How does psychology work with biblical counseling?
Biblical counseling is a Christian approach to counseling and therapy that is built on biblical principles and teachings. It believes that the Bible offers sufficient teachings on many topics relevant to human psychology, behavior, emotions, and relationships. According to biblical counselors, the Bible provides authoritative and practical guidance that allows for an understanding of the human condition. As such, biblical counselors utilize Scripture when helping people deal with issues in living, including mental health struggles. They assume the Bible speaks authoritatively on matters related to counseling and psychology.
Biblical counselors do not deny that human knowledge and insight can be helpful when seeking to understand human psychology and behavior. However, they believe God’s revelation in Scripture is the final authority, superior to human theories and philosophies about the mind and human experience. Biblical counselors are committed to the belief that Scripture is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16-17). They see the Bible as fully sufficient to deal with each person’s problems in his or her inner and interpersonal life.
While biblical counseling affirms the value of general revelation (what can be known about God and humans through creation), special revelation in Scripture is seen as providing greater clarity and wisdom concerning the human heart and mind. General revelation alone is insufficient due to the distorting impact of human sinfulness. Humans need God to reveal truths we could not otherwise obtain on our own. Scripture provides insight into the human condition in a way that supersedes secular theories and research.
Biblical counselors recognize the reality of common grace – God graciously enabling nonbelievers to make observations and gain insights into human psychology and behavior. But common grace has limits. Human knowledge will always be distorted by man’s finite and fallen condition. As 1 Corinthians 3:19 states, “the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.” Biblical counselors do not dismiss social science research and insights outright, but stand ready to evaluate such knowledge biblically. Any insights from secular psychology and therapy that align with Scripture can be accepted as potentially beneficial. But anything opposed to biblical revelation or dependent upon anti-Christian philosophical assumptions must be rejected.
The Bible does speak to matters of human personality, motivation, relationships, thinking patterns, emotions, and behavioral tendencies. Biblical counselors believe Scripture provides understanding of people that the social sciences cannot approach due to their lack of awareness of man’s spiritual dimension and sin nature. The doctrines of creation, fall, redemption, and future hope found in the biblical storyline shape one’s perspective on the human condition in a way secular theories of psychology cannot. Scripture provides clarity concerning the nature and workings of the human heart far beyond anything psychology can offer.
Biblical counselors utilize Scriptural teaching when it comes to understanding topics like the origins of human behavior, the inner workings of the mind, the embedding of God’s moral law within the individual, the habitual power of sinful choices, the possibility of radical heart change, and the process of sanctification by the Holy Spirit. Scripture offers insight into emotional dynamics, interpersonal conflicts, grief and loss, marital discord, parenting struggles, coping with trauma, and dealing with suffering that go well beyond secular explanations.
For example, secular psychologists have proposed many theories concerning human development and maturation. But biblical counselors look to passages like Jeremiah 17:9 and Romans 7:15-20 to understand the inborn tendency toward sin and corruption within human nature that other systems fail to sufficiently address. Scripture offers realism about man’s fallenness often lacking in overly optimistic secular theories.
Secular therapies tend to ignore or downplay the spiritual dimension of human existence. They may overemphasize materialistic explanations that do not account for man’s innate hunger for God or need for redemption. Biblical counselors find great hope in Scriptural truths about radical heart transformation, the power of grace, and the healing of psychological wounds that secular approaches gloss over. Christian counseling rooted in biblical revelation has resources to understand and help humans that other counseling methods lack.
Biblical counselors also utilize biblical wisdom when it comes to practical approaches to helping people deal with life difficulties and pursue spiritual growth. Scripture offers truths regarding vital practices like confession of sin, repentance, forgiveness of others, gratitude, humility, service to neighbors, prayer, worship, meditation on God’s Word, and fellowship with other believers. Biblical counseling encourages dependence on the Holy Spirit to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control within the individual (Galatians 5:22-23). Wise biblical counselors can help individuals understand themselves and find solutions to their problems in the light of scriptural insight into the human condition. They teach counselees to view their struggles through a biblical lens.
Secular therapies often focus primarily on making people feel better about themselves. Biblical counselors want to help people think and live in ways that genuinely express love for God and others according to revealed scriptural wisdom. Their counseling aims at heart-level change, not just comfort and self-esteem. For example, biblical counselors reject the self-love and self-esteem doctrines prevalent in much of secular psychology, which Scripture views as manifestations of human pride. Instead, they point people to the hope, healing and freedom found in Christ-centered humility, faith and grace.
Biblical counselors do not simplistically quote Bible verses as a substitute for compassionately listening and understanding human struggles within their full context. But they want to faithfully bring the practical wisdom of Scripture to bear in helping individuals gain self-understanding and make positive life changes. They aim to apply timeless scriptural truths to contemporary emotional, mental, behavioral and relationship problems. They seek to interpret human experience in light of the grand narrative of Creation, Fall, Redemption and New Creation found within the Bible. Biblical counselors utilize scriptural revelation as the framework and foundation for understanding the human condition.
Biblical counseling has sometimes been dismissed by secular therapists as overly simplistic, moralistic and out of touch with current scientific findings. It has been criticized for promoting guilt, shame and religious dogma instead of open-minded compassion. However, biblical counselors argue that their approach deals more honestly with the reality of human sinfulness and the need for forgiveness, redemption, and spiritual rebirth. They maintain that Scripture reveals core truths about human nature which secular therapies often overlook or distort. Biblical counselors assert that Scripture contains profound and nuanced wisdom for dealing with the deepest needs and struggles of human beings. They aim to apply eternal scriptural insights in a thoughtful, contemporary fashion when counseling individuals.
Biblical counselors do not view secular psychologists as necessarily antagonistic to their own work and mission. They want to build bridges with other counselors and therapists who are open to the potential value of a Christian perspective. Many biblical counselors affirm that some human insights from psychology and therapy can have value when submitted to critical evaluation in the light of biblical revelation. They reject any rigid dismissal of social science knowledge, recognizing that God enables nonbelievers to discover truths that align with Scripture. However, biblical counselors always want to allow scriptural revelation concerning humanity and human problems to have priority in shaping their understanding and counseling approaches.
Biblical counseling approaches counseling and therapy as ministry. Biblical counselors aim to help people gain greater maturity in Christ through applying the gospel and scriptural wisdom to their mental, emotional, relational and behavioral issues. Counseling is seen as discipleship, with the ultimate goal being to facilitate growth in godliness, virtue and love. Scripture portrays healed and mature human functioning differently than many secular perspectives do. Biblical counselors want to see people experience the mind renewal that comes through submitting one’s thinking to God’s truth. They understand healing as growing conformity to Jesus Christ, who is the image of true humanness. Biblical counseling approaches psychology through the lens of God’s revealed truth.
In summary, biblical counseling utilizes the practical instruction and timeless wisdom of Scripture as the primary framework and source for understanding the human condition. It sees the Bible as providing insight into human nature and problems that supersedes secular viewpoints. Biblical counseling approaches counseling as discipleship, aiming to apply biblical perspectives to facilitate spiritual growth and greater Christlikeness. It uses Scripture to reframe problems and teach principles, virtues and practices that lead to maturity. Biblical counseling believes Scripture equips Christian counselors to minister to human psychological needs in ways that secular therapies cannot. It rests upon faith that God’s revealed truth in the Bible offers life’s greatest psychological wisdom. Biblical counselors want to make the treasures of Scripture available to help humans in their psychological struggles, interrelational pain and troubles of life.