What is Biblical Counseling?
At Grace & Peace, we offer free biblical counseling to anyone who requests counseling regardless of if they’re members of our local church or not. Occasionally, we’re asked what the difference is between biblical counseling, Christian counseling, and secular counseling; this blog post endeavors to make the differences clear and explain why we offer biblical counseling as a church (and why we don’t offer Christian counseling or secular counseling) as a free service to anyone who wants to be biblically counseled.
A brief history of biblical counseling
While the principles of biblical counseling have been around since the first century, the terminology wasn’t in use until much more recent. In fact, it wasn’t until Jay Adams founded the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation (CCEF) in 1968 that the movement towards biblical counseling really started gaining traction. [1] The local church had become infiltrated with the idea that emotional and mental health was too great for Scripture to handle and thus, Christians started turning to secular psychology and integrationist ideology for their counseling. It wasn’t until the 60s and 70s when conservative churches began pushing back against the turn towards secular and integrationist views. Since these local churches began pushing back and returned to what could be considered the biblical sufficiency model, there has been a recent uptick in the number of churches that offer biblical counseling as opposed to integrationist and secular counseling models.
Because of the concerted effort by many churches to return to biblical counseling, there has been a significant push for counselors to be certified to do so, thus organizations such as CCEF, the Association of Biblical Counselors (ABC) and the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC) have been formed to provide credentialling services in the local church for both professional counselors and lay counselors alike. Doing so provides a level of excellence, education, and experience that’s required of all biblical counselors (though not every biblical counselor has these certifications). And through the rediscovery of biblical counseling methods, many counselees have found that Scripture is sufficient to meet all their needs.
What exactly is biblical counseling?
Faith Biblical Counseling has a definition of biblical counseling that sums up what exactly it is. They say, “Biblical Counseling is the process where the Bible, God’s Word, is related individually to a person or persons who are struggling under the weight of personal sin and/or the difficulties with suffering, so that he or she might genuinely change in the inner person to be pleasing to God.” [2] Or in other words, it is the process through which a person (the counselor) helps another person(s) (the counselee(s)) to understand their lives in light of the Bible and which the counselor helps the counselee along the process of progressive sanctification.
The biblical counselor is primary interested in the counselee’s spiritual growth and in helping the individual conform into the image of Jesus Christ (Rom 8:28-29). This is done by continuously pointing the counselee back to the Word of God (John 17:17), the work of the Holy Spirit (1 Pet 1:2), and the counselor’s willingness to encourage, exhort, and disciple the counselee (Heb 10:24). Biblical counseling is a means of intentional discipleship for someone that might need more specialized or intense help; and the primary method of biblical counseling is to point the person back towards Scripture—to help them understand truth, apply truth, and live according to truth.
Because biblical counselors believe in the sufficiency of Scripture (2 Tim 3:16-17; 2 Pet 1:2-3), the mindset is that of going to the Scriptures regardless of what struggle, pain, or suffering the individual might be facing. It’s the mindset of going to Scripture for every need with the full expectation that God through His Holy Spirit will encourage, exhort, equip, train, teach, and lead through His Word.
What makes biblical counseling different than secular counseling?
Obviously, what a biblical counselor does then is completely different than secular counseling, but we can explain some of these differences in a more comprehensive way:
Secular counseling looks to man and man’s experience as its primary source of authority. A secular counselor will focus their efforts on the human experience and what man has said about the human experience. Or in other words, the system that a secular counselor brings to counseling is that of a naturalistic worldview that focuses only on this world and man’s experience in this world. Some proponents of secular counseling are Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Carl Rogers.
Because of the focus on man and man’s experience, the counselor is forced to either adopt or develop a systematic approach for counseling that may or may not be beneficial. The system relies on fallible human beings and their approaches to emotional and mental help, which have changed and adjusted multiple times throughout history.
It’s also important to note that secular counselors typically aren’t focused on changing the thinking, behavior, or feelings of the counselee, but rather they focus on methods of coping.
Conversely, biblical counselors see the Bible and the Bible alone as the source for a comprehensive and detailed approach to counseling. [3] The difference between biblical counseling and secular counseling is that of worldview (how the counselor views the world). Ed Welch says, “All psychology practitioners are dispensing a world view [sic], a set of fundamental beliefs about the nature of people. Your theories are heavy with assumptions about who we are, why we do the things we do, and where we are going. This is clergy turf.” [4]
What makes biblical counseling different than Christian counseling?
Whereas the difference between secular counseling and biblical counseling is a little obvious, the difference between Christian counseling and biblical counseling might not be so clear. Let me help with understanding the distinction:
The primary difference between biblical counseling and Christian counseling lies in methodology and the integration of secular ideas into the counseling arena. A Christian counselor typically believes that Scripture is inerrant, but not necessarily sufficient in all areas of life (particularly areas of mental health and psychology). To remedy the situation, they integrate or add secular theories and methodologies to their practice of counseling. [5] The integration of secular theories into Scripture is the primary difference between biblical counseling and Christian counseling. [6] Some proponents of Christian counseling or integrationist counseling are Sarah Rainer, Wheaton College, Mark McMinn, and Focus on the Family.
Proponents of Christian counseling disagree with biblical counselors of the extent of usefulness concerning the Bible. Though most Christian counselors wouldn’t say that they don’t think the Bible is sufficient, their methodology shows that they don’t believe the Bible can handle every issue in human life—their methodology reveals that they don’t think the Bible is sufficient.
Because they don’t think the Bible is sufficient, they then must rely on the same psychological theories and methodologies that secular counselors rely on to counsel people. Again, the primary issue in this is that they then place authority in fallible man rather than an infallible God.
Conversely, biblical counselors believe that the Bible is inerrant and sufficient. Though secular psychologists may have insights into the human mind, their insights aren’t necessary to counsel a person biblically. The position of biblical counselors is summed up well by David Powlison, “Do secular disciplines have anything to offer to the methodology of biblical counseling? The answer is a flat no. Scripture provides the system for biblical counseling. Other disciplines—history, anthropology, literature, sociology, psychology, biology, business, political science—may be useful in a variety of secondary ways to the pastor and the biblical counselor, but such disciplines can never provide a system for understanding and counseling people.” [7]
Conclusion
What this means for someone looking for counseling is that there is a significant difference in methodology and worldview between those holding to a secular counseling model, Christian counseling model, and a biblical counseling model. And while secular counselors have offered insight that can be beneficial for biblical counselors to note, the truth is that the fundamental methodology and worldview differences between them is severe enough that Christians should be weary of seeking help from those that don’t hold a biblical counseling model. Therefore, we offer biblical counseling at Grace & Peace, free of charge to anyone who wants counseling. We do this because we believe that the Bible is sufficient to meet every need and we believe that God through His Word and the working of the Holy Spirit can teach, train, counsel, encourage, exhort, and build up His people. We do this because we believe that the wisdom of man is fallible, but God’s wisdom is infallible, perfect, and complete.
If you or someone you know is in need of biblical counseling,
please feel free to reach out to us by email or by texting or calling (814) 600-9892.
[1] “Beliefs & History,” Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation, https://www.ccef.org/about/mission-beliefs-history/beliefs-and-history/
[2] “What is Biblical Counseling,” Faith Biblical Counseling, https://www.faithlafayette.org/counseling/what-is-biblical-counseling
[3] “How does psychology work with biblical counseling?” Got Questions, https://www.gotquestions.org/psychology-Biblical-counseling.html
[4] This statement was given during an unrecorded lecture by Ed Welch to clinical psychology doctoral students.
[5] John MacArthur, Wayne A. Mack, and The Master’s College, Introduction to Biblical Counseling: Basic Guide to the Principles and Practice of Counseling, Word Publications: Dallas, Texas, 1997, 362.
[6] It should be no surprise then, that most proponents of integrationist approaches tend to be integrationists in other areas of theology like creation.
[7] “Biblical Counseling vs. Christian Counseling: What’s the Difference?” Zondervan Academic Blog, https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/biblical-counseling-vs-christian-counseling-whats-the-difference
