[혁신적연구] Affirmations & Denials: A Proposed Definition of Biblical Counseling

Affirmations & Denials:A Proposed Definitionof Biblical Counseling

David Powlison

Some 1500 years ago, the warrior-chiefof a primitive, Germanic tribe bluntlyquestioned a visiting missionary,“Why should I believe in this Jesus that youtell me about?” The man of God answered,“Because in Jesus Christ you will find won-der upon wonder—and all true.”

That same Counselor is full of freshwonders today. How do any of us come toserve Him well? How do all of us come toserve Him well? We must know somethings.

We must know the gravity of our condi-tion as human beings. We tend to defect. Weare false lovers. We are traitors—compul-sively, blindly. We want the wrong things.We are doomed. We need rescue from our-selves and what we bring upon ourselves.This isn’t a general problem, a theoreticalproblem, the other person’s problem. It’s myspecific problem, and yours, and the otherperson’s, too: “There is an evil in all that isdone under the sun, in that there is one fatefor all. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons ofmen are full of evil, and insanity is in theirhearts while they live, and then they die”(Eccl. 9:3).

We must know the sheer glory and good-ness of what our Father has given us in JesusChrist. To know Jesus in truth and love is to

find the one thing worth finding, the onelasting happiness, the purpose of life: “Heshall dwell among them, and they shall beHis people, and God Himself shall beamong them, and He shall wipe away everytear from their eyes; and there shall nolonger be any death; there shall no longer beany mourning, or crying, or pain; the firstthings have passed away. And He who sitson the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making allthings new’” (Rev. 21:3-5).

We must know the stunning wisdom ofthe Word of God. God speaks profoundlyand comprehensively to the concrete condi-tions of every person’s life. He speaks withintent and power to change us: “The law ofthe LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; thetestimony of the LORD is sure, making wisethe simple; the precepts of the LORD areright, rejoicing the heart; the commandmentof the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for-ever; the judgments of the LORD are true;they are righteous altogether....Let thewords of my mouth and the meditation ofmy heart be acceptable in Your sight, OLORD, my rock and my Redeemer” (Ps. 19:7-9, 14).

We must know our calling as children ofsuch a Father. Jesus announces His kingdom

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with the words, “Repent.” That means, “Change.” Hisgrace and truth gets about the business of changing us.We are called to realize the new creation onto the stageof history, into the details of our lives. We are called tochange, and to change the world. We run a race ofrepentance and renewal. Jesus intends to teach us howto live as “disciples” (changers, learners, students), sothat we become His instruments of change in the livesof others. The Counselor full of wonders makes Chris-tianoi, “Christ-people,” apprentice counselors also fullof wonders: “Speaking the truth in love, we are to growup in all aspects into Him, who is the head, evenChrist” (Eph. 4:15).

We must know that God’s way is qualitatively dif-ferent from everything else available in the bazaar ofoptions, of other counsels, other schemas, other prac-tices, other systems. The only sanity and wakefulness isto know Him-who-is. Anything else perpetuates ourinsanity, our sleepwalk: “See to it that no one takes youcaptive through philosophy and empty deception,according to the tradition of men, according to the ele-mentary principles of the world, rather than accordingto Christ” (Col. 2:8).

We must know these things, live them, minister thisChrist to others.

Attempts to define Christian faith and practice moreaccurately and helpfully always arise in a context ofcontroversy. These affirmations and denials are noexception. They are about “counseling.” But a mentalhealth system that knows no Christ dominates thecounseling landscape and shapes the mind and prac-tices of the culture. Even the “Christian” counselingfield has largely taken its cues from the secular psy-chologies, as if Scripture did not really have much tosay beyond religiosity and morality. But as we lookmore closely at life, as we learn to look with God’s eyes,as we come to know ourselves truly, it becomes clearerand clearer that Scripture is about counseling: diagnos-tic categories, causal explanations of behavior and emo-tion, interpretation of external sufferings and influ-ences, definitions of tangible and workable solutions,character of the counselor, goals for the counselingprocess, configuring the professional structures fordoing counseling, critique of competing models. Theseare all matters to which God speaks directly, specifical-ly, and frequently. He calls us to listen attentively, tothink hard and well, and to engage in a worthy labor todevelop our practical theology of face-to-face, conver-sational ministry. These affirmations and denialsattempt to state what our Lord sees, says, and does.

Section I treats the sufficiency of Scripture. UnlessGod lies, we have the goods for developing systematicbiblical counseling, just as we have the goods for

preaching, teaching, worship, mercy, and missions. Inorder to counsel others well, we need a comprehensiveand penetrating analysis of the human condition: Sec-tion II. We must bring to bear effective solutions, equal-ly penetrating and comprehensive, the Redeemer whoengages the variety of persons and problems appropri-ately: Sections III and IV. We must embody counselingin social structures: Section V. We must have a stand-point from which to interact with other systems ofcounseling: Sections VI and VII. Scripture intends to

teach us how to know and do these things, that wemight cure and care for souls the way Jesus Christ does.

I. True knowledge about people and
counseling practice
We affirm that the Bible is God’s self-revelation in rela-tion to His creatures, and, as such, truly explains peopleand situations.

We deny that any other source of knowledge isauthoritative for explaining people and situa-tions.

We affirm that the Bible, as the revelation of JesusChrist’s redemptive activity, intends to specificallyguide and inform counseling ministry.

We deny that any other source of knowledge isauthoritative to equip us for the task of counsel-ing people.

We affirm that wise counseling requires ongoing practi-cal theological labor in order to understand Scripture,people, and situations. We must continually developour personal character, case-wise understanding of per-sons, pastoral skills, and institutional structures.

We deny that the Bible intends to serve as anencyclopedia of proof texts containing all factsabout people and the diversity of problems inliving.

We affirm that the ideas, goals, and practices of counsel-ing must cohere explicitly with the historic creeds, con-fessions, hymns, and other wise writings that expressthe faith and practice of the church of Jesus Christ.

We deny that the wisdom of the past sufficientlydefines the issues of counseling ministry fortoday, as if the requisite wisdom were simply amatter of recovering past achievements.

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II. The givens of the human condition and the scopeof biblical truth
We affirm that human beings are created fundamentallydependent on and responsible to God. People can onlybe understood when these realities control the coun-selor’s gaze.

We deny that any form of autonomy severs peo-ple from dependency on God.
We deny that any form of determinism neutersmoral accountability to God.

We affirm that the ideal for human functioning is faithworking through love. Such love for God and neighboris the standard against which to specifically under-stand what is wrong with people. It is the goal to whichcounseling must specifically aspire.

We deny that any other standard or goal is true.
We affirm that evil, done by us and happening to us, isthe fundamental and pervasive problem in living. Ourown sin, in all its facets and dimensions, is primary andself-generating. The circumstances that happen to usprovide both provocative context (“trials and tempta-tions”) and just consequences (“reap what you sow”)for our moral response, but do not determine the qual-ity of our moral response.
We deny that any other diagnostic system is

valid, universal, or penetrating.
We deny that nature and/or nurture determinethe quality of our moral response.

We affirm that the Scripture defines and speaks to thegamut of problems in living for all people in all situa-tions.

We deny that biblical truth is limited to a narrowsphere of “religious” or “spiritual” beliefs, activ-ities, persons, emotions, and institutions, sepa-rated from the other spheres of daily life.

We deny that any particular realm of human lifecan be sectored off as the unique province of thetheories, practices, and professions of the mod-ern psychologies.

III. The solution to the sin and misery of the humancondition
We affirm that the Bible teaches, invites, warns, com-mands, sings, and tells the solution for what troubleshumankind. In the good news of Jesus Christ, God actspersonally. In word and deed, He redeems us from sinand misery through the various operations of His past,present, and future grace. God uses many means ofgrace, including the face-to-face conversations of wisecounseling.

We deny that any other solution or therapy actu-ally cures souls, and can change us from unholyto holy, from sinners to righteous, from insanity

to sanity, from blindness to sightedness, from

self-absorption to faith-working-through-love.
We affirm that God’s providential common grace bringsmany goods to people, both as individual kindnessesand as social blessings: e.g., medical treatment, eco-nomic help, political justice, protection for the weak,educational opportunity. Wise counseling will partici-pate in and encourage mercy ministries as part of thecall to love.

We deny that such goods can cure the soul’sevils. When they claim to cure the human con-dition, they are false and misleading, competingwith Christ.

We deny that Christless counseling—whetherpsychotherapeutic, philosophical, quasi-reli-gious, or overtly religious—is either true orgood. Their messages are essentially false andmisleading, competing with Christ.

IV. The nature and means of change

We affirm that the growth process for which counselingmust aim is conversion followed by lifelong progres-sive sanctification within every circumstance of life.Our motives, thought processes, actions, words, emo-tions, attitudes, values—heart, soul, mind, and might—increasingly resemble Jesus Christ in conscious and evi-dent love for God and other people.

We deny that there is any method for instanta-neous or complete perfection into the image ofJesus Christ. The change process continues untilwe see Him face-to-face.

We deny that the processes and goals labeledself-actualization, self-fulfillment, healing ofmemories, meeting of psychological needs,social adaptation, building self-esteem, recov-ery, individuation, etc., describe valid aims ofcounseling, though they may evidence analo-gies to elements of biblical wisdom.

We affirm that the Bible explicitly teaches the funda-mentals of counseling method by precept and example.Through speaking the truth in love, we act as tangibleinstruments of God’s grace in the lives of others.

We deny that the modern psychotherapies right-ly understand or practice wise counseling

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methodology, though they may evidence analo-gies to elements of biblical wisdom.

V. The social context and scope of counselingministry
We affirm that the Spirit and the Word create the churchof Jesus Christ, and that the people of God should pro-vide the personal, social, and institutional loci forspeaking the truth in love.

We deny that the mental health professions andtheir institutions have the right to claim any sec-
tor of problems in living as their particular pre-rogative. Even those who suffer mentally-dis-abling medical problems need godly counseling.We affirm that the aims, content, and means of counsel-ing ministry are of a piece with public ministry, the spir-itual disciplines, and mercy ministry. These are differ-

ent aspects of the one redemptive ministry of Christ.We deny that the persons and problemsaddressed by the activity termed “psychothera-py” fall outside the intended scope of the min-istry of Christ in word and deed.

We affirm that the primary and fullest expression ofcounseling ministry occurs in local church communitieswhere pastors effectively shepherd souls while equip-ping and overseeing diverse forms of every-memberministry.

We deny that the institutional forms and profes-sional roles of the mental health system providea normative and desirable framework for coun-seling ministry.

We deny that current forms of church life andconceptions of the pastoral role are necessarilyadequate and normative as vehicles to train,deliver, and oversee effective counseling min-istry. The body of Christ needs institutionalreformation, development, and innovation.

We deny that parachurch and other cooperativeforms of counseling ministry in the body ofChrist are inherently wrong.

VI. God’s providence and the interplay between Hiscommon grace and the intellectual-practical effectsof sin
We affirm that numerous disciplines and professionscan contribute to an increase in our knowledge of peo-ple and how to help them. Scripture teaches a stand-point and gaze by which believers can learn manythings from those who do not believe.

We deny that any of these disciplines and profes-sions can align and constitute a system of faithand practice for wise counseling.

We affirm that a commitment to secularity distorts disci-

plines and professions fundamentally and pervasively.People who do not think and practice in submission tothe mind of Christ will misconstrue the things they seemost clearly, and will miscarry in the matters aboutwhich they care most deeply and skillfully.

We deny that secular disciplines and professionsare entirely benighted by the intellectual, moral,and aesthetic effects of sin. The operations ofGod’s common grace can cause unbelievers tobe relatively observant, caring, stimulating, andinformative.

We affirm that the personality theories are essentiallyfalse theologies, and the psychotherapies are essential-ly false forms of the cure of souls. Even the moredescriptive and empirical psychologies are significant-ly skewed by secular presuppositions, and their find-ings need to be reinterpreted by the biblical worldview.We deny that psychological research, personalitytheories, and psychotherapies should be viewed

as “objective science,” as that term is usuallyunderstood. Neither should they be seen asextensions of medicine and medical practice.

VII. Good news for psychologized people in apsychologized society
We affirm that mature, presuppositionally consistent,loving, and efficacious biblical counseling will be apowerful evangelistic and apologetic force in the mod-ern world.

We deny that the most important part of thechurch’s interaction with the modern psycholo-gies is to discover what can be learned fromthem.

DISCUSSION of Affirmations & Denials

On the face of it, Scripture is about counseling. It’sabout the diagnosis and face-to-face cure of the humancondition. It’s about trustworthy love, being known byanother, a growing self-knowledge, making sense oflife’s circumstances, an interpersonal process, and spe-cific personal changes. It’s about how you understandor misunderstand life, how you behave or misbehave.

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It’s about what you believe, desire, fear, trust, andvalue. It’s about how you act, talk, and feel. It’s aboutyour relationships to others and to Him-who-is. Scrip-ture is also about untrustworthy, inaccurate, mislead-ing, and false messages and persons, about other coun-sel and other counselors. Seen this way, the dynamicand the subject matter of Scripture is recognizably theactivity we term “counseling”—but with a dramatictwist.

What most people think of as “counseling” is con-trolled by the elitist habits of the modern mental healthsystem: a designated professional with an advanceddegree, and with expertise in supposedly objective,non-religious ideas and techniques from psychology orpsychiatry; a designated and diagnosed patient/client,who suffers from a syndrome with a medical-soundinglabel; a formal and consultative relationship that medi-ates ideas and solutions from science and/or medicine;a fee-for-service exchange occurring in a time-out fromreal life social relationships; a fundamental asymmetrybetween doctor and patient, expert and client, healthyand sick. Seen against this backdrop, the Bible seems tosay little about the ideas, solutions, methods, and insti-tutional structures necessary for effective counseling.

The Bible is odd music, playing in a different keywith different instruments, even on a different scale.God subverts asymmetries, and views us all as basical-ly more alike than different. All of us are “sick” with themadness in our hearts; each of us needs the “physi-cian.” And each of us—even the weakest, poorest, andmost troubled—is capable of helping any of us in someway when grace gifts us and masters us. And the Bibleis too straightforward to be very esoteric in its “tech-niques”; it’s about real life and everyday interactions.Jesus and His apostles are not much impressed withclaims to objective superior knowledge, or with claimsto specialized authority and professional prerogative.When the Lord uses medical metaphors for life’s prob-lems, it’s just a grabby metaphor, not reality. The Biblepaints all life as inescapably religious, and the kinds ofproblems psychotherapy deals with every day are par-ticularly obvious examples. From God’s point of view,even foolish attempts to assert a God-less “scientific” or“medical” objectivity register as overtly religious acts.To attempt to explain and cure the souls of others while

saying in your heart, “There is no God,” is damnablyreligious. If a blind man leads a blind man, they bothfall in a ditch. But people who see...see themselves,other people, and everyone’s life circumstances coramDeo. And they see God in Christ.

The Bible’s vision of everything that “counseling” isabout is stunningly different from current culturalhabits and received wisdom. It’s a bigger and betterway of thinking about “counseling.” And it’s true. Theculture says, “We’ve always done it this way” (thoughhistorical memory tends to be very short). But Scripturedrastically changes the paradigm—to put it mildly.Counseling doesn’t just inhabit clinical settings, nor isit the property of several upstart professions practicingin the wealthier countries. God’s view of counselingcuts deeper, applies wider, aims different, lasts longer,matters more. You live or die based on the counsel youlisten to—and the counsel you give. Counseling is notjust for those who “need counseling.” It’s not just some-thing that “professional counselors” do with “counse-lees.” You can’t escape being involved in the Bible’sview of the counseling process. It’s happening all thetime, whether you know it or not, whether you want itor not. You are doing it to others; others are doing it toyou—today, every day, informally, and (very occasion-ally) formally. All people influence others by what theybelieve and want; all people are influenced by thethoughts and intentions of others. All of human life isby definition counseling. “The tongue” is a counselinginstrument. Every human interaction, from the mosttrivial to the most formal, arises from the nexus ofmeanings, values, and intentions that controls thehearts of the participants.

Counseling is never about neutral, objective knowl-edge. It’s committed. It always “imposes values,”covertly if not overtly. No one can avoid this. The ques-tions you ask (or don’t ask), the emotions you feel (ordon’t feel), the thoughts you think (or don’t think), theresponses you give (or don’t give) tip your hand andoverflow from your heart. Therapists aren’t just skillfulor clumsy, caring or callous; their counsel (diagnosticcategories, interpretative schemas, analyses of causali-ty, ideals of health, particular advice, personal charac-ter) is true or false, and leads others into good or evil.God evaluates every word out of every mouth, becausethese register the thoughts and intentions of everyheart as either for or against Him. Counseling is not amatter of neutral technical expertise and an inherentlylegitimate professional role. Counseling is either wiseor perverse, just as all human beings are either sages orfools, either trustworthy or untrustworthy, whatevertheir professional roles. Either counseling leads truly orit leads astray. Graduate education and professional

You live or die based on the counsel youlisten to—and the counsel you give.

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role are not decisive criteria. Wisdom is the decidingfactor, and the organizing center of wisdom is the fearof Christ. God plays by a different set of rules—and Hemakes the rules. Theories of human nature and formalcounseling practices of any sort are a subset of muchbigger things. They are subject both to the terms inwhich those bigger things transpire, and to evaluationby Him with whom we have to do.

The designated counselors in a culture (or church)may do a poor job of communicating what life’s allabout. They may tell misleading stories, mislabel life,and instill myths to rule the hearts of those they coun-sel. But God’s story is still what’s playing in real time,real lives. His story is not about coping better. Youeither die to yourself and live for Another, or you livefor yourself and die. It’s not about meeting your needs,but about turning what you think you need upside-down. It’s not about locating causality in historical cir-cumstance or biological process, but about your heartvis-à-vis God in Christ. Moment by moment, from theheart, you and everyone else worship, love, desire, fear,serve, believe, and trust either God or something that isnot God. God’s story is not about finding refuge andresources in yourself, or in other people, or in psy-chopharmacology. It’s about finding Christ in real timesand real places, the only Savior able to deliver you fromwhat’s really wrong with you and your world.

By words and actions, God counsels all people. Hereveals us for what we are, and either changes our waysor hardens us in our ways. Paul’s letter to God’s peoplein Ephesus offers an exemplar and synopsis of the con-tents, methods, and institutional context for “curingsouls.” As Jesus Christ’s personal agent, Paul commu-nicates what’s on the mind of the Searcher of hearts. Hedissects the human condition. As a recipient of graceupon grace, he extols the one true and comprehensivesolution, the living Lord whom we are made to know,love, and serve, and from whom we learn to know,love, and serve others.

In times of spiritual vitality, the church of JesusChrist submits to God’s definition of both counsel (thecontent) and counseling (the activity), both counselorand counselee (the persons involved in the process),both problems and solutions, both process and goal.The church submits to the Comforter’s definitions ofboth trouble and comfort.

In the providence of God, the twentieth century sawa time of crisis and conflict about counseling. Over thepast hundred years in the West, a persuasive redefini-tion of the ideas, practices, and institutions of “pastoralcare” has taken place. The cure of souls has become sig-nificantly secularized by the gaze and intentions ofmodern personality theories, mental health professions,

and psychological research. They aim to comprehendand treat human life with no reference point outside ofourselves. This attempt radically dehumanizespatients, clients, and subjects. It purges life of its truecontext (God in Christ), redefines the true drama (Areyou good or evil, a servant of truth or lies?), miscon-strues causality (the heart vis-à-vis God, amid trials),ignores the true outcome (life or death forever), andrepresses the one essential truth (To know You, the onlytrue God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent).

Brilliant thinkers, skilled practitioners, and carefulresearchers have built powerful institutions claimingthe truth, love, and power to comprehend and curesouls. But their gaze is skewed, is blinded to essentialrealities. Their cures pointedly exclude the Good Shep-herd, as well as the apprentice shepherds and recap-tured sheep who serve Him. God so governs historythat persuasive alternatives to the Faith always have adouble effect. They either compel us to sharpen ourown faith and practice, or they compel us to counter-convert.

The psychologies and psychotherapies self-con-sciously compete with the Faith’s interpretations andintentions. Sigmund Freud, for example, conceived ofhis work this way: “The words, ‘secular pastoral work-er,’ might well serve as a general formula for describingthe function which the analyst...has to perform in hisrelation to the public.” Freud saw himself doing “pas-toral work in the best sense of the word.” But this pas-toral ministry did not offer people the mercy and graceof the personal Lord who searches every heart andshepherds souls. Instead, when Freud counseled some-one, he would seek “to enrich him from his own inter-nal resources.” Freud was a bold evangelist for suchtrust in human resources, calling for the day when “anew kind of Salvation Army” trained in psychoanalysiswould go forth as “a band of helpers for combating theneuroses of civilization.”1 What do these missionary-

1Sigmund Freud, “The Question of Lay Analysis” and “Post-script,” in The Standard Edition of the Complete PsychologicalWorks of Sigmund Freud (London: Hogarth Press, 1926 and1927, volume 20), pp. 255f, 250. Freud argued that psy-

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counselors do with people?
Nothing takes place between them except thatthey talk to each other....[The therapist gets thepatient] to talk, listens to him, talks to him in histurn, and gets him to listen....And incidentallydo not let us despise the word. After all it is apowerful instrument; it is the means by whichwe convey our feelings to one another, ourmethod of influencing other people.2

Carl Jung described a different aspect of the coun-seling dynamic. “Patients force the psychotherapistinto the role of a priest and expect and demand of himthat he shall free them from their distress. That is whywe psychotherapists must occupy ourselves with prob-lems which, strictly speaking, belong to the theolo-gian.”4 Psychotherapists must deal with such thingsbecause identified counselees are powerful counselorsin their own right, and they force, expect, and demandthings. This is what every counseling conversation isactually about, whatever the pretense to doing some-thing else. In Jung’s view, Jesus Christ was yesterday’sanswer to the human condition; but He is not alive andhas no abiding relevance. He will not in fact judge theliving and the dead. The hopes of those who eagerlyawait His appearing are futile and fantastic – privatelyengaging, perhaps, but irrelevant to curing the souls ofstrugglers from every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.Today and tomorrow demand new answers to the old,abiding theologian’s problems of meaning and despair,good and evil, life and death, love and hate, trust andfear. Jung proposes different answers to the old prob-lems that every counseling conversation is about.

Psychotherapists function as “secular priests,” asthe more self-conscious among them freely acknowl-edge.5 The practitioners of psychotherapeutics are not“scientists” studying subjects with cool detachment,nor are they “medical personnel” treating psychicpathologies, nor are they “technicians” of mental con-tent, emotional state, and behavioral habit. Instead,mental health professionals necessarily act as prophet-theologians, who define human nature and the mean-ing of life while typically excising God. They necessar-ily act as priest-pastors, who typically shepherd thehuman soul to find refuge in itself, in other people, andin psychoactive medication, because they construct auniverse barren of the living God and His Christ. Theynecessarily act as king-elders, who run the institutionsof the modern cure of souls: hospital, clinic, office, thirdparty insurer, undergraduate and graduate depart-ment, referral network, newspaper column, self-helpbook, television talk show, licensing law, pharmaceuti-cal company. What kind of thing do these “authorities,”“experts,” “powers-that-be,” “vested interests,” and“professionals” in counseling actually do? Church-work.

How has the church responded to secular redefini-

Psychotherapy is simply intentional conversationoccurring “under the guidance of the therapist” who“plays the part of this effective outsider; he makes useof the influence which one human being exercises overanother.”3 Such conversations are not value-neutral.They are structured by the interpretive gaze and theintentions of the parties involved. Both “therapist” and“patient” (medical terms for the parties involved aresingularly inapt, but ideologically useful) bring theirassumptions to every word uttered, to every conversa-tional choice point. What do you say next? The mouthspeaks out of the overflow of the heart. At every turn,each speaker’s point of view and desires will seek toinfluence the other overtly or covertly. What is wrongand why? What is the meaning of that social experi-ence? How should we interpret those sufferings orblessings, these hardships or pleasures? What is thepurpose of life? What is relatively important or unim-portant? What definition of success and failure sets theagenda for our conversation? Differing diagnoses ofthe human condition inevitably demand different“words” of cure, contain different implications, andconstruct different responses. They call forth differentkinds of missionary-pastors. Freud sent forth one kindof salvation army, Jesus another.

4Carl Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, translated by W. S.Dell and Cary F. Baynes (San Diego: Harcourt BraceJovanovich, 1933), p. 241.
5Perry London, The Modes and Morals of Psychotherapy (NewYork: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964), chapter 7.

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tions of the ideas, practices, and institutions thatattempt to cure souls? The church has largely been theborrower and subordinate, not the decided alternative.So what must you do to recover the centrality of JesusChrist for helping people to grow up into the only truesanity? How will you learn to live in the radical extro-spections of faith and love, rather than be lulled by theinward-curving inertia of sin? Will you deal gently withother sinners, the ignorant and wayward, and offerthem mercy and grace to help in time of need? Howwill you find meaning, safety, and sustenance in yourown sufferings? Will you offer others genuine aid andtrue refuge in their sufferings? How will you reconfig-ure face-to-face “helping” relationships to serve asinstruments of the only enduring wisdom?

To recover the centrality of Christ and His Scripturefor the cure of souls demands conviction worked outinto specific contents, skills, and social structures. Theconviction? Jesus Christ knows what is in us. Everyhuman being will submit to His final evaluation. Hisview is the true view. This same Jesus Christ has set hisaffection on headstrong, confused, and suffering peo-ple. No one and nothing else can deliver us from thereal-time sin and misery of our condition. He is for usand with us to change us. His Scripture, then, is aboutunderstanding and helping people. The sufferings andblessings, needs and resources, struggles and strengthsof real people—right down to the details—must berationally defined and explained by the categories withwhich the Bible teaches us to see human life. Thoseproblems must be addressed and redressed using thegracious, powerful truth and the effective, lovingmeans that Jesus says and does with us—and teachesus to say and do with others. The mind of Christ looksat life differently; His words and deeds aim in a differ-ent direction. The scope of Scripture’s explicit purposesand sufficiency includes those face-to-face relationshipsthat our culture labels “counseling” or “psychothera-

py.” These affirmations and denials attempt to state andto guard the lineaments of such convictions.

Conviction alone simply waves a flag. It eventuallydegrades into sloganeering and hardens into triumphaldefensiveness. But when the intellectual ramificationsand practical implications are demonstrated to be pen-etrating, comprehensive, adaptable, and efficacious,then we’ll have something. Such counseling wisdom

will edify the teachable—and even persuade the skepti-cal. The church needs persuading. And the churchneeds training to live and counsel the content. The sur-rounding culture also needs persuading. The mattersconfessed in these pages will only shine in their glorywhen adorned with humble, tender, bold, and effica-cious ministry that actually cures souls.

The goals of this article are necessarily modest.These affirmations and denials cannot begin to com-municate the countless positive details of what itmeans to counsel in the grace and truth of Jesus Christ.But they can at least serve as a beginning, an articula-tion of what must be worked thoroughly into our faithand practice. They are also up for criticism, debate,and refinement. This is a proposal, a current best effort.I sincerely believe it can be improved, with nothinggood lost and much good gained. A second part to thisarticle, forthcoming, will discuss the particular affir-mations and denials in greater detail.

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