Paul's Passing Thoughts

WINTER 2014

“For one, they know that people come to counseling with the expectation of gaining knowledge that will lead to change. The brain trust of this movement believes no such thing.”

“The outright deception of the movement is best expressed in Paul David Tripp’s  ‘How People Change.’  The title states that people change, but on pages 64 and 65 of the 2006 edition he plainly states that people don’t change. On those pages he calls Christians ‘enemies of God’ and ‘dead in trespasses and sins.’”

Biblical counseling is now widely available in the American church. The three primary organizations that encompass this massive movement are The National Association of Nouthetic Counselors (NANC), The Christian Counseling and Education Foundation (CCEF), and the upstart Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC). These three are really different divisions of the same movement. CCEF is the think tank, NANC is the training and certification wing, and BCC is the promotional engine. These three organizations represent 90% of what constitutes formal counseling in the present-day church.

The movement operates in upper-middle class zip codes and above with few (if any) exceptions, which is one of the earmarks pointing to the fact that this is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on the American church. For one, they know that people come to counseling with the expectation of gaining knowledge that will lead to change. The brain trust of this movement believes no such thing. Like the Christian psychologists they claim to refute, they teach people how to cope with their totally depraved selves. Except in this case, they offer something better: how to experience joy in your totally depraved state. And apparently business is booming; the leadership of these organizations rate with the premier charlatans to ever walk upon the earth.

New Calvinism and the Biblical Counseling Movement

I was recently sent a transcript of an interview with John MacArthur Jr. in which he stated plainly that the present-day New Calvinist movement is a return to authentic Reformed doctrine. He would be absolutely correct about that. Authentic Calvinism hijacked the aggressive discipleship movement of Jay Adams in the early 70’s. Even though many in the present-day biblical counseling movement experienced the Spirit’s power of individual change in that movement, it was infiltrated and hijacked for the purpose of “real and lasting” change. That’s because we are not really changing, we merely experience the joy of “vivification” subjectively while the “lasting” change is the manifestation of Christ’s objective gospel outside of us. The counseling focuses on “mortification” which leads to perpetual rebirths that we “experience.” This was the crux of Luther’s Heidelberg Disputation.

The outright deception of the movement is best expressed in Paul David Tripp’s “How People Change.” The title states that people change, but on pages 64 and 65 of the 2006 edition he plainly states that people don’t change. On those pages he calls Christians “enemies of God” and “dead in trespasses and sins.”

Recently, I attended a funeral of an old friend who was deeply involved in the movement. He was one of the good guys who I think never understood the real crux of the issue. But telling was what was said by the NANC brain trust who spoke at his funeral. You see, my friend never really did anything that pleased God, all of his good works were really “shadows of Christ.” Also, God took him “so that we can see Christ better.” He also deserves “no honor” for anything he did lest it steal any of Christ’s glory. It was even stated that he was a “wicked sinner.”

These statements are clear contradictions to the plain sense of Scripture and the milieu of life. This is a resurgence of Luther’s stoic Gnosticism that strives to completely empty self in order to observe reality outside of us and detach ourselves from it. And again, these movements always abide exclusively among the affluent while producing a league of elitist, cold-hearted, spiritual snobs who are wreaking havoc on the church.

And their counseling is helping no one. They point to their stoic joy in the midst of trials as if Gnosticism is commendable. I have heard pastoral proponents of this movement ridicule those who grieve because their grief “eclipses the glory of Christ.” How dare them value anything on this earth more than Christ! In one particular instance, a pastor was indignant that his terminally ill mother-in-law mourned the fact that she would not be able to see her grandchildren grow up. Hence, she supposedly loved her grandchildren more than Christ. A “mature” Christian would have been rejoicing for the opportunity to leave this despicable life and everyone in it.

But I guess that is “real and lasting change.” Question is, what kind of Change?

paul