Dysfunction can also come from physical damage and brain chemistry disruptions, treated medically by physicians, especially psychiatrists. Whatever the reason, dysfunction is part of this life, and we must learn to overcome all we can. We call GCS dysfunction “mental issues” or “mental illness.” Our question is, when and where do we turn for help?
In 1970, a pastor named Jay Adams wrote the book, “Competent to Council,” which championed the sufficiency of the Scripture to treat mental illness. He is considered the father of biblical counseling. But he declared war on psychology and lost, which was a major ELB victory. Several people have followed in his footsteps, using the same basic model to describe a disorder and treat it with verses.
I observed that Pastor Adams’ initial focus on the more complex end of the dysfunction spectrum blinded him to the enormous opportunity his work could have on every believer’s life. If preaching recognized the application of the Scripture to life as biblical counseling recognizes it, most people’s faith would catapult to new heights. Mine sure did. We still miss this opportunity, and my prayer is that this book will start that ball rolling in all denominations.
ACBC (Association of Credentialed Biblical Counselors) is the certifying body of the biblical counseling profession, and their practice models psychology with its fees, offices, appointments, and structured therapeutic discussion. With the psychology model, people seek treatment when the pain is worth $600 – $1,000 or more to treat.
I pray to turn the application of biblical counseling upside down and make it part of everyday life, Holy Bible study, and preaching to a point below serious mental illness. And even then, we can still minister to the seriously hurting and make a difference.
Said another way, we seek to apply the Scripture to the ELB to fill the gap between believers blessed with divine mental peace and those with $599 or less pain. What I believe will be discovered is that no believer will ever need to pay money to cure their GCS dysfunctions that result from ELB. That is about 99.9% of all believers. That should be great news for annoying believers.
The Scripture can solve everything ELB throws at us and everything psychology attempts to cure or improve. But not when only presented as magic verses. “Take two verses and call me in the morning” does not work well because it addresses the symptom when weak faith is the disorder.
Weak faith means our conscience is not overriding our minds in our GCS. Weak faith needs strengthening, and our hearts need feeding with the Scripture for strength. We accomplish that by growing our relationship with our Abba Father, our Savior Jesus, and our Holy Spirit. I often see the desire for drugs and alcohol removed from an addict by the Holy Spirit. That is similar to Peter taking a few steps on the water and then sinking; we need to keep our GCS focused on our relationship with our Abba Father.
Dysfunction covers a broad spectrum from very mild to very dangerous to self and others. As a jail/prison counselor, I see the entire spectrum. The Scripture can fully serve a large part of it with the Holy Spirit, and the prison system is starting to notice our work. One cell block in county jail held several of my program “family members” and would say to anyone acting out, “what would Pastor Bruce say?” The point is that believers have power and need to use it in the world. I have two lessons that change inmates dramatically. The first is to be an invincible child of God that no one can hurt, and the other is to give genuine respect to officers, staff, and everyone who will accept it (love others).
Answer this, does the Scripture “live in you and you in it,” or is it parked in long-term memory? If that line resonated with you, you are in the relationship at some level already. If not, 1 John 4:12-13 NKJV, “ . . . If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 13:5 NKJV, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” The concept of biblical counseling is the bridge from life to the Scripture. John 1:1 NKJV. “ . . . and the Word was God.” The Scripture is the Word for us to take in.
Psychology and ELB
This topic is wishful thinking on my part, I’m way over my skis for most people to embrace it here, but by the end of the book, prayerfully, you will at least see the point. I prayed a lot about including it, and the answer was “go for it” because it reflects my relationship with our Abba Father, whom others could learn from if they choose. It is a kind of measure of ELB in a believer’s life.
So there is no confusion; I do not believe psychology belongs in a church or believers in psychological therapy. That said, helping others is love and a noble profession. The church is not ready to replace psychology, but it could be overnight, and that is my point. The mere act of acknowledging the goal would light people up because believers would see that the church believes in our Abba Father, and the community would start to come together to support each other. That must at least be our goal, no matter how unachievable in this ELB world.
People scatter after church and participate beyond the worship service at single-digit percentages because it is a place to worship, not an Acts 2 ecclesia. That is not a pejorative, just my observation. Luther’s substitution of the word “church” for “community” (Greek ecclesia) dramatically shifted the Scripture’s focus on the organization, instead of the community of believers in it.
ELB has an enormous effect on humans with the field of psychology. Psychology is “the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.” Message S2M4 presents that science is the discovery of our Abba Father’s creation. I applaud and use the research of psychology which is quite disciplined in its use of the scientific method. It is the application of group research to individuals that escapes the science definition.
Psychology is the epitome of the weapons of ELB and now permeates every crevice of our society, especially in advertising and politics. Where I pop a blood vessel is with the reliance on psychological research for how to live every aspect of our lives. Psychology is not to be confused with psychiatry which is a medical field that has discovered how the brain chemistry of our Abba Father’s creation works and, by its nature, is not in any greater conflict with Scripture than is all of medicine.
My issue with psychology is ELB and humans, not science. Our purpose here is to not go downhill on psychology; non-believers have nothing else. Psychology does serve our Abba Father’s purpose; just as he gives the rain to everyone. Psychology just isn’t faith. I use a lot of the research to identify issues and interaction techniques and then convert them into the Scripture. But the goal never changes; faith is the goal, not fixing a defined disorder. We want to drive our faith uphill and bring us closer to our Abba Father, not get better at ELB. We must be aware of the dangers of psychology to our faith because it substitutes itself for faith, whether intentionally or doesn’t realize it.
Psychology broke out from philosophy in the late 1800s and carried the same ELB of philosophy, antagonism against faith. By its nature, psychology can seriously weaken a person’s faith with its focus on self, and churches do not work hard enough to grow our faith to be stronger than ELB’s or psychology’s influence on us. Please pray on that.
The harm to believers is the focus psychology places on the “self” as the be-all-end-all of life. That is antithetical to our relationship with our Abba Father. Until recently, psychology operated on the principle that it could figure out how our minds work to the point where we do not need our Abba Father. By its nature, that should be no threat to our Abba Father.
The Scripture describes how our eternal soul is the divine spirit component of humans, including temperament, personality, etc., and how the Holy Spirit connects to us through our GCS. In ELB, people skip over that critical truth of our GCS. The discounting of the supernatural divine spirit world that holds our citizenship in Heaven also discounts our faith and accepts psychology as harmless to our faith. That is where ELB damages believers.
Psychology has recently admitted that new studies suggest faith can be an asset in counseling, but psychology only recognizes faith as a variable, not its eternal life in redemption. That may have led to psychologists who are believers sticking their toes in the water and creating their version, called Christian Counseling, which is infiltrating churches rapidly.
godly psychology
I made up the label “godly psychology” because my focus remains on escaping ELB, not going downhill on the profession. The upper end of the dysfunction spectrum requires psychiatry and maybe psychotropic medication to treat effectively. Below that point, it is hard to imagine psychology can do anything our Abba Father cannot.
“Godly psychology” comprises state-licensed therapists who present as “also Christians.” I observe that godly psychology is humans doing what humans have done since leaving Eden, focusing our life on the life we can see and adding God to it as an accessory.
Biblical counselors, my calling, operate under the exemption from state licensing laws for counselors that pastors have as a first amendment right. Biblical counseling is personal preaching, and where biblical counseling missed the mark is when it adopted the psychology operating model.
Most believers do not use either group; my point is to demonstrate using the Scripture in our daily lives with everyday issues that sometimes turn to professional therapy. Our Abba Father has the solutions for anything psychology can do. If the reader chooses to ignore them, that is between the reader and our Abba Father. I am planting a seed that may get watered and grow because strong faith is fantastic.
Being provocative helps stimulate thinking, which is my strategy here. Always think in the direction of faith, not ELB, because faith triggers the Holy Spirit, our teacher, helper, and advocate. I am also provocative toward biblical counseling because it emulates the structure of psychology and its focus on disorders, not faith. It all still serves our Abba Father’s purpose.
Unfortunately, godly psychology feeds psychology’s need to protect its turf, and the Christian element builds trust more than the revelation of our Abba Father. We know if our only tool is a hammer, all problems look like a nail. If a godly psychologist does not put their faith first and embrace the Scripture as sufficient, that is their call.
But corporate worship centers should be very slow to form relationships with godly psychology because the church loses all incentive to grow out of it. Again, godly psychology is not bad; I do not condemn it. Our Abba Father’s way in the Scripture is better, similar to what Jesus said to Martha, “choose what is better.”
The onus is on godly psychology to recognize its own ELB and adjust to glorify our Abba Father. Making him second or bypassing him cannot possibly honor him. The onus is also on the church’s elders to protect the church from substituting psychology for our Abba Father. To quote the first Top Gun movie, “that about covers the tower fly-by.”
Conclusion
I would like to see the church preach psychology out of the building, and ELB does not want to see the church move in the biblical counseling direction. I will be amazed if the church does move much because tradition has so much inertia. But we can pray! The great news is with the “temple’s veil ripped open,” nothing should stop us from growing our faith in the Scripture. We have to want it.
