WHAT SHOULD CHRISTIAN COUNSELING LOOK LIKE?

Christian counseling (CC) must be Word-centered:

• According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 3:10-11; ESV)

When we guide another, it must be according to the Word of God:

• And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

CC is for naught when we fail to consult the light – God’s Word. It also dishonors God when we reject His counsel in favor of worldly counsel:

• As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God… in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:10-11)

CC should recognize that all positive growth comes from God through His Word:

• I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6-7)

• Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation. (1 Peter 2:2)

As Paul confessed, whatever good comes out of our lives, comes from the Lord:

• But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10; James 1:17)

However, we tend to wrongly put mental illness in its own specialized category where only the “professional” can help. However, according to Scripture, we are all “mentally ill,” living in darkness and self-deceit, as Jesus claimed:

• “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” (John 3:19-20)

In short, we all are such a mess that we require the Lord’s radical surgery to remove our blindness (Matthew 7:1-5), the log in our eye. Of what does the log consist? Self-righteousness, entitlement, and arrogance! We therefore have to be humbled in order to be lifted up and made well. Otherwise, we are always right in our own eyes:

• All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. (Proverbs 16:2)

The Apostles thought that all they needed was more faith:

• The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’” (Luke 17:5-10) 

The amount of faith wasn’t the problem. They are already had enough faith to cast a mulberry tree into the sea. Instead, it was their entitlement mentality that was getting in the way. They had been trusting in their own merit instead of the Lord’s. Instead, they had to regard themselves as “unworthy servants,” even after they had done everything that they were supposed to do!

When we regard ourselves as worthy, to some degree we discount our Lord’s gift of worthiness. Instead of placing our trust completely in Him (Psalm 62), we are placing part of our trust in our own worthiness or merit – an offense to the gift-Giver!

In this and in many other ways, secular humanist psychotherapy (SHP) is diametrically opposed to Biblical Counseling. Here is a brief outline of the differences:

1. While SHP understands us as a pathological product of nature and nurture (genetics and environment), Scripture sees a broader, more creative process at work, which includes our own choices, like mainlining heroin. Fundamentally, many of our struggles are self-caused. We reject the light in favor of the darkness (John 3:19-20), bringing upon ourselves all manner of ills (Romans 1:21-32; Proverbs 1:29-32). By rejecting God’s gift of righteousness, we condemn ourselves to pursuing a non-existent alternative righteousness, significance, and self-esteem resulting in self-justification and denial.

2. While SHP is client-centered, the Biblical is God-centered, acknowledging that God is the source of everything good and the ultimate answer to whatever our problem might be (Romans 8:31-32). Meanwhile, SHP claims that the answer is in us, placing an extra burden on us. Meanwhile, CC starts where the sufferer is (1 Corinthians 9:19-22) and later lead them to higher ground away from self.

3. Consequently, while SHP tries to build a self-trust based upon raising self-esteem and behavioral mastery over fears and other conflicts, CC rejects self-trust in favor of trusting in God alone (Psalm 62). Self-trust opposes the Gospel. Jesus instructed His followers that they could do nothing without Him (John 15:4-5; also Jeremiah 17:5-7; 2 Cor. 3:5). Furthermore, those who trust in themselves have fallen from grace (Gal. 5:2-4).

4. While SHP seeks to exalt the client, Scripture counsels humbling ourselves to the truth of our brokenness and need, trusting that God will exalt us (Luke 14:11; 18:14; James 4:10).

5. While SHP is focused on symptomology and, in the short run, feeling better about oneself, Scripture is primarily focused on truth and thinking correctly about ourselves and God (John 8:31-32).

6. Consequently, SHP is about affirming the self, while Scripture is about affirming God and His truth, and secondarily, who we are in Him! SHP focuses on improving the client’s performance and feelings about oneself, while Scripture’s focus is upon honoring God, knowing that He will, in the long run, take care of our needs better than we can (Matthew 6:33).

7. SHP emphasizes self-expression, while Scripture emphasizes self-control and virtue.

8. SHP tends to be non-judgmental and tolerant of just about all forms of expression. Scripture maintains that truth has to guide all of our thinking and behaving. Underlying this distinction, SHP resorts to the disease model. In the same way that we are not responsible for contracting cancer, we are also not responsible for our problematic behaviors. Scripture has a higher view of humankind, and therefore we must take responsibility for our lives.

    In One Nation Under Therapy, psychiatrist Sally Satel and ethicist Christina Sommers warn:

·       "At the heart of therapism [the no-fault, disease-pathology philosophy of psychotherapy] is the revolutionary idea that psychology can and should take the place of ethics and religion. Recall Abraham Maslow’s elated claim that the new psychologies of self-actualization were offering a “religion surrogate,” that could change the world. He had “come to think of this humanist trend in psychology as a revolution in the truest, oldest sense of the word…new conceptions of ethics and values.” Carl Rogers then looked upon group therapy as a kind of earthly paradise—a “state where all is know and all accepted.” The sixties and seventies were heady times for Maslow and Rogers. They were promoting a visionary realignment of values, away from the Judeo-Christian ethic, in the direction of what they regarded as a science of self-actualization." (217)

9. Because SHP is all about mitigating symptomology, it has little tolerance or understanding for the positive role of suffering. Consequently, it fails to embrace the totality of our experience. Scripture, however, recognizes the need for suffering (2 Cor. 4:7-11), helping us to accept it and to even rejoice in the midst of it (James 1:2-4).

Tragically, the more that the Church has embraced SHP, the more it has denigrated the Gospel. Professor of religion, Philip Jenkins, writes:

·       "During the 1970’s and 1980’s, psychological values and assumptions permeated the religious world no less than the secular culture…But an intellectual chasm separates the assumptions of traditional churches from those of mainstream therapy and psychology. The medicalization of wrongdoing sharply circumscribes the areas in which clergy can appropriately exercise their professional jurisdiction, and this loss of acknowledged expertise to therapists and medical authorities at once symbolizes and accelerates a substantial decline in the professional status of priests and ministers." (“Opinion: The Uses of Clerical Scandal,” First Things, 1996, 60.)

Instead, we have everything that we need in Christ:

·       For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:9-10)

We, therefore, need to understand how complete and equipped we are in Christ. When we go forth with an understanding of Scripture, we are more-than-ready to minister to the broken (2 Timothy 3:16-17):

·       [God] 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. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. (2 Corinthians 1:4-5)

Secular Counseling has Failed to Provide Self-Awareness and Wisdom

David Powlison, M.Div., Ph.D, worked for four years in psychiatric hospitals, during which time he came to faith in Christ. He teaches at Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF) and edits The Journal of Biblical Counseling (JBC). In an article entitled “Answers for the Human Condition: Why I Chose Seminary for Training in Counseling,” he explains his transition from secular to Biblical counseling.

Along with psychopharmacology, he had studied the leading lights of psychotherapy to conclude that they all represent “different ‘religions,’ and they treat each other that way.”

Nevertheless, Powlison attempted to borrow the best from each school of psychotherapy. However, he began to see that his syncretistic brew was filled with irreconcilable contradictions. This led to even deeper questioning:

• I increasingly questioned whether the modern psychologies really offered much beyond common-sense observations of people and an attentive kindness. (JBC, Fall 2001, 47)

This questioning was intensified by observing a mental health worker who was completely lacking in any formal training. Nevertheless, he seemed to be more successful with the hospitalized patients than the professionals:

• But patients respected him, laughed with him, loved him, got mad at him, and when they were in crisis, they wanted to talk with him.

However, it seems that Powlison’s “crisis of faith” came to a head when a young woman slashed her wrists. She then cried out repeatedly and imploringly, “Who will love me?” He then instantly perceived that nothing he had learned in university could answer this question, apart from the one he had rejected – Jesus Christ:

• Although at times I saw symptoms moderated, I saw nothing that I could call deep, life-renewing change. I never witnessed a qualitative difference in any person’s life…I had long despised the Word of God, and repressed the God of that Word. I came to Jesus Christ because the God of Scripture understood my motives, circumstances, thinking, behavior, emotions, and relationships better than all the psychologies put together…They described and treated symptoms but could never really get to the causes…They – we – finally misled people, blind guides leading blind travelers in hopeful circles, whistling in the dark valley of the shadow of death, unable to escape the solipsism of self and society, unable to find the fresh air and bright sun of a Christ-centered universe. (47-48)

How do Christ and His Word better describe our lives? How does Christ represent the superior road-map? Let me try to briefly outline several ways:

1. We are all screwed up – even those who come from nurturing homes. Consistent with Scripture, we find the same human problems from culture to culture, irrespective of upbringing. It had been expected that, once examined, it would be found that the Nazi leaders would signs of mental illness. Instead, they represented the normal range of human problems. This suggests that the problems are universal and not primarily the result of pathologies. Meanwhile, the universality of depraved minds in the very thing that the Bible teaches. There are no perfect people. We are all subject to the same temptations and commit the same immoral behaviors.

2. Fulfilling needs and desires, as the secular worldview suggests, does not make us less screwed up. Some of the most needs-fulfilled people are the most screwed up. Likewise, gaining mastery and control of our lives doesn’t seem to help our mental condition. In fact, the principle that “Absolute power corrupts absolutely,” seems to describe the human condition very well and is consistent with Biblical revelation.

3. Some of the most beautiful people are those who have experienced the greatest depravations. This also runs counter to secular expectations but is entirely consistent with Scripture. While secular thinking is unable to find anything positive about pathology, Scripture affirms the beauty and significance of weakness and infirmity.

4. Growth in self-esteem seems to be counter-productive. While secular thinking had predicted that we would find a positive correlation between high self-esteem and quality of life, moral behavior and attainment, the opposite seems to be true. In contrast, Scripture affirms humility, an essential component for positive social adjustment.

5. Taking care of our own needs first has been the bedrock truth of secular psychotherapy. However, there seems to be an increasing appreciation that relationships and society will work when we apply, first of all, the Biblical principles of respect, love, forgiveness, and other-centeredness.

6. Trusting that we have the inner resources to produce change has been another bedrock principle of secular therapy. However, this breeds despair when we find that we are unable to change our mental condition or arrogance when are able to believe that we do have this power. Instead, liberation is found by trusting in God and not in themselves. We can never live up to our own expectations.

7. The concept of “sin” has long been rejected in secular circles and at great personal cost. This has lowered our defenses against wrongdoing and has even served to justify it to our own detriment. In contrast to this, confessing sin to God (and even to those whom we have wronged) is a relieving and healing practice. Sometimes, it even takes on a magical or supernatural quality as we find ourselves washed clean of its effects and our relationships restored.

8. Our attempts to understand our present problems by analyzing our past don’t seem to help.  This is not to say that self-awareness isn’t important. We need to examine ourselves – thoughts and behaviors – to grasp our deceptive motivations at their root. However, understanding by itself isn’t a cure. We have to apply moral principles to our lives – principles that secularism has relativized or even dismissed.

9. Others respond favorably to our truth and transparency and not to professional distance, which conveys the errant idea of professional superiority. In opposition to the latter, the Bible teaches that we are all sinners who need a savior. This reality provides the necessary common ground for real relationships. It cuts through the superficialities and the facades.

10. Life works when we take moral responsibility. In Scripture, morality is truth. For secularism, morality merely a pragmatic tool to use when it works. This can only breed cynicism and eventual decay.

11. Life works when we understand that there is a transcendent purpose. Secular therapy actually erodes away any possible higher purpose, explaining away our values and goals as no more than personal needs, sometimes even pathologies. Our concepts of “honor” and “dignity” become no more than products of our upbringing. In this way, we are reduced to pursuing self-satisfaction. It dismisses our deepest inclinations.

12. The Biblical prescription of how to treat others, whether children, subordinates, neighbors or bosses, works and yields fruits. It teaches us how to live life in a fruitful manner. It gets us to where we need to go.

13. Secularism breeds unrealistic expectations about human thriving. It regards humanity as highly malleable, and therefore has generated many utopian schemes – whether economic, sexual or political. Specifically, it is always ready to give open marriages and polyamory a chance. Inevitably, they yield disastrous results in the long run. In contrast, the Bible sets realistic parameters for human thriving.

Biographer Jana Tull Steele reports about the views of Duke Ellington:

• He used to say that he had three educations: one from school, one at the pool hall, and one from the Bible. Without the latter, he said, you can’t understand what you learned from the other two places. (Duke Ellington)

Scripture is the ultimate roadmap. Only through Scripture can we see how all of the roads or truths connect. Scripture also gives us the necessary paradigms to promote self-awareness.

Who is Saved: The Unrepentant?

 

There has been a lot of flap over reparative therapy (RP). Can it take away same-sex attraction (SSA)? Recently, the president of Exodus International, a ministry that helps Christians leave the gay lifestyle, has expressed his doubts about the effectiveness of RP in removing SSA. Alan Chambers instead prefers Christian discipleship programs focused on helping Christians resist various temptations.

No problem there. I too have my doubts about RP’s effectiveness in eliminating SSA. Although our Lord can easily remove our various temptations and weaknesses, He often leaves them for us to struggle through them (2 Cor. 12:9-10). However, this is no reason to dismiss Christian counseling. It might be helpful to understand the connection between their SSA and their early childhood influences.

However, knowledge doesn’t equate with cure. Through therapy, a female friend saw the connection between being repeatedly sexually abused by her father and her SSA. This understanding made her hesitate before plunging into the homosexual lifestyle. However, she still had the SSA and plunge she did. Consequently, she cut me off. (Despite all of the propaganda about Christian families cutting their children off as they take this plunge, I have no knowledge of such a family. Those Christian parents that I know have tried desperately to maintain a loving relationship with their wayward children. Instead, in every case of which I am aware, it is the children who reject their parents.)

However, Chambers, speaking at the Gay Christian Network, a group that supports this lifestyle, stated “we’re Christians, all of us,” and “we all love Jesus,” despite the fact that he continues to maintain that homosexuality is a sin. (World, August 11, 2012, 13)

This is truly problematic. While we all sin, repentance (along with faith) and confession are central to forgiveness and a relationship with Christ. According to Him, without repentance, we can only expect judgment:

• Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. (Rev. 2:5, 16)

• Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. (Rev. 3:3)

Jesus explained that without repentance, there could be no basis for eternal confidence. His disciples asked why tragedy had befallen a certain group of Galileans. Jesus answered:

• "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. (Luke 13:2-3)

Consequently, we have no Scriptural authorization to assure the unrepentant kidnapper or pedophile that they are Christians or that they are going to heaven as long as they merely profess a faith in Jesus. This isn’t a saving faith. It’s delusion. A faith that saves is a faith that repents. I cannot claim that I am trusting in Jesus if I refuse to do the things He tells me to do. This isn’t trust. If I trust in my doctor, I will do what he tells me to do. If I don’t do them, I really don’t trust him.

Although Chambers’ assurance to the Network was inclusive, it left God and His Word out of the picture. Sometimes love requires a warning and not a false but soothing word.

Chambers made a serious but common mistake. I pray that he will see that the approval of God is more important than the approval of men and that he will confess his mistake.

The Closing of the Western Mind and Mouth

According to LifeSiteNews.com, Lesley Pilkington, apsychotherapist in the UK has stated that:

• “Our churches have become extremely worldly. It is supposed to be that the churches influence the nation, but now the nation is influencing the church.”

• Churches “very rarely talk about sin and refuse ever to say that homosexual behaviour is a sin.” Only a minority of people in the churches in Britain, “speak out the word of God. And they get a lot of aggression for it. The church is doing a disservice to homosexuals by denying sinners their liberty in the lord Jesus Christ. They are blind guides leading others into a ditch of destruction.”

• “The established churches don’t accept the way I’ve spoken today, which is a biblical way. The word of God is being marginalised, as is the medical truth of homosexuality.”

• “Statistics for self-harm, self-hatred, psychological illness are horrendous and are getting more and more momentum as this acceptance grows,” she said. Homosexual behaviour is “incredibly bad for the individual, it is destructive to the person and to our nation.”

• “There is no way being gay-affirmative is helpful to individuals or to our nation,” she said. She admitted that in the UK, it is becoming “very close to illegal to say this.”

How could Pilkington get away with saying such inflammatory things? Well, she didn’t:

• The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy found her guilty of professional misconduct and ordered her to undergo re-training and “professional development.” These are to be completed in six to 12 months, or her membership will be revoked and she will be “struck off.”

• The BACP ruled that Pilkington’s approach was “reckless,” “dogmatic,” “disrespectful” and “unprofessional.” She was judged to have let her “personal preconceived views about gay lifestyle and sexual orientation … affect her professional relationship in a way that was prejudicial.”

This transpired because,

• Lesley Pilkington was the object of a sting operation by undercover journalist Patrick Strudwick, who approached her to ask her for help with his sexuality. He had told Pilkington that he wanted to leave the homosexual lifestyle and she informed him that she only worked within a Christian counseling framework.

• Strudwick, who went to two counseling sessions with Pilkington and published the transcript of the meetings in The Independent newspaper, was awarded journalist of the year by the homosexualist organization Stonewall for the sting. After the sessions, he lodged a complaint to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy alleging that Pilkington had failed to respect the “fixed nature” of his homosexuality.

 Pilkington had explained,

• “He told me he was looking for a treatment for being gay. He said he was depressed and unhappy and would I give him some therapy. I told him I only work using a Christian biblical framework and he said that was exactly what he wanted.”

Had Strudwick only complained that he was depressed, Pilkington would have been held in contempt by her profession had she sent him away telling him to “learn to live with it!” Why the double standard? Certainly, the BACP would never stoop to political correctness by compromising truth and professionalism. Certainly, the BACP wouldn’t compromise the welfare of the public that they serve!

Commenting on the case, Conservative MEP Roger Helmer said,

• “Why is it OK for a surgeon to perform a sex-change operation, but not OK for a psychiatrist to try to ‘turn’ a consenting homosexual? If, for whatever reasons – moral, religious, personal – a homosexual man wants to have help to cure this, he should be allowed to seek treatment. I’m not being critical about homosexuality at all, but if we have people who want to change, why should they be prevented from that happening?”

Good question, but who cares about truth and logical consistency if the cost is criticism!

• During her discussions with the BACP she asked for a clear answer on their policy on clients seeking help to overcome same-sex attraction, but received no answer. But a document released by the UK Council for Psychotherapy, Ethical Principles and Code of Professional Conduct, says that even when a client specifically asks for help to eliminate homosexual tendencies, psychotherapists are obliged to refuse. The guidelines say that even in a case of a father with a family, who loves and wants to stay with his wife and children and wants to be rid of same-sex feelings, the counsellor is obliged to refuse to “pathologise” them and instead must “affirm” him in being a homosexual.

• “Agreeing to the client’s request for therapy for the reduction of same sex attraction is not in a client’s best interests,” the guidance says. Therapists who feel they do not have “sufficient competence” to adhere to this policy are obliged to refer clients to therapists who will only help them to accept homosexual inclinations.

In such a case, the BACP is convinced that the client doesn’t know what he is talking about. The BACP clearly knows what’s best for him, even if he is married and has children! After all, what’s the matter with having a dad or a husband if he wants a little extra sex on the side!

Pilkington insinuates the use of Nazi-like tactics:

• “It is extraordinary to me. People have lost the ability to genuinely look at what’s best for people. Political correctness and gay activists have generated a fear. People say, ‘I’m going to agree with this or I’m going to have a lot of aggression towards me’.”

It is even more extraordinary that the Western institutions that are supposed to safe-guard against aggression and coercion have capitulated!

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Integrationism and Biblical Counseling

We believe that truth can be found in both of God’s “books” – Scripture and creation. There are many things that we can learn from the study of the earth and the study of the skies (Psalm 19). God’s imprint is on everything. Creation is pregnant with His knowledge, as the clouds are pregnant with water. Accordingly, Christian counselors Stanton L. Jones and Richard E. Butman write:

• “Just as the rain falls on the just and the unjust, so too does truth, by the process that theologians call God’s common grace. Romans 1 speaks of God even revealing central truths about his nature to unbelievers…. If we understand God’s counsel to be truth, we will be committed to pursuing truth wherever we find it. And we sometimes find it in the careful and insightful writings of unbelievers.”

This is the doctrine of “general revelation.” All manner of Christians believe that God speaks to us through nature as well as through Scripture – “special revelation.” However, should this insight make us “integrationists?” This is the idea that we can and should integrate our knowledge from the Scriptures with our knowledge from nature/science?

In some ways we must. It is hard to derive a meaningful and robust understanding of Scripture without general revelation, which we derive through our feelings, perceptions, and experiences. It’s hard to understand the Scripture’s teachings on sin and forgiveness without experiencing these for myself. The fact that there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1) would have been meaningless to me had I not experienced tsunamis of self-condemnation.

This, however, brings us to an area of strong contention. Can we integrate the insights of secular counseling with our understanding of Biblical counseling? Writer and counselor Larry Crabb answers affirmatively:

• “All truth is certainly God’s truth. The doctrine of general revelation provides warrant for going beyond the propositional revelation of Scripture into the secular world of scientific study expecting to find true and useable concepts.”

“All truth is certainly God’s truth,” but are the revelations of secular counseling truth and can these truths be used productively? Christian Counselor Bruce Narramore claims that they can be:

• “The evangelical church has a great opportunity to combine the special revelation of God’s Word with the general revelation studied by the psychological sciences and professions. The end result of this integration can be a broader (and deeper) view of human life.”

While it is obvious that the study of the brain has revealed new insights about behavior and the correlation between physical and mental states, it is unclear how these insights might impact Christian counseling. Eric L. Johnson argues that, if we can use the insights of the science of psychology, we can also use their insights in the area of counseling:

• “Non-Christian bias has influenced the content and practice of modern psychology, but it is also the case that God has revealed so much about the brain, learning, human development, motivation, social influences, forms of abnormality, and even helpful counseling practices through the labors of secular psychologists.

However, the study of physical psychology is worlds apart from secular counseling practices. Although the two might seem inseparable, I think that we have to carefully distinguish them. While a newspaper might be inseparable from the ink of its news-print, our efforts to understand a particular editorial would be misplaced if we tried to understand its message by investigating the ink patterning.

While the physical study of the brain is relatively free from the values of the researcher, the counseling enterprise is imbued through-and-through with secular values and assumptions, so-much-so that Martin L. Gross has written:

• For many, the [Psychological] Society has all the earmarks of a potent now religion. When educated man lost faith in formal religion, he required a substitute belief that would be as reputable in the last half of the twentieth century as Christianity was in the first. Psychology and psychiatry have now assumed that special role. They offer mass belief, a promise of a better future, opportunity for confession, unseen mystical workings and a trained priesthood of helping professionals devoted to servicing the paying-by-the-hour communicants. (The Psychological Society, 9)

One example might be illuminating in this regard. Numerous Christian counselors have borrowed extensively from secular behavioral therapy, using the technique of “systematic desensitization.” If someone has a fear of flying, the counselor/therapist will slowly confront their client with images of flying, encouraging them, all along the way, that they can handle these fearful stimuli. This finally culminates with the client actually boarding a plane.

However, the success of this operation depends upon the client growing in the faith that s/he can do it. While helping the client grow in self-confidence and self-esteem is central to secular counseling, it is antithetical to Christian counseling. Instead of growing in self-confidence, the Apostle Paul understood that he had to diminish in self-confidence so that he could grow in God-confidence:

• We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Cor. 1:8-9)

Biblical counsel takes us in an opposite direction from the secular. On its most basic level, the secular attempts to build confidence and self-esteem while the Biblical goal is humility and self-acceptance based on God’s acceptance of us through Jesus Christ. The secular foundation is diametrically opposed to the Biblical. While we are to die to self and to look towards God, the secular emphasis is upon growing the self.

Some Christians believe that they can merely “Christianize” the secular. As they lead their client through “systematic desensitization” to show them that they can tolerate the fearful plane ride, they are careful to say, “You see, God is able to give you courage to take this flight.”

However, the process might have little to do with God, even though it might have been baptized in prayer. Was the greater freedom-from-fear they experienced, when imagining themselves boarding a plane, the result of God’s intervention or a very human suggestive process? Was their diminished anxiety the result of their relationship with God, or a natural process that anyone could experience?

Of course, we know that the answer is the latter one in both cases. Anyone can “benefit” from this form of “therapy,” at least temporarily. However, the perceptive Christian counselee will conclude, “I was able to do it. It had nothing to do with my prayer, since anyone can benefit from these methods.”

This, of course, is the wrong conclusion, but one that will be embraced if we start out with wrong methods. The method becomes the message!

Consequently, I am very skeptical of integrating secular methods and secular counseling insights. I am also assured that our Lord has given us everything that we need, in this regard, to come to spiritual maturity – the goal of all true Biblical counseling. In these matters, Paul assures us that, through the Scriptures, we have everything we need:

• All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

Sadly, we – Christian counselors and Christian lay people – fail to understand how well-endowed are. We are rich beyond belief. When we fail to realize this, we compromise and “integrate.”

• See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (Col. 2:8-10)

Much of the church has been taken “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy.” This is because we fail to understand our riches in Christ and how they are jeopardized by alien philosophies. Consequently, the Apostle Paul prayed this way:

• I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephes. 3:16-19)

Without this “knowing” and “grasping,” we are left thinking that we are missing out. Integrationism is a symptom of this thinking. We think that we are missing out – that the Biblical revelation, regarding this spiritual matter, is not sufficient enough. It doesn’t stand on its own, so we have to draw from other sources.

  

Buddhism, Humility, and Freedom

For the most part, secular therapists have little use for humility. Therapy is very market-driven and therefore oriented to the quick-fix to address the symptomology (anxiety, depression, OCD…) through building self-esteem, etc. Humility, however, comes at the painful price of truly facing ourselves. This means challenging our many forms of denial and self-justifications, and that’s not anyone's idea of a good time! Few short-term benefits here!

In contrast, the major world religions tend to be more far-sighted. They’ve accumulated some wisdom along the way and therefore value humility. The late Swami Amar Jyoti, founder of Light of Consciousness, a “Journal of Spiritual Awakening,” writes,

"In most cases, unless you are very humble, insight will tend to make you more egotistical because you feel you know more and understand more and are higher than the average person…We get tempted in the power of maya—darkness and unconsciousness. We are tempted to have more gratification, more privileges or mental powers. Few will not succumb to this temptation…Humility will give you greater insight." ("The Peaceful Path to Enlightenment," Vol 21, #2, Summer 2009, 4)

It’s so obvious that any type of success has a tendency to harden us with arrogance and pride. We develop an entitlement mentality, which makes it easier for us to take what we want and to abuse others in order to get it. After all, we’re spiritually “entitled!” Consequently, far more people have been killed by “superior” and “entitled” people than by all the common criminals, perhaps by a hundredfold!

Jyoti couldn’t be more correct! And humility does impart insight. It represents a willingness to accept ourselves, warts and all, and to not turn away from our defensive tactics at self-justification. It is a brave and calm inner resignation, a trust that enables us to look at the disorienting truths we have so long suppressed and denied. Once we can come to peace within ourselves, without the inner tug-of-war, we have the calm to perceive the reality around us. But from where does this resignation and courage arise? Jyoti continues,

"Avoid arrogance, haughtiness, personal vendettas, jealousy and making impersonal issues into personal ones."

This is the practice of dharma or cosmic law. It has been characterized as a theology of legalism -- "Do better, try harder." At this point, I was getting ready to jump all over Jyoti. Although the practice of God’s righteousness is a great blessing, following God’s laws does not make us righteous but highlights our failures and need for righteousness -- something that can only come as a gift from God (Romans 3:19-20).

However, as I reread his words, I found that Jyoti was giving the credit to “God” for protecting him from the temptations of jealousy and arrogance. Now I was confused like a hunter taking aim at his prey only to find that it had disappeared. How could a karma-based religion, a reap-what-you-sow religion, a what-goes-around-comes-around religion focus on grace and the providence of God? Of course, it has to be as Jyoti says. How can we not become proud over our humility unless we do believe that it’s fully a gift!

I was left wondering, “Can such a theology and practice produce humility and self-knowledge as Christ can?” For myself, I knew that only the love of Christ had been able to penetrate deeply enough into the hidden recesses of my manipulations, selfishness and self-centeredness to empower me to face and confess my utter unworthiness. Only the certainty that Christ had died for my most ugly parts gave me the assurance to face myself. Only when we know that we’re totally loved and protected do we have the courage to confront our concealed horror show. Sometimes, this only happens on our deathbed; more often though, it never happens. It is only in the context of the full assurance that we are forgiven that we can face our sins (and continue to face them), throw our heads back and laugh heartily. This assurance is only possible through the light of the Cross:

"How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!" (Hebrews 9:14)

His cleansing sacrifice penetrates to the core. Only when our consciences are cleansed can we have assurance that our sins have been completely set aside, and only with this confidence can we face the truth, and only in truth can we “serve the living God.” He doesn’t tolerate duplicity, hypocrisy and denial! Nevertheless, Jyoti has come to an understanding that transcends his religion. He knows that humility is only possible as a divine gift. And perhaps also Jyoti's understanding of this? Paul acknowledged to the Athenians that some of their poets had an understanding that comes from above:

"God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" Acts 17:27-28

Clearly, some are closer than others and the light we have may be an indicator of this. After one man wisely answered Jesus, He responded: "You are not far from the kingdom of God" (Mark 12:34). Let’s encourage those who are close to take the decisive step.

Secular vs. Christian Counseling

A friend asked me to explain the difference between secular and Christian counseling. I’m sure that my response must have seemed quite judgmental. I accused secular, humanistic counseling of being essentially religious. However, I’m scarcely alone in this assessment. In One Nation Under Therapy, psychiatrist Sally Satel and ethicist Christina Sommers make the same indictment:

"At the heart of therapism [the no-fault, disease-pathology philosophy of psychotherapy] is the revolutionary idea that psychology can and should take the place of ethics and religion. Recall Abraham Maslow’s elated claim that the new psychologies of self-actualization were offering a “religion surrogate,” that could change the world. He had “come to think of this humanist trend in psychology as a revolution in the truest, oldest sense of the word…new conceptions of ethics and values.” Carl Rogers then looked upon group therapy as a kind of earthly paradise—a “state where all is know and all accepted.” The sixties and seventies were heady times for Maslow and Rogers. They were promoting a visionary realignment of values, away from the Judeo-Christian ethic, in the direction of what they regarded as a science of self-actualization." (217)

Secular, humanistic psychotherapy (SHP) is not only a religion, it is also a religion at odds with Scripture. I will try to demonstrate this. However, in doing so, I will have to resort to generalizations, which will not accurately describe all the therapists in the secular/humanistic camp. Nevertheless, I think these generalizations do capture the core essence of this religion.

1. While SHP understands us as a product of nature and nurture (genetics and environment), in other words, a pathological result, Scripture sees a broader, more creative process at work, which includes our own choices. Fundamentally, many of our struggles are self-caused. We reject the light in favor of the darkness (John 3:19-20), bringing upon ourselves all manner of ills (Romans 1:21-32; Proverbs 1:29-32). By rejecting God’s gift of righteousness, we condemn ourselves to pursuing a non-existent alternative righteousness, significance, and self-esteem resulting in self-justification and denial.

2. While the secular approach is client-centered, the Biblical is God-centered, acknowledging that God is the source of everything good and the ultimate answer to whatever our problem (Romans 8:31-32). Meanwhile, SHP claims that the answer is in us. Actually, the Christian counselor starts where the sufferer is (1 Corinthians 9:19-22) and later lead them to higher ground.

3. Consequently, while SHP tries to build a self-trust based upon self-esteem and behavioral mastery over fears and other conflicts, the Biblical rejects self-trust in favor of trusting in God alone (Psalm 62). Self-trust opposes the Gospel. Jesus instructed His followers that they could do nothing without Him (John 15:4-5; also Jeremiah 17:5-7; 2 Cor. 3:5). Furthermore, those who trust in themselves have fallen from grace (Gal. 5:2-4).

4. While SHP seeks to exalt the client, Scripture counsels humbling ourselves to the truth of our brokenness and need, trusting that God will exalt us (Luke 18:14; James 4:10).

5. While SHP is focused on symptomology and, in the short run, feeling better about oneself, Scripture is primarily focused on truth and thinking correctly (John 8:31-32).

6. Consequently, SHP is about affirming the self, while Scripture is about affirming God and His truth, and only secondarily, who we are in Him! SHP focuses on improving the client’s performance and feelings about oneself, while Scripture’s focus is upon performing for God, knowing that He will, in the long run, take care of our needs better than we can (Matthew 6:33).

7. SHP emphasizes self-expression, while Scripture emphasizes self-control and virtue.

8. SHP tends to be non-judgmental and tolerant of just about all forms of expression. Scripture maintains that truth has to guide all of our thinking and behaving. Underlying this distinction, SHP resorts to the disease model. In the same way that we are not responsible for contracting cancer, we are also not responsible for our problematic behaviors. Scripture has a higher view of humankind, and therefore we must take responsibility for our lives.

9. Because SHP is all about mitigating symptomology, it has little tolerance or understanding of the role of suffering. Consequently, it fails to be able to embrace the totality of our experience. Scripture however recognizes the need for suffering (2 Cor. 4:7-11), thereby helping us to accept it.

Tragically, the Church has failed to detect this SHP stealth virus as it has entered, pushed aside and denigrated the Gospel. Professor of religion, Philip Jenkins, writes:

"During the 1970’s and 1980’s, psychological values and assumptions permeated the religious world no less than the secular culture…But an intellectual chasm separates the assumptions of traditional churches from those of mainstream therapy and psychology. The medicalization of wrongdoing sharply circumscribes the areas in which clergy can appropriately exercise their professional jurisdiction, and this loss of acknowledged expertise to therapists and medical authorities at once symbolizes and accelerates a substantial decline in the professional status of priests and ministers." (“Opinion: The Uses of Clerical Scandal,” First Things, 1996, 60.)

Sadly, SHP also diminishes the Gospel, abruptly informing us that healing is only in the hands of the mental health professional. Nevertheless, I believe that there’s a lot we can learn from others. When Anita needed additional computer skills, I was all in favor of her taking some computer course offered by NY State. However, I find little that we can profitably borrow from SHP.