Outline For Building-up And Equipping The Body Of Christ

This Biblical Christianity website encourages people to know and to live, God’s Word; thus enabling us to live now as God intended for us to live, and preparing us for eternal life in God’s kingdom.

Site Navigation:This left-column outline contains links to website pages and sources pertaining to helping the Body of Christ gain the potential for which God designed it. The menu below pages down to the individual sections of this outline from which you can navigate to other web pages. There is a fourth level to some of the third level or decimal elements of this outline that is hidden, to view this level click on the (c) symbol in the outline; to hide the fourth level, double-click upon it (I found out, the last time I checked, that Mozilla's Firefox browser doesn't support this fourth level expansion feature, sorry).

Bible, Science And Psychology

While we will comment on other false claims or elements of psychology, the claim that it is scientific is most likely the main reason that people accept psychology as being a valid discipline even though it is not. The false claim that psychology is scientific has made a great impact on Christianity, making it very difficult for most Christians to question the concepts of these supposed experts who have invented their own language and techniques and call them scientific.

Another misconception is that there is a form of psychology that can be called Christian, but there isn’t; all psychological techniques and practices have been conceived by man, and much of it has come from pagan and occult roots. There are many Christians who use and practice humanistic psychology, but there is no such thing as "Christian" Psychology. The books and articles quoted from and linked to on this page will more fully explain these issues.

It is pointed out in the excerpt below that the American Psychological Association has more than fifty divisions, and that the division of psychotherapy is one of the most popular, and the primary one that needs to be rejected. What is not mentioned is that it is also the biggest division having more than 500 different types of therapies.

Martin and Deidre Bobgan have been researching this subject and warning God’s people about the dangers of integrating psychology, especially psychotherapy, into Christianity for more than thirty years. The following excerpt from their article The Psychological Seduction of Christianity will introduce us to our subject.

What is this psychological seduction? Psychology is a broad field that covers many disciplines. The American Psychological Association (APA) has over fifty divisions. One of the most popular divisions is Division 29: Psychotherapy. When we say "psychology," we are referring to psychotherapy and its underlying psychologies. It is simply talk therapy.

Psychotherapy with its underlying psychologies is one of the biggest and most demonic deceptions in the church today!

We call this deception psychoheresy. What is psychoheresy? Psychoheresy is simply the use of psychology where God has already spoken in His Word. It is using the very wisdom of men about which God has warned His people. How widespread is psychoheresy? It is one of the greatest of the last days’ deceptions. It began as a little leaven with Christians becoming trained as psychotherapists and has now come to full loaf in that psychoheresy has infected practically every facet of the church. Almost every pastor, church, Bible college, seminary, Christian university, mission agency, and denomination are influenced by or infected with psychoheresy. We can give you numerous examples of this throughout the entire church from liberals to the most conservative.

Problems of living that are taken to a psychological counselor are the very ones for which God has already provided the means of help through His Word, the cross of Christ, work of the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the saints. Has your pastor, church, Bible college, seminary, Christian university, mission agency, or denomination been seduced by this psychoheresy?

To view the whole article at PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries click here.

If you visit their website you can download several free ebooks, including the one called PsychoHeresy: The Psychological Seduction of Christianity from which the following excerpts are taken. They explain their position and approach in the following excerpt.

WHAT IS THE LEAVEN?

What is this insidious leaven and why would seminaries and pastors who truly care for their flocks be promoting this leaven in the church? The leaven is psychology. Psychological leaven consists of secular theories and techniques which are "according to the tradition of men." They are man-made ideas which offer substitutes for salvation and sanctification.

When we speak of the leaven of psychology we are not referring to the entire field of psychological study. Instead, we are referring to that part of psychology which deals with the nature of man, how he should live, and how he can change. It involves values, attitudes, and behavior. We will be using the words psychology, psychological counseling, the psychological way, and psychotherapy interchangeably when referring to, such man-made systems of understanding and treatment. (p. 10)

In their book the Bobgan’s expose the false claims of psychology mentioning four major myths in particular: First, "that psychotherapy . . . is science rather than religion"; second, "that the best kind of counseling utilizes both psychology and the Bible"; third, "that people who are experiencing mental-emotional-behavioral problems are mentally ill"; and fourth, "that psychotherapy has a high record of success." Their statement regarding the first myth is quoted below.

The first major myth is that psychotherapy (psychological counseling along with its theories and techniques) is science rather than religion. The supposition is that since psychotherapy is science it is truthful and objective-simply another acceptable means of understanding and helping humanity. If the shepherds thought that psychotherapy might be a competing religion, they would surely guard their sheep. p. 14

In the last page of this series, Bible, Science And Evolution, we considered some of the reasons that evolution is not scientific, and in the above quote Dr. Bobgan claims that psychology is not scientific either, and goes on to prove it in the rest of his book. The quote below should convince us that there is something terribly wrong in the field of psychology.

Karl Popper, who is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers today and considered by many to be the greatest twentieth-century philosopher of science, has examined psychological theories having to do with the why of human behavior and the what to do about it. He says that these theories, "though posing as sciences, had in fact more in common with primitive myths than with science; that they resembled astrology rather than astronomy" He also says, "These theories describe some facts but in the manner of myths. They contain most interesting psychological suggestions, but not in testable form." p. 43

To download the above ebook or others from PsychoHeresy Awareness Ministries click here.

The following two excerpts have been taken from the newsletters of The Berean Call, a ministry that encourages God’s people to search the Scriptures daily to see if what we believe and are engaged in is truly of God.

"Christian" psychology represents the most deadly and at the same time the most appealing and popular form of modernism ever to confront the church. Those who refused the temptation to adjust biblical interpretation to agree with Darwin have succumbed to the even more deadly delusion of integrating Freud and Jung into Christianity. It is astonishing that so many of today's staunchest evangelical leaders, in order to be "relevant," are preaching a form of Science of Mind without even recognizing it. Psychology now wields such a powerful and all-pervasive influence upon Christianity—in seminaries, Bible schools and colleges, mission organizations, radio, television, denominational leadership and all other Christian institutions as well as churches—that to call Christian psychology into question is taken as an attack upon Christianity itself. This is all the more astonishing in view of the fact that "Christian" psychology doesn't exist. This fact can be proved very simply: go to any library or bookstore and look in the index of any psychology textbook. No listing for "Christian Psychology" will be found.

To see the whole article entitled "Christian" Psychology - Part One, by Dave Hunt click here. Dave’s article gives an excellent analysis of the misconceptions and dangers of psychology. Part Two may be viewed here.

The next excerpt is also called "Christian" Psychology but was written at a later date and by the same person.

Let's take one category of error as an example: humanism. Its penetration into the church has been staggering! Once confined to liberals/modernists and pseudo-evangelicals, humanism is now embraced by virtually the entire evangelical church. How did this come about? Largely through the acceptance of psychology. It was Norman Vincent Peale who first conceived "Christian psychology"—the very thought of which, J. Harold Ellens reminds us, was opposed by "the entire Christian church for nearly half a century." Peale persisted. His protegé Schuller picked up the banner, then others followed. Today "Christian psychology," once heresy to Christians, is the new evangelical orthodoxy. Weep and pray and work to uproot it from the church!

To see the whole article entitled "Christian" Psychology, by Dave Hunt click here.

Scriptural reasons why God’s people should reject psychology

JEREMIAH 2:11-13.... Has a nation [ever] changed its gods, even though they are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory [God] for that which does not profit. Be astonished and appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked and shrivel up with horror, says the Lord [at the behavior of the people]. For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the Fountain of living waters, and they have hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns which cannot hold water.

By using and relying upon psychology, as well as other humanistic beliefs, practices and techniques, the Church has been deceived into using Satan’s deadly substitutes for the water of life that Jesus provided for us by His redeeming sacrifice. Jesus bought us out of bondage to sin and the devil, and gave us all the provisions needed for a new resurrection life (2 Pet. 1:2-4). When we substitute the provisions of the devil for what Jesus provided for us we commit the same error that the nation of Israel did; we forsake God and His ways, and try to use implements that God has forbidden to live a meaningful life – it can’t be done, we will destroy our life instead.

God forbid the Israelites to use the devil’s implements. "When you come into the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of these nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or daughter pass through the fire, or who uses divination, or is a soothsayer, or an augur, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer. For all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord, and it is because of these abominable practices that the Lord your God is driving them out before you" (Deut. 18:9-12). Neither the Israelites nor the Church deliberately set out to indulge in these practices, but were little by little enticed or deceived into accepting and introducing them into their worship services. This list of practices and techniques is expanded upon in our page entitled, Satan’s Vast Network Of Deception & Opposition, and many of them can be found in and are used by those who practice psychotherapy – a broken cistern that holds no water.

The above process has caused the Church to be weak and ineffective in helping people with problems of living, because the Church has been drinking from Satan’s cesspool of humanistic philosophy, weakening its own life, and is now offering the same poisoned food and drink to those who are even more needy. The Church is in dreadful need of spiritual cleansing!

We could go on examining and evaluating the bankrupt and harmful practices of human wisdom, but we must eventually come to the conclusion that there is really only two pathways to go down, the broad way which is man’s way, or the narrow way which is God’s way; this is true whether we are considering how this universe came into being or how we can cope with problems of living.

God’s way is very simple, I think that man sometimes deliberately tries to make it complicated so that he can take some credit for being smart enough to grasp it. Here it is in a nutshell, but if you want to study it in detail go to our page entitled New Life In Christ And How To Live It.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:23-25.... We preach Christ (the Messiah) crucified, [preaching which] to the Jews is a scandal and an offensive stumbling block [that springs a snare or trap], and to the Gentiles it is absurd and utterly unphilosophical nonsense. But to those who are called, whether Jew or Greek (Gentile), Christ [is] the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. [This is] because the foolish thing [that has its source in] God is wiser than men, and the weak thing [that springs] from God is stronger than men.

Jesus said "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest ( relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. [Jer. 6:16.] For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good--not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne." (Matt. 11:28-30)

The first thing we must learn about Jesus concerning how we are to live after being born again is that Jesus is the vine that we must cling to. "I AM the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser. Any branch in Me that does not bear fruit [that stops bearing] He cuts away (trims off, takes away); and He cleanses and repeatedly prunes every branch that continues to bear fruit, to make it bear more and richer and more excellent fruit. You are cleansed and pruned already, because of the word which I have given you [the teachings I have discussed with you].

⁴Dwell in Me, and I will dwell in you. [Live in Me, and I will live in you.] Just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding in (being vitally united to) the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me [cut off from vital union with Me] you can do nothing. If a person does not dwell in Me, he is thrown out like a [broken-off] branch, and withers; such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, and they are burned. If you live in Me [abide vitally united to Me] and My words remain in you and continue to live in your hearts, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. When you bear (produce) much fruit, My Father is honored and glorified, and you show and prove yourselves to be true followers of Mine.

⁹I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me]. If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father's commandments and live on in His love. I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing" (John 15:1-11).

Paul tells us, "For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). The new life that we have been given is the one that we are to be living and building up, not the old one, it was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:1-11; Gal. 2:20). To attempt to live our new life by the old methods available to the fallen nature of man is to ignore all that God has provided for us in Christ, and is fatalistic – doomed to failure. But we need to note that these old methods, practices and techniques (the wisdom of man) are all that is available to those who have not been born again, they have nowhere else to turn; only those who have been given new life because of their faith in the atoning sacrifice of Christ are privileged to partake of the provisions of Christ. So it should be unthinkable for a true believer to turn back unto the ways of man, this world and the devil to live his new life, and that is what using psychological and other humanistic methods and devices amount to.

The true, new way to live is to learn to dwell in Christ (Jn. 15:1-11) by trusting Him in every situation and for everything. As disciples, we daily read His provision manual, the Bible, learning what is available to us and expected of us, and pray to Him about it. Then we trust our heavenly Father to supply what He knows we have need of, and to direct our daily lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the simple but powerful life available to every child of God; any intrusion of the contrary wisdom of this world spoils the simplicity and power of this life and weakens and threatens our bonding and relationship with Christ the true vine.