim our authority over our homes because we do have that authority, and we are requiring all things in the heavens and the earth to recognize and yield to that authority. We are announcing to all kingdoms and powers that the authority of Jesus Christ is now in effect here” (110).
Eldredge is simply talking. He provides no biblical reason for us to believe what he is saying is true. He misuses the Bible and misapplies the interpretations by creating prescriptive ways of handling the spiritual forces based on descriptive texts. Again, if the NT authors wanted us to know these ways of praying and enforcing and aligning, they would have practiced it and commanded the Church to do likewise, but they did not.
Making Claims About God
In the strange chapter called “Let There Be Light,” Eldredge asserts that “Pressure nearly always guarantees you will have a hard time discerning what God is saying, if you hear anything at all. Pressure clenches up your heart and soul and ties all your insides in rubber-band knots. Even if God is shouting, it is unlikely he can get through to you because of the chaos” (127).
What in the unbiblical world is this? How does Eldredge know this to be true? In what way is our “chaos” so powerful that God cannot engage in our lives or intervene in a way that would be beneficial? In what world did Eldredge get this insight into the Holy One’s inability to comfort us when we are under pressure?
He doubles down on this on page 132, “Pressure is a killer; it nearly always gets in the way of hearing from God.” He encourages the reader to “lay down the pressure as you seek guidance. Drama never helps; stress never helps.” Would this bring comfort to the mother who is watching her child die? Does this make sense to the persecuted Christian hiding from authorities? Does this help the man who has just lost his job? If we cannot approach God when under pressure, most of our days will be lived in utter silence before Him.
This is a massive burden. How do we measure our “pressure”? How do we know when we have let off enough pressure? Eldredge is setting up his foundation for listening prayer. If you cannot hear the voice of God, you cannot go further into the Eldredge world of inner healing. Again, more to come in the next two weeks.
What would Eldredge have said to King David when he wrote, “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; bring me out of my distress. Consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins” (Ps 25:16-18)? Would he have suggested David come out from under such pressure so he could hear the voice of God?
Or what of David’s prayer in Psalm 69, “Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.”?
It does not seem as though telling the King of Israel to depressurize would have been met with approval. David prayed in joy and distress. David prayed and praised when he felt the presence of God and when he feared God had abandoned him. David prayed when he was righteous and when he was sinful. And yes, we can too.
Eldredge’s assertions fall apart within a few passages of Scripture.
These are a few of the many assertions and claims Eldredge makes throughout the book. The more Eldredge unpacks his theology, the worse it gets. The reader is led to believe that our choas is powerful enough to silence God (in the way Eldredge believes God speaks), that our posture before God must be as peaceful as possible, and that if we are to be effective in our prayers we should follow Eldredge’s tried and true ways, and just trust him. I did, and I will not do it again.
To conclude, let us turn to the unwavering truth of God’s Word:
“And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11 ESV
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-7
“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” Matthew 6:6
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” 1 John 3: 21-24.
Join me next week as we look at the dangerous practice of “listening prayer.”
See week one about his misuse of the biblical text about authority found on pages 67-69. Week four will cover this more in-depth.