Counseling Theology Flashcards
Nouthetic
“admonish, correct or instruct.”
What happens when a system of counceling is based on theories and models derived from sources other than the bible?
other systems of counceling, based on sources of information other than the bible, by the very nature of the case become competitive.
It is dangerous to compete with the Bible, since all such competition in the end turns out to be competition with God.
Why do we need well-developed doctrine?
When doctrine becomes creedal (e.g., the Athenasian Creed), it becomes defensible against (Arians and other) heretics.
Heresy, as well as truth, becomes identifiable. Before it takes creedal form, however, almost any sort of heresy can claim a place.
What is wrong with allowing psychiatric or psychoanalytical dogmas in the Church?
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, as they compete with the word of God and there with God himself.
Also most of these systems are based on occult phillosophy.
The primary purpose of the bible
The Bible was given to help men come to saving faith in Christ and then to transform believers into His image (II Tim. 3:15-17).
What is counceling?
The process of helping people love God and their neighbours
Why should other sources of counceling be rejected?
because only scripture tells us how to make changes to our believes, values and behaviours in a way that pleased God.
Do not forsake the Fountain of living water for the cracked cisterns of modern counselling systems.
What is the heresy of humanism(Carl Rogers, an Others)
The heresy of autonomy
That man has all the resources they need to succeed inside of themselves
the Bible teaches that man was made for God (Rev. 4:11) and dependent upon Him (Acts 17:28). Man was created as a dependent being. Any attempt to transform him into an autonomous being not only constitutes rebellion against the Creator but is bound to fail.
It is this basic rebellion—thinking we can go it alone—that lies behind, and is the occasion for, so much counseling.
What happens when a man acts on the heresy of autonomy?
Whenever people try to live on their own (whether as the outworking of the sinful propensities of their corrupted natures or as the result of following a system like Rogers’), they must fail miserably. I mean that literally: they not only fail inevitably in the course of time (they must, because they were constituted dependent creatures), but their failures bring misery upon themselves and those around them.
In contrast to the heresy of autonomy, what is the doctrine of “dependency”
Man is dependent upon his Creator and Sustainer for all that he is, has and knows. He was created for a life of joyful, grateful, dependence on God.
Is it possible to live without God’s word or council?
NO
Without that Word, a human being has no personal ability to understand, make sense out of, or know how to use the world in which he lives. He doesn’t know the ways of living with others, and he can’t properly relate to God. As the existentialists have observed, such life is absurd.
Why is a life without God’s word absurd?
Life without God’s Word is absurd (it is sheer vanity, as the writer of Ecclesiastes put it) because capacity for knowledge (understanding of facts, properly interpreted and related) is derived, not native to human nature. That means that from the creation on, man was mde to be molded by counsel (which i sthe directive Word of anohter, given from outside)
Our meaning, purpose and function is dependend upon this interpretive Word
Why is misery bound to follow without God’s word?
Because the universe and man within it will be improperly interpreted, leading to suffering.
Such a world would appear chaotic and absurd, and human choices and decisions would be made on the basis of no solid standard.
The plague of relativism would descend upon man.
Why is human reasoning alone not sufficient in providing us with an understanding of God?
Reason alone is not sufficient to understand God, because there are some things that cannot be deduced from looking at creation or arrived at through reasoning alone, such as the fact that “God forgives us” and “God sends us grace”
Even the best philosophers’ ideas about God contain error.
Knowledge of God’s will, Salvation and Saving Grace needed to be “revealed” to us.
