The Psychologizing of the Faith

The Psychologizing of the Faith

Self-exaltation and the idea that one could become a god, the lie Satan told Adam and Eve brought about the first appearance of sin in the universe (see Isaiah 14:12-14). Eventually, Jesus would identify man's fundamental obstacle in knowing Him as this same self-centered perspective on life (see Mark 8:34). The most radical consequences of "the Exaltation of Self" can be seen in the "Psychologizing of the Faith" taking place within the “church” world today.

Our American culture, like much of the rest of the world, has become deeply and extensively psychological. This psychologizing has entered into the “churches”, the foundational truths of "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude v. 3) is being redefined.
This tragic process, as well as the many “traditions of men” is replacing the Christ-centered perspective of the Word of God with a new man-centered approach to life.

One of the areas of “church” life which is being clearly impacted by this psychologizing trend is the “ministry of counseling”.
The word of God declares the Lord Jesus Christ to be our "Wonderful Counselor" (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus is such a Wonderful Counselor that in Him "are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). The Lord wants to get His wonderful counsel to us through His LIVING word via the Written Word. "Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors" (Psalm 119:24). If the church is ever to be any real example of what the true Ekklesia is of Jesus Christ it will be teaching and “practicing” the Word of God -- not secularized humanistic psychology.
Instead of ministering the Word of God personally to hurting and needy people, many “churches” refer them to Christian therapists or to Christian counseling clinics. Those truly called out “ The Ekklesia” will need no source of help for others outside of He who is in them- the resurrected Christ.
The deadly danger in this approach by the “churches” is that these so called “professional Christian counselors” have typically been trained in the same humanistic theories that worldly therapists use. They simply have come up with a way, much like the churches to mix, Christianity with Paganism.

Consequently, troubled believers are being taught by godless men like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and Abraham Maslow, instead of by godly Apostles like Paul and Peter and John through the Word of God.
Many Pastors and “churches” have found themselves in this situation because the “church” being joined to the State by incorporation as an institution, find themselves a part to lawsuits when a “Pastor’s” counseling has resulted in tragic events of the people they have talked to often committing suicide or committing violent crimes after receiving counseling from a “professional PASTOR”, whereas if the “Ekklesia” made up of all of God’s chosen one’s would and should be coming alongside troubled believers and discipling them and leading others to Christ instead of the “profession” of religion to handle all the problems that one will encounter in this world, these "laymen" could not face any such charges for no one has ever been sued as a friend for providing advice in a non-professional status.
I find it intriguing that this same lawsuit harassment has not followed the industry of psychology as it does the “church”.
I have a dear friend who would still probably more than likely have his wife and child still, but for the deception of psychology and their pharmaceutical (Gr. PHARMA= SORCERY) cures, he has now lost both.

It is all about where we place our trust, is where we will reap the consequences.
As the Word of God says, "if you sow to the flesh, you will reap the flesh, but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap the Spirit". For far too long now the “church” has been about men, rather than God. It has been about improving the self. One half of the Gospel is presented, and then it becomes contradictory telling you, now you are on your own to live the Christian life. As if self can ever improve self just because of forgiveness, for Satan will do his very best to point out so many sins in your life, to make you never realize that forgiveness, for he will keep you from the power of God over sin, which is Christ in you- not a better you!
Satan will drive a sin consciousness into the believer, rather than a Christ consciousness, that frees you. He will do this using the very “professionals” that led you to the idea of forgiveness at the cross, but never showed you the indentification in that, that Christ died, we died, that Christ lives, we live and it’s all ABOUT HIM! I say again, now this isn’t true of all “leadership” for there are those who are coming to realize they are "no leaders at all", that Christ is the answer, and they are on their knees seeking what God wants, searching the scriptures for not only the life He intended for His people to have but the expression of that life in practice and in worship and for when they are drawn together as believers in fellowship, for Christ to be the Head, the High Priest, so that it will be all about Him, and not the exaltation of self, or the powering over others.

There are scriptural truths that are far more vital than the “ministry of counseling” that are being redefined by psychological and legal influences in the churches. The problem of sin is one of those. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" (Romans 5:12).

Man's basic problem is sin, which is self-serving rebellion against God.

God's remedy is grace. "For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:17). This is what we should be proclaiming as Christians. This grace to be known must often be offered first with “nouethetical” counseling (bringing the Word of God to bear on an individual as the law (the Commandments of God) to tutor the individual to see their need of Christ). This is how one evangelizes, by first telling of the absolute inability of an individual outside of Jesus Christ within them to change them, and getting them to admit that they as "ALL MEN have fallen short of the glory of God", that they are not alone in this, and that they will always live a destructive life, of sinful habits, or sinful actions, without the life of Christ within them. That living the Christian life is about Christ in them, through them and as them.
Christ must be portrayed as the only solution above all of man’s solutions whether legal, psychological or religious.
This solution is one of GRACE! Therefore even in telling it, we cannot lay claim (good or bad results) to what the person does with it. For it is God that calls an individual, and the person to which the Holy Spirit must reveal the Word to, and then their response is to be one of acceptance or rejection. Only God knows the heart and that individual. So we must envelope them with the Word of Truth- Jesus Christ.
Jesus made it clear that no one “comes to the Father, unless He draws him”.

Instead of declaring sin as the problem, man's need is now described as dysfunctionalism or co-dependency or victimization. We speak of sicknesses and disorders, instead of sin and it’s consequences.
Further, man's hope is often held forth as discovering the appropriate recovery group, instead of learning about God's life-giving and life-transforming grace through the indwelling life of Jesus Christ.
Now this is not to say, just because we give them the truth, there will be an immediate change brought forth. This is the call of personal discipleship-true “pastoring” to come alongside individuals, taking personal responsibility to show them the Word of God and Truth, only the Holy Spirit is the teacher, we can never teach anyone ANYTHING, we can only show them something, it takes the divine revelation by the Holy Spirit, to reach a man’s heart to bring him, or her to a dissatisfaction of self, self attempts to morality, works righteousness and more that are all sin. “For whatever is not of FAITH is sin”!
We can share our testimony, we can share verses of scripture that helped us to see “Christ in you, the hope of glory”, and then it is as the Word of God, says, “so shall MY WORD be, that it shall go forth, and do that for which I sent it to do and not return to me void”.
God’s Word never fails, for He is the LIVING WORD, the resurrected Jesus, who will make His abode, in Him who God has revealed Himself to, and they now have the choice to respond in repentance and toward faith, if their hearts are so prepared by God to do so. For it is He that brings revelation of His living Word- Jesus Christ.
The problem is we offer psychology, the most popular methods of counseling as interpreted by the modern “church” and it’s advocates and teachers.
One of the few, so called “Christian Psychologist” that I do respect "somewhat" is Dr. J. Adams, who has for sometime provided “nouthetic” counseling very successfully I might add, instead of a bunch of psychological mumbo jumbo. He has written several books which in general have absolutely been rejected by the community of “scientist” and even the “church”.
It is these books of Dr. J. Adams and one other called the “Tree of Healing” that I gave to a dear friend of mine who is a Psychological Counselor, that helped her to see the necessary transition from humanism to Christian thinking to reach people, where they need help the most, that in the area of sin and Self-exaltation. What she has done with it, only she knows, though she remains in a secular job counseling where the rules can’t be broken, where one may not mention God first, and it must be the patient that does before you can even have dialogue in that area. She does when the opportunity arises, try to get in the testimony of Jesus Christ to the patient without violating the godless humanistic rules set up by the men who rule in it.


In Matthew 28:19, Jesus gave His followers their all-encompassing instructions for the rest of their lives on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations." Christ living through us, as us, and through us will result in many others coming across our path in life, to which Christ within us will reach out to and give us the words needed and the scriptures needed to come alongside others to “pastor” them. Of course, one must know the Word of God, both in scripture and His life within for this process of making disciples of others. A disciple is one who is taught under the authority of someone else. We are not to make people disciples under us, but to bring them to the place by sharing our life, His love and God’s expression of Himself through us, so that their very lives will soon become under Christ as well. As they see God in you!
This fundamental calling doesn’t belong to the select few, it is ALL OF OUR CALLING TO STUDY AND SHEW OURSELVES APPROVED SO THAT WE CAN PROCLAIM, “The Good News” of Jesus Christ. It is for all who are in that heavenly congregation known as the "EKKLESIA of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The path of discipleship was explained by Jesus in Luke 9:23. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." Discipleship is not following Jesus (religion), or doing what Jesus would do (self attempts to a better self), but it is the coming to the knowing that “His life” is now yours. That you have died to the old life (this is the only “denying of self” as a Christian is taught in scripture) and that he or she is now a “new Creation in Him” in living this they will be taking up the cross, the same cross He carried, "Not my will but thine be done". The very KINGDOM OF GOD- HIS KINGSHIP!
He simply wants to be our life for us. He isn’t going to make something better of the “old man”. This is an illustration of what He does, He is like a better program written for a computer, but of course in this case the BEST PROGRAM EVER WRITTEN. In this illustration- the YOU software, He will override that old useless program written by Satan, He will delete it, with the best of encrypted erasing programs, so it will never show up again, and then replace it ALL with the biggest and best and only to ever be written program of HIMSELF – The name of this new software that runs YOU is called “ Christ in you, the hope of glory”. It not only changes the software but it begins to build a WHOLE NEW COMPUTER- YOU become HIM expressed in your behaviour and life. Sometimes it takes years for God to give you instructions on how this new software program works because others have been telling you different and wrong on how it runs.
You keep trying to press the same old keys to make the old program work, you keep thinking maybe a few updates is all it needs, so you come up with ways you think to make the old program work better, but for some reason, you just can't figure out why, it just doesn't work and seems to only get worse and worse, more crashes, more failures.
Well it won't work- SEE it's been erased, God has replaced the WHOLE THING with something new- Jesus Christ in you, the hope of glory!
To do so, we must realize that “we” have- (that old self) has been crucified with Christ- (this is the denial of self) and that the life we now live is in the faith that Christ is our life- and yet is becoming our new life in us, as us, and through us.
The terms of discipleship are NO to self and the idea of a “Better You” and the recognizing of our need by faith to come alongside death at the cross along with Jesus at the cross to this so called better self or in truth the worse self. Coming to the knoweldge of the truth in Christ will eliminate any hope YOU can have as one popular preacher proclaims and his best seller book title reads -“BECOME A BETTER YOU”!.
You will NEVER BE A “better you”, you have to recognize that, to which most religious people do not recognize that. They still are trying to make an old program work that is a huge FAILURE. God had to something for all Men and Women in the world that Microsoft and nobody else can do or has the ability to do. He had to trash that old program and write a new one. He did just that!
True repentance is when you come to realize- Our righteousness is as filthy rags before the "Holy One"-God!
That all attempts in the flesh to be good, are simply methods of SELF EXALTATION. That one will swing from good to bad and bad to good on a swinging pendulum of a branch of the tree called “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” all of their physical life. This will be life (which in fact is no life at all) as they know it until they gain the reality of Christ as their REAL life, and that they can say along with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ, yet I live, but not I, but Christ that lives within me”!This should be our central instruction to new believers in the “Ekklesia” and must be to those God places in our path as Christians as we go through this life. Christ when He lives within us, as us and through us, will express himself as He did while here on earth, He will bring healing words and healing touches to those who are hurting and who are willing to cry out, Have mercy on me, Son of David!
One, must often come to the end of the rope of self, before this happens. The sad thing is there are few who come alongside these individuals as a friend and as one who will lead them to Him who can become their life and give them victory in all the areas they have ever struggled in to improve, the only hope for the world- Jesus Christ! The problem with the organized church is that they see this as the "Pastor’s" job, or the calling of the “ministry of counseling” or men and their governments see it as prison, or rehabilitation programs, and psychology sees it as group therapy, drugs, counseling, or other NONSENSE solutions of men. All solutions springing forth from the fleshly ideas of man, that somehow, he can make man to be godlike and have godliness, by simply writing a new update for the old software.
What a tragic misinterpretation of God, and His people, as to who they are in Christ, and who He is within them. Perhaps thousands have died, or suffered needlessly because of our desire to lead them to “church” instead of the living reality, the resurrected Jesus Christ. What we offered was the dry well of religion, when Christ wanted to offer them living water to which they will never thirst again.

Instead of urging people to this "scriptural denial of self", many “churches” are calling Christians to esteem self. Self-esteem counseling and self-esteem preaching abound in the church world. This self-exalting message is not some "harmless contemporary version" of the message of the Bible. It is a serious error that prevents Christians from progressing as born again believers, since it is a call in the opposite direction of discipleship or coming under the authority of Christ as their life. Discipleship calls us to Christ and away from self. Self-esteem calls us to self, which obstructs our progress after Christ. Thus religion in it’s attempt to swing to the good side of the pendulum on the branch of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, has resulted in the failure of many “New Creations” in Christ, from ever growing beyond some religious ritualistic life which is done through and by the flesh, rather than a turning away from self, and self righteous works, to the living Jesus Christ. I have found, that there are two results to this false teaching that “you can be a better you”, you will either become so blinded by Satan that you can’t see your nose in front of your face to your reinterpreting the Word of God to justify the sin in your life or you will finally become so exasperated with your “self” attempts to live the Christian life, that you will finally return to where you began in FAITH. The mistake made is what Paul corrects using these words in the book of Galatians to those in Christ even back then where the religionist were coming in and disturbing the very faith they had, he said- "AS YOU Received CHRIST SO YE THEREFORE WALK IN HIM"!
If you didn’t receive Christ in faith, then you probably won’t walk in Him by faith either. If you believe it was something YOU did, to be saved, church membership, baptism, good works, tithing or any other work rather than through the death and resurrection of Christ, then you will probably always think it is about YOU for the life of Christ as a Christian. You are headed for a very frustrated life!
WE WOULD NEVER EVEN BELIEVE OR HAVE FAITH, IF IT NOT FOR THE WORK OF WHAT CHRIST DID IN GOING TO THE CROSS, NOR WILL IT EVER BE WHAT HE WANTS TO DO RIGHT NOW IN OUR LIVES BY THAT CONTINUED WORK OF HIS, IF WE EVER THINK WE CAN LIVE THE ‘CHRISTIAN LIFE”.
The fact is ONLY HE CAN LIVE WHAT HE IS!

The Sufficiency is of Christ and IS Christ!

As we walk in the Lord as His "called out one’s" (ekklesia), we will find ourselves sharing with others and learning to live by His sufficiency. Christ's sufficiency is “The Essential Foundation” stone of the Christian faith. Believers will find in Jesus all that they need for a complete, full, abundant walk with the Lord. Colossians 2:9-10 speaks of such truth. "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him." Everything that the Godhead has to offer man for living here on earth is resident in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer in Jesus is now in Christ, where all the fullness dwells. Therefore, in Christ, we all have completeness of life available to us. Actually, Christ is our true life. "When Christ who is our life appears . . ." (Colossians 3:4a). As we learn to depend upon the sufficiency of Christ, looking to Him for spiritual life each day, He can then increasingly becomes to us our "all in all" (Colossians 3:11). This is what God's people will be trusting in, as well as proclaiming to others.

Instead, too many so called teachers, preachers and leaders are depending upon and pointing others toward “self-help books” and “self-actualization theories”. Churches are often more interested in self-improvement courses and self-development techniques than in the unlimited spiritual resources found in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Another essential foundational truth that we must be proclaiming and living is the work of the Holy Spirit. "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth . . . He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you" (John 16:13-14). The Holy Spirit is the one who discloses to us real understanding of the truths of the word of God. As that process is unfolding, the Spirit reveals to us the realities of the Lord Jesus, showing us our life in Christ and how to draw upon that by faith resulting in daily Christian growth and service. Furthermore, as the Holy Spirit reveals to us the glories of Christ in the Word and as He expresses Himself through us, He also transforms this new creation , the new spiritual you, which is your spirit joined with His Spirit to be expressed more and more into the very likeness of Christ. "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). For biblical insight, as well as for spiritual growth, it is critical that God's people would be proclaiming this message about the work of the Spirit.


Instead of putting their hope in these great ministries of the Spirit of Christ within us, many “church leaders” are inferring that the challenges of modern life are too complicated for such an old fashioned approach to ministry. Those who should be calling others to confidence in the ability of God's Spirit to use God's word in the transforming of lives are often pointing us toward theories and speculations formulated by the intellect of man. The proper exercising of the human intellect is in looking to the Spirit of the Lord to unfold for us "the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16). That process increasingly enables us to think as God thinks on all the issues of life. For all wisdom and knowledge is in HIM!
Getting to know God our Father and Jesus Christ the Son is the ultimate goal that the EKKLESIA will be calling God's people toward and is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. "But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:8). A growing acquaintanceship with the Lord Jesus Christ as our life, is the surpassing value of life. It is what eternal life is all about. "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent" (John 17:3). This prime objective is what the Lord's people are to be living for and showing to all.

Instead, as the faith is being psychologized, the “church” frequently sounds just like the world in calling people to know themselves. Many are led by their churches down the path of personal introspection through the growing interest in temperament analysis profiles and self-evaluation inventories. Such tools may seem helpful. However, all that we need to know about ourselves has already been laid out for us in the scriptures. God will reveal such personal insight to us as we concentrate upon a growing relationship in Christ the Lord and King. Our next and last issue to examine is closely related to this same matter.

Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment" (Matthew 22:37-38). The most important directive from God to man is that we are to learn to love Him with all of our being. This is to be a fundamental emphasis in the message of any group or individual proclaiming to be Christ’s.
It is a central, strategic tenet of "the faith, once for all delivered to the saints."

Instead of urging God's people to be learning to love the Lord fully and wholeheartedly, believers are frequently exhorted to learn to love themselves properly. This erroneous teaching comes from a twisting of the second commandment to "love your neighbor as yourself." This distorted exposition assumes that we don't already love ourselves. Actually, Jesus was telling us to give the loving attention to others that we all give habitually to ourselves. "For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it" (Ephesians 5:29). Nonetheless, many contemporary leaders in the church world urge Christians to attempt to develop love for themselves. By engaging in such anti-scriptural and anti-Christ teaching, they are sadly helping to fulfill a biblical warning, given in a prophetic instruction from the Apostle Paul. "But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves" (2 Timothy 3:1-2). The primary characteristic of rebellious humanity in the last days will be open, flaunted, unashamed self-love. Far from calling us to self-love, the scriptures warn us about such an ungodly perspective.

Conclusion

Multitudes “in the church” and many Christians are becoming as focused on self as the world has become. This is one of the tragic consequences of "the psychologizing of the faith." The Lord has given us many warnings and exhortations in the Word of God which can protect us against being a part of this self-exalting deception now impacting the “churches”.

"Beware lest anyone cheat you (or, take you captive) through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ" (Colossians 2:8). Psychological theories are one of the predominant philosophies in the world today. We must be alert that no one (whether humanistic agnostics or beloved and respected church leaders) - - that no one lead us astray by such theories.
On the other hand, we are to be those who are in Christ to respond to the living Word and the Bible who calls us to Him.
"Guard what was committed to your trust (that is, the word of God and your simple reliance upon Christ in ALL THINGS), avoiding the profane and vain babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge-- by professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith . . . Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you (that is, the word of God), keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us." (1 Timothy 6:20-21; 2 Timothy 1:13-14).

The institution of the church is once again not only failing, but failing what it really is to be – The “Ekklesia” – the CALLED OUT ONE’S OF GOD!

“We” if, we are in Him, and He is in us, regardless if we meet corporately or not, are “CALLED OUT” OF THIS WORLD INTO HIS GLORIOUS KINGDOM!
When this is expressed in the Truth of His Life within us, as us, and through us, the psychologizing of His PEOPLE will become of little significance, for WE WILL KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH WILL SET US FREE!
I know, I was a former drug addict, and alcoholic as a young man, it was Christ the truth of who He is and who I am that SET ME FREE, that HE is my life, and there will never be a better OLD ME- the man of the FLESH, but that there is someone who is BETTER THAN ALL- His name is JESUS!
CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY!!!
He still delivers me, from that old self, of bad and good, and will continue to do so, as I walk in Faith of Him until He comes and we shall all appear with Him and be like Him! For our lives are hidden in Christ with God now. Isn’t it wonderful to know the GREAT COUNSELOR- JESUS??