While the integration of psychology and Scripture are often viewed as a wise strategy for counseling, secular psychology can do no more than offer useful observations because, as a counseling system, it approaches the human condition with presuppositional beliefs that are antithetical to the Word of God.1John Frame defines presuppositions as “basic commitments of the heart” that govern our reasoning (Apologetics: A Justification of Christian Belief [Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2015], 9). This conflict becomes clear when they try to tackle deep questions about life, including who man is, what drives him, what his purpose is, and where he is going.2David Powlison, “A Biblical Counseling View” in Psychology & Christianity: Five Views, ed. Eric Johnson (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2010), 257. However, their assumptions are made without reference to God, His authority, and His design.
In Numbers 13, Israel was on the brink of entering the Promised Land. Before sending Israel to Canaan to engage in the conquest, Moses sent twelve spies into the land to look for three things: the nature of the military (v. 18), the nature of the cities (i.e., fortified or open camps, v. 19), and the abundance of produce (v. 20). After 40 days, the spies returned to report their findings (v. 25). Their report included true statements about what they saw: the produce was abundant (v. 27); the cities were fortified (v. 28a); and some of the men looked like giants (v. 28b). Yet, how they interpreted those facts was determined by their presuppositional beliefs. Caleb and Joshua were among those who spied out the land but, instead of seeing the imminent conquest as hopeless, they believed that God would deliver them (v. 30). The other ten spies, however, concluded that they should not go up into the land, “for they are too strong for us” (v. 31). They ignored God’s promises and rejected His authority. They interpreted their circumstance as if God did not exist. This story illustrates the importance of a foundational truth: our presuppositions about God shape how we interpret life and its challenges.
Secular Psychology Can Make True Observations
The word psychology derives from the Greek and is literally translated as “the study of the soul.” It can be defined as “the science of mind and behavior; the mental or behavioral characteristic of an individual or group.”3Merriam-Webster 11th Collegiate Dictionary, s.v. “Psychology,” accessed January 19, 2021. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/psychology. One textbook describes psychology as “The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.”4Samuel E. Wood, Ellen Green Wood, and Denise Boyd, The World of Psychology, 7th ed. (Boston, Allyn and Bacon, 2011), 3. Psychology works hard to observe and describe the human condition. Christians can sometimes applaud psychology for its insights, acknowledging that secular psychologists make those observations due to their faculty of reasoning. However, although psychologists can efficiently explain a person’s needs and do so with some accuracy, their evaluation is based on assumptions about the nature and source of life. When fundamental truth about God is excluded, then secondary factors take first place, and both the explanation and the treatment are skewed.5Powlison, “A Biblical Counseling View,” 144.
Secular Psychology Falls Short By Ignoring God and Misinterpreting Its Observations
An atheistic scientist can measure the distance to the sun or count a fruit fly’s cells. He can make those true observations because he is made in the image of God, and he experiences the fruit of God’s common grace in his ability to observe, reason, and think. Similarly, psychology can make countless helpful observations about life and the problems that people face. However, we cannot accept psychology’s conclusions without using discernment. Apart from acknowledging the reality of God, those observations are, at best, incomplete and at worst, distorted. David Powlison describes secular psychologists as simultaneously “brilliant and distorted.”6Powlison, “A Biblical Counseling View,” 255.
Psychology’s attempt to understand and improve human behavior and human welfare falls short because it interprets its observations without reference to the reality of God and His Word. Jeremiah 17:9 asks rhetorically, “Who can know the heart, since the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked?” The implied answer is “No one.” But then verse 10 states that “the Lord searches the heart.” The author of Hebrews affirms that God has the power to expose the depth of the human heart. Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word is living, active, and powerful, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Apart from the Lord working through the power of the Word, we are left with incomplete and/or distorted observations about the human condition.
A Better Way
When Jay Adams developed biblical counseling as a counseling system to understand and help the human condition, he grounded it in a presuppositional belief in God—specifically, that God exists (Genesis 1:1; Hebrews 11:6), controls all things (Proverbs 16:9; Ephesians 1:11), knows all things (Psalm 139:1–4; Hebrews 4:13), has spoken (Hebrews 1:1–2; 2 Timothy 3:16), and acts as the Judge over all His creation (Genesis 18:25; Romans 2:16).7David Powlison, The Biblical Counseling Movement: History and Context (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2010), 98–99. Adams rightly held that all knowledge begins with God, recognizing that to properly discern what occurs in a counselee’s soul, we must start with the ultimate reality of God’s existence. This foundational truth of His existence is essential but not sufficient on its own. Our understanding is further informed by God’s sovereignty, omniscience, and His revelation through His Word.
A proper evaluation of the human condition comes down to our source of authority. Any counseling system that is not founded on God as the source of truth is built on the sandy ground of human wisdom, whose best evaluations of humanity’s condition are shifting sands. As biblical counselors, we believe that spiritual transformation is the goal of counseling, and such transformation can only be achieved through the teaching and application of the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is only the Word of God that provides a comprehensive and accurate framework for human transformation that is lasting, has eternal good to the believer, and is glorifying to God.
