One idea of our world that is central in psychological heresy is this:
“Man is good and just does bad things.”
Wrong!
How about this biblical truth:
“Man is bad and does bad things that offend a holy, righteous, pure, and infinitely good Creator: God.”
Biblical counseling is superior to psychological counseling because we deal with the REAL problem – the sinful nature of mankind. We seek to point people to the gracious forgiveness of Christ.
-Mark (recognizing daily that no good thing lives in me EXCEPT for Christ)
The world says that we have good in us apart from Christ. Secular psychology emphasizes this same wrong idea.
However, the Bible and biblical counseling teaches us that there is something that lives within us that draws us closer to what will kill us.
Our biggest enemy is ourselves, not Satan’s temptations or the lies of this world.
Only God’s goodness & His power that lives within us is what can overcome these 3 enemies: ourselves, Satan, and the world.
That’s why biblical counseling is a work of the Holy Spirit. God works through the counselors to transform the heart of a counselee by His Spirit. Period. It is NOT us. It’s Him and only Him.
-Mark (to God alone be all glory)
You may be wondering, “Why is Mark so strongly blogging about psychological lies this week?” Maybe you think I need to chill out.
I must tell you why! Because I think the #1 enemy facing the CHURCH today is psychological heresy and psychobabble.
We hear a lot about abortion, stewardship, adultery, and divorce because Christians know what the Bible says about those things. However, we RARELY hear about the dangerous deception of psychological ideas in evangelical churches today. Rarely! That’s why I believe it’s a #1 problem – because very few recognize it as a problem.
Some are thinking: “Mark, you are making a big deal out of nothing.” Again, that proves my point!
Brothers and Sisters, we are woefully deficient in battling the lies of Satan and this world because they feed our flesh. In other words, these lies make sense to us so we believe them but they only make sense in the flesh – not in the Spirit and not when compared to the Word of God. That’s why you need both the Word and the Spirit to defeat these lies.
Do not think Freud, Skinner, Adler, Maslow, and Piaget are your friends and are more wise than the Word of God. Do not think that we must have these men’s ideas to improve upon the Word of God and where it is supposedly deficient. I will challenge you in this: the Word of God is NOT deficient when it comes to the problems of mankind. God speaks to the heart and deals with the heart in His all-sufficient Word of truth.
Is “hate” a strong word? Yes.
Do I “hate” psychological lies? Yes.
A righteous, loving God hates these lies, too, because He knows these lies lead you away from Him – the only true source of hope for this dying world. He is our God Who is love (I John 4:8) and real love hates the lies of Satan and this world.
-Mark (learning to hate what God hates & love what God loves – His truth)
Hate is a strong word. The only time it’s ok to hate is when we hate what God hates. Even then, we must not RESPOND in hate but in love. That’s the hard part. (Rom. 12:17-21)
People often say, “God hates divorce” and I agree. We should hate it, too. Divorce is terrible and our God of love hates it because it devastates families.
God hates evil. We should hate it, too, and not allow it in our own lives.
In fact, Proverbs 6:16 states: “There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.“
God hates “haughty eyes” or the pride in our prideful looks, tongues that tell lies, hands that shed innocent blood (abortion?), a heart that plans to do evil deeds, feet that run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and a person who brings division among brothers in Christ. We must hate these things, too.
But that doesn’t mean we overcome them with evil. Instead, we overcome all of them with good. We’ve got to be loving toward others and overcome their evil with good. It’s the same for psychology. We must overcome it with good.
By “good,” I mean that we must seek to do our part in the body of Christ to reach lost souls, to reconcile marriages, to disciple others, and to lead people to Christ. That’s what we must be about and how we overcome our hate of psychology with the love of God.
I want you to know that I am PRO-Christ more than I am ANTI-psychology. I just hate lies that lead people away from knowing our transformational God (John 17:3; Rom. 12:1-2).
Furthermore, we know that the fathers of psychology Freud, Wundt, Maslow, Adler, Jung, and Skinner were NOT about the kingdom of God and were not going to point people to pray, read their Bibles, ask the Holy Spirit to open their eyes and empower them to obey God, go to church, submit to spiritual leadership, evangelize lost souls, and fellowship with other believers. The theories of these men OPPOSED the very Word of God!
So I ask you, does God hate psychology when it opposes His Holy Word and promotes self-centeredness and evil rather than obedience to Him?
I know this is strong but I want to encourage you to think through these issues. I recommend you read Ed Bulkley’s book, Why Christians Can’t Trust Psychology, or David Tyler’s book, God’s Funeral, to learn more about the deceptions of psychology and its theories so that you can identify the myths of psychology that oppose God’s Word.
-Mark (praying that you’ll read these posts with understanding and the perspective of God while giving me grace – I am NOT preaching myself for I am a redeemed sinner but I am preaching Christ in all of this!)
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Pr 6:16-19). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.