I appreciate so much all who have weighed in on my “Pastors and Counselors” post. It’s apparent that this is an issue that touches deep nerves of emotional pain and spiritual conviction.
Since my last comment, I’ve gone back and found something that I wrote ten years ago. If you are inclined, and have time to read it, please keep in mind that what I’m copying here was not written in response to any of our present conversation:
“One side says that God in His wisdom has given us in the Bible all we need to help casualties of sexual abuse, domestic violence, depression, addiction, suicidal thoughts, anorexia, delusional thinking, and a host of other problems of the soul. The other side says that in addition to the Bible, God in His mercy has given our generation support groups, professional counselors, antidepressants, personality tests, and a wealth of practical understanding and research to help deal realistically with our problems.
But, the “Bible is enough” people respond that the additions aren’t helping. The extras are replacing the Word of God. As Francis Schaeffer warned, “nature is eating up grace.” Our generation has become biblically illiterate. We’re praying too little and paying too much for counselors who don’t understand the root issues. In spite of mountains of information and floods of counseling resources, personal problems are at epidemic levels.Too many have forgotten that in matters not rooted in biological origins, the Bible is sufficient for substantial spiritual healing, growth, and personal wholeness.
To this the “not Bible only people” are likely to respond, you’re right about our spiritual losses. But who can tell where the line between physical and spiritual starts and stops? Why not use antidepressants, group therapy, or personality analysis if such tools can help relieve misery and complement spiritual answers?
But, says the first group, helping people cope with their problems may remove the pain God is using to bring them to Himself.
Then, says the second group, maybe we should also withhold the human milk of kindness from the poor, a cup of cold water from the thirsty, and a loaf of bread from the hungry, so as to avoid making anyone too comfortable.
At this point, I say stop! What does the Bible itself say? Does it show that a wise person will use only Scripture to help people who are hurting? No. There is God the Father, who answered the troubled, angry, disillusioned, grieving heart of Job by pointing him to a wealth of zoological, meteorological, and astronomical phenomena. There are the prophets who over and over again started with “general revelation” insights to point wayward hearts back to God.
There is David, who said that God is constantly speaking through nature. There is Nathan, who used a provocative anecdote to bring David to his senses and to tell him that he failed to live up to standards of human decency. There is Solomon, who collected proverbs and insights from all walks of life, but emphasized the safety of “many advisors,” and the value of a wise person who can help surface issues of the heart.
There is Paul, who quoted a pagan poet. There is Jesus, who used the common illustrations of life to clarify issues of the heart.
Don’t get me wrong. I long for a “Psalm 119 love” for the Word of God. I am confident that the Bible alone is an authoritative yardstick for evaluating moral and spiritual issues. I cannot avoid the fact, however, that the Scriptures themselves do not give us a model of “Bible only” thinking. Instead, they give us inspired examples of “people helpers” who use the facts and observations of the natural world to get people’s attention, illustrate their points, and bring people face to face with the Word of God.
But aren’t secular sources of medicine or counseling unable to define the real problems of the heart? Yes, but a person suffering from the acute pain of appendicitis, poison ivy, grief, or obsessive compulsive “checking” might need some other attention before hearing us quote Scripture.
While we need to be concerned for people who are spending their money and hope on ineffective solutions, we also need to see the value and wisdom of being, as far as people are concerned, bridge-builders rather than bridge-burners. We need to be careful about how we criticize people helpers, when we have no time or resources to do better. We need to be careful not to broadbrush counseling as if all counseling were hostile to Christian values.
Counseling, Christian or secular, can be a process of honesty. A wise counselor can take the time a pastor often doesn’t have-and use skills that Bible teachers often haven’t cultivated-to help troubled people surface beliefs, opinions, attitudes, and behaviors they are not inclined to admit to themselves. Many professionals or lay people have accumulated wisdom in matters of mental health, domestic violence, sexual abuse, or even finance management that can supplement, without replacing, the moral, spiritual, and biblical gifts of a wise pastor or Christian friend.
I’ve lived long enough to see some of the most conservative people embarrassed and broken by disclosure of problems they had been hiding behind the Bible. I’ve lived long enough to know that some of the people who talk about the Bible being all they need are really saying they don’t want anyone poking around in their business.
The Bible alone is God’s yardstick of spiritual truth. Counseling can be a test of our honesty. Medicine can be a mercy. The three can work together, or they can work against or replace one another.
Replacement is a danger but not an inevitability. In our efforts to help people, we must make sure that counseling resources do not replace the Word of God. But we must also realize that the Scriptures were not given to replace human relationships, medicine, wise counsel, or even general revelation.
When understood, the Scriptures give us a perspective on all of life. And when understood in light of the Bible, all of life can be used to direct lost and hurting people back to the God of the Scriptures.” (1997)
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