Psychology and Counseling

Why can't God's truth be found in the area of psychology and counseling as it is in science? This latter discipline deals with the things of the world over which mankind has a legitimate authority (Gen. 1:28; Psa. 8:4-8). Psychology purports to deal with the things of the heart and mind, and with understanding and correcting behavior.

The Bible's truth concerning the heart, mind and misbehavior of humankind is that sin is at the root of the thoughts and behavior of all unregenerate men. Man cannot help sinning until he is redeemed through Christ. No counselor, apart from his application of the Word, can remedy the problems brought by sin.

Christ is the only way out of this trap of sinful behavior, as Paul knew (Rom. 7:24-25). Psychology has many other "scientific" ways which it offers but they are false, as [Jay] Adams points out, because their assumptions as to causality are wrong. Adams' almost Cartesian organic-moral dualism, much denigrated in psychology today, is correct.

God's common grace does provide the (physical) blessings of sunshine and rain for the unsaved as well as the saved. But freedom from sin and peace of heart and mind are reserved to those who have received God's saving grace. So many seeking these inner benefits come to counselors.

Shall a Christian counselor graft the techniques and "insights" of psychology onto the adequate provisions of the Word? To do so is to run the risk of propping up sinners as they limp down the road to destruction under a load of guilt, lacking peace of heart. The counselor is better advised by Adams to turn them and direct them down the right road.

O. H. Mowrer, a psychologist who denies Christ's substitutionary atonement, has called God's grace "cheap grace," not accepting the fact that we were bought with a price. The truth is, much of modern psychology offers "cheap grace" and Christian counselors are well advised to steer clear of those methods (Jer. 6: 13-20).


Excerpt from a letter originally published in The Presbyterian Journal, January 29, 1975