In this fifth lesson, Pastor Dave Capoccia examines psychology and its theories of the person from a biblical perspective. Pastor Dave first gives some introductory information regarding psychology and then compares the theories of six influential psychologists with the teaching of God in the Bible.
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well good morning everyone good morning welcome to sunday school as we are in lesson five of the biblical counseling 101 class why do i do what i do and how can i change let’s pray as we begin heavenly father thank you for this time i pray that it would be profitable lord that we would come away encouraged in the sufficiency of your word and the supremacy of your life jesus we love you help me to be able to explain well in this time in jesus name amen it’s good to see so many of you here right at the start of class i feel like more more people are here at the beginning than previously so that’s encouraging to me it does seem like i have a hard time getting to the questions at the end of a lesson but i’m trying to make up for it with the questions i give at the very beginning of class kind of like the follow-ups the previous week i’m do that a little bit again this week just these questions come up either from my own thinking or just some of the conversations that i have after after our lessons but last week we were talking about biblical counseling and psychotropic drugs and two questions that came up that i want to bring to your attention first is how are demons involved in what’s called mental illness and or psychotropic drugs that’s kind of a big question the short answer is we won’t be able to say for sure in any particular situation but our mission is the same regardless it is to minister god’s word according to god’s spirit and let god do his supernatural work and is even able to set people free who may be influenced in some way by demons so that’s the short answer we’re not going to be able to say for sure in any particular situation how demons are involved the longer answer is and i’ll give that to you too the bible is clear that our world and the lives of people in the world are affected by spiritual forces both good and evil angels and demons are reality and they are at work in the world we see from the bible that when it comes to demons they can have a physical effect on people satan afflicted job physically there was a woman in the new testament who was bent double because of a demon we also see from the scriptures that demons can have some sort of influence or effect on a person’s inner man not just the outer man the inner man we see in the new testament a number of people who are possessed by demons and they act in very strange ways even dangerous ways you remember the demoniac the man with the legion he acted insane he could not be restrained with chains he cut himself he lived in tombs he was very much affected by the demons in the old testament remember god sent or allowed a troubling spirit to be sent to saul and what was the result saul had a degree of mental agony he was pained and troubled in his spirit and that’s why he asked david to play for him also demons evil spirits are connected to false teachers sometimes in the scriptures when ahab is considering whether to go to war in a certain place a prophet is speaking with him and tells him look an evil spirit or a series of evil spirits are there are now in your prophets your false prophets and that’s why they are telling you a lie that you can go up to this battle and succeed so demons certainly in those scriptures are shown to be able to affect the outer man and the inner man they were particularly active in jesus day there’s an explosion of demonic activity it’s not necessarily that the demons weren’t active before but it’s like they couldn’t hide themselves in the lord’s presence the son of god’s presence on the earth really stirred them up so there was a unique ministry in the new testament of exorcism that is the casting out of demons it was one of the sign gifts one of the supernatural gifts that validated the apostles and some in the early church as true representatives of god but that gift passed away along with the other miraculous gifts that accomplished their purpose so the question is are demons still doing today what they did in the past the answer is probably but less obviously might demons be behind anger anxiety depression even delusions that are classified as mental illness maybe maybe partly maybe in whole but not necessarily because even though we’ve made those observations about what demons do in the bible let’s remember that there are plenty of other instances where you see the same things physical and inner man affliction without demons being involved in jeremiah 23 16 we have a situation with false prophets and god reveals what’s really going on he doesn’t say oh they have an evil spirit in them he says they are prophesying from their own imagination they didn’t need a spirit to influence them it just came from their own minds or think about some of the great sins of the bible even of god’s people david sin with bathsheba there’s no indication and that was caused by a demon or the man who was born blind this terrible physical affliction where’d it come from a demon that’s not what god said he said he was born this way for the glory of god so jesus could heal him therefore we should not assume that someone’s actions either without being on psychotropic drugs or even while being on psychotropic drugs are demonic but we should not be ignorant either of possible demonic influence even though we are aware of those things we should be aware of those things that doesn’t really change our approach because we must do the same thing regardless of what influence a demon might have or might not have on a person it is to pray preach and trust god you and i don’t have the power to cast out demons you and i don’t have the ability to change someone’s heart but god has appointed us as his means for doing that work and god is pleased to rescue many from the influence even the possession of the evil one through those simple means so that’s one question another question i want to bring up is how much room is there for disagreement among christians when it comes to the nature and benefits of psychotropic drugs how much room is there for disagreement and the last week i argued i gave you a pretty conservative approach i argued for a pretty conservative approach to psychotropic drugs and that’s based on the very shaky scientific foundation of psychotropic drugs as well as the bible’s assertions about the true essence and or the the true cause and cure for soul problems i stand by what i said last week but at the same time i do want to emphasize to you that psychotropic drugs is an issue that we need to be prepared to show some grace to each other psychotropic drugs are a thorny issue some christians just aren’t there yet and they’re understanding and other christians do understand the issues involved but they just assess the science surrounding the drugs a little differently moreover when you encounter individual cases of someone who’s really ensnared in their inner man so-called cases of mental illness it can raise difficult questions there’s certainly a degree of mystery so what i’m most hoping for in you and in the brethren in general is not so much a complete rejection of all psychotropic drugs ever but more importantly three acknowledgements three acknowledgements and that is that number one psychotropic drugs are not truly necessary for happiness or holiness as a christian otherwise the bible is insufficient right and we’ve seen that the bible claims and demonstrates sufficiency so psychotropic drugs are not truly necessary for happiness and holiness so called number two so-called mental illness and psychotropic drugs do not remove someone’s moral responsibility or spiritual capacity and number three psychotropic drugs cannot ultimately treat the root of inner man problems even if they might make someone feel better or alleviate certain symptoms if you or someone agrees with me on those three points i feel pretty good i feel pretty good about affirming that person in his stance towards counseling others even if there is still some difference and it’s important i tell you this because otherwise you might get confused if you learn more about the some of the authors of the articles that i give to you in homework a number of them as i’ve mentioned to you they come from ccef biblical counselors that’s the christian counseling and education foundation some of these counselors while all of them would affirm the three points i just mentioned psychotropic drugs are not necessary they don’t remove responsibility they cannot ultimately treat the root of interman problems some within ccef are cautiously open to the use of psychotropic drugs either by taking an agnostic stance where they will not recommend against it or for it they know it’s not sufficient to deal with issues but they’re more focused on just speaking the word or some might even suggest the limited use of certain drugs as helpful in certain situations and even though i might not agree that those are the best stances to take i still would affirm these men these counselors men and women as being part of those who are faithful when it comes to biblical counseling they’re within the faithful camp and i believe that enough that i don’t feel bad recommending their articles to you and ccef is not the only place where you might find some of that diversity even when we were in california as part of grace community church i encountered some men from the seminary even some who had been on the pastoral staff at grace community church where there’s a little bit of variety in their particular stances not to the point of being majorly different and i’m sure even in this church there is some variety so let’s be prepared to welcome one another in christ despite some differences of opinion over this issue always remembering that the most important part of biblical counseling is not getting someone on or off of psychotropic drugs but showing how showing people how christ and the gospel reveal heart problems and then show the way to deal with them biblically so those are two follow-ups to last week now with that being said let’s talk about the homework for last week so i asked you to do a number of things of course bible reading and prayer but also i ask you to read two chapters two if you did the extra credit one if you just did the regular from the christian counselor’s medical desk reference and all about psychotropic drugs so let’s let’s hear some of your observations and questions that you had based on the reading what’s something that stuck out to you or that you noticed yeah steve can you say the last part again that’s right so this is a very important truth about life he’s pointing it out from the article just because two things happen at the same time does not necessarily explain why one happens or why both happen as one way to say it is correlation is not necessarily causation that’s extremely important not just for counseling but even for things like assessing the economy or politics or just all sorts of things in life and you actually see this in the bible too there’s a really interesting spot in hosea and i think also in other places where israel is thinking to themselves hey when we served other gods things went really well for us they’re like you look for this correlation we were serving false gods things were good but then god steps in and says that was just me being merciful to you that’s not the reason why things were good come to me don’t go to the false gods so correlation is not causation that’s a very important point for counseling what else yeah mark um [Music] yeah it’s interesting mark so the author talks about the example of nebuchadnezzar mark’s pointing out this kind of principle of when someone seeks the lord his reasoning returns that certainly was true in nebuchadnezzar’s case and that even fits with what we were talking about recently in iron man with the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom right and that’s part of what the author’s point and i and i think generally true principle it’s not that we can’t speak to somebody who is mentally ill they have to get out of that before we can speak to them no and in in many cases if not all cases the lord is still able to reach that person with his truth now i know some physical afflictions can get in there like if they’re totally sleepless or if they’re they might have some physical issues going on that might impede that but the lord clarifies the lord clears away issues in the mind when when he’s working by his spirit what else yeah glendale interesting so glenda is pointing out um insanity could be self-inflicted and we looked at even david’s actions with the king of gath now that whole instance is kind of interesting because we even talked about that in sunday school one time david is clearly putting on an act this is part of a disguise and you may say well he’s not trusting the lord this is sinful well the weird thing is there is a psalm in which he kind of celebrates god’s deliverance in that instance which is weird if he was acting sinfully i actually argued in a sunday school class that david wasn’t acting sinfully he was actually being very clever but it is an example of what apparently looks like insanity might not truly be but certainly from our mind body connection class we do know it is certainly true that but what you think in your heart can really start to affect your thinking and behavior and when not restrained and confronted you will act more and more insane and that’s a lot of what what we see in those who are called mentally ill today you say how on earth do they get like this well um so many times it’s just those little things in the heart that were not dealt with and it it’s like a self-inflicted insanity yeah other thoughts or questions yeah duane yeah so the question is because it’s all somewhat obliquely referenced in the reading that you had you don’t get chapter four i don’t have chapter four to give you anymore um if somebody’s on already on medication and they come to you for counseling how should you respond well i have tried to emphasize to you it’s not the most important thing that you get someone on or off medication it is useful especially if you notice that medication is really affecting a person it is useful to inform them about medication so that they can think [Music] more in an aware sense of what they’re doing with it but your main task is still the same which is i want to speak to you god’s truth i want to show you how whether on or off of medication you can walk in holiness with the lord to his glory and to your own joy and many times as you do that and as a counselor is informed about what what medication really is and and what its justification is as they see the lord’s deficiency they’ll say why why do i need this drug why am i still taking it i’m interested in in not taking it they won’t necessarily say that all the time but again the point is it’s not it’s not the most critical mission to to get someone off the drugs it’s more important that you minister the truth um maybe one more question or observation yeah magda um yeah so magnus bringing out a point in this article i thought was really interesting and something i didn’t really have time to talk about in class but what we think about feelings especially bad feelings and our ability to function is often not accurate magda bringing out the point author talks about how there can be we think of no there can be this cycle where we have bad feelings which leads to our inability to function which leads to more bad feelings which leads to inability to function it’s just kind of like a downward spiral in a person’s life and we think or we can think that until the feelings change i’m not going to be able to change but actually your feelings change as your thinking and behavior changes this actually goes back to something that we’ll get to when we talk about the biblical process of change your entire view of sanctification can get a little bit distorted if you think the wrong way about your feelings if you think i have to feel good and i have to feel god’s love and i have to feel all these various spiritual things before i can change well a lot of times you’re never going to change but if you say i’m going to take on faith that as i walk with the lord he is going to give me what he promises which is the contentment that comes with him it’s in the seeking that you receive the reward not the reward beforehand and then you seek wasn’t that what the book of hebrews says that when it comes to faith if anyone is going to be approved by god he must believe that god is and that he’s a rewarder of those who seek him but if we demand i must have the happiness or the good feelings before the reward well a lot of times that’s not just going to that’s just not going to happen it’s like well that’s not what god promised it is something that you say well i i’m going to go to the lord in faith so it’s the beginning of a change in your thinking which leads to a change in action which often times leads to a change in your feelings and then you get a positive feedback loop and where as you seek the lord and you begin to experience the joy of that that won’t that causes you to want to seek the lord more and then you experience more joy and that cause you to seek the lord more the thing is you have to break that negative cycle by faith say i can’t wait for my feelings to change as if like it’s just going to feel a certain way about god i have to take hold of what he says in his word that is the reason why a lot of people turn to medication because they say how am i feeling is going to change without some sort of mood booster and if my feelings don’t change i can’t see god it’s actually not true it’s in the seeking of god oftentimes that your feelings change these are great questions and great observations all right so that was it for the old homework let’s talk about the new homework so we’re moving on from the christian counselors medical desk reference these have to do with our topic today psychology i want you to read this is your your regular assignment besides reading the bible and praying every day i want you to read this article by aaron cerrone he’s a ccef counselor becoming a biblical counselor a skeptic’s journey it actually talks about his experience as a licensed family therapist a basically a secular counselor and his encounter with and move to becoming a biblical counselor i think you’ll find that very interesting because he kind of has a look into both fields and he also argues why he made the switch so i want you to read that article make your five observations and questions i don’t have a physical copy of the extra credit article but for extra credit i’d like you to read the pastor as counselor by david palinson now david palin’s and that’s name you might recognize he’s published a lot of counseling books we have a number of them i think even in our book nook you say but this is for pastors why would i read that well actually if you just look at the first paragraph of this article which i’ll send to you in your email one of the very first things he says is this is for pastors but if you’re not a pastor i want you to listen in because you’ll still find that many of the things many of the principles discuss in the article they apply to all christians and as you go through the article a lot of it is a comparison of how biblical counseling is superior to psychological counseling and in many ways is what psychological counseling wish it wishes it could be so i think you’ll find that very interesting so please do that if you’re able as an extra credit assignment all right it took a little bit extra time for introductory material today but let’s get to our main topic today we’re talking about biblical counseling and psychology what i want to do today is just introduce psychology to you and then survey a number of very influential psychologists in our country six influential psychologists and we’ll compare what they say to what the bible says this is just a survey there’s a lot of nuances here that i can’t really get to but we’ll survey it and then we’ll take questions at the end i really hope that we’ll do that because i actually don’t have a ton of notes today there should be time for questions at the end but the problem is when i know that i usually doddle more in the lesson take more comments take more questions and then i’m like where’d the time go but i think there should be time for questions today anyways that’s the agenda let’s get into it what is psychology psychology has certainly had a strong influence on society and i think many times we are not aware of how much our society has been psychologized and even we ourselves psychology has really affected the church even christians around us and certainly it is affecting and at times determining the path of those who do not know god psychologists as ed welsh said in one of the articles you read earlier they are like the clergy of our modern atheistic society they are guiding the people of the world along in a kind of other religion and we can’t say everything that could be said in one lesson about psychology but just trying to introduce from a biblical perspective what psychology is kind of think is like an introduction to psychology but perhaps a more accurate way to say it is an introduction to psychologies plural because the truth is there is widespread disagreement in the field of psychology on some of the most basic questions dr street in his lesson talking about psychology he uh he mentions that there are between 200 and 300 different brands of psychology operating in the world right now all under the umbrella term of psychology but with different assumptions and different goals and methods of treatment this is important for us to realize because we think of science as being something really well established you know we test things and everybody can figure out whether that’s true or not but you don’t have anything close to consensus in psychology and you’ll see more of that as we survey some of the influential psychologists today now even though there is a lot of differences between psychological brands they do have certain fundamental agreements ultimately they’re all seeking to do the same thing the word psychology comes from as we’ve already begin to see the word for soul suke greek and then lagos which is word or steady so psychology is the steady of the soul or as the apa the american psychological association defines it psychology is the study of the mind and behavior what you think about it is a very broad field of examination we’re just gonna steady the mind and behavior that involves a lot here’s another a little bit more illustrative definition that comes from simply psychology.org psychology is a multi-faceted discipline and includes many subfields of study such as human development sports health clinical social behavior and cognitive processes that’s a lot of subfields within psychology and that’s an important thing for us to realize because what this means that psychology is such a broad field and has many sub-disciplines many sub-fields of study is that not all of psychology should be problematic for christians you might hear me or you might hear other teachers say that oh psychology has really hurt the church but that always needs to be with an asterisk of not all of psychology for example when psychologists certain psychologists might study how the memory works how our memories work or when children become able to process and speak language or how people characteristically indicate that they are lying psychologists do studies on these things these are not necessarily contradictory to the bible there’s not necessarily anything wrong with this these studies they deal often directly with areas of life that can be observed either biologically or behaviorally so we shouldn’t necessarily reject everything that a psychologist has to say but there is a large part of psychology which is based on the theoretical not what can be observed what has to be inferred and that’s where we run into a lot of problems a large section of psychology is concerned about the nature of man and why man does what he does now a person can see the brain but he cannot see ultimately one’s inner man you cannot see someone’s mind or what they would call the psyche or the inner self this part of psychology is based on therefore unconfirmed theories and unconfirmable theories now if you’ve been with us this far you know that the bible has a lot to say about the nature of man and why man does what he does so we should not be surprised that psychologists in the bible are freely going frequently going to come into opposition there’s going to be contradiction between christ his scriptures and the assertions of psychologists and though we’re talking about abstract theories when it comes to psychology these theories do have a very practical impact these theories inform how psychologists and counselors will try to help modern man if he’s depressed he’s anxious he’s angry or manifesting some other unpleasant or destructive behavior psychological theory is going to have a major impact and again what’s the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist remember psychiatrist is interested in prescribing medication but the psychologist is interested in talking it’s usually a conversation when you’re talking when you’re meeting with a psychologist now i gave you a handout today a chart we’re going to now move to that chart i’m going to survey six major psychologists and their theories and as you look this chart my intent is that you will see as i already began to assert there is a lack of unity in this so-called science but also i want you to see that these ideas have really affected our society they’ve even become the language we use without thinking about it and yet these theories to some degree or another they all contradict god’s word as we go along in this chart i want you to think with me and i’ll ask you to interact with me how is it that we see these theories at work today what kind of terms or ideas or policies or examples do we see of these psychologists ideas in our present world so let’s go to the chart six psychologists all the information or most the information is already filled in on your chart except for the last one we’ll start with sigmund freud sigmund freud and what’s in parentheses there on your chart is the field of psychology that they’re famous for that they operated in sigmund freud and depth psychology in this chart we’re all looking at a kind of major categories to understand their theory what do they think about man what do they think man’s problem is what’s the solution to man’s problem and then what’s not on your chart something i added just kind of like what role is the counselor supposed to take this kind of helps you remember or i hope will help you remember what is this theory all about so what did freud think he’s considered the father of psychology the founder of it lived in the 19th century into the 20th century his view of man is that man is basically an animal he is an instinctual animal he has a psyche that is made up of what freud called the id the ego and the super ego the problem is for man this is what results in all the unpleasant and destructive behavior is that in a person the id that is the unconscious desires and drives they are improperly suppressed by the ego which is the rational control center of yourself kind of like what you think of as your mind the ego is improperly suppressing the id due to the influence of the super ego which is actually something outside of a person taken into a person this is moral societal and religious pressure even from christianity this is the problem these improperly suppressed id these desires they’re resulting in this neurotic or destructive behavior so what’s the solution free the id discover what are those suppressed desires and fulfill them without hurting others of course but discover and free the id the counselor plays the role of the psychoanalyst he listens to the way you talk he listens to your dreams he he scans as a trained expert what he can observe in you and he says this is what you really want these are your truly suppressed desires let’s get them out and let’s fulfill them now you see any modern manifestations of this idea either the terms or things we see around us i mean certainly id ego and superego those might be terms that you’ve heard before they come from freud what else yeah mark yeah yeah if it feels good do it don’t let yourself be repressed in fact uh you know freud saw a lot of the repression as sexual repression we need to be sexually liberated that’s a freudian idea because if you’re sexually repressed well it’s going to manifest in all this problematic behavior anywhere else do you see these kind of ideas yeah glenda okay just more generally nothing is sinful yeah and we’re seeing that increasingly in our society this fits with a biological view of man so he says why are you upset with me for committing adultery or for fornication we’re just animals these are just our instincts we have terms like freudian slip it’s like when you accidentally said something and the psychoanalyst says ah that’s what you really desire that’s why they came out that’s why you mistakenly said that or the edible complex that comes from freud he believed that was a kind of suppressed desire dream analysis comes from freud maybe this is a little too hard but have any of you ever seen the movie frozen there’s a very famous song in it which i feel like would be freud’s theme song which is let it go can’t hold it back anymore let it go now i’m not saying that frozen’s an evil movie or that’s an evil song but that is actually tied to freudian thinking you can’t suppress the desires that you really have you got to let them go or else you’re not going to be healthy that’s freud let’s move over to our second influential psychologist alfred adler individual psychology how does adler see man as a socially governed animal he’s an animal but his interactions with other human animals has a very important effect on him man’s problem is an inferiority complex from childhood when he realized that he was weak and everyone else was bigger around him or just from the circumstances of his life man develops an inferiority complex which leads to unhealthy efforts to compensate start to bully others or intimidate others or oppress others because they’re just trying to compensate for that inferiority complex they feel what’s the solution well we need to instill self-confidence and self-satisfaction in each person they can feel good about themselves they don’t have to act in a destructive way so the counselor is therefore the encourager i’m here to make you feel good about yourself where do we see this today yeah duane this is where self-esteem movement comes from it comes from adler’s ideas participation trophies other things that are making you feel good about your self-esteem that it comes from this line of thinking because we don’t want that inferiority complex why is that kid bullying in school it’s not because he’s really bad he just has this inferiority complex he has low self-esteem this can even find its way into the gospel a version of the christian gospel being what some people call the therapeutic gospel god is here to make you feel good about yourself he really loves you he thinks you’re so important he has such an amazing plan for your life and purpose for your life it’s really all about you it fits right in with adler’s ideas let’s keep moving on another influential psychologist b.f skinner skinner sees man as a conditioned animal not good he’s not bad he just kind of comes into the world of blake’s slate the problem is that man so often is placed in unhealthy environments in his past or in his present and they’ve conditioned him to act in unhealthy ways so what’s the solution let’s put him in a better environment we need to recondition him with a new and better environment so what’s the counselor’s role he’s basically the lab technician you’re like the lab rat you’ve been improperly conditioned he needs to figure out new conditions for you to condition you the right way where do we see some of skinner’s ideas today yeah mark yeah yeah this is certainly part of the removal of responsibility that we see in different ways if it’s just your environment it’s not really your fault there was somewhat famous some years ago the affluenza teen remember this rich kid who got in trouble for doing something wrong and his core defense was i couldn’t help it i was raised in affluence i just had to act this way and that was a serious defense and if i remember correctly i think i think he or what go ahead he what oh oh okay you said he got in a car accident oh okay oh okay that’s that’s what he had done i well if i’m trying to remember quickly i think he got off with that court defense i don’t think he was um convicted but that’s that just comes from skinner this behaviorist idea it’s just about conditioning we often adopt some of the terms of skinner one of his terms that he often uses a lot was reinforcement positive reinforcement negative reinforcement it’s all about conditioning this can inform the way we even approach parenting a lot of parents are really afraid of corporal punishment because they think i’m going to traumatize my kids and they’re going to be stuck that way for life now there certainly is a way when it comes to displaying your children you should not be abusive but this idea of fearing trauma conditioning your kids with something like that that’s the schinarian idea or on the flip side some people some parents might approach parenting as just changing the behavior now i’ll use the rewards i’ll use these punishments so that the kid acts a certain way we’ll train him we’ll condition him that this is the right way to act certainly you do want to train your kids in good behavior and positive reinforcement negative reinforcements part of that but if you don’t actually get to the heart you haven’t really done your job as a parent before the lord you’ve settled for a schenerian version of parenting and that’s not good enough a lot of social programs operate on the schenerian idea oh you know they just came from this environment we got to get them in a new environment if we ever expect them to change not that a new environment can help but it’s not going to it’s not going to do enough so yeah schenerianism bf skinner’s idea is very influential even today i got to keep moving sorry albert ellis is our fourth uh psychologist rational and motive theory kind of moving away from the more animalistic idea he sees man as a being with rational potential not necessarily an animal he’s a being that can think but the problem is man is thinking wrongly he’s had in him certain ideas instilled or adopted certain beliefs certain patterns of thinking that are just wrong and unhealthy so what’s the solution you’ve got to help them think properly identify wrong thinking and teach new patterns so what’s the counselor what’s the proper counselor according to albert ellis he’s an educator just got to educate you properly and you’ll act right you’ll be happy where do we see this today oh this is that was that the court or go ahead marcy okay yeah i think marcie mentioned public school systems yeah that’s certainly one place if we’re going to have citizens healthy and productive citizens they need to be educated the proper way and we provide that in our public schools dwayne i saw your hand okay evidential evangelism i think that’s a that’s an interesting application but that’s right they just haven’t they haven’t seen the data they haven’t heard uh enough of the arguments but if they just saw the evidence heard the arguments surely they would change again there is some value in education evidence even in evangelism can be helpful but that ignores certain realities of the heart doesn’t it a lot of self-help is based on albert ellis’s thinking talk therapy psychotherapy it’s all about i gotta fix your thinking now let’s go to our fifth psychologist carl rogers the client-centered approach sees man as being with self-fulfilling potential but the problem is so often man has gradually developed a sense and expression of himself which is hindered by an unhealthy environment and its rules even from religion the solution if we want to see somebody act and be healthy in their minds they need to accept and become fully comfortable with who they are with who they really are the counselor therefore it’s not really looking to change you but just show you who you are he’s the mirror this is who you really are we want to fulfill that and make you comfortable with that do we see this today yeah dwayne yeah this fits right into post-modernism everyone has their own truth actually i was just reading an article from someone the other day who was pursuing a sex change and it was described as he discovered his truth what truth who he really is and this comes from rigerian psychological theory the whole lgbtq movement comes from this or at least is supported by this this is who you really are you were born a boy but what you really are as a girl or you were born as a homosexual got to embrace who you are people are trying to suppress who you are that’s unkind you need to be true to yourself one of the terms that comes from rogers is self-actualization if you’re going to be happy you’re going to be fulfilled not have problematic behavior you need to self-actualize what does that mean embrace who you really are not to pick on frozen again but frozen too you can tell i’ve watched both of these movies rosen 2 has a song where its main course is show yourself show who you really are don’t be afraid show yourself now again i’m not saying that’s evil song or an evil movie but that does fit right in with rigerian thinking and the ideas of our society worse than i think john macarthur or someone else said this worse than doing something wrong is to not be true to yourself to pretend to be something that you’re not carl rogers thinking is very very very much pervaded our society let’s go to one more nathan ackerman maybe not quite as influential as some of these other psychologists but still important he sees man as a family dependent being ackerman is famous for developing family therapy that is if you want to change someone you’re going to have to change his family you got to change the whole system because he is dependent man is a dependent being on those around him problem is according to ackman so many families are dysfunctional there are established roles patterns of behavior and thinking within families which force other family members to adapt patterns of thinking and behavior that are unhealthy the solution is we need to change the just this these dysfunctional family relationships by role differentiation that’s kind of confusing what it means by that but basically families need to be able to adapt you can’t always do and think and act the same ways that you did different needs come up in the family everybody needs to be willing to adjust you acted a certain way with them before now you need to switch or else the whole family be dysfunctional actually that term dysfunctional family we still have today it comes from ackerman i think this is connected to some of the movements to diversify roles in family egalitarianism gender roles we need to be able to adapt to enforce a certain system that’s just going to lead to a dysfunctional thing in this sense the counselor and ackermann system is a cultural healer can’t change a person until you change the family or even larger systems let’s now actually compare these psychological theories with what the word of god says god according to his word how does the lord present man in his scriptures man is a physical and spiritual being who is made in god’s image if you really want to want to understand man and why he does what he does you have to understand who he is and the bible reveals that he’s no mere animal but he does have a physical aspect he’s made in the image of god but the problem is though god made man for fellowship for service for rule and obedience man has become corrupted in his inner man by the fall and by his continual rebellion against god in a cursed world man was made for fellowship for service for rule and obedience but he has been corrupted by the fall he’s in continual rebellion against god in his cursed world but what is the solution this won’t surprise you because this is what the scripture says again and again it is repentance and faith change in the inner man that leads to change in the outer man repentance and faith in jesus christ according to the good news of salvation told you at the very beginning that ultimately what biblical counselors do what you and i as christians ought to be doing is just ministering the gospel to one another that’s the solution it’s just different applications and explanations of the gospel thus what the counselor we need to really affect person the change they we they need to be changed it’s a biblical counselor or even an evangelist if you’re furiously writing these notes that’s good but i will send the pdf copy of the slide so you will have those in your email afterwards well i have managed to dial the time somehow so we might not get to our questions but let’s now look at some conclusions based on this chart notice indeed what i said at the beginning there are some big differences between these major psychologists different views of men different views of this problem different views of the solution so it is as i said to you before psychological explanations for man and his behavior are actually scientifically unreliable after 150 years of psychological advancement there’s still no agreement radical disagreements by the way if you were to visit a psychologist today is likely not going to be just one of those operating according to just one of those theories what is the majority stance of a psychologist today in terms of the theory that they operate on does anyone know ed welsh mentioned it in one of his articles the the main stance today is eclectic a little bit of this a little bit of that a little bit of schenerianism a little bit of rogers a little bit of ellis that’s usually what you see with a psychologist but it all kind of depends on the individual what he thinks would be good it’s not scientifically based so there’s pretty radical differences but notice some of the commonalities all of these theories are ultimately atheistic and amoral they don’t take god into account they try and explain everything without god and actually many of them if not all of them see religion or christianity and the bible as part of the problem it’s part of the repression it’s part of preventing you being who you really are it’s conditioned you in a poor way they also all treat men you may have noticed as a victim one way or another he’s a victim which means he’s not responsible he’s not really doing wrong it’s his environment it’s his upbringing they all rather than confronting man’s desires and pride they justify them no it’s not that you need to get rid of your desires you need to fulfill them they all require the special knowledge of a psychologist you need an expert to help you so it’s kind of like a gnosticism there they all fail to direct people to the true solution which is the lord jesus christ i stopped short of that which means they cannot ultimately help people in the way that they need to be helped most psychologists can offer some degree of surface help actually you’ll notice these theories there is a seed of truth to them your desires as freud says they do explain your behavior to a certain degree but not the way you think they do your environment has an effect your upbringing has an effect what you think about yourself has an effect but they don’t fully explain it they don’t get to the root of the issue the root of the issue is in your inner man and only the gospel and the lord’s spirit can really address that but one danger though even though psychology cannot meet the greatest need it can actually prevent you from receiving the ministry to your greatest need because believers and the people of the world can get wrapped up in psychology and thinking the solution is there and therefore never come to christ or they bring their psychological ideas to the gospel i have mentioned to you before colossians 2 6-8 that passage where paul warns against being taken captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the traditions of men according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to christ we need to take seriously that directive it’s not merely that oh that’s not so beneficial it can take you captive and it has taken christians captive sad to say i remember dr street telling us a story about a christian counselor who was operating according to worldly psychological ideas trying to help a young lady who felt guilty about immorality in her life but the christian counselor’s answer according to some of these psychological theories is that well the guilt is the problem and we need to get rid of the guilt by you engaging in this activity until you don’t feel guilty anymore that is not going to set somebody free from what is ensnaring their hearts that is a way to make it almost impossible for anyone to reach them because they will just sear their consciences again and again and many can come to christ expecting them to for him to be the ultimate therapist ultimate psychologist and they never actually repent and believe so not only can psychology not help in the most important way but it can actually harm in it in a really deep way we have to be aware of that but hopefully you see even though they sound very wise and knowledgeable these theories may be impressive they’re actually little use they are of little use to those in christ if psychologists because they don’t understand what man is or what his problem really is if they cannot truly help man if they cannot even help themselves why do we expect them to help us they fundamentally mix misdiagnosed man how can they help us with issues like anxiety fear anger and hopelessness they disguise their inability their shortcomings by labeling various issues as mental disorders or neuroses or diseases of the mind that need an expert to diagnose and cure but the fact of the matter is as colossians says we already have all the wisdom and power we need in the lord jesus christ to deal with sinful temptations and pride and painful trials so this is why we’re doing this class this is why i love biblical counseling this is the privilege and responsibility we have to minister to one another we have the truth that can set people free psychology can’t do that it can only treat surface issues it can’t set people free but how do we actually do it well that’s what we’ll get into start getting into next time the biblical process of change yeah sorry no time for questions remember no class next week no class october 17th we’ll resume the following week i’m sure you have questions or comments come see me afterwards let’s close in prayer lord god we thank you that you are supreme and sufficient you have indeed given us all wisdom so we can answer every person and present every man and woman complete in christ the people of the world don’t understand this and lord we even can get entrapped into the thinking of the world and say oh this is wisdom we need to add this to the bible well please protect us from that lord i pray that in this church you would make us skilled in ministering your word to one another not relying on ourselves we don’t have the power to change another’s heart but you do and you use us as weak vessels lord be glorifying the rest of this service today in jesus name amen thank you everyone