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Introduction

Before we get too far in this process we need to say a bit about the larger world of theology and the Bible. Many people shudder when they encounter theological terminology and viewpoints they aren’t used to. In this talk I would like to take you through some of the major passages of Scripture that talk about various phases and parts of Biblical Counseling. I will do it from the standpoint of theological constructs and try to help demystify theology and theological terminology for you.

Theology Proper

It is important to remember that the goal of theological study is to find out what God is telling us through his word. As with most things, however, there are ditches on both sides of the road. On one side are those who love to study theology, but not the primary reason for the theology. They have left God and are simply studying the Bible, or worse, not even the Bible, but simply theology. These people tend to be very smart, ridged, pale, narrow minded, and prune faced. They love debating, quoting other really smart people, and being right. The only friends they have are others like them. The ditch on the other side is filled with people who love Jesus, but have abandoned his word in the hopes of finding him within themselves. They hate theology and everything related to theology and run like scared rabbits whenever anyone tries to take a conversation down a larger than proof texting road. They know their bible very sparingly and only in dribs and drabs. They have no idea what context is and don’t really care. They are usually fun to be with for short periods. Because their theology is so shallow, they also sin easily. They often have lots of friends, but no close friends.

Biblical, Historical, Systematic, and Practical Theology

There are four main areas of theological study: Biblical, Historical, Systematic, and Practical. In the simplest terms Biblical Theology is the study of the bible in its particular contexts.  A Biblical theologian might ask, “What is Paul trying to get at in Ephesians?” This theologian might spend years studying every aspect of Ephesians to try to know as deeply as possible what Paul was trying to say. His focus will be primarily on Ephesians and only go to other places in the Bible or history as it touches on the letter to the Ephesians.

A Historical theologian will study various topics alluded to in the Bible as it has been studied by other theologians down through history. He may read something written by a biblical theologian about Ephesians and marriage might catch his eye. His job will be to study what other scholars and people have written about marriage through all of church history.

A Systematic theologian takes the work of both these other two disciplines and puts them together in a systematic way. He might take every instance of the topic of marriage in the Bible and referred to in history and write a systematic theology book on marriage. His job is to systematically arrange all the information on the various topics in a way that is helpful for Christians to study their Bibles with particular topics in mind.

The Practical theologian deals with putting the theology of these other folks into practical use. Theology that is only studied, but never put into practice is what produces the wonks of the world. As I said before, they get sidetracked by the glitz of the study and forget that it is all about living in front of the living God. There are four areas of practical theology: Homiletics, apologetics, evangelism, and counseling. Obviously, we are immediately concerned with the last three. But at the same time we must not neglect the other areas of theology because they inform us and help give us guidelines or boundaries within which we operate.

The Sheriff

The following story was presented to me to begin a discussion about God’s sovereignty: Once upon a time in an old Western town, little Suzy was skipping down the street singing happy songs. Sheriff John was sitting on the sidewalk outside his office with his feet up on the hitching rack, dozing in his chair, half aware of little Suzy coming toward him. All of a sudden from across the street, Bad Bart came stumbling out of the saloon, sees little Suzy, runs across the street and begins hitting her with his horse whip. Sheriff John sits there watching what is going on, but not doing anything.

My friend asked, What was going on? Was the Sheriff unable to help Suzy—impotent? Was he in it with Bad Bart—evil? Could have stopped it, but didn’t want to—again evil? Something else? Was the sheriff surprised and thus too confused to help? Did he care for Suzy?

This is really a parable. God is the Sheriff, Bad Bart is any evil man, Suzy is any innocent person against whom sin is carried out. Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?

Here’s my answer: 1) God is not a man. He is the creator of men and everything else, including time (Num. 23:19; Rom. 1:25; Col. 1:17). 2) God is not inside our story. He is writing our story, not a character in our story (Gen. 1:1; Jn 1:1). 3) We are characters in his story. He is writing the story from outside of it (Acts. 17: 28). 4) God is good and cannot do evil, nor does he tempt anyone to do evil (Gen. 1:12; Ez. 8:22; Psa. 109:21; Jas. 1:13). 5) Because he is God and thus outside our story, he does things we don’t understand and he doesn’t need to explain himself to us (Deut. 29:29; Pro. 25:2). 6) He does not allowthings to happen, he causes things to happen. And he does all for his own glory (Gen. 50:20; Acts 4:27-28).

The overall answer is I don’t know why God wrote the story the way he did. I know that God loves all the characters in the story. I know that God will judge all the characters in the story. I know that apart from Christ the end of all the characters is the same. I know that if Bad Bart repents and submits to Christ, he will go to heaven and if cute Suzy doesn’t she will end up in Hell. God wrote the overall story, and he wrote the individual stories. God is God and we are not.

Choices

How does this work out with human free will? The idea of Free Will and Determinism assume a world that does not exist. We are Biblical Christians and this means that we need to interpret what we find around us in terms and concepts the Bible presents. This is because Jesus is Lord, not Cant, Hegel, Hume, or Sartre. The Bible says that God does what he does, and we do what we do. Both freely choose at the same time. Both interact with one another in real life in real time, and in real experience. God writes the story, we interact with one another and with the story we’ve been written into. We pray, God answers prayer, even though he’s already written it from before the foundations of the world (Eph. 1:4; 1 Tim. 1:9).

Sanctification/Change

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (Jn. 17:17)

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Rom 8:28-30)

Sanctify means to “make holy” or to “set apart.” The angels proclaim that God is holy (Rev. 4:8). This means that God is wholly other than his creation. He is set apart from us; he is not one of us. When God made a relationship with us—called covenant—in order for us to be close to him, he needed to make us holy as well. This holiness comes to us through the sacrifice of another on our behalf. In the old Covenant it was the bulls and goats, in the New it is the death of Jesus. When the Bible calls us holy, or sanctified, it is primarily talking about our position in Christ. We have been set apart, apart from the world, made holy, because we are in Christ, in Christ’s family, members of God’s people (1 Cor. 6:11). In another sense, we are being set apart, being made holy, as we learn to more consistently walk with God and one another (Heb. 10:14). We are also going to be set apart, or made holy at the last day (1 Jn. 3:2; 1 Thess. 5:23; Phil. 3:12; Rom. 8:30; Heb. 12:22-23).

Progressive Sanctification

Progressive Sanctification simply means that sanctification, or changing into Christ’s likeness is a process. This change takes you from where you are now to where you will be. God knows what or where we will be. At the same time, knows our frame and knows what we’ve been through and thus he takes us from where we are and won’t let us go. He makes crooked lines straight. He takes dirty brains and makes them clean.

Spiritual growth only happens as we act on our beliefs. If we submit ourselves to the Lordship of Jesus we grow in grace and the knowledge of the Son of God (2 Pet. 3:18). If we are in rebellion against him, we are not growing spiritually at all. Spiritual growth means we are becoming more like Jesus. It does not mean we are more spiritual in the sense the pagans mean it.

Confession of Sin

We’ll say much more about this in a subsequent lecture, but suffice it to say that confession means to say the same thing. In the context of, say, 1 John 1:9 it means to say the same thing about the thought, motive, behavior, emotion, etc. that God says about it. When you say to your wife, I’m sorry for being such a lunk-head.” You have not confessed sin. In order to receive full forgiveness, you need to actually say what it was about your life that made others think you were a lunk-head. “I sinned against you by being insensitive, by becoming angry, by yelling at you and kicking the dog. I sinned. I’ll never do it again. Please forgive me.”

Repentance

The word we translate “repent” from is the word in Greek which literally means “to change your mind.” The Biblical use of the word means to change your mind from doing wrong, unhelpful, sinful things, do doing things that bring honor and glory to God. But as with everything else we can’t isolate the mind from the rest of our being. The greatest commandment, for example tells us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mk 12:30). This does not mean that we can love God with only one of these at a time. It means that we cannot distinguish between them and that our whole being is involved in loving God.

You’ll notice that the verse used the word heart. The heart is the center of our being. It is the source for where our thoughts, emotions, words, and behavior comes from. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks (Mt. 12:34). This means that if we are going to repent, if we are going to turn away from sin entirely, we need to get to the heart of the matter. Sin is not simply the things we think, do and say, they come from somewhere else and this somewhere needs to be purged, mortified, killed, if we are to truly be changed—sanctified (Deut. 10:16; 30:6; Jer. 4:4, Rom. 2:29). Biblical Counseling spends a lot of time and effort working with people to understand all the sin they are involved in in their lives. This discussion talks about habit, sin, idolatry, slavery, bondage, and selfishness. It involves fear, worship, love, goals, and allegiance.

Repentance is not only about turning away from sin. That is only half the problem of counseling. The other half is that when you are turning away from something, you are also turning to or toward something else. In the Christian life, this turning is from sin to Christ, or Christ likeness. It is similar to paddling in a fast moving stream headed toward a waterfall. To stop paddling is not the only thing needed, you also need to paddle in a new direction. Repentance is completed when a person turns from their sin and to Christ—developing habits and actions, thoughts and emotions that are submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

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Text

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (Gal 6:1-3)

Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1Th 5:11)

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (Eph 4:11-13)

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. (Eph 4:29)

…who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Cor. 1:4)

So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you had become very dear to us. (1 Thes. 2:8)

Introduction

When Ken Steele was just fourteen years old, he began hearing voices telling him to kill himself. For the next three decades he was in and out of mental institutions, taking a myriad of medications, being beaten up, raped, abused, used, and ignored. Ken lived a plethora of nightmares with homosexuals, drug addicts, political wolves, and medical practitioners who were more interested in protecting their careers than in helping those entrusted to their care.

Now fifty years old, Ken sits in your office asking for help to deal with the voices.

We’re All In This Together

The Church is a collection of baptized people who profess Christ as their Lord and Savior. It is a collection of individuals who are in the process of becoming like Christ. It is also a body of Christ with lumps and bumps and all kinds of blemishes. There is no one who can claim that they have arrived or who don’t need to work on anything anymore. There have been various churches and denominations who have claimed to have been completed, or who don’t sin anymore, but poke one of these people in the eye and watch what they do. We’re all in this process together: individually and corporately.

Our Goal and Calling

The Apostle Paul tells his various readers to work with one another in a sacrificial way to help one another become more Christ-like in all areas of life (Gal. 6:1). He tells us to encourage one another and build one another up to Christ likeness (1 Thess. 5:11). We have already seen that we are to imitate him in striving to present every man mature in Christ (Col. 1:28). Notice this is a one another kind of thing, not a minister/special person kind of thing. We have all been given various gifts which we are to use to help one another walk with Christ. Does this mean that everyone should be a lay or peer counselor? In one sense, yes. In another sense, not at all.

How To Know

The most obvious way to know if God can use you as an encourager is to ask yourself if you are still breathing. If you are, then you are called, no commanded to lift others up to Christ. If not breathing, well…. The next thing to ask yourself is how you are doing with the Lord yourself. If you are struggling with no answers in your own life, then you should probably wait to try to help others (Mt. 15:14). But because everyone is struggling with various things, you can still help others with what you do know. Galatians 6:1 tells us that those who are spiritual should help others who are trapped in sin. What does spiritual mean? Basically it means to wait until you are walking with God as a normal part of your life. By walking with God, I mean, keeping short accounts with God. This means, not that you don’t sin, but that when you do sin, you take care of making things right with God and with others very quickly. This does a couple of things: first, it keeps you in a position to learn from God as you walk with him. We don’t grow in our faith unless we are in a right relationship with God. When we are in sin, all we learn is that we are in sin. But the fear of the Lord (right relationship), is the beginning of knowledge (Pro. 1:7). Second, walking with God means that you aren’t committing hugely rebellious sins any longer. Your sins are mostly inside your head and with more maturity comes smaller sins. This doesn’t mean that you feel any less hatred for your sin, in fact, you will feel even stronger against sin as you mature, but that your sins are not as obvious to others.

1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 give a list of qualifications for church leadership. The lay/peer counselor is not necessarily going to be an elder or deacon in their church, but they should be pursuing the character that church leaders are required to possess.

Nuts and Bolts

Beyond spiritual qualities, there should be some giftedness. The quest for testing the gifts is always desire. Do you desire to help others in a systematic and purposeful way? If you do, you might have the gifts required to become a good counselor. Are you discerning? Can you read people and hear what they are telling you beyond what they are saying? Can you put life together with hearing a story? Do you have a little bit of suspicion in you? A good counselor needs to know people and how people work, think, live, and relate to one another. You need to be able to diagnose a problem and see roots and anticipate desires. Another question to ask is, Are you a good teacher in general? Do others learn easily from you? When you taught that swim class, did the students learn to swim better than before they came to the class? What about that sewing course you taught? In the church realm, do people get a lot out of your lessons in Bible study? Are your students learning and growing in the Lord as a result of your ministry?

Biblical counselors do teach, but they do it in a very different way than preachers or other kinds of teachers. Teachers usually take texts or topics and expound, or explain them to the students. If there is any application, for example in preaching, it comes from the text rather than from life. In counseling, people with problems come for counsel and encouragement with their own particular and specific problem. The counselor needs to be able to listen to a counselee’s story and very quickly translate the story into Biblical terms and be able to point the person to Biblical solutions to their life’s problems. Not only this, but as we will see, the counselor is not simply finding verses that say, “don’t do this” or “don’t do that” we are looking for passages that address philosophies of life, or mixed up theology, or principles of life. Biblical counselors go much deeper than simply proof texts for life problems. In contrast to the normal teacher, Biblical counselors come to the text through the person’s life situation rather than to the situation from the text.

For Further Reading

Jay Adams, The Christian Counselors Manual

David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes

Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

John MacArthur & Wayne Mack, Biblical Counseling

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Two Streams

About a decade before Jay Adams began his quest to make the Bible the foundation and guide for all counseling, Christian people who were trained in non-Christian psychology began to see that the church was lacking in the proper care of souls. Churches were either not teaching the Word of God because they were liberal, were teaching a different Gospel because they believed that eschatology trumped living in the world we have been given (dispensationalists), or because they simply taught theology and assumed that people would be able to apply it in their lives (fundamentalists and Reformed conservatives). These Christian psychologists were believers in the Gospel of Jesus, but lived their lives in a compartmental way. They believed the Gospel, but thought that they had discovered truth about human behavior in their professional disciplines. It did not bother them that Freud, Jung, Rogers, Skinner, Adler, and the rest were actually not only not Christians, but were active non-Christians. In other words, most, if not all of the seminal thinkers in psychology, were actively repressing the Gospel.  They came to their psychological conclusions in orderto fight against and provide an alternative to the Gospel.

These Christian psychologists took the principles of non-Christian psychology, baptized them with Biblical terminology, then brought these principles into the church as if they had found truth. Consequently, over time they have led the way to a psychologized church. We call this kind of ministry Christian Counseling or Integrationist Counseling because it is done by Christians, but using non-Christian psychology—the world’s psychology.

Problems with Psychology

Psychology is not a science, it is applied philosophy – a kind of religion. Even in the field itself, it is called a “soft science,” which is really a euphemism for “not a science” at all. Here are a number of reasons I say this. First, a scientific theory is testable or falsifiable. This means that if a psychologist says your problem is that the serotonin (or dopamine) in your brain is low, it must be testable or verifiable. But we can’t measure serotonin (or dopamine) in the brain until the patient is dead.

Second, science always considers alternate explanations and if something else can account for an observation, they won’t take a stand on what they think is going on. Psychology assumes virtually everything they diagnose. All they have to go on is reported symptoms and from that description they make authoritative explanations and diagnoses. For example, if your child gets bored easily, becomes listless, can’t concentrate, and regularly acts out, he is more than likely to be diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). But there could be a number of other reasons your child behaves this way.

Third, based on their assumptions about humanity and life generally, psychologists make authoritative predictions about what to expect in the future. Science “test ideas with evidence.” Wikipedia says,

The chief characteristic which distinguishes the scientific method from other methods of acquiring knowledge is that scientists seek to let realityspeak for itself, supporting a theory when a theory’s predictions are confirmed and challenging a theory when its predictions prove false. Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methods of obtaining knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses via predictions which can be derived from them. These steps must be repeatable to guard against mistake or confusion in any particular experimenter.Theoriesthat encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many independently derived hypotheses together in a coherent, supportive structure. Theories, in turn, may help form new hypotheses or place groups of hypotheses into context.

Psychology works hard at using the scientific method, but because people are not things, the experiments are far from repeatable. And thus most scientists believe psychology is at best a soft science. An example of this lack of solidity shows itself when the psychiatrist prescribes medication based on self-reported symptoms rather than on medically tested results. They assume the symptoms they are dealing with reveal medical issues, because of their philosophy of life and training, without any proof that the symptoms are actually related to medical conditions. In addition, they have no idea how, or even ifthe medication will affect the counselee.

Someone might point to the “accepted” medical field and say that they often don’t know what they are doing when they prescribe medicine. I agree, but when you go to the doctor and he prescribes  a medication it usually based some kind of objective research he has done on your body— a blood test, x-rays, MRI, skin prick, or some other testable and repeatable procedure. You can usually go from one doctor to another, receive the same tests and see the same results.

Finally, scientists cooperate with one another to make sure they are all on the same page with regard to what they think are the most accurate explanations of observable occurrences. Of course, this can be very political as shown in recent global warming, homosexual sinfulness, and evolution/creation craziness. In most occasions, however, when a scientist makes a great discovery, all the scientists in the world shift their work to be in accord with the new discovery. In psychology, when someone claims to make a new discovery nothing in the field changes. This is for at least three reasons: First, the discoveries in psychology are untestable and un-repeatable, They are loose theories and not real discoveries at all. They are simply the psychologists’ best guess. Second, there is nothing governing psychology. There are over 300 different distinctive theories of psychotherapy in the world today. Third, when a psychological idea or theory is proven to be wrong, there is no oversight to remove that incorrect assumption or theory.  For example, in the 50’s, Walter Freeman invented the frontal lobotomy. It was shown to be a terrible way to treat people.  Not only was there no way to stop it, but electric shock treatment took its place and electric shock is still practiced today. (In fact, I read the other day that the frontal lobotomy is becoming popular again. It is based on the idea that if we can control the brain, we can control behavior.)

A Faith System

As I hope you are noticing, psychology is a faith system. There is no proof for any psychological theories at all. Everything is guesswork, based on self-reported symptoms by the counselees. Diagnoses are based on the particular psychologist’s personal preference. Some aspects faith systems have in common are: special private language, a particular understanding about mankind, about life, and about the divine. They have faithful followers, a particular system of worship, they give glory to their particular gods, they are an enemy of opposing gods and systems, and they interpret life through the lens of the system. It is a kind of modern day Baal. Psychology is one of the gods of the world around us. It is a non-Christian system which worships a foreign god; one that is not Jesus Christ.

In the Bible, when the people of God flirted with the pagan culture around them, they were judged for it. In Exodus 32, when Moses was late coming down from the mountain, the people got antsy and created a golden calf. They called it Yahweh and bowed down and worshipped it. Christians who participate in psychology are participating in Baal worship. Because our churches have bought into the lie of psychology, they are suffering the judgment of God. This false worship is one of the reasons our churches, and therefore, our country is in such a mess.

As a quick caveat, I believe the church is way behind in her ability to do a good job working with people. Therefore, in some cases, I might send a counselee to a psychiatrist to help stabilize them with the use of medicine. (Psychologists cannot administer medications and they are not medically trained. Psychiatrists are trained in medicine before they are trained in the area of “mental illness.”) I do this with trepidation because I believe psychiatrists don’t really know what they are doing. But in some cases what they are doing badly, we are unable to do at all. This is as much a statement about the medical industry as it is a statement about the church.

Famous and Early Christian Integrationist Psychologists

Gary Collins, greatly influenced by Paul Tournier a Swiss Christian psychologist, taught at TEDS from 1969 into the 80’s. Wrote The Rebuilding ofPsychology: An Integration of Psychology and Christianity.

Bruce Narramore, nephew of Clyde Narramore, started Rosemead School of Psychology, a graduate program for BIOLA University in La Mirada, CA, 1970.

In 1973 John Carterjoined Narramore at Rosemead and became one of the most systematic critics of Jay Adams approach.

1973 began The Journal of Psychology and Theology – a journal that was to serve as “a forum for the integration and application of psychological and biblical information.”

1982 began a second journal striving to integrate psychology and the Bible, The Journal of Psychology and Christianity.

James Dobsonjoined the ranks of well-known Christians who did psychology when in the early 70’s he published Dare to Discipline.

Larry Crabbjoined in, also in the 70’s.

Frank Minirth and Paul Meierwere asked to join the faculty at Dallas Theological Seminary in 1975 and their books began to take off in the Christian world.

Biblical Counseling

Biblical counseling strives to use the Bible as the primary source of truth for all of life, including helping people with their problems in living. The major goal of Biblical counseling is to help people to mature in Christ (Col. 1:28) through having a real and vibrant relationship with God through Jesus Christ. This means that rather than beginning with the person and their personal history as the source of their problems (or some other psychological starting point) we start with the understanding that people are created in the image of God and are responsible to live according to their created significance. We understand that all of our thoughts, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors come from our heart (Lk. 6:43-45) and therefore, if we want to change our behavior, we need new hearts. We also assume that we get new hearts as we draw near to God and begin to live by faith in Jesus as Lord. With this as our underlying understanding of human beings, Biblical Counselors work with people to come to Christ through confession of sin and repentance where needed, and to help them recognize their need to trust Christ in every situation of their lives.

We understand that physical problems, and familial problems exist, but that they are no excuse for sin. Yes, these things influence temptation, including changing the intensity of the temptation, but Biblical Counselors seek to name the behavior for what it is – what the Bible calls it.  Along with this identification, Biblical Counselors then strive to solve relational problems in the manner the Bible prescribes. People are encouraged to identify themselves as Christians rather than the various syndromes, addictions, disorders, and diseases thrown about by the non-Christian world. In addition, because we strive to present every man mature to Christ, we counsel non-Christians in the same way we counsel Christians. Non-Christians have no power to obey the commands of God. They cannotobey the commands. But, we know that not being able to obey brings people to Christ, and obedience brings freedom.

The Basis for Biblical Counseling

Everything is related to religion, or faith, and so all people everywhere live according to the desires of the gods they serve. Usually, this involves power and fear. The powerful rule the fearful. When Moses came to ancient Egypt, he presented a much different God. Moses served a God who cared about a particular people, who would have a personal and close relationship with them based on worship, blessing, love, grace and mercy. This new God revealed himself to his people as a God who was all powerful, just, and holy. He also made provision for his people, so that even though they were not just and holy, he made it possible for them to come into his presence. The God the Jews served was a God who wanted to love instead of dominate. But the Jews rejected God’s advances and killed God’s prophets and spokesmen. When God sent his son to try to woo them back for the final time, they killed him too and thus God rejected them and turned to a people who were not his people—the rest of humanity.

Christianity is about this Son who came to bring salvation (a living, lasting, vibrant, and personal relationship with God) to mankind. One of the many misunderstandings of our age is that Christianity is about being saved and going to heaven when you die. It is that, but in many ways, not that at all. Christianity is about living in the presence of God; living in a friendly, worshipful, meaningful, winsome, and delightful way with the Creator of the universe. This relationship begins by surrendering our perceived freedom—this freedom is actually rebellion—to God in the name of Jesus. And this relationship continues and grows as we walk and run with him through the rest of our lives.

The need for Biblical Counseling comes into play when people forget that they are in relationship with God and let the cares of life turn them from worship to sin. The cares of life; other sinful people, circumstances of nature, problems with our bodies, etc. come from God as testings. Are truly relying on him for our joy and peace, or will we turn aside to indulge ourselves in the worship of other gods when life gets tough? Looking at in another way, these things come to us as temptations that try to get us to leave the comfort and security of the presence of God. Leaving is sin, staying is worship.

The Basis for Biblical Counseling, then, comes from the fact that everything in life is based on faith and worship. Who are people worshipping, serving, bowing down to, afraid of, trying to impress, etc.? If it isn’t God and his Son Jesus Christ, it is sin. Biblical counseling helps sort these things out and point people back to serving, rejoicing in, and loving Jesus the Savior.

History of Modern Biblical Counseling

As we mentioned in the last hour, for the first 1800 years of church history, pastors were the only people who worked to help people with their problems in living. Outside the church people did what they wanted to do based on what served them best at the time. In the 1800’s psychology and psychiatry split off from the rest of science as a branch all its own. With the rise of empiricism, materialism, existentialism, communism, all the isms out there, psychology has flourished and grown until it almost completely dominates our cultural landscape. It is difficult, even for godly Christians not to talk in psychological language at the drop of a hat. For instance, how would you describe a young lady who thinks she is fat so she stops eating for long periods of time? If you answered that she has an eating disorder, or that she may be anorexic, you have just answered in psychological terms. If you say someone who drinks alcohol all the time, to the point of destroying their family and job, is an alcoholic, you have been psychologized.

In the 1960’s a professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, PA, named Jay Adams realized that in the class he was teaching at WTS he was supposed to teach a section on counseling. He realized that the philosophy behind what he was teaching was not Biblical and in a course on making all of life consistently Biblical, this wasn’t going to work. So he began looking for something else. In 1965, Adams met a psychologist, O. Hobart Mowrer, who, instead of blaming people’s problems on their background, other people, and mental illness, challenged people to deal with their moral failings. Adams was enthralled with this kind of thinking because it was at least close to the Biblical model. For six weeks Adams travelled with Mowrer learning all about his psychological theories and practices. Mowrer was not a Christian, but he was a moral man and could read people. His system was good in the sense that he called people to confession and repentance, but fell short in that when you repent, you need to turn to something and Mowrer had nothing for people to turn to. The Gospel provided that something—it provided God.

By 1970 Adams’ theology of counseling had come together in what he called “Nouthetic” counseling. Nouthetic represents the Greek word translated, admonish, confront, encourage, warn, instruct, etc. It was essentially using the Bible to help people identify what in their life was causing them pain, strife, struggles, etc. Not only does it help them identify their sin, but it also helps them to confess it as sin, and discover directions and ways to turn from their sinful behavior to godly behavior—repentance. Adams went on to publish 100’s of books, articles, and booklets. Out of his ministry sprang CCEF, NANC, IBCD, Biblical Counseling programs at the Master’s College, and many more.

In the ranks of Biblical Counseling the following are some of the big guns:

Jay Adams, Competent to Counsel

John Bettler, Started CCEF with Jay Adams

George Scipione in the 70’s he said he was a Jay Adams clone. Started CCEF West and NANC.

Steve Viars, Senior Pastor of Faith Church, Lafayette, IN.

Ed Welch, Blame it on the Brain

David Powlison, Seeing with New Eyes

Paul Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands

Wayne Mack, Biblical Counseling

Jim Newhieser, The Institute for Biblical Counseling and Discipleship

Dale Johnson, ACBC (formerly NANC)

Reading:

Christian Counselor’s Manual, Jay Adams

Soul Physicians, Bob Kelleman

History of Pastoral Care in America, Brooks Holifield

The Biblical Counseling Movement, David Powlison

The Biblical Counseling Movement Since Adams, Heath Lambert

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