The Problem with Contemporary Biblical Counseling: Justification “Runs in the Background”
“Jay Adams has often pointed out that people are clueless in regard to the fact that there are about 200 different counseling theories in Psychology. Think about that; when people go to a psychologist for help they are no doubt clueless in regard to the perspective that they will be counseled from. Nevertheless, if biblical counseling is about sanctification, and it is, there are at least as many different theories on how justification ‘runs’ with sanctification.”
The fact that our justification is a finished work is critical to the gospel. If justification is not finished, its proper maintenance by faith alone without works becomes a balancing act between works and faith in sanctification. You have an integration of two things where one calls for faith alone and the other calls for a faith that works.
Therefore, when justification and sanctification are fused together, the Christian life will be marked by confusion, fear, introspection, and a paralyzed, stagnant Christian life. Sound familiar? A radical dichotomy between justification and sanctification frees the believer to aggressively love without fear that anything they do in sanctification will affect their justification. There is no fear in our justified position.
A false gospel cannot help people. All in all, the contemporary biblical counseling movement is saturated with the idea that justification is progressive. Point in case; biblical counseling superstar Lou Priolo believes that justification, “runs in the background.” In a guest post written for Jay Adams’ Institute for Nouthetic Studies, Priolo stated the following:
To my way of thinking, the place of the doctrine of justification in the believer’s life is much like the operating system on a computer. I’m a PC guy. My personal computer operates under a Windows operating system. Windows is always up and running, but most of the time, it runs in the background. I don’t see it. I can go for days without looking at it (although I know it is functioning as long as the other programs are operating properly). Occasionally, I have to go to the control panel to troubleshoot a problem, make some minor adjustments, or defrag my hard drive, but I don’t give it another thought because I have faith that it is doing what it is supposed to do. So it is with my justification. It is always up and running. Though I am not always consciously thinking about it, everything I do flows from it.
If one carefully examines this statement by Priolo, many disturbing anti-gospel ideas could be pointed out, and oddly, Jay Adams himself has written against these very ideas. Particularly, the idea that “everything” we do is powered by, or “flows” from justification. This is no whit different from what Tullian Tchividjian, John Piper, or even Joseph Prince believes.
Justification cannot be both finished and “running.” If justification runs in sanctification, what do we have to do to keep it running properly? That’s a huge problem by virtue of the very question itself. If the race we run as Christians, the one Paul talked about, is powered by justification, and we can be disqualified from that race; well, the ramifications in this issue speak for themselves.
No wonder that confusion, chaos, controversy, and a civil war between “first generation” biblical counseling and “second generation” biblical counseling are the order of the day in those circles.
Jay Adams has often pointed out that people are clueless in regard to the fact that there are about 200 different counseling theories in Psychology. Think about that; when people go to a psychologist for help they are no doubt clueless in regard to the perspective that they will be counseled from. Nevertheless, if biblical counseling is about sanctification, and it is, there are at least as many different theories on how justification “runs” with sanctification.
Who will finally stand up and say, “Enough of this madness!”? Who will finally stand up and say one is finished and one is progressive. Come now, are we saying that one runs in a race that is finished? Indeed, I stood dumbfounded when Voddie Buacham’s answer to that question from me was, “yes.” Is this nonsense the very reason that the world does not take us seriously? We are unable to clarify the gospel we proclaim. Call the world totally depraved if you will, but they are not stupid.
paul
Paul and Sandi Round 2
Paul that was quite a tirade! I don’t think you really understand the Sovereignty of God …it does not mean we sit back and do nothing! We do have a responsibility but we do not run around and try to establish our own righteousness, We rest on the finished work of Christ! Jesus said without Me you can do nothing, but the Word says also that we can do all things through Christ! I will say again salvation is totally of the Lord, not because I am humble or trying to be humble BUT because the bible says so. And Paul contrary to what you say I am not under the law of sin and death because I know that the Law of the Spirit of Life has set me free! Romans 8:1
Sandi,
Your very reply condemns you. You think it is possible for a Christian to establish their own righteousness for justification. If you really believed the following: “I am no longer under the law of sin and death,” you would know that’s impossible. And, “We rest on the finished work of Christ!” For justification, not sanctification. Your call for rest in sanctification shows clearly that you believe that you are still under the law of sin and death and it is not ended. Otherwise, no rest at all is needed in sanctification. Rest and love are mutually exclusive. Calvin’s false gospel is exactly why there is way too much rest in “Christianity.” Furthermore, Christ told the apostles that they would not be able to do their apostolic work without Him, that wasn’t a plenary statement concerning sanctification, and notice how you contradict yourself with, “it does not mean we sit back and do nothing!” and then you rip said text out of context to say exactly that!
Also, notice what else you say: “I will say again salvation is totally of the Lord,” ie., salvation (justification) still continues in sanctification. Your Reformed clarion call is “salvation of the Lord” in sanctification. As John Piper states accordingly: the gospel continues to save us perpetually as Christians. Clearly, justification is not finished.
Now I challenge you: what exactly are you to “do” in sanctification that is NOT a work that establishes your OWN righteousness? State the Christian practice that prevents this. Good luck. I made a chart to help you:
,,,and by the way, you mean Romans 8:2 which also by the way is not saying we are set free from the law of sin and death to rest and feed on Jesus, it means we are set free to obey the law of the Spirit of life in order to serve Christ. The rest of the chapter makes this abundantly clear.
Purpose Statement: The 2014 Conference on Gospel Discernment and Spiritual Tyranny
2014.ttanc.com
There are two reasons why we hold these conferences every year and the reasons are reflected in the title.
First, “gospel discernment.” In the book, Quitting Church, written by Washington Times religion editor Julia Duin, she states the following on page 13:
…plenty of people in this country are interested in spiritual matters. They are simply not going to church to feed this interest.
Why? I have sensed for several years something is not right with church life, especially with evangelical church life. It’s been reported many times that most Americans have fled mainline Protestant churches in the past half century, cutting denominations such as the Episcopal Church and Presbyterian Church USA by half. But in the past decade, it’s the evangelical churches that are losing ground.
Duin then documents many symptoms of the problem in her book, and seems to suggest that correcting the symptoms is the answer. We disagree. We think the fundamental problem that she has sensed all of these years, and many with her, is rooted in a false gospel. The problem is simply this: the original gospel of the Protestant Reformation is patently false, and the fruit has not fallen far enough from the tree to affect a vibrant Christian life within the church.
Our ministry is twofold, and this first side contends that the errant Protestant gospel is a matter of simple theological math; Martin Luther and John Calvin proffered the continuance of the law of sin and death as the definition of justification for the believer. Instead of the new birth ending the law of sin and death for the believer and eradicating it as a standard for justification, their gospel calls for the perpetual fulfilment of it by Christ in our stead.
But the law of sin and death is not fulfilled by the imputation of Christ’s obedience to the law of sin and death—Christ came to end that law altogether. Hence, it is a false gospel that defines believers as under law and not under grace. Under grace does not exclude law, but obligates the Christian to the perfect law of liberty for sanctification—not justification. Sanctification by justification is a gospel that keeps people under law while yet calling them Christians. This is an egregious false gospel.
You can nuance this fact with the word-crafting of, “living by the gospel [living by justification],” “Christ-centered [justification-centered],” “cross-centered [Ibid],” “transformed by the resurrection of Christ [transformed by justification rather than regeneration],” “disciplined by grace [disciplined by justification],” etc., but we will not be deceived with subtle word replacement.
How did this happen? It happened because the Reformers did not approach the Scriptures exegetically as opposed to the narrative promoted by the shameless traditions of men. The Reformers were first and foremost philosophers, and they foisted their philosophical worldview onto the Scriptures. Reformed “orthodoxy” is nothing more than dignified mythology and philosophical eisegesis.
This brings us to the critical second purpose of the conference. Understanding the particular philosophy of the Reformers enables us to understand the results of their integration: their gospel, and its abhorrent fruit… this part of the conference shows how specific ideologies always produce the same behavior throughout history regardless of being clothed in Bible verses. Not understanding the philosophy of the Reformers results in endless Scripture-stacking debates in the midst of perpetual carnage. Ignorance of philosophy enables the Reformers to hide behind, “secondary issues.”
The results are detrimental to both discipleship and secular quality of life. Justice is no less important whether in the church or outside of it. An indifference to quality of life will not endear the world to Christianity by any means whatsoever. Christians who are knowledgeable about life simply reflect that they are children of the God who created it. Faith is a friend of reason, and by no means a license for ignorance.
Press release version pdf: 2014 Purpose Statment
Calvinism and a Humbleness that Leads to Hell
The Sovereign Lord is my salvation from beginning to end and everything in between. I could not keep myself one day without Him. He is my Saviour, Lord and Keeper! He has promised to perfect all that which concerns me and it is HE that works in me to will and to DO of His good pleasure according to the scriptures.
He says in the gospel of John that…”All that the Father gives me I shall lose NONE but shall raise him up at the last day! Praise His name.
Sandi
Sandi,
Like all Calvinists, you dress up evil in a “humbleness” that totally depends on God and gives Him ALL the credit for your Christian walk as well as salvation. Like the “wicked lazy” servant in Matthew 25:14-30, you propose to merely give back what Christ has given you. You hide the gospel of “God does it all” in the ground for fear that anything you do in your Christian life is an attempt to fulfill the law of sin and death rather than walking in obedience to the law of the Spirit of life. You do not see yourself as free from the law of sin and death; therefore, your true role of loving Christ is relegated to the Holy Spirit. Like the wicked lazy servant, there is fear in your love because you are still under the law of sin and death.
Therefore, you are not a true friend of Christ, or a brother, but a parasite; viz, in the words of Calvinist Paul David Tripp we are only to “rest and feed on the living Christ.” That’s what a Calvinist is: a parasite that only “rests and feeds on Christ” instead of offering one’s body as a living sacrifice. Christ died for you, and you offer nothing in return but your blemished totally depraved self that is still under the law of sin and death. You are not free to…”if you love me, keep my commandments.” You must make those commands to the Holy Spirit because you are still under the law of sin and death.
Worse yet, like all Calvinists, and antithetical to love, you rejoice in this evil. As you plunge the depths of your own depravity (mortification), you experience the joy which is a gift from heaven (vivification). The doctrine of mortification and vivification is official and well documented Reformed orthodoxy. Clearly, it is a joy that results in the reality of our own depravity, and makes God a rewarder of such, but love “does not delight in evil.”
Granted, there is to be fear in sanctification as we look for the redemption of the body, but you make that the same as a fear of judgment in regard to justification because you are still under the law of sin and death, and not freed by the perfect law of liberty. You are not free to love Christ as a “doer of the word.” Your “love” is therefore full of fear.
I beseech all Calvinists to cry out to Jesus and affirm that His death has ended the law of sin and death, and freed us to love Him with the Holy Spirit as our counselor resulting in a life that is built upon a rock.
paul
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