biblical counseling vs psychology

Is Freud Dead? These three words on a Time cover raised eyebrows twenty years.

Yet many in the Church — Christians in the pews and their pastors — flock to the offices of state-licensed professional counselors today; even though Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology called religion a “universal, obsessional neurosis.” (Cited in Frank B. Minirth, Christian Psychiatry, Revell, 1977.) Freud and his students clung to blatantly anti-Christian ideas and practices.

And off to psychologists, Christians marched.

Why Do Christians See Psychotherapists?

Do Christians turn to psychotherapists because the psychotherapy industry grew in power and acceptance in a secular America? Yes. It’s a billion-dollar business.

Do Christians turn to  psychotherapists because too many pastors capitulated to the thinking that psychotherapists had better knowledge and more effective therapies than God’s Words? Sadly, yes.

Do Christians turn to psychotherapists because the Bible and its truth (and the Truth–Jesus Christ) is lacking? No. Here’s one of many power Scriptures on counseling.

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

Some Christians who care about people become psychotherapists and say they integrate biblical belief with psychological philosophy and techniques, claiming that through integration they have more tools in their tool box. More tools in their tool box? “‘Christian psychology’ as the term is used today is an oxymoron‘,” say John MacArthur and Wayne Mack in Introduction to Biblical Counseling (Word Publishing, 1994, 10).

A Shift

The tables are turning. Biblical counselors such as Bob Kellemen, Executive Director of the Biblical Counseling Coalition, and others are binding together to bring counseling of the Word (or, biblical counseling) back to the Church. In a recent blog post, Dr. Bob pokes this thorny issue.

The bottom-line question: Shouldn’t counseling of the Word be in the Church?

Please discuss in Comments at the very bottom of this post. Here’s Dr. Bob:

Grab Your Smartphone?

“Real life issues motivated the Apostle Paul to write to the Colossians from his prison cell. The Christians in Colosse were facing suffering—condemnation from Satan (Col. 1:22), judgment by others (Col. 2:16), interpersonal grievances and struggles (Col. 3:13, 15), and family discord (Col. 3:19-21). They were also battling sinful temptations—sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, anger, rage, malice, slander, and lying (Col. 3:5-9).

In today’s world, these are the type of life issues that cause us to grab our smartphone and schedule a counseling appointment. . . Read the rest of Bob’s amazing article here.

photo credit: h.koppdelaney via photopin cc

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