Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju in their book The Pastor and Counseling posed this counseling scenario: Let’s say a professional Christian counselor and a professional secular counselor advise your member to go into his bedroom and punch a pillow when his wife angers him. This seems reasonable. It’s certainly better than punching his wife, and the pillow is replaceable. If the professional Christian counselor has advised this, your member might assume that this is biblically-based advice. After all, it doesn’t seem unloving to others or dishonoring to God to treat a pillow viciously. A professional Christian counselor giving such pillow advice would likely cite Scripture to make his point, maybe showing how Jesus directed his anger appropriately by overturning the money changers’ tables and not striking the money-changers themselves. And this would seem reasonably biblical to your member (Jeremy Pierre, Jeremy, and Deepak Reju. The Pastor and Counseling (9Marks, pp. 123-124. Crossway. Kindle Edition).
Read moreWhen to Do Counseling Referrals
I have had two church members who were threatening suicide whom I had to refer to professions. My dad while in a nursing home, threatened suicide. When I informed the nursing home personnel of Dad’s threat, they immediately called the police who transported dad to the hospital. This is the law in N.C.
Read moreIs Suicide the Unpardonable Sin?
Morgan Lee, at Christianity Today interviewed Al Hsu, the InterVaristy Press senior editor shared this story: I was on a radio show recently where one caller said, “I’ve always believed that suicide automatically sends you to hell, and that has prevented me from killing myself. Now I’m confused because if you tell me that suicide doesn’t automatically send you to hell, doesn’t that let people off the hook?”
Read moreReview of Two Sides of the Counseling Coin by Heath Lambert
Heath Lambert gives this analogy: Explaining the difference between nouthetic counseling and biblical counseling is a bit like asking whether a coin is heads or tails. A coin is both heads and tails. In talking about the heads side or the tails side of the coin, we are merely emphasizing different surfaces of one thing.
On October 8, 2012, Heath Lambert former executive director of ACBC (Association of Certified Biblical Counselors) formerly NANC (National Association of Nouthetic Counselors) now professor of counseling at SBTC contrasted and compared Nouthetic and Biblical Counseling at The Gospel Coalition.
The critics (click to open) of these two biblical models say the only difference is the spelling. But, Lambert will show there are major similarities and differences.
Read moreBiblical verses Non-biblical Models of Counseling
Whether the counselor believes the counselee is made in the image of God determines which model counselors use.
Psychology is “the study of the soul” and Psychotherapy is “soul healing” (psyche=soul and therapeuo=to heal) and yet one study reported statistics showing academic psychologists to be among the least religious group of scholars, with 50% reporting no religious preference. Secular Psychology denies the soul in its view of human nature.
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