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Alert. Intense defense of book Wild at Heart defense begins here.

This book profoundly aided me in opening my eyes to the power of CHRIST, not the power of a masculine man.

As one born to a secularist, evolution-teaching mother, and mostly pagan father, with too many "adult" years wasted just trying to 'get' it, I can testify that the audience for WAH is not your typical covenant Christian. It's your standard goatee dude who peripherally hears a lot about Christ and doesn't have the faintest clue how to graduate from 'guy' to 'man'.

I'm dismayed to witness in this brief thread that the primary issue raised in the book has not been mentioned. Men are supposed to be wild at heart b/c CHRIST, the one who casts out demons face to face, showed us how to do it. To confront supernatural attacks usually requires more than the dry corrections of the reformed scholar.

It was his WIFE who, when praying with her husband, experienced increased symptoms of spiritual attacks in RESPONSE to the initial prayers against them. (p.160,-163).

This author showed me that Satan's first objective is render a man apathetic to battle at all ... by convincing him the 'devil' is not real. I'd never encountered that before (and C.S. Lewis was opaque to me ... he writes to the converted. Of course, Lewis is awesome ... now). It was this author who showed me how to overcome the spiritual attacks once a man actually dares believe that Satan just might be real after all. I think few folks realize just how easy it is for people, huge numbers of people, to believe Christ was real, and at the same time utterly dismiss the existence of Satan as laughable.

WAH showed me how to not test whether Christ was real, but test whether Satan actually intercedes in this world (all you have to do is anything that deliberately increases the holiness in your family, while publicly speaking you are giving Christ the credit).

As one trained in the arts of science, I discovered something. All the supernatural things that began happening in my life, some very good, some unbelievably bad, after WAH could all logically be assigned to 'coincidence'. Taken one at a time, sure. But together? I'm scientifically convinced ... now. WAH helped me realize CHRIST was so powerful that demons recognized him upon approach (that was direct from the bible in WAH). (Sure I read the bible ... but reading and reading comprehension are two different matters.)

In my family, with my kids and wife, I began to fight on the spiritual battlefields, and with Christ, victories have and continue to follow.

A battle to fight .... men are first built for that. But I was very surprised that loneliness ... something I used to believe a woman was well-designed to offset .... was 'cured' once I approached the battlefield, took up the weapons, used them, and didn't leave. Very, very surprisingly, I'm not lonely anymore. My wife is my responsibility, not my loneliness bandage. I don't question whether I am a man or a boy trapped in a man's body anymore. WAH opened the door to this process beginning.

Federal Husband (along with Reforming Marriage), by Douglas Wilson, is WAH on steroids (though, oddly enough, little about spiritual warfare is covered). But that's another thread. I mention it however, to indicate to the Calvinists one thing: Reformed ANYTHING was opaque and revolting to me prior to WAH. (Ted Nugent? All that indicates to me, drstevej, is you had a big, big head start in life. What reformed author is known for expository commentary on biblically based spiritual warfare - that secularists might actually read?)

The density of Christ exponentially increased for me after reading WAH. All that sadly testifies to is just how much of a total guy I was. The hunger for manliness cannot be easily overlooked ... but the solution for that hunger is, indeed, something the Devil has a vested interest in keeping 'guys' in the dark about. I hope I'm not the only one who senses this.

In short, others here have noted that J.E. is just another author, with human foibles like anyone else. It's true. But the easy dismissal of this book by ANYONE makes me very very suspicious regarding just who is supposed to gain from that dismissal. That all said, his book Waking the Dead is useful too.