To say that the Bible is sufficient for our lives means that everything we need for life, and for everything we do in life, the Bible tells us what is essential (2 Pet 1:3, 2 Tim 3:16). The Bible does not tell us how to fix leaky faucets or perform brain surgery, who to marry or which house to buy, but it does tell us how to conduct those tasks and decisions, how to pursue our God-given aptitudes, respond to our own faults and external setbacks, and how to balance life’s competing priorities. With this guidance, we understand that following God’s will is what matters, and whether we become brain surgeons or plumbers is an outflowing of Biblical principles of work ethic, service to others, etc. (Col 3:23) As long as we keep God’s word our center, we will thrive optimally regardless of who we choose to marry or which house we buy (though Biblical wisdom will guide those steps) or how life afflicts those decisions, as someone like Corrie Ten Boom or the Apostle Paul would attest (Phil 4:11-12).
In the practice of Biblical counseling, scripture gives us the foundation of truth with which to counsel, and to answer every question pertaining to counseling (2 Tim 4:2). Part of that is the doctrine of common grace, that unchristian people can convey truth about creation (Matt 5:45, John 1:9, Psalms 145:9, 15-16). However, the findings of secular psychology are best described as Descriptive data, they do not contain prescriptive truth. The Bible holds the truth we need to see this data in the appropriate light. Through Pavlov’s dogs we can understand the role of conditioning in the human experience, however to say that this means our consciousness is merely random chemical processes or other natural causes is erroneous. We may learn a great deal from studies that inform us about parenting techniques, but to believe this means humans are born basically good and their environment is to blame for their faultiness would be to take the step too far in prescribing truth from that data. We get that truth from the Bible, and psychology can only confirm what we already know, perhaps sometimes in a more detailed way (e.g. describing symptoms of PTSD), or go wrong with secular theories.
Mark McMinn is an integration counselor who advocates psychology, theology, and spirituality as three legs of a tripod that form the basis for his counseling (1). He describes a theology of sin shaping his compassion for and understanding of broken people, while psychology is more useful for treating symptoms of their disease to gain relief. He treats them as equally important in his own evaluation of what’s important, but also says he doesn’t try to change anyone’s beliefs (2), despite repentance being one of the key themes of the Bible (John 3:3). While in theory the desire to relieve people of suffering is admirable, in practice he has let his treatment of symptoms undermine his treatment of people’s sin disease, by deviating from the desire to let scripture dictate what is important and what isn’t, follow its teaching faithfully, and rest in what consequences that brings.
(1) https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1268&context=gscp_fac
(2) https://www.aifc.com.au/mark-mcminn-talks-about-integrating-christianity-psychotherapy/
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