Powlison has listed six major issues in contemporary Bible counseling.
Among all the issues, I believe that the first issue is the most significant or
urgent. According to the first issue, “Counseling in the Christian church
continues to be significantly compromised by the secular assumptions and
practices of our cultures reigning psychologies and psychiatries” (The
Biblical Counseling Movement: History and context. New Growth Press,
2021).. The Biblical-nouthetic counselling mainly focuses on counteracting
secularism. Biblical counselling functions within the Bible’s worldview, and
Jesus Christ is at the centre of everything. On the other hand, secular
psychologies believe that the solution to the problems of humans lies
between or within the humans only (Crucial issues in contemporary
Biblical Counseling (excerpt). Biblical Counseling Coalition, 2011).. The
first issue is significant because it will reduce the power of the word of
God in dealing with and solving the problems of people. It may even
diminish the transformational power of the word of God. God’s word is
actually powerful as stated in Hebrews, “For the word of God is living and
active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul
and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and
intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12, ESV). The word of God or the
Scripture has the power to solve any problem that arises in the lives of
people. In the book of Romans, Paul has also clearly stated that “I myself
am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of
goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another”
(Romans, 15:14, ESV). The secular psychologies consider that the death of
Christ is of no value and the God of the Bible is insignificant for them.
I devalued the other five crucial issues as I believe the first one is the
foundational one, and the remaining five flow out of it. When a person is
able to value the word of God and respect the Scripture, automatically,
the rest five issues will be addressed. Issue two and three deal with the
dynamics of human motivation and suffering. Such things actually come
from the heart. God is capable of changing the heart of a person. God can
affect the heart of His chosen individuals and bring about the desired
changes through the word of God and the Holy Spirit. In order to make the
word of God effective in one’s life, one needs to believe the words. Issue
four and five relate to the relationship with the counselee and those
outside the church. It is important for the Biblical counselors to maintain
the authority given to them through and by the word of God in order to
confront people within as well as outside the church.
Reflecting on the understanding of Appendix 4, I would state that I am not
in complete opposition to learning from secular psychologies. However,
when it is about curing souls, I agree with Powlison. Only the people who
are biblically wise actually qualify to counsel people and cure their souls.
Human wisdom or wisdom of the earth will not be able to cure or
completely heal a soul.
.
References
Crucial issues in contemporary Biblical Counseling (excerpt). Biblical
Counseling Coalition. (2011, October 20). Retrieved November 19, 2021,
from https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2011/10/20/crucial-
issues-in-contemporary-biblical-counseling/.
The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and context. New Growth
Press. (2021). Retrieved November 19, 2021, from
https://newgrowthpress.com/the-biblical-counseling-movement/.
