I’VE UPDATED THE INTRO AND END OF THIS POST IN ORDER TO MAKE IT EASIER TO KEEP THE FOCUS ON THE ISSUES.
I’m deeply disappointed with this article by Heath Lambert, Executive Director of the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors, now called The Association of Certified Biblical Counselors.
The article asks, “Can Jesus Heal Mental Illness?”
And answers, “Yes.”
That answer in itself might be OK, but the article goes on to explain that “Yes” means “Yes, Jesus alone can heal mental illness.”
I want to explain my deep concerns about this article by simply highlighting a few quotes from it followed by some questions. I’ll number the questions to make any response easier.
Christians ought to understand mental illness in terms of spiritual issues. If mental illnesses are spiritual issues then we need to ask whether Jesus can bring healing to these things.
1. Only spiritual issues?
2. No other dimension of understanding?
…we need to carefully explain that mental illness is atheistic language for problems that have to do with life lived before the God of heaven and earth.
3. Atheistic language? Can you explain what is atheistic about it?
4. What does “problems that have to do with life lived before the God of heaven and earth” mean? Does it mean that all these problems are traceable to problems with our personal relationship to God?
It looks like this is answered by the next sentence:
We need to further explain that it is Jesus alone who can deal with these problems.
5. Mental illness is purely about a defective spiritual relationship to God that Jesus alone can heal? Jesus alone?
The next sentence seems to remove all doubt:
Jesus really can heal these problems. In fact, his is the only healing available.
The penultimate paragraph then comes to the only logical conclusion from such presuppositions:
Our culture believes that mental illnesses point to biology and require medical intervention. Those of us in the biblical counseling movement are the only ones who know that the construct of mental illness actually has to with problems of the heart and require the gospel of God’s grace for healing.
6. No biological component? Ever?
7. No medication? Ever?
8. Mental illness has to do with problems of the heart and requires the Gospel of God’s grace for healing?
9. No other dimension than the heart?
10. No other solution than the Gospel?
11. The Biblical counseling movement know all this? They are the only ones who know this?
I hate writing posts like this, especially when I know and appreciate the author, an author who has written helpfully elsewhere. But this is dangerous and potentially deadly stuff that I hope will be qualified or clarified soon, not only for the sake of those who do suffer from mental and emotional disorders, but also for the sake of the Biblical Counseling movement.
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