The Bible and emotions (what your therapist won’t tell you!)

 Psychology attempts to provide answers to soul questions that are different than those provided by the Bible. But the Bible claims to be sufficient. So the Bible and Psychology will always be in conflict.

 
Human behavioral disfunction can be categorized into some basic categories that all happen to start with the letter “A”.
 

• Anger (Violence, Contention, Aggressive) (Righteous anger is acceptable and we are to rule over it)
• Anti-Social (Mutilation, Destructive, Stealing, Lying, Infidelity, Homelessness)
• Addiction (Drugs, Pornography, Shopping, Gambling)
• Anxiety (Phobia, Panic Attacks, OCD, PTSD)
• Anguish (Depression, Despondency, Despair, Bi-Polar)
• Avoidance (Family disfunction, Relational barriers)

 
The Bible uniformly and universally diagnoses all of these things as SIN. A serious problem arises when we diagnose these things otherwise. For example, consider the following case.

John Hinkley Jr., was a man who really liked actress Jodie Foster, so he decided the best chance he had to get her attention was to assassinate the President. So he went on a mission to shoot President Ronald Reagan and successfully shot him on March 30, 1981. He also ended up shooting four other people. The Psychiatrists (“The Professionals”) were immediately called in to evaluate him and it was like they hit the mental disorder jackpot. They diagnosed him with depression, dysthymia, and schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder…and he was found “not guilty” by reason of insanity.
 
In other words, Hinkley was innocent because he suffered from a disease that caused his behavior. The reality was that Hinkley should have gotten a sentence of life in prison. Psychology may think it is helping humanity, but it consistently serves to obscure God's truth.
 
“People with cancer, diabetes, and heart disease don’t stalk women and open fire on a crowd in an attempt to murder a president. All disease exists in a world tainted by the sin of Adam, but there is something about many “mental illnesses” that are moral in a way that other diseases are not.” -Heath Lambert, The Gospel and Mental Illness, p. 24

“Research has yet to identify specific biological causes for any psychological disorder.” The Biology of Mental Disorders, U.S. Congress Of Technology Assessment, 1992

“The field of psychology today is literally a mess. There are as many techniques and methods around as there are researchers and therapists. I have personally seen therapists convince their clients that all their problems come from their mothers, their stars, their biochemical makeup, their diet, their lifestyle, and even their karma.” Dr. Roger Mills, Psychologist

Is Christianity at all compatible with Psychology? Is a Christian Psychologist legit?
 
“Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis…While the different religions wrangle with one another as to which of them is in possession of the truth, in our view the truth of religion may be altogether disregarded.” Sigmund Freud, The Future Of An Illusion
 
“When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal, wholesome life.” Sigmund Freud
 
“Experience is for me the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas are as authoritative as my experience…It is to my experience that I must return again and again. And neither God nor man can take precedence over my own experience.” Dr. Carl Rogers

Basic Reasons That Christianity And Psychology Conflict

1. Psychology teaches that God does not exist (Psalm 14:1)
2. Pschology teaches that God's word is not authoritative (Psalm 19:7-9)
3. Psychology teaches that understanding Evolution is the foundation for understanding man and his problems (2 Corinthians 10:5).
4. Psychology teaches that people are generally good by nature (Romans 3:10-12).
5. Psychology teaches that people have the answers to their problems inside of themselves (Jeremiah 17:9).
6. Psychology teaches that solutions come from studying the past (Philippians 3:12-14).
7. Psychology teaches that spiritual problems can be dealt with by physical means.
8. Psychology teaches that we are the way we are because of what others have done to us (Romans 3:23; 6:23).
9. Psychology excuses sin as a result of one or more arbitrary non-spiritual disorders.
10. Psychology teaches that people with spiritual problems must be treated by "Professionals," and cannot be sufficiently helped by a Christian with a Bible.
11. Psychology teaches that the fear of God is useless to restore people (Proverbs 9:10).  

Psychiatry provides: 1.      a source of wrong answers opposed to the Bible 2.      promises of false hope and happiness 3.      solutions that don't work
	Psychiatry is a vicious enemy of Christianity and the Bible. Psychiatry is Anti-Christian Psychiatry is Atheistic Psychiatry is Humanistic

Introduction:

1. Psychiatry has positioned itself to function as a replacement to the church and Christianity.
2. Psychiatry is not content to share the "turf" with Christianity, it seeks to compete with, replace and obsolete the idea of looking to God for guidance and solutions for life's problems.
3. Psychology is actually a religion where Psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health workers are the "priests" imposing their own personal atheistic and humanistic value system upon unsuspecting individuals. 
4. The psychiatry industry and insurance industry have banded together to literally yank a minister's or pastor's traditional role of "councilor" out of their hands. This is a very recent phenomena and is unprecedented in history! It is driven by territorial expansionism by the psychiatry industry and simple cash savings from litigation by the insurance industry. It is wrong.
5. Society has begun to pick up on this message that going to your church, a minister, a pastor, a Christian or the Bible is a second best option for solving personal problems. "Sure", they suggest, "go to your minister just like you would go to a friend"... "but when you really want professional advice that will solve your problems... come see a psychologist or psychiatrist."
6. The message is loud and clear: counseling from a minister, a pastor, a Christian is a waste of time. If you want results see a psychologist or psychiatrist!
7. Psychology is the "new religion" where social workers are the priests imposing their own personal atheistic and humanistic value system upon unsuspecting individuals. Psychiatry has positioned itself to replace the church and religion for guidance and life's answers!
8. A practicing psychologist comments: "Naturally, I continue to wonder what would happen if religion was to take back its role in matters of the "soul," science was to take back the study of the body and behavior, and people could accept life as something more profound than a quest for psychological solutions." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 283

A. Psychiatry opposes pastoral counseling as part of a turf war:

1. As incredible as it may sound, Psychiatry frowns upon seeking advice from a minister or pastor/elder or Christian. Of course, if the pastor has been certified by the psychiatry industry they are happy. It is all about control!
2. This is part of a larger territorial turf war where the psychiatry industry wants to put ministers out of the "counseling business".
3. Here is an example of how pastors merely provide comfort while the psychiatrist fixes the problem. The pastor is banished from the operating room where the spiritual surgery is performed and placed in the waiting room outside. What is shocking about this quote, is that it comes from a very naive conservative Christian: "The pastor provides the Christian comfort and the psychiatrist provides the needed therapy and neither conflicts with the other." (Wesley W. Nelson, Baker's Dictionary of Practical Theology, p. 300) Of course this is as absurd as it is wrong. But it illustrates just how far the psychiatry industry has gone to convince even the church that they should leave the counseling to the pros (psychiatrists)!
4. "It can be rightly claimed that malingering [faking] is always the sign of a disease often more severe than a neurotic disorder. . . . It is a disease which to diagnose requires particularly keen diagnostic acumen. The diagnosis should never be made but by the psychiatrist." Kurt R. Eissler, 1908-1999, Malingering, p 252)

B. Insurance companies oppose pastoral counseling:

1. Even insurance companies for churches strongly recommend against "uncertified and uncredentialed" ministers from engaging in any form of counseling!
2. Insurance companies have begun to dissuade church ministers and pastors from calling what they do, "counseling". Instead call it, "pastoral insight", "spiritual guidance", "shepherding"... anything but what the Bible says it is! Counseling!
3. It is clear that this advice is driven by litigation in part, but the effect is just another angle of squeezing ministers and pastors out of their rightful traditional role of counseling. 
4. Here is the advice of the insurance industry: "We recommendation that unless a minister or other church official or volunteer is actually a professional counselor (i.e. psychologist, psychotherapist or some other recognized degree and designation from a self governing and self disciplining professional association) then they should not call it "counseling". It's a somewhat loaded term legally in terms of the expectations of those who receive such services, paid or unpaid. Therefore we recommend that most churches and ministers refrain from using the term counseling. A better alternative in bulletins, websites and other oral and written communication is to refer to such "services" more precisely as "pastoral insight", "spiritual guidance", "shepherding" or whatever other term makes sense within the context of your church culture and ministries. This will avoid unnecessarily heightened standards of legal liability related to professional counseling that most ministers are not really qualified to provide." (President of large insurance company that specializes in church insurance policies)
5. So what has happened, is the mental health industry has come in and literally taken over the traditional and central right and function of ministers and pastors and Christians in general, to council!
6. Now we believe that the vast majority of pastor counseling can be accomplished in no more than 2-3 one hour meetings. We do not recommend ministers advertise or charge for their superior services. The motivation must be finding and correcting the problem quickly. Usually the solution is quite simple, but the person rejects the advice. It is important for councilors to realize that some people enjoy focusing on themselves and reject your advice because then no further sessions would be necessary. Most of the problems that arise in counseling are from paid, protracted weekly sessions that last months.

C. Psychiatry is a religion:

NOTE: Medical doctors do not impose their philosophical, moral values upon you when they do a knee replacement. Psychiatrists, on the other hand always bring their philosophical and moral values into their treatment arena. For example, since most psychiatrists are atheists who reject the existence of the soul or spirit and believe man is a pile of chemicals, they treat you with drugs. When they do council you, they view your religious faith as an impediment to good mental health.

1. Name of their religion and philosophy is humanism, atheism and evolutionary Darwinian.
2. Psychiatry's founding prophet is Freud.
3. Psychiatry's Bible is the DSM-5(Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)
4. Psychiatry's high priests are psychiatrists.
5. Psychiatry's priests are psychologists.
6. Psychiatry's altar boys are psychiatric nurses and mental health workers.
7. Psychiatry's "Holy Spirit" communicator is the media
8. Psychiatry's temples are mental institutions.
9. Psychiatry's "Church Treasury" is your public Tax Dollars
10. Psychiatry's divine being is the "self".
11. Psychiatry's view of where we came from: Random chance processes
12. Psychiatry's purpose of life: None.
13. Psychiatry's future hope of heaven: None

D. Therapists impose their personal religion views upon you:

1. "So often, in the Psychology industry, the diagnosis is consistent with the treatment offered that one can only surmise that the psychologist's area of interest determines both the label and the treatment. This was intimated by Frank Pittman, who writes: "psychotherapy involves applying the value system of the therapist to the dilemmas of the clients. . . his or her value system is more important to you than training, credentials, or even professional degrees." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 164)
2. "False interpreting is the essential ingredient in the manufacture of synthetic victims; it places the psychologist's beliefs above the client's problems. For the client, this leads to getting "the therapist's particular brand of psychotherapy, addressing the problem areas that the therapist finds significant. The form of treatment, then, is determined by the therapist's habitual approach and not by the nature of the problem that the patient brings in." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 73) 
3. "Others [studies] have demonstrated the ability of therapists to influence the values of their patients to come in line with their own. Welkowitz and his colleagues arbitrarily assigned clients to therapists and subsequently found that the values of the therapists resembled those of their own patients more than those seen by other therapists, and that the similarity of values tended to increase over time or length of treatment.' Similarly, a study by Rosenthal found a positive relationship between ratings of improvement and the change of clients' moral values towards those of the psychologists, with respect to sex, aggression and authority.' Since such moral conversion is possible, it is no wonder that psychologists with a victim-oriented philosophy can intentionally or inadvertently manufacture victims." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 202) 
4. "An investigation of this question suggests that psychologists, regardless of what credentials they may or may not have, are not well trained, are often as badly off as their clients, apply their own values and ideas, however inappropriate, don't know or acknowledge their limitations, and get by either because they are just nice people or because they know how to play the role of an authority and expert. (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 227)
5. As Sarason writes: "every psychologist has a picture of what man is or should be, of what society is or should be, and this picture infiltrates (indeed, is in part the basis of) his or her theories, along with the psychologist's way of thinking about theory and practice." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 235) 
6. "Put simply, the Psychology industry considers and treats people as children who, regardless of age, experience, education or status must be protected, guided, sheltered, excused and disciplined. I consider the prospect of this emerging neo-paternalistic society in which the "fathers" (the "paters") are the psychologists, whose knowledge is superior and whose power is absolute, to be intolerable." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 268)
7. "It allows itself to be a willing, cooperative agent of social policy and control, with its activities conforming to governmental and corporate principles. In so doing, it diminishes its capacity to step back and question the always present and unspoken assumptions that underlie the present form of society; "an undergirding that drastically limits the universe of alternatives that social policymakers can consider." This willingness to avoid challenging the views of policymakers has turned the profession into an industry. Instead of probing human nature and thereby striving to understand why the social order has come to be the way it is and how one might build a better one, psychologists have colluded to maintain the present one in which they have attained power and become part of the cultural elite. Despite psychologists' apparent willingness to describe themselves as "social influence purveyors," they fail to see that in assuming this role, they become pawns in a larger game of creating and molding dependent, conforming and disciplined people." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 271)
8. "The psychological way of life has infiltrated our society to such an extent that it goes unseen, accepted and undetected, affecting our thoughts and language, emotions, behaviors and beliefs." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 283) 

E. Psychiatry promises false happiness:

1. Only Jesus Christ can provide true lasting happiness. 
2. "All the analysis (therapy) in the world doesn't allow the person to find out who he is and why he is here on earth, why he has to die, and how he can make his life a triumph. It is when psychology pretends to do this, when it offers itself as a full explanation of human unhappiness, that it becomes a fraud that makes an impasse from which he cannot escape." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 268) 
3. "I am increasingly astonished about how unable the average patient is now to articulate reasons for their unhappiness, and how readily they will accept a "medical" diagnosis and solution if given one by a narrow-minded psychiatrist. This is a cultural pathologic dependence on medical authority. Granted, there are patients who do fight this kind of definition and continue to search for better explanations for themselves which are less infantilizing, but in my experience this is not common. There is a frightening choking off of the possibility for dissent and creative questioning here, a silencing of very basic questions such as "what is this pain?" or "what is my purpose?" Modern psychiatry has unconscionably participated in this pathology for its own gain and power. It is a moral, not scientific issue at stake here, and in my view this is why many astute Americans rightfully distrust this new psychiatry and its Utopian claims about happiness through medical progress." (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser, Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
4. "In its broadest forms, as trauma counseling, stress debriefing, educational guidance, parent education, divorce mediation, violence prevention, anger management, twelve-step programs, sensitivity training, and so on, psychotherapy has become a building block of society. It is accepted without question, practiced without hesitation and funded without reservation. As such, "there seems little question that psychotherapy is one of the most significant cultural artifacts of our time, reflecting and shaping the central themes of the last 150 years." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 280)

F. Psychiatry is redefining moral standards:

1. Standards of morality, right and wrong, and what is normal and acceptable behaviour is defined by God alone. Christians are asleep while the devil has stepped in allowed psychologists and psychiatrists to create brand new definitions of what is normal and the basic moral code.
2. So guess what happens when an industry that is atheistic, evolutionary and humanistic sets out to define morals? Well open your eyes and look that the mess your local town is in today! Moral relativism and anarchy!
3. "The altruistic appearance of the services offered by psychologists is dangerously misleading. People need to recognize that the Psychology Industry thrives by promoting its services and expanding its market, and that psychologists are selling the public a bill of goods, making promises about happiness, health and safety which they cannot fulfil. Psychologists are in the business of posing as experts in living, claiming for themselves the ability to divine right from wrong and cause from effect. The Psychology industry has persuaded society that the "good life" is possible through the guidance and assistance of psychologists." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 269) 
4. The result is that behaviour and actions that the Bible defines as sin and deviant and wrong, are being accepted as normal. Judges are accepting the advice of psychiatrists and giving light sentences for child rapists. click for more.
   
5. "One way to unmask the dogma that is biologic psychiatry is to ask the question what kind of human being is being posited as desirable, "normal," or not disordered. Judging by the DSM-IV, it would be a person not depressed or anxious, without perversions or sexual "dysfunction," in touch with "reality," not alienated from society, adapted to their work, not prone to excessive feeling states and generally productive in their life pursuits. This is, of course, the bourgeois ideal of modern culture. We will all fit in, produce and consume and be happy about it. Anyone who dissents by choice or nature slips into the realm of the disordered or pathologic, is then located as such by medical science and is then subject to social management and control." (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser, Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
6. "They used these licenses to give themselves the authority to decide who and what is normal and abnormal, good and bad, healthy and sick." (Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 273) 
7. "A more humane psychiatry, if it is even possible in today's cultural climate, must recognize the powerful potential of the uses and abuses of power if it is not to become a tool of social control and normalization." (Against Biologic Psychiatry, Dr. David Kaiser, Psychologist, Psychiatric Times, December, Dec. 1996, Vol. XIII, Issue 12)
8. "To create these tests, psychologists determined what "normal" was by measuring the characteristics of thousands of people and then calculating an average and a normal range. In the same way that a normal range of temperature or rainfall can be calculated, so a normal range of intelligence, ability or behavior could be established. But psychologists have twisted this concept of "normal." Instead of referring to something quantitative and objective, it now refers to something qualitative and subjective. The original concept of "normal" as average has been replaced by the psychological one involving pathology. No longer does "normal" have to do with the common experience of people for psychologists have made normal such a narrow range that most people today are, by some definition or another, abnormal. Today "normal" is how psychologists think the world should be: how families should function, how couples ought to "enjoy intimacy," how one ought to "resolve conflicts."(Manufacturing Victims, Dr. Tana Dineen, 2001, p 55)

Conclusion:

1. The time has come for Christians to wake up and realize that the psychiatry industry has been waging war against Christianity for over 100 years. The bad news is that they are winning!
2. Atheistic psychologists and psychiatrists are imposing their own Darwinian and Humanistic religious views upon society and you! When you entrust your spirit and mind to such a system, the result will not be good. It is controlled by the devil in its foundational core philosophy. 
3. The psychiatry industry has successfully convinced judges, lawyers, insurance companies and the general public that it is a bad thing to take real problems to the church and God for help. Counseling from a minister, a pastor, a Christian is a waste of time. If you want results, see a psychologist or psychiatrist! What a sad day this is.
4. The psychiatry industry has redefined morality in a way that is condemned in the Bible.
5. Christians are blind to the fact that the psychiatry industry has successfully replaced the hope and happiness offered by Christ, with their own false promises. People are rarely helped by the psychiatry industry.
6. Jesus Christ still offers true happiness and hope. Simple Bible believing Christians can and do often make better councilors than a psychiatrist with 11 years of university education.

1. Spiritual Deadness

Due to weak, man-centered theology in the Arminian strain, accompanied by the weak, man-centered evangelistic methods that have been used to peddle the gospel so pervasively in the United States for so long, there are countless people who believe they are Christians because of something they did at one time (e.g. pray a prayer, walk an aisle, or sign a decision card). They have been led to believe that their will is free to choose Christ on their own, and when they made a decision, the deal was sealed. But the Bible is emphatically clear that man is dead in his trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1), and his will is willingly enslaved to sin (Jn. 8:34; Rom. 6:16). The natural man is free to choose what he wants, but what he wants will always be sin. The only remedy for this condition is a supernatural work of God in the heart of man. As Jesus told Nicodemus, “you must be born again” (Jn. 3:3–7).

2. Satanic Deception

Not only are men dead in their trespasses and sins, but Satan is hard at work to keep sinners blind to the glory of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4). He does this in various ways, but as the father of lies (Jn. 8:44), his chief modus operandi is to distort the truth. Just as he deceived Eve in the Garden by twisting the words of God, he is still misleading the masses through his deception.

All truth and all of life are issues of worship, and therefore Satan covers all the bases by attacking the two fronts which are commonly referred to as the secular and the sacred. He works in the secular realm to promote false ideologies that form godless worldviews. From the larger paradigms of Modernism and Postmodernism to their ideological corollaries, the fingerprints of Satan are found all over them. In the realm of the sacred, the truth of God’s word is distorted so that false religions, cults and sects arise through heretical teachings identified by the Apostle Paul as “doctrines of demons” (1 Tim. 4:1).

3. Shallow Teaching

Among those who are genuine teachers of the word of God, the vestiges of the man-centered gospel still shape how a vast number of churches conduct their regular ministry. From the music to the message, everything is tailored to meet the felt needs of the hearers. Instead of producing a strong, biblical theology through the accurate, authoritative preaching of God’s word, talks are offered which are short, topical, and feed the weak tenets of the various me-ologies among the listeners. Oftentimes smaller group studies permit or even encourage subjective interpretation of Scripture which fuels the notion that even the truth of God’s word is subject to “what it means to me.”

4. Spiritual Lethargy

There are many Christians who are genuinely born again, and who receive good teaching, yet somehow they hang on to their me-ology. This paradox is a result of a failure for the believer to realize that he is in the midst of a spiritual war. Like soldiers asleep in the midst of combat, many Christians neglect the reality of the spiritual battle before them and their responsibility to take up the armor of God and fight (Eph. 6:10–20). Satan is not only at work “out there,” he is even harder at work against the people of God, and therefore the believer must be vigilant (1 Pet. 5:8).

From Paradox to Orthodox

If we are going to become people who are genuinely growing in Christ and who can genuinely make an impact for Christ in the world and the lives of those around us, we need to be grounded in the solid theological truth of God’s word rather than our own man-centered suppositions and ideas. In that case, there are at least three things we are going to have to do.

1. Check for Real Spiritual Life

How do we move from being a Christian who operates according to whatever may be our version of me-ology to being a Christian with a biblical and robust theology? Perhaps the first step would be to examine yourself to see if you’re really in the faith. This is anathema in some circles, but it is actually something the Bible calls us to do when we are faced with just this sort of paradox within ourselves (2 Cor. 5:5). In fact, the epistle of 1 John was written to help Christians with this very issue. It’s not that God wants us to be in constant doubt of our salvation; the opposite is actually true (see 1 Jn. 5:13). But when we have good reason to doubt, we must take a sober look into our hearts in light of God’s word.

2. Receive Real Spiritual Nourishment

If you are convinced that issue is settled for you and that you are a true believer, the next step is to find a church that practices expository preaching. Rather than using a text of Scripture as a launching pad into a string of stories, or stringing a set of verses together to support a particular proposition, expository preaching finds its proposition in a particular text and then explains and applies it from that text.

Expository preaching upholds the Bible’s authority and sufficiency, building a theology through exegesis (i.e. pulling the meaning out of the text) rather than eisegesis (i.e. reading the meaning into the text). Expository preaching will help you to identify the false ideologies of the world that have infiltrated your thinking while filling you up with the solid spiritual food you need to grow. Plus, as you sit under faithful expository preaching week in and week out, you will begin to learn how to read the Bible in a more meaningful way.

3. Engage in Real Spiritual Battle

While the Scriptures are absolutely necessary for Christian growth, you can’t stop at simply consuming. You have to engage in applying the word of God to your everyday life. Our Lord prayed that His own would be sanctified in the truth, which is the word of God (Jn. 17:17), and we are called to work out what God has worked within us (Phil. 2:12–13). To be sanctified means to be set apart from sin and unto the service of God, and this happens as we let the word of Christ dwell richly within us (Col. 3:16) and allow it to renew our minds (Rom. 12:2). As our minds are renewed, our affections begin to change, and our me-ology is replaced with theology because “me” no longer occupies the center of our universe. God is rightly placed back where He has belonged all along.

This is so crucial because it is here in the battle of the affections that so many Christians fail and face the consequences of feeling frustrated, or even of being tempted to wander back into the same sins we once forsook. When “me” is the center of our world, the word of God does not seem to have much practical relevance to our lives. But when God is the center of our thinking and affections, we will stop looking for the quick-fix for our felt needs and instead begin to drink in the ocean of truth that comes—sometimes as a flood, sometimes as a slow and steady trickle—and we find that His word is not only relevant, but powerful to change us from the inside out.

“As our minds are renewed by the word of God, our affections begin to change, and our me-ology is replaced with theology because “me” no longer occupies the center of our universe.

As the word of God washes over us and our me-ology is gradually replaced with a rich theology, we are no longer “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14), but the truth of God’s word begins to serve as the anchor of our soul. The great doctrines which flow from the character of God revealed in the Scriptures keep our feet firmly planted and our worship soars to new heights. Everyone’s a theologian, but not everyone has this glorious theology out of which flows maturity, stability, and fullness of joy.

1. Human as creator. God is the creator. The complexity of the world we live in and the universe attests to His superiority. The evidence is there for all who have eyes to see. Manifesting ignores God as the creator and puts the human to create destiny or objects of their desire.

2. Pride. Manifesting involves the sin of pride. It implies that one doesn’t need God and can manipulate their own destiny by tapping into supernatural secrets and their will. Pride is Satan’s sin. He sees himself as being equal to God. Pride is one reason manifesting is sinful.

3. Breaks 1st commandment. Manifesting violates the first of the Ten Commandments: “Thou shall have no gods before me.” Someone who practices manifesting puts themselves before God.

4. Sorcery/magic. Manifesting is a type of sorcery or magic, which the Bible expressly forbids. Again, it is sinful because it is an attempt by humankind to circumvent God, doing what our will desires and not putting God and His will first.

The wisdom of man is foolishness to God, and the wisdom of God is foolishness to the unregenerate man. This means that the more man tries to find God or true wholeness through his own wisdom, the more he worships the creature rather than the Creator. Subsequently, the more the church seeks solutions to soul care needs by integrating theology with psychology, the farther we drift from the God of truth and undermine the work of the Spirit, who is committed to working through the Word.

Psychology Is Antagonistic to the Cross of Christ

The revelation of God in Christ is radically distinct from anything the world of psychological counseling can offer. By its very nature, worldly psychology is antagonistic to the cross since it exalts man’s wisdom and diminishes Jesus, the very source of truth (John 14:6). David Powlison testifies,

After years in the psychotherapeutic world, I found that Christ turned my life upside down. Then I started to see that he turned the whole world upside down: everything was God-centered, not man-centered. That meant that counseling needed a fundamental realignment to inhabit the real world, not the world fabricated by unbelief.”[1]

To attempt to integrate biblical theology with psychology is, therefore, utterly foolish and will only lead to the exaltation of man, which in turn will ultimately lead to the spiritual ruin of others.

In our day, as in Paul’s, those who elevate worldly psychology to be equal to or above God’s Word consider themselves to be the enlightened ones, and we who stand solely on the Scriptures are the archaic, unenlightened ones. Looking to secular psychology for new insight, rather than doing the more laborious work of mining wisdom from Scripture, produces the elitism which bubbles up from pride. Though the theories of worldly psychology are constantly changing, the wisdom of God in the gospel is inflexible and superior because it is rooted in Jesus Christ, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).

The integration of psychology and theology is nothing less than a silent admission of a lack of confidence in the sufficiency of the Word of God, both living and written. For this reason, biblical counselors must be faithful to engage in active combat with every form of human wisdom “raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5). Regardless of the subtlety of Christian psychology’s assault or the sincerity of its advocates, it is an attack on the sufficiency of Christ, nonetheless.

Integrationism Is Flawed on Two Basic Levels

The integration of psychology and Christian theology is flawed on at least two basic levels. First, integrationists have one common problem—too high a view of man. And in having too high a view of man, the integrationist fails to recognize that man’s deepest problem is not unmet psychological needs but the waywardness of a heart that is totally depraved and at enmity with God. The damage this false gospel has caused within professing Christianity is incalculable. If man’s greatest need is personal acceptance rather than personal redemption from the personal guilt of personal sinfulness, then the message of the cross of Jesus Christ is made void. Therefore, resisting worldly psychology is imperative. Second, Christian psychology is flawed because it reveals a loyalty to man’s wisdom as opposed to a pure, childlike trust in the Word of God. It is nothing short of a subtle strategy of Satan to keep the gospel of Christ hidden from men by cloaking it within the arrogance of human wisdom. When human wisdom is blended with the pure truth of Christ, the result is only confusion and the supplanting of faith in the sufficiency of Scripture with trust in man. Therefore, Powlison’s assessment of integrationists is correct:

Integrationists attempt to wed secular psychology to conservative Christianity because they believe that Scripture is not comprehensively sufficient. Scripture, the Word of the Holy Spirit, is in some essential way deficient for understanding and changing people. The church, therefore, needs systematic and constitutive input from the social sciences in order to know what is true and to enable effective, loving counseling ministry. Integrationists aim to import the intellectual contents and psychotherapeutic practices of psychology into the church in a way that is consistent with biblical faith.[2]

However, the marriage of truth and error cannot be carried out without compromising the gospel since the foundations of theology and psychology are so drastically different. They have opposite starting points and are even from different worlds. Christian psychology offers nothing needful to the practice of biblical counseling because its fundamental views of man, his deepest needs, and how he can and must change are erroneous. Therefore, the integration of psychology with theology must be opposed by all those who truly hold to the sufficiency of Jesus Christ and His inerrant Word.

Biblical counselors have a choice to make. Either the revelation of God in His Word is fully trustworthy and complete, or it is inadequate and, therefore, in need of help from human wisdom. The curse and the promise of God through Jeremiah the prophet serve as both a fitting warning and encouragement to us.

Thus says the Lord, “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when prosperity comes, but will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, a land of salt without inhabitant. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit” (Jer. 17:5-8). 

Trusting God means trusting His revelation in the written Word. To turn away from His truth to embrace man’s theories, or to attempt to mix the two, is to place one’s trust in man. As a result, the blessing of fruitfulness from the Lord is lost and, in time, replaced by spiritual barrenness.

Questions for Reflection

1. What subtle ways has the enemy of our souls sought to lead you away from the simplicity of Christ and His gospel?
2. What worldly ideas have you assimilated into your counseling theory or methodology for which you need to repent?
3. How can you guard your heart as a counselor so that you do not unknowingly provoke the Lord’s jealousy by leading others astray?

[1] David Powlison, Speaking Truth in Love: Counsel in Community (Winston-Salem, NC: Punch Press, 2005), 189.

[2] David Powlison, “Critiquing Modern Integrationists,” in The Journal of Biblical Counseling, 11/3 (1993): 24.

Psychology is rooted in human wisdom, the teachings of the Bible are God's wisdom. Psychology is self-centered, Biblical counseling is God-centered. Psychology is self-saving, the Bible teaches that Christ Jesus is both our eternal Saviour and our present Deliverer. Much of psychological theory places blame for our sinful behavior on past experiences, Christianity tells us we are responsible for our own sin. Psychology provides that we can be healed of our hurts working through our pasts. God urges us to put the past behind us and put our hands to the plows, relying on Him to heal the hurts and character flaws that lead to wrong behavior. Psychology stresses self-nurture and supports self-indulgence, while the Bible places emphasis on dying to ourselves, and taking up our crosses. If the root or the seed is of one kind, how can we expect the fruit of the other kind? Can Christianity be "improved" by anything from modern psychology? Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. (Matthew 7:16-18)

Your soul (will, emotions, and intellect) is the domain of your Maker if you are a blood-bought believer. Should you then entrust that soul to a mere man who will teach you from human wisdom to become more self-centered and self-reliant than you already are? For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25)

We are accountable to God, each individual one of us, and are responsible for our own sin. It is incorrect to blame our parents, our siblings, our friends or anyone else for the things we do. What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: " The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?" As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For every living soul belongs to Me, the father as well as the son--both alike belong to Me. The soul who sins is the one who will die. Therefore...I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. (Ezekiel 18:2,3,30,31)

The unsaved man has but one nature, that of sinful man. He cannot keep from sinning. The born-again saint has two natures, the old sinful nature, and a new nature controlled by the Spirit of God. As believers, it is up to us in a moment-by-moment fashion to choose which nature will prevail. Psychology is attached to carnality and can only deal with man in his old carnal nature. Biblical counseling grows people spiritually and teaches them to gain victory over the sinful nature through renewing the mind with God's wisdom and by the strength of the Holy Spirit. Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)

When we accept responsibility for our wrong beliefs, thoughts, attitudes, and actions, the response is repentance. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalms 51:10)

Now that we know we need to change some things, how do we do it? Psychology is replete with suggestions. The Bible clearly teaches one way, and it's guaranteed! How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. (Psalms 119:9).

God's Word is what accomplishes the changing, the delivering, and the healing. He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. (Psalms 107:20)

Most of us believe or have heard that God heals physical bodies, but do you know that He's concerned with your inner man as well? He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Psalms 147:3)

God's Word is useful and powerful for helping us, shaping us, changing us. 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 Timothy 3:16,17)

I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you. (Psalms 119:11)

For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit (spiritual man), joints and marrow (physical man); it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to whom we must give an account. (Hebrews 4:12,13; words in parentheses mine)

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is My Word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:10,11)

Jesus is the standard and the model for maturing Christians. We seek to change in accordance with what we are learning about the Lord. Psychology does not encourage Christ-likeness because it's focus is not Jesus, who is the Word. The Bible reveals who Jesus is and also who we are right now. When we continually put the Word into our spirits, the Holy Spirit has something to work with in the transformation process. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:17,18)

Specifically, how is it we are transformed? The Bible has the only viable answer. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. (Romans 12:2)

Transformation, whose vehicle is mind renewal, is accomplished by none other than the Word of God! If you want to be cleansed, if you want to be without stain or wrinkle, do not turn to a mental health clinic. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. (Ephesians 5:25-27 )

Psychology may provide some manner of relief. It might last, it might not. If it's behavior changes you are seeking, you may gain control over the one area, only to find your sinful nature seeking to express itself in another way. DBT and CBT (I am certified in both) are just skills to sin in a different way to alleviate the burden... come to Jesus Christ Himself He says, all ye who are weary and HE shall give you rest! Because He has truly already finished it. People need to realize it is SIN they deal with, and it the gospel alone Jesus Christ and Him crucified 3 days and 3 nights period, which we are saved by and kept saved by! (1 cor. 15:1-4). Try the rest and come back to the Best. Nothing can set you free like Jesus! So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (John 8:36 )

• The Bible contains everything we need for living. Why dilute it with psychology? His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him Who called us by His own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:3-8)

CONCLUSION: 
There is a reason for psychology and a place for its existence in society. It is useful for the unsaved counselor to help the unsaved counselee from completely falling apart and self-destructing. It may offer a salve of comfort and relief in not having to face something alone. But it is, at best, a false hope and a temporary remedy, and definitely it does not point the lost man back home. The Christian counselor is responsible to tell the counselee the Truth, that their complete salvation is in the person of Jesus Christ, not in some substitute offered by psychology. When dealing with unsaved people or immature Christians, this may take some time to present and may meet with rejection. Pray for those who cannot accept Biblical counseling and release them, entrusting them to God to send other laborers to till the soil and water the seeds you have planted. Never be tempted to compromise life-giving truth by substituting godless therapy for the sake of "helping" somehow. Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty." Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. (2 Corinthians 6:14-18 & 7:1) 

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3 )

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. (Colossians 2:8 )

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalms 1:1-3 )

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and opposing ideas of which is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith. (1 Timothy 6:20,21 )

People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God--having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. (2 Timothy 3:1-7)

For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:11 )

Come to Me , all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest--I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest--relief, ease, and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet--for your souls. (Matthew 11:28,29 )