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The bedrock presupposition of our church’s counseling philosophy is that all counseling must be biblically based with the goal of edifying the believer and glorifying God (1 Cor. 10:31). Furthermore, all church counselors must deeply hold the proper convictions about the Bible in order to operate from a God glorifying biblical philosophy and methodology. Likewise, the practice of our counseling ministry will be to not refer counselee’s to other counselors who are not deeply committed Christians who operate from a biblical world and life view (except temporarily in emergency life-threatening situations). Counselor trainee’s will not only study the need for a direct confrontational approach towards the sins in the life of the counselee from the Bible, but will also be instructed in pre-counseling evangelism, proper Bible study and exegesis methods, Bible book studies, Old and New Testament Introductions and Surveys, and Biblical Theology. Even though we will be discerning in referrals to other counselors, we will consistently seek to work with Christian medical doctors (who operate by a Christian world and life view) to eliminate physical causes or physical intensifications of a counselee’s problems.
The proper convictions about the Bible begin with a firm belief in its accuracy in every area that it addresses. This position is stated clearly in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, which will be signed by each of our counselor's every two years.
The proper posture to the Word of God is a conviction of the verbal plenary inspiration of the text (2 Tim. 3:16, 1 Peter 1:10-12; 2 Peter 1:20-21). Because the words are "God-breathed" we can be assured of their total accuracy and that the original texts contained no errors (inerrancy) concerning each area they addressed. The God-Man Jesus declared that the smallest letter and part of letter of the Hebrew Scripture would all be fulfilled and he made argument based on the tenses of verbs (Matt. 5:17-18, 22:28-32). Thus, the dynamic inspiration view (just the thoughts, not the words are inspired) is not an acceptable position, neither is the liberal errancy view (that there are many factual errors in the text). Both of these views are less than Christian because they ignore Christ's own views on the accuracy of the Scriptures.
Because God is the source of the Scriptures and because the Holy Spirit superintended the human authors so that what they wrote was their words and at the same time the inerrant and inspired Word of God, the 66 books of the canon have authority. When a Christian is made aware of a command or principle from the Bible that has not been fulfilled, annulled, or replaced, they are responsible and obligated to lovingly obey it. Thus, when the counselor shares God's Words with the counselee from the texts of Scripture, if they are genuine believers, their only proper response is grateful and loving obedience. His opinions and practices may serve as a model, but when the Bible addresses a subject, once that text is properly exegeted and applied, it becomes the binding authority over the feelings or past habits of the counselee. All counselors should so handle God's Word that it becomes apparent that they surrender to its authority for all matters of faith and practice.
The Bible is also sufficient to meet the discipleship, sanctification, and growth needs of every Christian (2 Peter 1:3) as well as the salvation needs of every person (John 14:6, 17:17; Rom. 10:17). The Word of God adequately deals with the problems and all of the underlying sins that men face in this world. Biblical sufficiency does not mean that the Bible is exhaustive on every subject nor does it imply that the Bible is an adequate source of information for wiring diagrams or specifications for the repair of automobiles or computers. That being said, however, in a world full of false thought systems and error, the Bible is the only trustworthy standard of God's true truth and it provides all the information necessary for salvation and all the principles necessary for successful Christian living. Whenever the Bible addresses science, history, geology, anthropology, psychology, or geography it is the measuring stick for all pagan[1] or semi-pagan sources of this information. When there is true disagreement based on accurate exegesis of Bible texts and proper reading of pagan sources, our presupposition is that the Bible is always correct and the pagan source is the one in error. Likewise, methodologies that arise out of false thought systems should be rejected and replaced with ones based on Scriptural presuppositions.
The Historical Grammatical method of Bible research is the only acceptable option for our counselors. Acceptance of Neo-orthodoxy or liberalism, with its destructive higher criticism and attack on the human authors of the Scriptures and the accuracy of the copies of the manuscripts we now have disqualify a person to be a counselor or counselor trainee at this church. However, textual criticism of the Hebrew BHS or the Greek UBS text is encouraged to be practiced by all who have developed the skills to do so. We believe that God’s preservation of His Word has kept us from loosing a single letter in the Old Testament or the New Testament (Matt. 5:17-18). However, in comparing the manuscripts, we learn that some phrases or verses are recorded several different ways. The original autographs only had one of those available options. Thus, since we have 105% of the original autographs, the Bible student will need at times to choose possible reading “B” over reading “A” or accept the additional wording contained in one manuscript or accept an omission of words in another as best reflecting the original text through the process of textual criticism. The goal is to establish the original text.
The presuppositions of all pagan approaches to psychology and psychiatry are inconsistent with the infallible revealed Word of God described above. Therefore, trainees' trained in these approaches will need to demonstrate their acceptance of the Bible’s view of anthropology, soteriology, and bibliology. The Bible teaches that mankind is the direct creation of God, and was not formed by evolutionary processes (Gen. 1-2). The Bible also teaches that mankind rebelled against God at the Fall (Gen. 3). Thus, each human person is born spiritually dead (Eph. 2:1-3) with a sinful human nature (Rom. 8:5-9; Cor. 2:14), loving sin (John 3:19), is totally depraved[2] (Rom. 3:1-7), with a proclivity to do evil (Gen. 6:5). Therefore, every system that assumes the basic goodness of man, ignores the Sovereign creator God, encourages the rebellious independence and autonomy of man, and removes human responsibility for sin is a false foolish man-centered system at best, and could be a demonic inspired counterfeit system seeking to suppress the truth.
Non-directive counseling approaches are especially contrary to Scripture and non-productive even by pagan standards. These methods and views are more open to Hindu and New Age philosophical influences and are the exact opposite of the methods used by God and His chosen leaders in the Bible when dealing with the problems of humans. Likewise, medical model approaches can be used by sincere psychiatrists to place a Christian dangerously on mind influencing and addictive drugs that can both numb the conscience and take away the agency of the individual person. Thus, Rogerian and Freudian methods must be evaluated from the Scriptures and must not be used by our counselors or our trainees.
The Bible teaches that every person is born a sinner and does not measure up to the standard of our Holy God (Rom 3:23). Because the wages of sin is everlasting death in the lake of fire, every human needs a Savior to deliver him or her from his or her state of sin and death (Rom. 6:23). The Lord Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Savior able to deliver sinners from the wrath to come (John 14:6). All mature adults who are not saved through Christ, no matter how religious or “good” they are in the eyes of the world (Matt. 7:21), will spend conscious eternity in the lake of fire (Matt. 25:41-46). Thus, it is imperative for each person to repent and believe the gospel (Mark 1:15, Luke 13:1-5, Acts 3:19, 17:30-1, 20:20-1, Rom. 10:8-13. Also see B.F. & M. 2000, “IV. Salvation, A.”). All counselors must have embraced (taken, received) Christ by repentance and faith (John 1:12-13), be born from above (John 3:3-8), and be witnesses for King Jesus. Pre-counseling is direct evangelism of both those who admit they are lost and those who appear to be make-believing church members. If in counseling it is discovered or seems apparent that the counselee is not saved, the counselor will return to the gospel message and press it home to the heart of this person while calling out to God in prayer to save them (Col. 4:3).
Because the Bible will be the counselors textbook, any conservative studies in the Bible, learning of the original languages, learning the proper methods of doing word studies, or courses in hermeneutics, exegesis skills, or in mastering the Bible’s content will always be encouraged. The goal will not be acquiring degrees in such, but in developing greater competency in Bible knowledge, understanding, and application.
Counseling is under the discipleship ministry of our church with the goal of aiding believers in the process of sanctification and growth in Christ-likeness. At its best, both sessions and homework will involve the counselee in intense discipleship.
[1] This student is not convinced that so-called "secular" studies are neutral or that a sacred / secular dichotomy is biblical. Mountain climbing to the glory of God is a sacred activity, while sincere worship in a Mormon temple is nothing less than pagan idolatry.
[2] Total depravity here means radical and pervasive depravity of the whole man. Mind, will, heart, strength, inner man, outer man, body, soul, spirit -- every part and the whole of man all fell together and are corrupted by sin and man’s state of spiritual death. It does not mean each person is equally wicked or as bad as they potentially could be given time and circumstance.
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