Editors Note: We were close friends with the late W. Philip Keller, author of A Shephard Looks at Psalm 23. Keller once told us that our books will not be read to the end because of the subjects and the level at which we write. Keller’s books were devotionals and his book on Psalm 23 is still a best seller today. The following article is the briefest we have sent to our readers and is at the end of our latest book, Against Psychotherapy / For the Bible. By Keller’s estimation, very few readers have gone that far into the book. However, the importance of this “Conclusion” is that, if understood, it will be substantial enough to help a godly discerning believer to be Against Psychotherapy/For the Bible. It is unfortunate but most of the churches in America refer their congregants to psychotherapy or are not opposed to doing so and thus, are for psychotherapy and, by their very practice of doing so, against the Bible for the issues of life that churches send to the psychotherapist.
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Psychotherapy will only come to an end when pastors and churches clearly recognize the gigantic difference between the Holy Word of God working righteousness in believers through the Holy Spirit in contrast to psychotherapy, which depends upon people sinning against one another with their words as they are trying to solve problems according to the flesh. The Bible and psychotherapy both depend upon words, but one leads to life eternal while the other invites and activates sinful speaking. The Bible nurtures the new life in Christ while psychotherapy and the biblical counseling psychological format empower the flesh, the old sinful nature.
God’s Word is filled with wisdom, power, and life, and God uses His Word to enable believers to fulfill the high calling of evangelizing, preaching, teaching, and living the doctrines of the cross and the new life in Christ. The Bible is essential for enabling believers to walk according to the spirit rather than the flesh and to care for one another in the Body of Christ. In contrast, psychotherapy comprises many varied opinions of fallen, fallible humans who cannot see into the human heart and must depend upon guesses and surmises as they ask questions that inevitably elicit sinful speaking. Yet so much of this remains hidden in plain sight.
It is absolutely necessary to recognize and understand the surreptitious, spiritual, surrogate, and seductive siren song of psychotherapy and its conversational copycat, biblical counseling. To be faithful to the Lord and His Word, one must believe in the sufficiency of Scripture for the issues of life and recognize that psychotherapy is psychoheresy. One must further recognize how biblical counseling is also faulted because of using the problem-centered conversational format of psychotherapy, which engenders self-justification, self-bias, self-centeredness, and much sinful speaking about others.
We pray that Christians will grasp the truth that God has given them all they need to live their new life in Christ, filled with the fruit of the Spirit and living in a manner that is pleasing to God. We pray that Christians everywhere will love, trust, and obey God to the extent that they will not be looking to the psychological ways of the world that will overtly or covertly undermine their faith. And we pray that pastors will heed psychotherapy’s serious faults, which impede rather than inspire spiritual growth. We further pray that pastors will take confidence in God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, preach accordingly, and refrain from sending believers to psychotherapists. Finally, we pray that all pastors and all believers will be For the Bible and, therefore, Against Psychotherapy for Christians.