Paul's Passing Thoughts

One hundred years ago our forefathers in the faith were finally waking up to the fact that the machinery of their denominations and conventions had been taken over by theological liberals or “modernists” as they were called then. The denominational seminaries, funded by the Rockefeller fortune, had also fallen—due in large part to the inattention given them by the conservatives or “fundamentalists.” Under the leadership of men like W. B. Riley, T. T. Shields, and A.C. Dixon the conservatives began to organize pastors in the Northern Baptist Convention with mixed results. Finally, in 1922 they came together with a plan to smoke out the liberals and defeat them on the floor of the convention which was to be held in Indianapolis. They concluded that the adoption of a well-defined doctrinal statement which spelled out exactly what the convention believed would paint the liberals into a corner and require them to declare publicly what they believed about the “fundamentals” of the faith.

At the convention W. B. Riley made a motion that the Northern Baptist Convention pledge itself to the New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833). The conservatives were lined up to vote in favor and they believed they were finally poised to have their victory over the liberals. The liberals were not to be out maneuvered, however. Cornelius Woelfkin, liberal pastor of the Park Avenue Baptist Church in New York City, stood and offered a substitute motion “that the New Testament is the all sufficient ground of our faith and practice, and that we need no other statement.” His clever defense of his motion convinced a number of conservatives that a vote against his motion would amount to a vote against the New Testament itself! Conservatives were not going to vote against the Bible so Woelfkin’s motion passed 1264 to 637.

The deflated conservatives never again came even that close to success in making the liberals clearly declare what it meant for them to be “Biblical” and subsequently began their exodus from the convention to form new associations and schools.

This thin slice of church history came to mind when I learned that the powers that be at NANC (The National Association of Nouthetic Counselors) would be asking the membership to vote to remove the word “nouthetic” from the name of the organization. No, I don’t mean to insinuate that those who propose this name change are theologically like those liberal Baptists a century ago, and while it was probably not their intention to use the word in the same way our liberal ancestors did, that fact remains that “biblical” is a much broader term than the word “nouthetic” and allows for a far greater number of counselors to camp under its banner.

Now, of course, we all want to be biblical in our counseling, our theology, and our practice. Being biblical is noble—it is Berean! But while we all want to be biblical, the term itself is nebulous. It gives no precise indication as to what exactly we believe the Bible teaches on any given subject. It only communicates that we agree with it—whatever it is.

As we look over the Christian counseling landscape today we see that almost everyone who is a Christian and does counseling claims to be biblical in what they are doing. Integrationists like Larry Crabb, Gary Collins, Eric Johnson, Tim Clinton, Archibald Hart, and Paul Meier all say that what they are doing is “biblical.” Neil Anderson, who finds demons under every rock, claims to be “biblical.” Charles Solomon avows that hisExchanged Life approach is “biblical.” Gary Chapman claims his Love Languages are “biblical.” Tim LaHaye has pronounced his temperament analysis to be “biblical.” Kevin Leman believes his birth order nonsense is “biblical.” James Dobson is confident his pronouncements about self-esteem are “biblical.” Openly and aggressively integrationist institutions such as Liberty University and Dallas Seminary shamelessly label their degree programs “Biblical Counseling.”

There is no such ambiguity about the word “nouthetic.” It is a term that has fences around it—well defined by the foundational books written by Dr. Adams. It is confused only by those who are too lazy to read Competent to Counsel, those who would willingly be confused, or those who desire to confuse others.

This is not to say that the term “nouthetic” encompasses everything Dr. Adams teaches or practices. No Lutheran believes everything Luther believed. The term “Calvinist” applies to a system of doctrine, not everything Calvin believed. Methodists do not follow in lockstep behind all that John Wesley believed. I have worked closely with Dr. Adams for over 15 years and after countless long conversations I still can’t land where he has landed on eschatology, church polity, and infant baptism. Upon glorification one of us (or perhaps both) will learn we had misunderstood what the Scriptures teach on each of these issues. Still, when NANC was founded in 1975, the term “nouthetic” was almost unanimously adopted by the founding board in order to clearly identify what they meant when they claimed to be “biblical” counselors. The only dissenter was Dr. Adams himself who was concerned that the use of his term would make the movement more about him than it would the Scriptures.

The move away from the specific term “nouthetic” to the more general term “biblical” does not clarify, it obfuscates. It allows for greater inclusiveness. It reduces to a lowest common denominator. It enables NANC to identify with, and perhaps even attract, those who cannot or would not embrace Adams’ “nouthetic” view of sanctification, what he means by the “sufficiency” of the Scriptures, his exegetical precision, or his insistence upon orthodoxy on the important theological issues that intersect with biblical counseling such as the sovereignty of God, the cessation of supernatural gifts, and a rejection of all things mystical.

For all of these reasons we at the Institute for Nouthetic Studies are in favor of this proposed name change. Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t if you are familiar with NANC these days. We favor this change because it is honest. The current NANC board has led the organization away from its well-defined nouthetic roots and has remolded it into a wider, more inclusive organization that is better described by the broader and less definitive term “biblical.”

Again, my conclusion may come as a surprise to many reading these words so let me make my case with just a few brief bullet points:

The orthodox doctrine of progressive sanctification, a cornerstone of nouthetic counseling, is no longer essential. Many NANC members have replaced it with a doctrine commonly labeled as Gospel Sanctification which teaches that loving Christ and contemplating all that He has done for us on the cross is sufficient for our sanctification.

NANC membership now includes counselors who are members of churches in charismatic and liberal denominations.

NANC has held “On the Road” training conferences in charismatic churches.

The training requirement for NANC certification has become insignificant. Several years ago John Street, the NANC president speaking at a Shepherd’s Conference, taught that pastors should require a minimumof 115 hours of training before allowing people to counsel in their churches. Yet all NANC now requires is attendance at three weekends of classes or a one week conference.

The NANC board gave $30,000 to help establish a coalition of biblical counselors whose stated goal is to “foster collaborative relationships” among all who call themselves biblical counselors.

We are told that this name change is not an indication that NANC itself is going to change. We have no way of knowing what will happen in the future but the fact remains that NANC has already changed.

We love NANC. We are thankful for what has been accomplished through NANC to introduce and promote biblical counseling to thousands. We have high hopes for the leadership of our new Executive Director, Heath Lambert. We wish, however, we were not being asked this question. Instead, we wish we were being asked if NANC should be nouthetic—that would be an interesting vote. Since that is not the question being put to us, we believe it is best to make this name change so as to preserve the integrity of the term. You see, at the Institute for Nouthetic Studies we want to preserve the word “nouthetic” as an accurate description of what it means to be truly biblical in our counseling.

Meanwhile, to our friends on the NANC board, we would do well to concern ourselves less with what our critics think of us, less with the growth and prosperity of our organization, and more with the well-being of the counselees we are commending to the counselors we certify.