Scripture in Light of the Post-Modernity Era
People may argue, “Are you saying that I am the issue and not the wife who is the real issue?!” Counseling cases that are complex and difficult are too often referred out, as one feels Scripture is inadequate to help in everyday life matters.
In the postmodern era, there seems to be a greater emphasis on need even in the higher educational area for secular psychology and therapeutic ideology that regards Scripture as outdated, and the scientific enlightenment invention is more ideal and helpful.
D.A. Carson in the book, “Enduring Word,” addresses this topic as he speaks of the many facets of the current discussion considering the dilemma, “Scientist and non-scientist alike commonly supported and widely attested theories may someday come crashing down.”
The problem, even with scientific research (hard science), has been proven wrong over time. How much more with secular psychology (soft science) that has shifted much in the past several decades?
Could Scripture provide help for today’s day and age of the 21st century, over-medicated and over-therapeutic culture? How do Christians committed to God’s Word help through sticky sin issues? How does one interpret Scripture and interact with the dilemma many individuals, families, and society are facing in the day-to-day needs of struggle?
The Scripture contributes to the Christian’s confidence in competency to effectively disciple one another. The whole counsel of God’s Word is sufficient to counsel people in the postmodern era.
In other words, the aim is to defend the whole counsel of God’s Word even in the rise of modern secular psychology, and the consequence when one ignores the biblical mandate to utilize the Scripture to share the care of Christ.
1. Scripture Over Science
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Pet 1:3).
God has called us to counsel God’s people. John Frame says it is, “All Theology is applicable.” Therefore, all counseling at the heart is theological. If people want to apply practical theology, it must start from the Bible rather than the DSM-5 TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
God has provided all believers with Scripture to make disciples and counsel by the work of the Spirit’s leading. In other words, Scripture is “all” that is needed for both salvation and sanctification in the Christian life. As the Westminster Catechism says, “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory, man’s salvation, faith, and life.”
Whenever a young person says, “I want to go study psychology as I want to help people better.” Which in translation means, “I want you to know self and family.” I often commend people for the desire to help (I became a pastor because I wanted to help people); however, the person is going the wrong path, for counseling is theological rather than psychological.
People’s problem of the day will not be from evolutionary theory that men came from monkeys but are created image of God (Gen 1:27).
The system of study in psychology (study of man anthropology) is based on how animals as a physically evolved matter do not view that man was created fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps 139:14). Secular psychology believes that therapy and medication can address the problem of man. The problem with this proposal is that even with psychological therapists who are there as “professionals” to treat a certain illness or disorder cannot prove that diagnoses of the problem are subjective by nature.
Scripture suggests that a true “change” or “transformation” happens through a personal relationship with Christ and the Scripture, which is the source of help for both emotional and spiritual problems of man.
2. Scripture as Sufficient
The fundamental question that faithful people of faith that is committed to the Bible must ask is this: Does the Bible have anything to say, or enough to say, to address problems of this life in counseling? This question is perhaps the most controversial question in the context of pastoral care & counseling as it reveals the heart of the matter.
The question points to the matter of sufficiency of Scripture, which sufficiency means, “enough, or all that is needed.” Most believe that theology is to ministers what psychology is to counselors, and the two do not really have much to do with each other.
Christian theology has become a cognitive theoretical idea rather than a practical help in everyday life. The “mind of Christ” is no mental list of theoretical doctrines. Christianity is both a way of seeing and a way of proceeding. Our understanding of the doctrine of hamartiology ought to change the way we relate, see, and approach helping others (counseling). The greatest secular psychological insight, ability, and experience cannot grasp this one thing: what sin is.
They do not know that man is destroyed only by his sin and can be healed only by forgiveness, and that is Christ. Because of Christ, the sins and sufferings of the human condition (matters counseling addresses) will look drastically different than the worldly approach of helping and serving people.
What people need for “answers” to life’s questions is more than love and encouragement, or information and insight. People need a rescue. Anything less will not address what is wrong within the person.
The goal of counseling is not to make people feel better, but the goal of biblical counseling is to make people more in the image of Christ.
Not to simply make decent people apart from the Holy Spirit. That will be misleading and mistaken. Counseling is coming along with another believer and helping them become more like Jesus. The “Normal” is truly “Christ-likeness.” The further away from Jesus you are, abnormal you are.
3. Scripture is Supreme
The fundamental question is, “What is truth? Can the truth be known?” At the heart of the heart of the problem in sufficiency of Scripture boils down to the battle for authority. There is a sense of level even in the realm of knowledge. For the Institution, psychology is a high level of truth. The sayings go like the following,
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17). The word “breathed out” (v. 16) comes from the Greek θεόπνευστος, which is an adjective that comes from θεός and a presumed derivative of πνέω. That is the same word we find in Acts 27, where Paul was shipwrecked and said, “Then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach.” (Acts 27:40).
The Old Testament, at this moment where you have in mind the picture of Genesis, “then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7).
Peter says, “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Pet 1:20-21).
The Bible is Superior Over Secular Thoughts
“I feel this is true to me.” It is an example. Such a statement is the lowest rank of subjective reality of the worst level, which is far from objective reality. Subjectivity is where validity is qualified, and this is where the culture lies.
People are no longer even thinking about “hard science” (physiological, anatomical, or biological) are not even thinking rationally anymore! The slogan and motto of the intuition is the objective truth, which says, “You are how you feel today.” The culture has drifted away from the realm of science, but now it is in the realm of the subjective. Subjectivity is where truth is observed and affirmed (not to think rationally), but the emotion sits as a new highest authority.
As the apostle Paul would say, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Rom 1:25).
With Secular Psychology, people can learn certain matters, yet an unsaved man studies the unsaved man. Secular psychology’s aim is for people to come to a “normal” state as a standard. As followers of Christ, believers’ goals are to become more Christ-like; as a result, Christians ought to have a problem with the premise of worldly standards.
Within the secular realm, unsaved people have problems with this issue as well, as the world aims to deny and wants to destroy the nature of the origin of sin. Allen Francis, one of the most influential psychiatrists and the Chief Editor of the Institute of Diagnostic, in his book Saving Normal, said, “You cannot diagnose what a problem is. We do not know what NORMAL is.”
There may be some truth in a bit more empirical method: (1) Certainly, (2) Authority: Both are not equal for putting our faith in what God must say in God’s Word.
The sufficiency of Scripture is important not only because it speaks of our authority and trust we have, but also in the counseling realm. If we were to go with the secular route, as any moment we do so, we are in a sense telling the world what we reveal our trust in. The Bible offers superior answers to the secular thoughts on the problems people face.