The Dream Traveler’s Quest, Book 4
It’s been a long while since I read this book to my kids (10 and 12 at the time), and somehow I let the review slip through the cracks. It’s only 123 pages, so a quick perusal has reminded me of the plot and lessons—and thanks to my copious note-taking whenever I read a book (even to kids), I’ve got a handle on why I still don’t like Ted Dekker!
The story picks up where Book 3 left off: the school bully, Asher, has stolen The Book of History. Theo, Annelee, and Danny risk their own safety by breaking into his house, but they find that Asher has bled onto the book and has entered the dream world—and also that he’s being protected by a Shataiki, and therefore under the spell of the Shadow Man. When Talya assigns the kids their quest to find the final two seals, they enter the dream world themselves. Danny is threatened and Annelee is quickly kidnaped, leaving Theo to choose which friend to save.
The story’s overtones of spiritual warfare are so strong and obvious, it’s really pointless to pretend that this book is strictly an entertaining novel. The Dekkers’ misguided theology is on full display, and while it’s something that allowed me to have conversations with my kids about truth and error, I’m a little upset with myself for having strung them along through all 4 books.
Theo talks regularly with Elyon (God) in the form of a boy who has a lion named Judah (Jesus) who supposedly guides Theo into truth with the five seals. They are helped along the way by Roush (angels) and fight Shataiki (demons) led by Shadow Man (Satan). Who Talya is supposed to be, I can’t figure out, but all those other analogies are clear.
It’s not the book’s metaphors that bother me, since it’s no different than similar attempts by C.S. Lewis and others—of course, I could do without portrayals of God; Aslan this is not! What really gets my goat are the seals and the “Truth” that Theo is supposed to learn. Theo summarizes the seals this way:
White: Elyon is light without darkness.
Green: I am the light.
Black: My journey is to see light in the darkness.
Red: Surrender is the means of seeing the light.
White: Love is the evidence of being in the light. (106)
The starting point in Dekker’s universe is that, because God is Light, all the people He created are also automatically the light of the world. Even Asher who’s filled with evil, controlled by demons, and serving Satan is the light of the world (31)—he just needs to recognize it! There’s no mention in here of repentance, forgiveness, sacrifice, etc. Instead, salvation comes by merely recognizing your true identity and living a life of love. Elyon (God) actually tells Theo in the end: “Love is more than amazing. There is no fear in love. Love holds no record of wrong. Love is life itself. Everything else is fear and death.” (106)
This approach to Truth (a.k.a.. salvation) is so anti-biblical, I find it hard to imagine how the Christian world keeps pegging Ted Dekker as a Christian author. Dekker’s theology is the entire “He Gets Us” movement in a nutshell:
“God doesn’t care about your sin, He just wants to love you for who you are. Accept that truth! Accept others! Love Wins!”
Come to think of it, it’s also Rob Bell’s theology and that of any other heretic that wants to ignore sin, demean Jesus, glorify humanity, and eek out their own politically correct, socially acceptable pathway to God. Hogwash.
I’d say I’m completely over Ted Dekker (I’ve hit my limits with him before), but that’s not entirely accurate. I still have his Circle series in graphic-novel form sitting on my shelves, and I’m tempted to read it. If I can go into that book like it’s fiction, I might be OK…but then again, probably not. It’s worse that fiction, because it’s dressing itself up and selling itself as an allegory of Truth, when really it’s heretical trash.
Why would I bother? Why should you?
©2024 E.T.
Read More from Ted Dekker:
- The Promise (2005)
- Adam (2008)
- Into the Book of Light (2018)
- The Curse of Shadowman (2018)
- The Garden and the Serpent (2018)
- The Final Judgment (2018)