STE:What do I still lack?  by Leonard Ravenhill

   What percentage of responsibility for my spiritual maturity is the
Lord's and how much is mine? To say that I alone am responsible for my
soul's development is conceit. To say that all the responsibility is
the Lord's is impudence.

   I find it humbling, inspiring and challenging to recognize that the
greatest saints who ever lived did not have a bigger Bible than I have,
they just knew it better. Indeed, they had far less of the divine
Revelation. Today we have the complete message of God to man. He has
nothing more to say to us. As the old hymn says, "What more can he say
to you than to you He hath said?" God has no "P.S." to add to the book
of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

   For years the Holy Scriptures were wrapped up in tongues that only
scholars could read. "There was no open vision in those days." (I Sam.
3:1) Then, blessed day, the whole counsel of God was released in our
mother tongue. With this unveiling came the glad news of the priesthood
of the believers-Hallelujah!

   Do you wonder that Bishop Walsham How bursts into a song about the
Holy Word: "It is a golden casket, where gems of Truth are stored. It
is the Heaven-drawn picture of Christ, the Living Word."

   Trees are fascinating to most of us. I like to see the burdened
fruit trees showing off their labor. The English like their mighty oaks
and the Americans their Redwood trees. At the moment, in the area where
i write, the peach trees are richly endowed with fruit; but, it does
not grow already canned. No! God gave us the fruit, we do the canning.
Tress do not grow furniture, even in this scientific age. We have the
trees, from them we make the chairs, etc. So it is with the spiritual
life. Here is s stunning truth from Second Peter, Chapter One, verse
three: "His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to
LIFE AND GODLINESS."

   Paul backs up Peter in this ares when he says, "How shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things." (Rom. 8:32) And to top these
precious words, here comes Paul again with s staggering statement: "The
Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God: and if children, the heirs; HEIRS OF GOD AND
JOINT-HEIRS WITH CHRIST." ...If so be that we suffer with Him, that we
may also be glorified together." (Rom. 8:16-17)

   With all this limitless resource to inherit in this life, why then,
do we settle for minimum spirituality? These scriptures just quoted
shatter all our excuses for carnal Christianity and explode all our
feeble excuses on bumper-sticker evangelism: "Christians aren't
perfect, just forgiven." (Some backslider must have written that one.)

   Sinning is not permitted to believers. "Whosoever is born of God
doth not commit sin." (I John 3:9) Not that it is impossible to sin;
but it is, by the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit, possible not to
sin. John again shouts the triumphant note, "Greater is He that is in
you than he that is in the world." (I John 4:4)

   God, then, has made it possible for you and me to have victory over
the world, the flesh and the devil!

   Here are the Master's commandments to His own. These are not options
but imperatives. With His enabling and our striving, we can explore
what Lowrey called the "possibilities of Grace." We can leave the
playpen in the Spiritual Nursery and "go unto perfection." (Heb. 6:1)
Here are His commands:

   "Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (I Jn. 5:21)

   "Building up yourselves in your most holy faith..." (Jude 20; Rom.
10:17)

   "Keep yourselves in the love of God." (by obedience to His word.
Jude 12)

   "Put on the whole armor of God..." equipment for beating Satan.
(Eph. 6:11)

   The scripture is very clear here: "Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you." (James 4:70

   Christian maturity is not a weekend operation. On the other hand,
remember there is no finality to the Christian life this side of
eternity. While we are in the flesh, we "press toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." ( Phil 3:14)

   We hear continually about "Weight Watchers." O that we watched our
spiritual growth as carefully!

   I believe in instant purity: "The blood of Jesus Christ, His son,
cleanseth us from all sin." (I Jn. 1:7) I do not believe in instant
maturity. Faith in the finished work of Christ in one thing. To add to
your faith is something else. As a tree must be pruned regularly to
bring it to maturity, so we need pruning. It is easy to sing, "And pour
contempt on all my pride." If I do that at all, I will do it
conveniently protecting myself from any "bleeding." It is when the Lord
does it-or worse still when He uses some other human being (less
spiritual than I am) to do the pruning-then can I kiss the rod? This is
a process in spiritual growth. Can I take it cheerfully when I am
slighted, when my name is cast out as an evil thing (though I am
totally innocent)? Can I joyfully help to promote another position that
I would like and which I am more capable of handling?

   I heard a preacher asking another if folks came to the alter at his
last meeting. "Yes, but most of them are alter tramps." It's easier to
go to the alter than to get on the cross. There is no magic in a trip
to the alter. You will not grow an inch by walking a few yards to the
alter, unless there is a total repentance and a holy vow to God that
you will not fall into the same hole again.

   That holy band of "Heroes of Faith" in the 11th chapter of Hebrews
staggers me. They had no Bibles, no millions of cassettes as we have,
no Bible seminars, no daily radio Bible teaching, and (fortunate souls)
no Gospel T.V. preachers whining about a lack of funds (when did the
Lord run out of supplies?). Yet what things these folks in Hebrews 11
accomplished: subdued whole kingdoms (O that some person rich in faith
could subdue the worldwide kingdom of the drug trade), wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions. What
miracles, what men, what faith!

   These "pattern" folks of our faith did not get to the heights in one
leap:

   "They climbed the steep ascent to Heaven through peril, toil and
pain. O God, may grace to us be given, to follow in their train."

   Asked why he was used of the Lord so greatly in China, Hudson Taylor
replied, "God had looked long for a man weak enough, and He found me."
He takes the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. Spiritual
wisdom does not come to both in obedience. Whatsoever He saith unto
YOU, do it.

   An insatiable thirst for God will produce an unquenchable love for
holiness (as He is holy), resulting in a passion for the lost.

   Remember friend, you are just as spiritual as you want to be.

   A N O T H E R G O S P E L !!!!!!!

   NOT JUST ANOTHER DENOMINATION

   Mormanism Bizarre Teachings and Influence--Mormans believe there are
many Gods, that men now living can become Gods, that Christ and the
Devil are brothers, that all Christian ministers are heirlings of the
Devil, that God is a polygamist, and that Christ had several wives
(6/89 Evangel) Mormanism teaches that trillions of planets throughout
the cosmos are ruled by gods who once were humans. Mormons believe that
there is a Mother-God in heaven. In a recent Reader's Digest ad, Billy
Graham urged readers to buy Mormon Tabernacle Choir records, thus
helping this false cult in its deception. Marie Osmund, National
Security Advisor Brent Scowcroft, Family Fued host Ray Combs (who
recently dumped his wife and five children), and several members of
Congress are all Mormons.

   -Calvary Contender, July 1, 1989

   PSYCHOLOGY TODAY REPORT:

   NEW AGE NOT END OF WORLD COMING!

   PSYCHOLOGY TODAY magazine (May) reports that the "new
millenarianism" extends beyond the new age movement. While Ken Carey's
books (such as Starseed Transmissions) forecasting the year 2000 as a
watershed to a Utopian society are firmly in the new age, economist
Ravi Batra is predicting an economic and social collapse and "higher
consciousness" to follow after 2000, and a non-new age science writer
Brad Leithasuer sees a psychological shift in the next millennium due
to environmental and technological problems. But to observer Carl
Raschke if the University of Denver, the upsurge in today's millenarian
thinking represents a "replaying of the apocalyptic fervor of the
1960s, " rather than that of the Christian millenarian fervor on the
eve of the year 1000."...The new millenarian consciousness is basically
political and secular. The longing for a world beyond has pretty much
subsided--we're not necessarily expecting the end of the world in a
literal sense, but a total transformation of this world."

   -Religion Watch

   WITCHES WIN EXEMPTION FROM TAXES

   PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP)--A coven of witches has won tax exempt status
in Rhode Island as a legitimate religious group.

   "With this ruling, we witches will definitely be able to come out of
the closet and take our place in society, " said the coven's high
priestess, Joyce Siegrist, also known as Lady Genevieve.

   Tax official Gary Clark said he overturned the state's ruling, that
the Rosegate Coven did not qualify for a sales tax exemption because
the coven proved that it met the guidelines for legitimate church
groups as set out by a 1986 Rhode Island Supreme Court ruling.

   -Toronto Star (89/08/09)

   RUSSIANS PRIME TIME MYSTICISM

   Moscow--An analyst diagnosing the collective health of the Soviet
Union in these days of ethnic discord and economic distress need look
no further than a television set, where the political commentators are
being forced by hypnotists and faith healers.

   Early mornings, it's Alan Chumak, who urges viewers to place bottles
of water before the TV set to be charged with his healing energy.

   In prime time, it's Anatoly Kashpirovsky, a psychotherapist whose
eerie studio seances somehow seem the perfect run-up to the 9 P.M. news.

   The airwaves have also made way for the inimitable Dzhuna
Davitashvili, a practitioner of magic hands who was called in to work
on the ailing Leonid I. Brezhnev, and who lately has taken to making
astrological predictions of doomsday.

   There is nothing new about the mystic bent of the Russian people,
but these shows--all fabulously popular, and not only with
superstitious babushkas--lend a last-days-of-Pompeii quality to
perestorika's midlife crisis.

   A system that cannot promise its anxious people political stability
or economic security offers hypnosis instead.

   The desperation for something to believe in goes beyond the usual
spiritual quest the Russians call, "god-seeking," beyond the annual
surge of anxiety that tends to coincide with the summer vacation of
Mikhail Gorbachev, the rationalist-in-chief. It is a general feeling
that the country has entered a period of testing--political, economic
and spiritual.

   -NY Times (89/08/29)

   CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH DOLPHINS Latest Fad

   To a secluded beach in Kauai, Swiss yoga teacher Kutira Decosterd
leads the faithful as if to Mecca. They bring their "oceanic Tantra"
rituals, their drums, their Australian aborigine dolphin-calling sticks.

   Off the Orange County, Calif. coast, Bob Dennis, a former director
of fantasy cruises, uses a conch shell, a guitar and "cross-cultural
shamanistic techniques" to lead his group into "dolphin dream time."

   From Pittsboro, N.C., management consultant Bill Delano advertises
"Dolphin Camp, " a 7 day, $1,945 swim-with-dolphins program in the
Florida keys for managers to "discover intuitive potential, " advance
communication skills and copy dolphins as "models of excellence."

   For those disillusioned with gurus as alternatives to priests,
ministers and rabbis, dolphins have become triggers to reach inner
answers, said Michael Peter Langevin, editor of Magical Blend, a 45,
000- circulation San Francisco-based "new age" magazine.

   The dolphin movement was born two decades ago with the writings of
neurologist John C. Lilly, who believed dolphins are smarter than
people. Fueled by TV shows and the environmental, animal rights and
new-age spiritual movements since, the dolphin movement in the past
year has "just exploded--we can't keep up with it, " said Toni Frohoff
of Playa del Rey, Calif., who publishes the Dolphin Data Base, a list
of 3, 000 people and organizations involved in dolphin projects. At
least 300 of them involve attempts at inter-species communication
despite the lack of scientific evidence that it is possible.

   "Knowing their brains are larger and that they see in 3-D sonar way
has led a large portion of new-age people to look to them for spiritual
inspiration and hope, " Langevin said.

   Several spiritual mediums claim to "channel" messages of peace or
self-worth from real dolphins or the "dolphin consciousness."

   Neville Rowe of Arizona, who sometimes makes clicking dolphin sound
during his public or private channeling sessions, drew the wrath of
other dolphin lovers recently when he claimed in an article in Magical
Blend that dolphins told him they volunteer for amusement parks and
dolphins swim centers as a way to communicate with humans.

   Anecdotes of those who have been "dolphinized" after concern
telepathy, stories of healing, sudden insight, or a "ginger ale"
feeling of familial or erotic love when swimming with dolphins--350
pound animals with quick reflexes and permanent smiles, who mate and
play freely and approach people to stare or click at them.

   "When they look you in the eye, you feel you've been seen to the
bottom of your soul, " said Beth Gawaine of Maui, a retired city
planner who had made an informal study of individual dolphins in
Australia.

   Others--including some psychologists--"having shed tears of
rejection after encounters with dolphins who weren't interested in
them, " said Lloyd Borguss of Dolphins Plus, the first swim-with
-dolphins center, which opened 8 years ago in Grassy Key, Fla.

   "The dolphin is going to do what it wants to do. This can be a bit
shock to your ego. They won't go to a person who is up tight, " Borguss
said. Mostly, they prefer to play with children and women, he said.

   Like other programs, Dolphins Plus turns away a third of its
applicants and has seen increasing requests from psychologists, doctors
and management consultants bringing groups of autistic children,
emotionally disturbed teens and business executives to swim with the
captive dolphins.

   -LA Times (89/09/07)

   EVER LEARNING...NEVER COMING TO KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH

   A brochure from the John E. Fetzer Foundation shows how their grants
alone are leading Higher education down the path of shaman. Some recent
support ventures include:

   HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL Cambridge, Mass.: Researching advanced
meditation TECHNIQUES USED BY TIBETIAN AND BUDDHIST MONKS (emphasis in
the original) to learn how controlled relaxation and self-regulation
may activate the body's healing mechanisms. ($33, 000 over 3 years)

   PRINCETON SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING, Princeton, NJ: Researching
interaction of human consciousness with simple electronic and
mechanical devices to investigate if MENTAL POWERS (emphasis in the
original) can effect such equipment beyond the element of chance.
($245, 000 over 9 years)

   MENNINGER FOUNDATION, Topeka, KS.: Research to qualify the link
between physical and mental states through self-regulation. The
objective is to develop a realistic, rapid, drug-free method to
stimulate healing by ALTERNATIVE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL STATES (emphasis
in the original) at will. ($312, 000 over 5 years)

   UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA at San Francisco: By mapping the brain's
energy patterns research investigates if relationships can be
established between its activity and emotional states such as anxiety,
confusion and depression. Through positive Biofeedback (emphasis in the
original) experiences, this study may allow people to take control of
their own emotional states. ($374, 250 over 10 years)

   ASSOCIATION OF RESEARCH AND ENLIGHTENMENT MEDICAL CLINIC, Phoenix,
AZ: Research into HOLISTIC HEALING (emphasis in the original)
processes, energy medicine and blending WESTERN SCIENCE WITH
TRADITIONAL FAR EAST MEDICAL PRACTICES (emphasis in the original).
($1.27 million over 4 years)

   WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, Kalamazoo: To improve living standards
in the region, the Fetzer Business Development Center on the WMU campus
promotes entrepreneurship and economic growth through business
education and professional development. ($1 million capital grant over
9 years)

   KALAMAZOO COLLEGE: The John and Rhea Fetzer Communications Media
Center aids students in learning the tools of modern mass
communications. The foundation also supports a lecture series dealing
with the links between MIND, BODY, and SPIRIT. (emphasis in the
original) ($600,000 over 10 years)

   BORGESS MEDICAL CENTER, Kalamazoo: Research into the use of a
600-year- old TIBETIAN HERBAL REMEDY (emphasis in the original) as an
antidote in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease, a blood-flow
impairment that can cause cramps, lameness and leg ulcers. ($83,500 for
1 year)

   INSTITUTE OF NOETIC SCIENCES, Sausalito, Calif. and INSTITUTE FOR
THE ADVANCEMENT OF HEALTH, NY City: Both are pursuing the foundation's
goal of becoming an international data base and networking link for
HOLISTIC HEALING, ENERGY MEDICINE (emphasis in the original) and
alternative health care. ($120, 000 combined for 1 year)

   BELIEVERS DON't DIE

   The famed evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, once remarked in a sermon,
"Some day you will read in the papers that D.L. Moody of East
Northfield is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. At that moment I
shall be more alive than now. I shall have gone up higher, that is
all--out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal; a
body that death cannot touch, that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned
like unto His glorious body. That which is born of the spirit will live
forever." And that is the sure and blessed hope the Gospel inspires. "O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?..Thanks be to
God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I
Cor, . 15;55,57)

   -Pulpit Helps

   PSYCHOLOGY: SCIENCE OR RELIGION?

   What William Law wrote two centuries ago is even more evident today:
"man needs to be saved from his own wisdom as much as from his own
righteousness, for they produce one and the same corruption."

   It is paradoxal that at a time when secular psychological
researchers are demonstrating less confidence in psychological
counseling, more and more Christians are pursuing it. Christian
counseling centers are springing up all over the nation offering what
many believe is the perfect combination: Christianity plus psychology.
Furthermore, Christians who are not even in the counseling ministry
look to psychologists for advice on how to live, how to relate to
others and how to meet the challenges of life.

   In their attempts to be relevant, many preachers, teachers,
counselors and writers promote a psychological perspective of life
rather than a Biblical one. The symbol of psychology overshadows the
cross of Christ, and psychological jargon contaminates the Word of God.

   Psychology is a subtle and widespread leaven in the Church. It has
permeated the entire loaf and is stealthily starving the sheep. It
promises more that it can deliver and what it does deliver is not the
food that nourishes. Yet multitudes of Christians view psychology with
respect and awe.

   Now, when we speak of psychology as leaven we are not referring to
the entire field of psychological study, but those areas that deal with
the nature of man, how he should live and how he can change. These
involve some values attitudes and behavior that are diametrically
opposed to God's word. We will see, therefore, that psychoanalysis and
psychotherapy have no compatibility with the Christian faith.

   FOUR MYTHS ABOUT PSYCHOLOGY!

   There are four major myths about psychology which have become
entrenched in the church. The first major myth is that psychotherapy
(psychological counseling along with its theories and techniques) is a
science-a means of understanding and helping humanity based on
measurable and consistent data.

   The second major myths that the best kind of counseling utilizes
both psychology and the bible. Psychologists who are also Christians
generally claim that they are more qualified to help people understand
themselves and change their behavior that are other Christians
(including pastors and elders) who are not trained in psychology.

   The third major myth is that people who are experiencing mental-
emotional behavorial problems are mentally ill. They are supposedly
psychologically sick and therefore need therapy. The common argument is
that the doctor treats the body, the minister treats the mind and the
emotions. Ministers, unless they are trained in psychoanalysis and
psychotherapy , are then supposedly unqualified to help people who are
suffering from serious problems of living.

   The fourth major myth is that psychotherapy has a high record of
success--that professional psychology counseling produces greater
results that other forms of help, such as self-help or that provided by
family, friends or pastors. Thus, psychological counseling is seen as
more effective that biblical counseling in helping some Christians.
This is one of the main reasons why so many Christians are training to
become psychotherapists.

   IS PSYCHOLOGY A SCIENCE?

   Men and women of God seek wisdom and knowledge from both the
revelation of Scripture and the physical world. Paul contends that
everyone is accountable before God because of the evidence that
creation gives of His existence:

   "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His
eternal power of Godhead; so that they are without excuse." (Ro. 1:20).

   And David sang:

   The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His
handiwork. (Psalms 19:1)

   Scientific study is a valid way of coming to an understanding of
God's work, and can be very useful in many walks of life.

   True science develops theories based on what is observed. It
examines each theory each theory with rigorous tests see if it
describes reality. The scientific method works well in observing and
recording physical data and in researching conclusions which either
confirm or nullify a theory.

   During the mid-19th century, scholars (philosophers, really) desired
to study human nature in the hop of applying the scientific method to
observe, record, and treat human behavior. They believed that if people
could be studied in a scientific manner there would be greater accuracy
in understanding present behavior, in predicting future behavior, and
in altering behavior through scientific intervention.

   Psychology and its active arm of psychotherapy have indeed adopted
the scientific posture. However, from a strictly scientific point of
view they have not been able to meet the requirements.

   In attempting to evaluate the status of psychology, the American
Psychological Association appointed Sigmund Koch to plan and direct a
study which was subsidized by the National Science Foundation. This
study involved eighty eminent scholars in assessing the facts, theories
and methods of psychology. The results were published in a seven-volume
series entitled Psychology: A Study of Science, Koch describes the
delusion in thinking of psychology as a science:

   "The hope of a psychological science became indistinguishable from
the fact of psychological science. The entire subsequent history of
psychology can be seen as a ritualistic endeavor to emulate the forms
of science in order to sustain the delusion that it already is a
science."

   Koch also says, "Throughout psychology's history as a "science," the
hard knowledge it has deposited has been uniformly negative."

   The fact that psychological statements which describe human behavior
or which report results from research can be scientific. However, when
we move from describing human behavior to explaining it, and
particularly changing it, we move from science to opinion.

   To move from description to prescription is to move from objectivity
to opinion. And opinion about human behavior, when presented as truth
or scientific fact, is mere pseudoscience. It rests upon false premises
(opinions, guesses, subjective explanation) and leads to false
conclusions.

   The dictionary defines pseudoscience as a "system of theories,
assumptions, and methods erroneously regarded as scientific."
Pseudoscience or pseudoscientism includes the use of the scientific
label to protect and promote opinions which are neither provable or
refutable.

   One aspect of psychology riddled with pseudoscience is that of
psychotherapy.

   Had psychotherapy succeeded as a science we would have some
consensus in the field regarding mental-emotional- behavioral problems
and how to treat them. Instead, the field is filled with contradictory
theories and techniques, all of which communicate confusion rather than
anything approximating scientific order.

   Psychotherapy proliferates with many conflicting explanations of man
and his behavior. Psychologist Roger Mills, in his article, "Psychology
Goes Insane, botches role as Science," says:

   "The field of psychology today is a mess. There are as many
techniques, methods and theories around as there are researchers and
therapists. I have personally seen therapists convince their clients
that all of their problems came from their mothers, the stars, their
biochemical make-up, their diet, their life-style and even the "kharma"
from their past lives."

   With over 250 separate systems of psychotherapy, each claiming
superiority over the rest, it is hard to view such diverse opinions as
scientific or even factual.

   The actual foundations of psychotherapy are not science, but rather
various philosophical world views, especially those of determinism,
secular humanism, behaviorism, existentialism and even evolutionism.
Research psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey is very blunt when he says:

   "the techniques used by Western psychiatrists are, with few
exceptions, on exactly the same scientific plane as the techniques used
by witch doctors."

   PSYCHOLOGY AS A RELIGION

   Explanations of why people behave the way they do and how they
change have concerned philosophers, theologians, cultists and
occultists throughout the centuries. These explanations form the basis
of modern psychology. Yet psychology deals with the very same areas of
concern already dealt with in Scripture.

   Since God's Word tells us how to live, all ideas about the why's of
behavior and the how's of change must be viewed as religious in nature.
Whereas the Bible claims divine revelation, psychotherapy claims
scientific substantiation.

   Nevertheless, when it comes to behavior and attitudes, and morals,
and values, we are dealing with religions--either the Christian faith
or any one of a number of other religious including secular humanism.

   Nobelist Richard Feynman, in considering the claimed scientific
status of psychotherapy, says that "psychoanalysis is not a science,"
and that it is "perhaps even more like witch doctoring." Jung himself
wrote:;

   "Religions are systems of healing for psychic illness...That is why
patients force the psychotherapist into the role of a priest, and
expect and demand of him that he shall free them from their distress.
That is why we psychotherapists must occupy ourselves with problems
which, strictly speaking, belong to the theologian."

   Note that Jung used the word religions rather than Christianity.
Jung himself had repudiated Christianity and explored other forms of
religious experience including the occult. Without throwing out the
religious nature of man, Jung dispensed with the God of the Bible and
assumed the role of priest himself. Jung viewed all religions,
including Christianity, as collective mythologies. He did not believe
they were real in essence, but that they could affect the human
personality, and might serve as solutions to human problems.

   In contrast to Jung, Sigmund Freud reduced all religious belief to
the status of illusion and called religion "the obsessional neurosis of
humanity." He viewed religion as delusionary and therefore evil and the
source of mental problems.

   Both Jung's and Freud's positions are true in respect to the world's
religions, but they are also anti-Christian. One denies Christianity
and the other mythologizes it.

   Repudiating the God of the Bible, both Freud and Jung led their
followers in the quest for alternative understandings of mankind and
alternative solutions to problems of living. They turned inward to
their own limited imaginations and viewed their subjects from their own
anti- Christian subjectivity.

   The faith once delivered to the saints was displaced by a substitute
faith disguising itself as medicine or science, but based upon
foundations which are in direct contradiction to the Bible.

   Psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, in his book "The Myth of Psychotherapy,"
says:

   "The basic ingredients of psychotherapy are religion, rhetoric, and
repression."

   He points out that while psychotherapy does not always involve
repression, it does always involve religion and rhetoric
(conversation). Szasz says very strongly that "the human relations we
now call "psychotherapy", are in fact, matters of religions--and that
we mislead them as "therapeutic" at great risk to our spiritual
well-being." Elsewhere, in referring to psychotherapy as a religion,
Szasz says:

   "It is not merely a religion that pretends to be a science, it is
actually a false religion that seeks to destroy true religion."

   Szasz also says that:

   "psychotherapy is a modern, scientific sounding name of what used to
be called the "cure of souls."

   One of his primary purposes for writing "The Myth of psychotherapy"
was:

   ...to show how, with the decline of religion and the growth of
science in the eighteenth century, the cure of (sinful) should, which
had been an integral part of the Christian religions, was recast as the
cure of (sick) minds, and became an internal part of medicine.

   The cure of souls, which one was a vital ministry of the Church, has
now in this century been displaced by a cure of minds called
"psychotherapy." Biblical counseling has wanted until recently it is
almost nonexistent.

   TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

   Although all forms of psychotherapy are religious, the fourth branch
of psychotherapy--the trans personal is more blatantly religious than
the others. Transpersonal psychologists involve faith in the
supernatural--something beyond the physical universe. However, the
spirituality they offer includes mystical experiences of both the
occult and Eastern religions.

   Through Transpersonal psychotherapies, various forms of Eastern
religion are creeping into Western life. Psychologist Daniel Goleman
quotes Chogyam as saying, "Buddhism will come to the West as
psychology." Goleman points out how Oriental religions "seem to be
making gradual headway as psychologies, not as religions." Jacob
Needleman says:

   "A large and growing number of psychotherapists are now convinced
that the Eastern religions offer an understanding of the mind far more
complete than anything yet envisaged by Western science. At the same
time, the leaders of the new religions themselves--the numerous gurus
and spiritual teachers now in the West--are reformulating and adapting
the traditional systems according to the language and atmosphere of
modern psychology."

   PSYCHOLOGY PLUS THE BIBLE

   The church has not escaped the all pervasive influence of
psychotherapy. It has unwittingly and eagerly embraced the
pseudoscientisms of psychotherapy and has intimately incorporated this
specter into the very sinew of its life. Not only does the Church
include the concepts and teachings of psychotherapists in sermons and
seminars, it steps aside and entrusts the mentally and emotionally halt
and lame to the "high alter" of psychotherapy.

   Many church leaders contend that the Church doesn't have the ability
to meet the needs of people suffering from depression, anxiety, fear,
and other problems of living. They therefore trust the paid
practitioners of the pseudoscientisms of psychotherapy more than they
trust the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit.

   Because of the confusion between science and pseudoscience, Church
leaders have levitated the psychotherapists to a position of authority
in the modern Church. Thus, any attack on the amalgamation of
psychotherapy is considered to be an attack on the Church itself.

   Although the Church has almost universally accepted and endorsed the
psychological way, there are Christians who have not. John Adams says:

   "In my opinion, advocating, allowing and practicing psychiatric and
psychoanalytical dogmas within the church is every bit as pagan and
heretical (and therefore perilous) as propagating the teachings of some
of the most bizarre cults. The only vital difference is that the cults
are less dangerous because their errors are more identifiable."

   Psychotherapy is a most subtly and devious specter haunting the
Church, because it is perceived and received as a scientific salve for
the sick soul rather than for what it truly is: a pseudoscientific
substitute system of religious belief.

   The early Church faced and ministered to mental emotional behavior
problems which were as complex as the ones that exist today. If
anything, the conditions of the early Church were more difficult than
those we currently face today. The early Christians suffered
persecution, poverty, and various afflictions which are foreign to most
20th century Christendom (especially in the West).

   The catacombs of Rome are a testimony to the extent of the problems
faced by the early Church.

   If we suffer at all, it is from affluence and ease, which have
propelled us toward a greater fixation on self than would likely have
occurred in less affluent times. However, the cure for the sins of self
preoccupation existed in the early Church and is just as available
today. In fact, biblical cures used by the early Church are just as
potent if used today.

   The Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit are applicable to
all problems of living and therefore do not need to be superseded by
talk therapies and talk therapists.

   Has the modern Church given up its call and obligation to minister
to suffering individuals? If so, it is because Christians believe the
myth that psychological counseling is a science when, in fact, it is
another religion and another gospel.

   The conflict between the psychological way of counseling and the
biblical way is not between true science and true religion. The
conflict is strictly religious--it's a conflict between many religions
grouped under the name of psychotherapy (psychological counseling) and
the one true religion of the Bible.

   The worst primrose promises of Christian psychology is that the
Bible plus psychotherapy can provide better help than just the Bible
alone. While this idea has been promulgated and promoted by many
Christian psychotherapists, there is no research evidence to support
it. No one has ever shown that the Bible needs psychological
augmentation to be more effective in dealing with life's problems.

   No one has proven that a Christianized cure of minds (psycho-
therapy)is any more beneficial than the original unadulterated simple
cure of souls (biblical counseling).

   IS THERE A CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY?

   The Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) is a
group of psychologists and psychological counselors who are professing
Christians. At one of their meetings, the following was stated:

   "We often are asked of we are "Christian Psychologists" and find it
difficult to answer since we don't know what the question implies. We
are Christians who are psychologists but at the present time there is
no acceptable Christian psychology that is markedly different from non
Christian psychology. It is difficult to imply that we function in a
manner that is fundamentally distinct from our non-christian
colleagues..as yet there is not an acceptable theory, mode of research
or treatment methodology that is distinctly Christian."

   In spite of the hodge-podge of unscientific opinions and
contradictions, "Christian psychologists" proclaim, "All truth us God's
truth." They use this statement to support their use of psychology, but
they are not clear about what God's truth is. Is God's truth Freudian
pronouncements of obsessive neurosis? Or is it Jung's structure of
archetypes? Or is God's truth the behaviorism of B.F. Skinner? Or is
God's truth "I'm O.K. your O.K.?"

   Psychology, like all other religions, includes elements of truth.
Even Satan's temptation of Eve included both truth and lie. The
enticement of the "All truth is God's truth" fallacy is that there is
one similarity between biblical teachings and psychological ideas.
However, similarities do not make psychology compatible with
Christianity any more than the similarities between Christianity and
other religious systems of belief. Even the sacred writings of the
Hindu, Buddhist and Moslem religions contain statements about attitudes
and behavior which may be similar to some Bible verses.

   The similarities between psychology and Christianity merely indicate
that the systems of psychological counseling are indeed religious.
Christians should no more turn to psychologists than to leaders of non-
Christian religions to find wisdom and help with problems of living.

   Since there exists no standardized Christian psychology, each so-
called Christian psychologist decides for himself which of the many
psychological opinions and methods constitute his ideas of "God's
truth." In so doing, the subjective observations and biased opinions of
mere mortals are placed in the same level as the inspired Word of God.

   The Bible contains the only pure truth of God. All else is distorted
by the limitations of human perception. Whatever else one can discover
about God's creation is only partial knowledge and partial
understanding. It can not in any way be equal to God's truth.

   To even hint that the often conflicting theories of such unredeemed
men as Freud, Jung, Rogers, etc. are God's truth is to undermine the
very Word of God. The revealed Word of God does not need the support or
help of psychological pronouncements. The Word alone stands as the
truth of God. That psychologists who call themselves Christian would
even use such a phrase to justify their use of psychology indicates the
direction of their faith.

   The statement, "all truth is God's truth" is discussed in the
popular "Christian" publication, Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology. The
book claims that its contributors are "among the finest evangelical
scholars in the field." In his review of this book, Dr. Ed Payne,
Associate Professor of Medicine at Medical College of Georgia, says,
"Almost certainly the message of this book and its authors is that the
Bible and psychological literature stand on the same authoritive level."

   Payne also states:

   "Many pastors and laymen may be deceived by the Christian label of
this book. Such psychology presented by Christians is a plague on the
modern church, distorting the Christian's relationship with God,
retarding his sanctifications, and severely weakening the church.

   No other area of knowledge seems to have such a stronghold on the
church. This book strengthens that hold both individually and
corporately."

   Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology merely reflects what the church has
come to accept. Unscientific, unsubstantiated, unproven psychological
opinions of men have now been leavened into the church through the
semantic sorcery of "All truth is God's truth." The equating of
psychology and theology reveals that the leaven has now come to full
loaf.

   THE GOSPEL OF SELF

   One of the most popular themes in psychology is that of self-
fulfillment. Although this is an extremely popular theme, it is a theme
of recent origin having arisen only within the past forty (40) years
outside of the church, in the past twenty (20) years within the church
itself.

   As society moved from self-denial to self-fulfillment, a new
vocabulary emerged which revealed a new inner attitude and different
view of life. The new vocabulary became the very fabric of a new
psychology known as humanistic psychology. Its major focus is self-
actualization and its clarion call is self-fulfillment. And self-
fulfillment, with all its accompanying self-hyphenated and self-fixated
variations such as self-love, self-acceptance, self-esteem and self-
worth, has become the new promised land. Then as the Church became
psychologic, the emphasis shifted from God to self.

   Christian books began to reflect what was accepted in society. Some
examples are Love Yourself, The Art of Learning to Love Yourself,
Loving Ourselves, Celebrate Yourself, You're Someone Special, Self
Esteem: You're Better than You Think, and probably best known, Robert
Schuller's Self-Esteem: The New Reformation. Books and examples of a
psychological self-stroking mentality are numerous.

   According to the psychologizers of Christianity the great detriment
to a fulfilling life is low self-esteem. In their quest to bring their
followers to the realization of their full potential (self-
actualization) they substitute one form of self-centerdness (high self-
esteem)for another form of self-centeredness (low self-esteem). In
either case, self is the focal point of the cure as well as the problem.

   Low self-esteem is popular because it's much more palatable to
accept the idea of having "low self-esteem" than to confess evil,
ungodly, self-centered thoughts and then repent through believing what
God hs said in His Word.

   While low self-esteem call for psychological treatment to raise
self- esteem, sinful thinking calls for confession, repentance,
restoration and walking by faith in a love relationship with God
provided by the cross of Christ.

   We could suggest that one look to Scripture to discover one's
greatest need and to find an antidote to life's problems, rather than
attempt to scripturalize some psychological fad. Mankind's greatest
need is for Jesus Christ, not self-esteem.

   John Piper says sadly, "Today the first and greatest commandment is
"Thou shalt love thyself." He rightly complains that today the ultimate
sin is no longer the failure to honor God and thank Him but the failure
to esteem oneself."

   Unless Scripture is molded to conform to the teachings that promote
self, the bible clearly teaches one to be Christ centered and other
oriented. Loving God above all else and with one's entire being and
loving neighbor as much as one ALREADY (emphasis in the original) loves
one's self, are the primary injunctions of the Bible. The admonition to
love oneself or to esteem oneself is missing.

   Rather than self-love being taught as a virtue in scripture, it is
placed among the diabolical works of the flesh. Paul addresses the
issue of self-love from just the opposite perspective of present-day
promoters both inside and outside the church:

   "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant,
revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving,
irreconcilable, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; holding to a
form of Godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such
men as these." (II TIm. 3:1-15 NAS).

   Numerous are the examples of Christian psychologists who are
ordained ministers. They begin with a desire to Christianize psychology
and end up psychologizing Christianity. Dr. Richard Dobbins, founder
and director of Emerge Ministeries, is an example of the many ministers
who have turned to psychology.

   In his teaching film The Believer and His Elf-Concept, Dobbins leads
the viewers through a series of steps to end up chanting, "I am a
loveable person. I am a valuable person. I am a forgivable person." The
confusion is between the biblical fact that God loves, values and
forgives us and the humanistic psychological lie that we are
intrinsically lovable, valuable and forgivable. If we have one iota of
loveliness, or one iota of value, or one iota of forgivability, then it
makes no sense that Christ should have to die for us.

   God has chosen to set his love upon us because of His essence, not
because of ours, even after we are believers. His love, His choice to
place value upon us, and His choice to forgive us are by grace alone.
It is fully undeserved. It is not because of who we are or by our own
righteousness.

   The paradoxal, profound and powerful truth of Scripture is that
though we are not intrinsically lovable, valuable, or forgivable, God
loves us, values and forgives us. That is the pure theology of
Scripture and the overpowering message of Christ's death and
resurrection. The biblical truth is better presented as "I am not a
loveable person. I am not a valuable person. I am not a forgivable
person. But Christ died for me!

   The alternative to self-love is not self-hate, but rather love in a
relationship with God and others. The alternative to self-esteem is not
self-degradation, but rather an understanding of the greatness of God
dwelling in a weak vessel of flesh. The alternative to self-fulfillment
is not a life of emptiness. It is God's invitation to be so completely
involved with His will and His purposes that fulfillment comes through
relationship with Him rather than with self.

   The awesome realization that the God and Creator of the universe has
chosen to set His love upon us should engender love and esteem for God
rather than self. The amazing truth that He has called us into a
relationship with Him to do His will far surpasses the puny dreams of
self-fulfillment.

   The psychologizers in the Church are not providing spiritual
substance to those they try to make comfortable in their self-
centeredness. They are robbing them of the riches of Christ offered to
all who will humble themselves before Him.

   Humility is not the language of psychology to any great degree.
Dobbins even goes so far as to encourage individuals to express anger
at God. He says, "If you are angry with God, tell Him you are angry
with Him. Go ahead and tell Him. He's big enough to take it." Where in
Scripture do we have an example that it's ok to be angry with God?
Jonah was angry to his own detriment, but no example can be found where
anger at God is condoned, let alone encouraged.

   King Solomon warns, "Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine
heart be hasty to utter any thing before God."

   (Ecclesiastes 5:2)

   Whenever psychology is intermingled with Scripture it dilutes the
Word and deludes the Church. Anger is more complex than the dangerous
simplicity that Dobbins portrays. His biblical basis for expressing
anger is weak at best and misleading at least. Dobbins' articles and
his book are based upon his own personal, unproven psychological
opinions. Unfortunately, his opinions and conclusions do not square
with reality. Apparently Dobbins would like us to believe what he says
because he says so. however, to subscribe to the defunct hydraulic
ventilationist theory and to prescribe tackling dummies, pounding
mattresses, punching a bag, etc. (as he does in his writings), and to
recommend getting angry with God without research or biblical proof is
scientifically inexcusable and biblically unreliable.

   THE ROAD MORE TRAVELED

   Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck has become an extremely popular speaker
and writer among Christians. His books "People of the LIE" and "The
Road Less Traveled" have appeared on a leading evangelical magazine's
book of the Year list. The list is a result of votes cast by a group of
evangelical writers, leaders, and theologians selected by the magazine.

   A New York Times book reviewer reveals, "The book's main audience is
in the vast Bible Belt." The reviewer describes "The Road Less
Traveled" as "an ambitious attempt to wed Christian theology to the
20th century discoveries of Freud and Jung."

   In an interview which appeared in Christianity Today, Peck was asked
"what he meant when he called Christ "Savior." The reviewer writes,
Peck likes Jesus the Savior as a fairy godmother (a term I'm sure he
does not use flippantly) and as exemplar, or one who shows us how to
live and die. But he does not like the idea of Jesus the Atoner.

   Peck's understanding of the nature of God and the nature of man
comes from a blend of Jungian psychology and Eastern mysticism rather
than the Bible. He says of God and man:

   "God wants us to become Himself (or Herself or Its self). We are
growing toward godhood. God is the goal of evolution. It is God who is
the source of the evolutionary force and God who is the destination.
This is what we mean when we say that He is the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end."

   Peck continues:

   "It is one thing to believe in a nice old God who will take good
care of us from a lofty position of power which we ourselves could
never attain. It is quite another to believe in a God who has it in
mind for us precisely that we should attain His position, His power,
His wisdom, His identity."

   The only words that approach this description are those of Lucifer
in Isaiah 14:13-14. And indeed Peck claims to godhood for those who
will take the responsibility for attaining it:

   "Nonetheless, as soon as we believe it is possible for man to become
god, we can really never rest for long, never say, 'OK, my job is
finished, my work is done.' We must constantly push ourselves to
greater and greater wisdom, greater and greater effectiveness. By this
belief we will h ave trapped ourselves, at least until death, on an
effortful treadmill of self-improvement and spiritual growth. God's
responsibility must be our own."

   Peck goes further into the morass of Eastern mysticism and Jungian
occultism when he says:

   "To put it plainly, our unconscious is God. God within us. We were
part of God all the time. God has been with us all along, is now, and
always will be."

   In contrast to Peck, the Bible reveals that the only way a person
comes into a relationship with God is through faith in Jesus Christ as
the only Way to the Father. Until a person is born of the Spirit he
resides in the kingdom of darkness and is under the dominion of Satan:

   "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you
formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in
the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the
lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind
and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. but God, being
rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with
Christ (by grace you have been saved)." (Ephesians 2:1-5 NAS).

   No matter how personable and well meaning a Christian therapist (or
a therapist who claims to be a christian) may be, he has been heavily
influenced by the ungodly psychological perspective. Psychology thus
becomes the means for both interpreting Scripture and applying it to
daily living. When one reads the Bible from the psychological
perspective of Freud, Jung, Adler, Maslow, Rogers, et al, he tends to
conform his understanding of the Bible to those theories and methods.
Rather than looking at life through the lens of the Bible, he looks at
the Bible through the lens of psychology.

   Amalgamaters add the wisdom of men to fill in what they think is
missing from the Bible. They take the age-old sin problem rooted in
self-centeredness, give it a new name, such as "mid-life crises," or
some other idea, and offer solutions from the leavened loaf. They
integrate psychological ideas with a Bible verse or story here and
there to come up with what they believe to be effective solutions to
problems they mistakenly think are beyond the reach of scripture.

   PASTORS UNDERMINED

   Psychological counselors undermine the counseling of pastors and
have developed a formula for referral:

   (1) Anyone who is not psychologically trained is not qualified to
counsel those people with the really serious problems of living.

   (2) Refer them to professional trained therapists. This is one
predictable and pathetic pattern of the psychological seduction of
Christianity.

   Pastors have been intimidated by the warnings from psychologists.
They have become fearful of doing the very thing God has called them to
do: minister to the spiritual needs of the people through godly counsel
both in and out of the pulpit. Some of the intimidation has come from
psychologically trained pastors.

   A spokesman for the American Association of Pastoral Counselors, a
psychotheraputically trained group of pastors says:

   "Our concern is that there are a lot of ministers who aren't trained
to handle their parishioners' psychotherapy."

   And of course, if the pastors are not trained they are not
qualified. Therefore, the predictable benediction to the litany is:
"refer to a professional."

   Within the confines of the psychotherapists office, the pastoral
message confronting sin in the individual's life is subverted. There
has been a subtle change in the meanings of words and phrases. The word
sin has been substituted with less convicting words such as
shortcoming, mistake, reaction to past hurt. Words such as healed and
whole replace sanctified and holy. In fact, the word holy has been
redefined to mean some kind of psychological wholeness. From the
psychologizers what is literal in Scripture often becomes metaphorical,
and what is metaphorical becomes literal.

   But these redefinitions are not received only by those who pay the
price to receive them from psychotherapists: they have become
standarized within the Christian community at large through the
influence of psychotherapy in books, magazines, and in the Christian
media.

   Is it any wonder that the few godly pastors that are left today are
at their wits end in attempting to counsel from Scripture those under
their care?

   Ultimately those who trust in psychotherapy rather than in Scripture
will suffer because they are not brought face to face with their sin
nature. What psychological system justifies a person before God and
gives him peace with God? What psychological system gives the kind of
faith in which a person can live by all of God's promises? What
psychological system fulfills its promises the way God fulfills His?
What psychological system gives the hope of which Paul speaks? What
psychological system enables a person to exalt in the midst of
tribulation? What psychological system increases the kind of
perseverance that builds character, gives hope, and produces divine
love--love that extends to one's enemies?

   Throughout the centuries there have been individuals who have
suffered from extremely difficult problems of living who have sought
God, and they have found Him to be true and faithful. They looked into
the Word of God for wisdom and guidance for living with and overcoming
the problems of life. The lives of those saints far outshine the lives
of such pitiful souls as those who have followed the siren song of
psychotherapy.

   God warned Israel not to trust in man, but to trust in God alone:

   "This sayeth the Lord: 'Cursed be the man that trustheth in man, and
maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.'"
Jeremiah 17:7.

   THE MYTH OF MENTAL ILLNESS

   The terms mental disease, mental illness and mental disorders are
popular catch-alls for kinds of problems of living, most which have
little or nothing to do with disease. As soon as a person's behavior is
labeled "illness", treatment and therapy become the solutions. If, on
the other hand, we consider a person to be responsible for his
behavior, we should deal with him in the areas of education, faith, and
choice. If we label him "mentally ill" we rob him of the human dignity
of personal responsibility and the divine relationship by which
problems may be met.

   Because the term mental illness throws attitudes and behavior into
the medical realm, it is important to examine its accuracy. In
discussing the concept of mental illness or mental disease, research
psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey says:

   "The term itself is nonsensical, a semantic mistake. The two words
cannot go together...you can no more have a mental "disease" than you
can have a purple idea or a wise space.

   The word mental means "mind" and the mind is not the same as the
brain. Also, the mind is really more than just a function or activity
of the brain. Brain researcher and author Barbara Brown insists that
the mind goes beyond the brain. She says:

   "The scientific consensus that mind is only mechanical brain is dead
wrong...the research data of the sciences themselves point much more
strongly toward the existence of a mind-more than brain than they do
toward the mere mechanical brain action."

   God created the human mind to know Him and to choose to love, trust
and obey Him. In the very creative act, God planned for mankind to rule
His earthly creation and to serve as His representatives on earth.
Because the mind goes beyond the physical realm, it goes beyond the
reaches of science and cannot be medically sick.

   Since the mind is not a physical organ, it cannot have disease.
While one can have a diseased brain, one cannot have a diseased mind,
although he may have a sinful or unredeemed mind. Torrey aptly says:

   "The mind cannot really become diseased anymore than intellect can
become abscessed. Furthermore, the idea that mental "diseases" are
actually brain diseases creates a strange category of "diseases" which
are, by definition, without known cause. Body and behavior become
intertwined in this confusion until they are no longer distinguishable.
It is necessary to return to first principles: a disease is something
you have, behavior is something you do."

   One can understand what a diseased body is, but what is a disease
mind? It is obvious that one cannot have a diseased emotion or a
diseased behavior. Then why a diseased mind? Never-the-less, therapists
continually refer to mental emotional behavior problems as diseases.

   Thomas Szasz criticizes what he calls the "psychiatric imposter" who
"supports a common, culturally shared desire to equate and confuse
brain and mind, nerves and nervousness." Not only are brain and mind
not equal; nerves and nervousness are not equal either. One might
nervously await the arrival of a friend who is late for an appointment,
but the nerves are busy performing other tasks. Szasz further states:

   "It is customary to define psychiatry as a medical specialty
concerned with the study, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
This is a worthless and misleading definition. Mental illness is a
myth...the notion of a person "having a mental illness" is
scientifically crippling. It provides professional assent to the
popular rationalization...namely, that problems in living experienced
and expressed in terms of so called psychiatric symptoms are basically
similar to bodily diseases."

   Although a medical problem or brain disease may bring on mental
emotional behavior symptoms, the person does not and cannot be
rationally classified as "mentally ill." He is medically ill, but not
mentally ill. The words psychological and biological are not
synonymous. In the same way, mental and medical are not synonymous. One
refers to the mind, the other to the body.

   Psychological counseling does not deal with the physical brain.
Instead it deals with aspects of thinking, feeling and behaving.
Therefore, the psychotherapist is not in the business of healing
diseases, but of teaching new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving.
He is actually a teacher, not a doctor.

   Many have dishonestly used the term mental illness to describe a
whole host of problems of thinking and behaving which should be labeled
as "problems of living." Though the term mental illness is a misnomer
and a mismatch of words, it has become firmly ingrained in the public
vocabulary and is glibly pronounced on all sorts of occasions by both
lay and professional persons. Jonas Robitscher says:

   "Our culture is permeated with psychiatric thought. Psychiatry which
had its beginnings in the care of the sick, has expanded its net to
include everyone, and it exercises its authority over this total
population by methods that range from enforced therapy and coerced
control to the advancement of ideas and the promulgation of values."

   The very term "mental illness" has become a blight on society. If we
really believe that a person with a mental emotional behavioral problem
is sick, then we have admitted that he no longer responsible for his
behavior. And, if he is not responsible for his behavior, who is?

   The psychoanalytic and behaviorist approaches preach that man's
behavior is fixed by forces outside his control. In the psychoanalytic
approach man is controlled by inter psychic forces; in the
behavioristic approach man is controlled by outer environmental forces.
If man's behavior is determined by internal or external uncontrollable
forces, it follows that he is not responsible for his behavior. Thus
criminals are allowed to plea bargain on the basis of "temporary
insanity, " "diminished capacity, " and "incompetent to stand trial."
The full impact of the evils unleashed upon society by the
psychoanalytical professionals it yet to be realized.

   Meanwhile, the mystique surrounding the term mental illness has
frightened away people who could be of great help to those suffering
from problems of living. Many people who want to help individuals with
problems of living, feel "unqualified" to help a person labeled
"mentally ill." The confusion inherent within this strange
juxtaposition of terms had led to errors which have often been more
harmful than helpful to those thus labeled.

   Case histories abound of government intrusion into personal lives,
forced incarceration in mental institutions, deprivation of personal
rights, and loss of livelihoods because of the stigma attached to the
term "mental illness." Nevertheless, the profession continues to
proliferate the false concept of mental illness, to align it with
medicine, and consign it to science and the public follows. Worse yet
the Church follows.

   IS PSYCHOTHERAPY SUCCESSFUL?

   Because of the great faith in what is believed to be science and the
ever expanding numbers of people labeled "mentally ill, " psychotherapy
continues to flourish with promises for change, cure, and happiness.
Assurances are undergirded by testimonies and confidence in
psychological models and methods. Yet research tells us something
different about the effectiveness and the limitations of psychotherapy.

   The best-known early research on the success and failure rates of
psychotherapy was reported in 1952 by Hans J. Eysenck, an eminent
English scholar. Eysenck compared groups of patients treated by
psychotherapy with persons given little or no treatment at all. He
found that a greater percentage of patients who did not undergo
psychotherapy demonstrated greater improvement over those who did
undergo therapy. After examining over 8, 000 cases, Eysenck concluded
that:

   "...roughly two-thirds of a group of neurotic patients will recover
or improve to a marked extent within about two years of the onset of
their illness, whether they are treated by means of psychotherapy or
not."

   The American Psychiatric Association indicates that a definitive
answer to the question, 'is psychotherapy effective?" may be
unattainable. Their research book, Psychotherapy Research:
Methodological and Efficacy Issues, concludes by stating:

   "...unequivocal conclusions about casual connections between
treatment and outcome may never be possible in psychotherapy research."

   In its view of this book, the Brain/Mind Bulletin says, "Research
often fails to demonstrate an unequivocal advantage from
psychotherapy." The following is an interesting example from the book:

   "...an experiment at the All-India Institute of Mental Health in
Bangalore found that Western trained psychiatrists and native healers
had a comparable recovery rate. The most notable difference was that
the so called "witch doctors" released their patients sooner."

   If the American Psychopathological Association and the American
Psychiatric Association (as well as other independent study groups)
give mixed reports about the efficacy of psychotherapy, why do
Christian leaders promote the promises of psychology. And if there is
so little sound research, why are Christians eager to substitute
theories and therapists for Scripture and the work of the Holy Spirit?
Especially in view of the obvious religious nature of psychotherapy?

   CONCLUSION

   The church exists in a hostile world. If its members do not reject
the philosophies of the world they will reflect them in their lives. If
we are friends with the world (its religions, philosophies,
psychological system and practices)then we must ask ourselves about
Jesus' word:

   "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but
because you are not of the world, therefore the world hate you." Jn.
15:18-19

   The Church has been called to reflect Jesus, n to the world. Even
though we are in the world, we are not of the world. Thus, every
ministry of the Body of Christ must be biblical and must not attempt to
incorporate worldly philosophies, theories, or techniques.

   Jesus is "the way, the truth and the life," not Freud, Jung, Adler,
Rogers, Maslow, Ellis or any other man. A church that does not seek the
Lord as its source but relies on the philosophical ideas and techniques
of men will become as secular as the world. Such a church may indeed
have a form of godliness but is has denies the power of God.

   As the Body of Christ we need to pray for cleansing. We need to pray
for pruning. We need to seek His face with diligence. We need to put
off the old )all that is of this world, the flesh and the devil) and
put on the new (all that is in Jesus Christ).

   Let us therefore drink from the springs of living water that flow
from Jesus rather than the broken cisterns of psychological systems.

   1. Sigmund Koch, "The Image of Man in Encounter Groups," The
American Scholar, AUtumn 1973. p. 636

   2. Sigmund Koch, "Psychology Cannot be a Coherent Science,"
Psychology Today, September 1969, p. 66

   3. Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary (Springfield: G. & C. Merriam
Cp., 1974)

   4. Roger Mills, "Psychology Goes Insane, Botches Role as Science, "
The National Educator, July 1980 p. 14

   5. E. Fuller Torrey, "The Mind Game" (New York: Emerson Hall Pub.,
Inc. 1972) p. 8

   6. Richard Feynman et al., The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 1.
(Reading Addison-Wesley, 1963) pp. 3-8.

   7. Carl G. Jung, Modern Man in Search of A Soul, (New York: Harcourt
Brace, 1933) pp. 240, 241.

   8. Sigmund Freud, The Future of an illusion, Trans, and ed. by James
Strachey (New York: W.W. Norton Co., 1961) p. 43

   9. Thomas Szasz, The Myth of Psychotherapy, (Garden City:
Anchor/Doubleday, 1978), p. 25.

   10. Martin and Deidre Bobgan, The Psycholgical Way/The Spiritual Way
(Minneapolis:Bethany House Publishers 1979) Harcover

   11. Thomas Szasz, op.cit. p. 28

   12. ibid., p. 26

   13. ibid., p.xxiv.

   14. Daniel Goleman, "An Eastern Toe in the Stream of Consciousness,
" Psychology Today, Jan. 1981, pg. 84

   15. Jacob Needleman, "Psychiatry and the Sacred," Consciousness:
Brian, States of Awareness, and Mysticism, Daniel Goleman and Richard
Davidson, eds. (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1979), pp. 209-210

   16. P. Sutherland and P. Poelstra, "Aspects of Integration," Paper
presented at the meeting of the Western Association of Christians for
Psychological Studies, Santa Barbara, CA., June 1976).

   17. Jay E. Adams, "More Than Redemption (Grand Rapids, Baker Book
House, 1979), pp. xi,xii.

   18. David G. Benner, ed., "Baker Encyclopedia of Psychology" (Baker
Book House, 1985).

   19. Ed Payne, "Books," Presbyterian Journal, Dec. 24, 1986.

   20. ibid., p. 24

   21. John Piper, "Is Self-love biblical?," Christianity Today, August
12, 1977, p.6

   22. Richard Dobbins, "The Believer and His Self-Concept, film,
brochure, p.6

   23. Dobbins, "Anger: Master or Servant," Pentecostal Evangel, July
13, 1986. p.9

   24. Anne Poiphe, "Gun Fight at the I'm OK Coral," New York Times
Book Review, Jan. 19, 1986, p. 22

   25. Ben Patterson, "Is God a Psychotherapist?," Christianity Today,
March 1, 1985, p. 22

   26. M. Scott Peck, "The Road Less Traveled," (New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1983), pp. 260-270.

   27. ibid., p.270.

   28. ibid., pp. 270-271.

   29. ibid., p.281.

   30. Kenneth Woodward and Janet Huck, "Next, Clerical Malpractice, "
Newsweek, May 20, 1985, p.90

   31. E. Fuller Torrey, "The Death of Psychiatry," (Radnor: Chilton
Book Co., 1974), p.36.

   32. Barbara Brown, "Supermind," (New York: Harper & Row Publishers,
1980) p. 6

   33. E. Fuller Torrey, op.cit., p. 40

   34. Thomas Szasz, "The Myth of Psychotherapy," (Garden City:
Doubleday, 1978), p.7

   35. Thomas Szasz, "The Myth of Mental Illness," (New York: Haprer &
Row, 1974), p. 262

   36. Jonas Robitscher, "The Powers of Psychiatry," (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Company 1980), pg.9

   37. Hans J. Eysenck, "psychotherapy, Behavior Therapy, and the
Outcome Problem, " BMA Audio Cassette/T-308 (New York: Guilford
Publications, 1979).

   38. American Psychiatric Association Commission on Psychptherapies,
Psychotherapy Research: Methodological and Efficacy Issues, " 1982,
p.228

   39. "Ambiguity Pervades Research on Effectiveness of Psychotherapy,
" BrainMind Bulletin, Oct. 4, 1982, p.2
