Does God Need a Psychiatrist?
By John MacArthur
Over the past decade a host of evangelical psychological clinics have sprung up. Though almost all of them claim to offer biblical counsel, most merely dispense secular psychology disguised in spiritual terminology. Moreover, they are removing the counseling ministry from its proper arena in the church body and conditioning Christians to think of themselves as incompetent to counsel. Many pastors, feeling inadequate and perhaps afraid of possible malpractice litigation, are perfectly willing to let “professionals” take over what used to be seen as a vital pastoral responsibility. Too many have bought the lie that a crucial realm of wisdom lies outside Scripture and one’s relationship to Jesus Christ, and that some idea or technique from that extrabiblical realm holds the real key to helping people with their deep problems.
True psychology (“the study of the soul”) can be done only by Christians, since only Christians have the resources for the understanding and the transformation of the soul. Since the secular discipline of psychology is based on godless assumptions and evolutionary foundations, it is capable of dealing with people only superficially and only on the temporal level.
Scripture is the manual for all “soul work” and is so comprehensive in the diagnosis and treatment of every spiritual matter that, energized by the Holy Spirit in the believer, it leads to making one like Jesus Christ. This is the process of biblical sanctification.
“Christian psychology” as the term is used today is an oxymoron. The word psychology no longer speaks of studying the soul; instead it describes a diverse menagerie of therapies and theories that are fundamentally humanistic. The presuppositions and most of the doctrine of psychology cannot be successfully integrated with Christian truth. Moreover, the infusion of psychology into the teaching of the church has blurred the line between behavior modification and sanctification.
The path to wholeness is the path of spiritual sanctification. Would we foolishly turn our backs on the Wonderful Counselor, the spring of living water, for the sensual wisdom of earth and the stagnant water of behaviorism?
There may be no more serious threat to the life of the church today than the stampede to embrace the doctrines of secular psychology. They are a mass of human ideas that Satan has placed in the church as if they were powerful, life-changing truths from God. Most psychologists epitomize neo-Gnosticism, claiming to have secret knowledge for solving people’s problems.
The result is that pastors, biblical scholars, teachers of Scripture, and caring believers using the Word of God are disdained as naïve, simplistic, and altogether inadequate counselors. Bible reading and prayer are commonly belittled as “pat answers,” incomplete solutions for someone struggling with depression or anxiety.
The depth to which sanctified psychotherapy can sink is really quite profound. A local newspaper recently featured an article about a thirty-four-bed clinic that has opened up in Southern California to treat “Christian sex addicts.” (The reason for beds in this kind of clinic escapes me.) According to this article, the clinic is affiliated with a large and well-known Protestant church in the area. Its staff comprises specialists described as “real pioneers in the area (of sexual addictions). These are all legitimate, licensed psychotherapists who happen to have a strong Christian orientation to therapy,” according to the center’s director.
Does their “Christian” orientation happen to be solid enough to allow these psychotherapists to admit that lasciviousness is sin? Evidently not. Several were interviewed for the article. They consistently used the terms illness, problem, conflict, and compulsive behavior, treatment, and therapy. Words with moral overtones were carefully avoided. Sin and repentance were never mentioned.
Worse, these so-called experts scoffed at the power of God’s Word to transform a heart and break the bondage of sexual sin. The article quoted the center’s program director, who explained why he believes his treatment center specifically for Christians is so crucial: “There are some groups of Christians who believe the Bible is all you need.”
This statement is the echo of neo-Gnosticism. Belittling those who believe the Bible is sufficient, these latter-day “clouds without water” (Jude 12) insist they are privy to a higher, more sophisticated secret knowledge that holds the real answer to what troubles the human soul. Don’t be intimidated by their false claims. No higher knowledge, no hidden truth, nothing besides the all-sufficient resources that we find in Christ exists that can change the human heart.
Any counselor who desires to honor God and be effective must see the goal of his efforts as leading a person to the sufficiency of Christ. The view that man is capable of solving his own problems, or that people can help one another by “therapy” or other human means, denies the doctrine of human depravity and man’s need for God. It replaces the Spirit’s transforming power with impotent human wisdom.
