2 Opposing Doctrines: Man’s Wisdom of Psychology vs God’s Wisdom of Scripture. Pt 2

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We have been spending the last couple weeks looking at Jennie Allen’s Bible Study “Get Out of Your Head: A Study in Philippians”. I know it seems like I’m harping on this book. And I spent SO much time praying and questioning and going back and forth in my head about whether to continue past the book critique to discuss this topic. It boiled down to this for me…this is claiming to be a  BIBLE STUDY. And this is where it got hard for me not to take a couple of episodes to really look at what we were really studying. What she was teaching us. And that’s this: that Scripture mixed with Psychological techniques is how we can sanctify our thoughts. 

Now this is nothing new. The church has been mixing Scripture with all sorts of Psychological ideas, beliefs, and techniques for quite awhile. Marriage counseling, seminars, topics on how to raise our kids, spiritual gift and personality tests, ministry and even missionary classes are just some of the ways psychology has entered in and is being used. The 2 biggest influences I have seen are in the multitudes of books related to sanctification and spiritual formation, and the saddest in my opinion- the pulpit. Seeker sensitive churches major in Psychology in the pupit. To attract the “seeker” one must make Scripture relevant, and claiming Scripture and Psychology can make one’s life better is the sugar dangling on the string.

Now before I dive into this, I’m not against those forms of psychology that actually observe physical material and come to scientific conclusions. But I do have an issue with what is known as psychotherapy and certain psychological fields that claim they study human behavior and thoughts on how to make humanity better.  The issue is: God has spoken on this topic, and I believe mixing man’s (unregenerate man’s) wisdom and observation can only be at odds with what God has said from the very beginning. If one believes man is born a blank slate with no inclination to either good or evil then any observation made on man’s behavior will be at odds with God’s revelation of man. Because then the problem will always be outside of man and not actually with man’s nature. Let alone if one does not believe in God, and Scripture, ALL efforts to improve human behavior will be fruitless.

I’m trying to lay the ground work for why we need to think about the implications of integrating Psychology and Theology, so please bear with me.

So going forward I want to do a very brief introduction in Psychology and then look at what issues rise from mixing Psychological techniques and Scripture and also look at WHY Jennie Allen includes them in her study in Philippians.

So What is the problem with mixing psychological themes,techniques, and ideas with Scripture?

Let’s first look at what Psychology is.

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY

So What is Psychology? Wikipedia states that psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior in a given context. Psychology is the science of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, as well as feelings and thought. It is an academic discipline of immense scope. Psychologists also seek an understanding of the emergent properties of brains, linking the discipline to neuroscience. As a social science, psychologists aim to understand the behavior of individuals and groups.

Now, Here’s the thing- observing behavior, is one thing. I’m all for that. It’s when we go past observation and start making predictions or hypothesising about behavior, without God’s revelation about our souls, our sinful nature, and His solution to our problem that psychology then becomes useless. 

The word Psyche is greek and was a name for the goddess of the soul in Greek Mythology. For the Greek translators of the Old Testament the word “nephesh” was translated into “psyche” which can be translated as “life”or “soul”. So we can see that God has a lot to say about the soul. It also has a lot to say about the heart, the mind,and our thoughts, all which are in the soul or life of an individual. These make up the person and cause one to walk, either in the flesh or in the Spirit (Gal.5:16). For the Christian our bodies are the temple or dwelling place of the Holy Spirit (1 Corin.6:19-20). 

While man is made of flesh and soul, the Christian, by faith, is given God’s Spirit (Gal.3:1-5) causing him to be born again. For one must be born of water and the Spirit to see the kingdom of heaven (John 3:5-8).The Christian’s soul is crucified and risen with Christ (Gal. 2:20; 5:24; Rom.6:4), is made a new creation (Eze. 36:26; 2Corin. 5:17) wages war against our sinful desires/flesh (Rom. 7:19, Gal 5:17), and causing us to love, and therefore, obey Christ (Eze.36:27; John 14:15). 

So from Scripture we understand that unregenerate man and regenerate man are different in nature. And this is where problem #1 comes in with bringing Psychology into a bible study. Psychology is the wisdom of unregenerate man.

–Issue #1-you cannot mix man’s wisdom with God’s wisdom.

Can man apart from God’s word come to know anything about the soul of man?

Rom. 1:18-23  Tells us about the sinful nature of man and how from it man suppresses the truth. When I read this, listen to what suppressing the truth results in. 

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

²⁴ Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, ²⁵ because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

²⁸ And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. ³² Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Without the grace of God and his work in regeneration, men’s thoughts are futile, and their hearts are darkened leading them to behave in unnatural ways and have a debased mind filled with all manner of unrighteousness. From it’s very conception, Psychology denied God. And we read that denying that God exists leads to all these behaviors which psychology is trying to prevent. This is what Psychology is dealing with: what does a right life look like? It tries to bring men to righteousness without God, without identifying our problem, and now because of post modernism and the belief that all truth is subjective, cannot even tell us what righteousness is. 

 Man, without the Spirit and His revelation, cannot come to a right understanding of God, humanity, man’s soul/spirit, his problem, and therefore cannot fix what is wrong with him or lead him into right living. Yet we want to use their strategies to “get out of our heads” so we might live more righteous lives? This I don’t get. 

So because truth is subjective and they reject righteousness as a standard we have –Issue # 2– That there is no such thing as sin in positive psychology. What is identified as problems  are acknowledged as weaknesses not sins against the holy God, sins that Christ died for. Positive Psychology itself, is in direct conflict with what scripture claims our problem is. For example – are these thoughts sinful or just cognitive dissonance? Are we fighting an enemy or our flesh? Are we just weak to which we simply focus on our strengths to reach our full potential or  are we in need of a righteousness apart from our own cause even our good works are filthy rags covered in sins and are against God? Do we need a savior and the indwelling of the spirit of God to sanctify us and make us holy? Or do we just need to self-actualize to become our best selves?

When you have a philosophy or a belief system that is guided by men who suppress that God exists they also suppress that man has a problem with sin. Man’s problems do not originate from his nature but his upbringing, and his environment, he is a victim.

While this is no surprise for the world, it has also become very prevalent in the American Church today. Sin is so very rarely mentioned and even less likely to be rightly preached. We saw in Jennie Allen’s book a nod to entangled sins, but were certain thought patterns identified as sinful, dishonoring to God, or shown how they could be a lack of faith? No but were instead identified as enemies. Again we are told by this that we are victims. When we are victims there is no need for repentance. 

–Issue #3-To bring in psychology and teach psychological ideas and techniques to equip us for good works (right living/godliness) and good thoughts (mental health) is to say Scripture is not sufficient to equip us for these things. Let’s extrapolate on this a bit:

First let’s think about what godliness is.

What would a person living the way God wants him to live, look like?

Answer – he would look like Christ. Now Christ was truly God and truly human, while we are not. But we as Christians have made Christ our Master and we long to be like our Master (Matt. 10:24-25).  We are all Instructed by the Holy Spirit to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. That is one of the Holy Spirit’s work in our life. Question is – can we accomplish that on this side of eternity? Not fully, but God, through Christ and his word, equip us with what we need to fight temptation, fight sins, and the fleshly desires that rage in our minds. It is…

His divine power [that] has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. (2 Pet.1:3-4)

In 1 Timothy Paul instructs Timothy to  put these things before the brothers, (what Paul wrote in chapters 1-3) you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. ⁷ Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; ⁸ for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. ⁹ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. ¹⁰ For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. (verse 6-11)                                 

Godliness is a spiritual endeavor. It is the working out of our own salvation in fear and trembling, as God works in us to will and act for His good pleasure/ purpose (Phil. 2:12-13). There is a purpose for our pursuit in godliness, because it is God working in and through us unto good works. This is the doctrine of Vocation- to learn more you can check out episode 11 on this topic, I will include a link in this episode’s description). And this endeavor is not only good for this life but the life to come, Paul says, because our hope is set on the living God, the Savior of all His people.

What does it look like to live a Christian mental existence in a sinful – fleshly body? It looks like what the Bible describes as walking in the spirit:

⁶ But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Gal.5:16-24) Notice what is crucified-the flesh with its passions and desires. The flesh is not our physical body but the sinful nature that produce passions and desires, thoughts that come out of the heart which defile a man (Mark. 7:20-23).

 When we trust in Christ, receive his righteous life, and consume our thoughts with his thoughts it leads to a battle in the mind – a battle against our sinful passions, desires and flesh slowly conquering them  and causing us to produce the fruit of the spirit.

Does the pursuit of life and godliness include right thinking? Yes, as God’s word is truth (John 17:17). Does life and godliness exclude struggles? Struggles with our feelings? Does life and Godliness on this side of eternity mean we will never deal with depression, fear, lack of focus, irrational thoughts at times, etc? No, we live in a fallen world and deal with fallen flesh. But Christ has promised a way through and that there is no temptation given to us that we cannot bear.  Are our depression, fear, lack of focus, irrational thoughts, etc. temptations? Yes, depression tempts us to focus on ourselves. Fear tempts us to not trust God and rely on ourselves.  Lack of focus tempts us with distractions to turn us from what God has called us to do and focus on. Irrational thoughts tempt us to turn from truth, etc. Yet God has promised, in his word, to give us all we need to equip us for every good work, life and godliness, and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but will provide an escape, so you can stand up under it (2Tim. 3:16-17; 2Pet. 1:3; 1 Corin. 10:13).

Christ himself, used the Scripture to fight the temptation of the devil. When we meditate on it and study it it becomes more and more successful at destroying the flesh.

Perhaps I can give a little elaboration- An immature Christian will  begin knowing just enough of God’s word to make their flesh flee but it may come back and sometimes over and over again. This is because we are babes that can be tossed to-and-fro with every wind of doctrine (Eph.4:14)  deceived by doctrines of men.

But if we are maturing in study and meditation of God’s word, we desire more to walk away from sin- our selfish desires, thoughts, and flesh. Our maturity in the word strengthens us to not walk in the flesh, meaning we do not give in, and each time it is a blow to that fleshly desire/sin.

Then when we mature more and our study of God’s word has progressed from milk to meat/solid food we become stronger to fight the fleshly desire or sin we struggle with that we may even kill it altogether (Heb. 5:12-14).  Now God can also accomplish this miraculously.  But for most of us these struggles with  sinful thoughts, selfish desires, lack of faith,etc. are trials and temptations presented to us to strengthen us in our faith in God and dependence on Him.

 Scripture describes the battle between our spirit and our flesh (Rom 7) as Christians. We still have thoughts and desires that are sinful – so our soul is not perfectly healed or we would have perfect desires and thoughts to which we would not struggle but would be walking in the spirit perfectly. So I cannot claim that there is full soul healing completely on this side of eternity. There are battles that we fight that the spirit wins and battles where we give in to the flesh – but thanks be to God that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus who For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin,³ he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom, 8:1-4).  And When Christ returns we are promised imperishable bodies and souls that do not struggle with sin (1 Corin.15:53). But on this side of eternity we do struggle. 

I think of King David. In scripture We read of David slaying bears and lions, defeating Goliath,  his challenges in war, being pursued by the king of Israel, struggling with his own sins, being King over those who were against him, family deception, and many other trials, tribulations, and sins. (1 &2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chron.). Many of us cannot compare our struggles with his. But we can read of his internal struggles and thoughts in the Psalms. In these writings we have a view into the emotions and thoughts of David, described by God as a man after His own heart (1 Sam 13:14; Act 13:22). We can see the emotional struggles, fears, despair, and despondent thoughts that he had.  But we also see what he used to work through these emotions and thoughts – God’s word and faithfulness. For David there was no need to meditate on his emotions, map his mind thoughts, focus on making his spiral go up, identify cognitive dissonance in his thinking, or diagnose his problem. He merely wrote down his thoughts, emotions, and struggles and then meditated on God, His Word and His faithfulness. He consumed his thoughts with the word (psalm 19, 119)

 God has also promised to give his people his Spirit to guide and comfort us (John 16:7-15), even on this side of eternity, and calls us to walk in the same manner as Christ walked (1 John 2:6). 

 To walk like Christ is to walk in righteousness and we know for 2 tim. 3:16-17 that Scripture is what God uses to teach, rebuke, correct, and train us in righteousness so we may be equipped for every good work. So are Jennie Allen’s extra-biblical techniques needed to produce good works? Or is Scripture enough?

 We are instructed 2 things as Christian women. One is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and 2 is to love our neighbor as ourselves. For anyone struggling with what the wisdom of men call mental health or illness we should ask these questions:  Will this therapeutic psychological technique or therapy help me love God and love my neighbor better and more fully- will it make me more godly and like Christ?

If we were to think about it we would have to say no because Scripture tells us what makes us love God and neighbor, as God has instructed us to do, and that is: faith in the gospel, and His sanctifying work of the word as taught in Scripture given by the Holy Spirit who dwells in each of god’s children. No cognitive behavior modifications, no therapy, no reframing of thoughts or identifying thought patterns, nor mindful thinking or positive psychology will make one love God and neighbor in truth because it is God’s Word that is truth (John 17:17). It is God’s word that has power (Heb. 4:12) and it is faith in the gospel that pleases God and faith that produces the good works of loving god and neighbor. Can we love God and neighbor in our thoughts? Yes, consuming our thoughts with God’s word will cause our bodies to physically produce actions that prove our faith if our faith be true. For faith without works is dead. (Jam. 2:14-26) 

If Christ were to be manifested in us would we need psychology? This should be the desire for all christians. This is what Paul is talking about when he says he runs the race to win a prize, forgetting what is behind and straining on to what is ahead; Christ manifested in him.

So do we need to get out of our heads? No, we need to study God’s word, read it as food, nourishment to our bodies, till it consumes our thoughts and guides our lives as we walk in the Holy Spirit.

Now what about the weapons Jenny Allen gives in her Philippians study? Do we even need these weapons? No. If we understand law and gospel we will know that the more we are looking to and  meditating on Christ and his gospel we will do the works of the law more and more. These works will include her weapons- though in actuality our “thought spirals” (if that is what you wish to call them) will be thoughts not on ourselves, but on Christ.  And as our thoughts are consumed with Christ this will cause Jenny Allen’s so called enemies of our minds to disappear therefore Jenny Allen’s weapons will not be needed.

Remember God has given us all things pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of him that called us to glory and virtue 2nd Peter 1 verse 3.

WHY JENNIE ALLEN MIXES PSYCHOLOGY WITH THE BIBLE.

Now that we have laid that out, why does Jennie Allen include psychological teachings along with Scripture?  Because Jennie Allen believes Scripture is not enough. Jenny Allen has used positive psychological principles as interpretive guides to exegete Philippians. In this study she is implementing man’s wisdom to interpret scripture instead of letting scripture speak.

This is something we are all in danger of doing as we have assumptions and traditions that we’re bringing to the text. But we should always check our traditions – what we have been taught by men – to scripture. We let the scripture speak and correct man’s teachings. We do not look for man’s teachings in scripture to justify man’s wisdom. This is why Jenny Allen pulled psychological principles and teachings from scripture. She believes that thought spirals, emotions guiding our thoughts, the enemies of our mind, and the weapons such as connection, silence, intentionality, etc are the specific points Philippians is about. This is because she reads it through a psychological lens, looking for psychological teachings in it instead of merely letting it speak and drawing out from the text- It’s implications and it’s teachings. This is called eisegesis-  Reading into a text an idea or belief,  one’s interpretation. Jenny Allen comes to the text wishing  to support her Psychological technique On getting out of our heads instead of  Drawing out of the text the ideas and teachings Paul wishes to teach.

Final thought about Psychology: Whether you fall on the side of using Psychology for the mental health of Christians or are on the other side that all we need is Scripture- the underlying assumption is that there is a problem and you believe that there is a cure to all mental issues, physical or spiritually caused. The problem with this is that Scripture is clear that we are sinful, living in a world that is cursed by sin, and our flesh is dying. God, as seen in Job and 1 Peter and other passages, tell us God allows suffering, that includes mental struggles and spiritual attacks. Yet He has promised that He will give you what you need to suffer THROUGH it. For the Christian, it can be at times about complete healing, if God so wills, but most of the time, it is about growing in our faith and leaning on God through it, as Paul says we partake of Christ’s sufferings (1Pet 4:13)

Conclusion –

Jenie Allen’s study in Philippians tries to make a case that certain psychological techniques and teachings align with scripture and can /should be used to sanctify our thoughts and desires so that we may live holy, godly, fulfilled lives.  She believes certain psychological techniques such as mind mapping, identifying cognitive dissonance, cognitive rewiring, and using such weapons as in intentionality, awe, silence, etc. are useful tools to equip us for good works. Yet  Scripture claims it is enough. It claims that it should be preached in season and out of season (2 Tim.4:2), that it is the power of God – the gospel – to save (Rom. 1:16), and that it reveals Christ to us – to which we see his life and emulate it out of love for him as we follow his commandments (John 4:15). This is why I believe we do not need to “get out of our heads” but get Scripture into our heads. We do not need her weapons because, while they are good works to perform, Scripture is what equips us for battle and all other good works God has prepared for us along with holiness, righteousness and the fruits of the Spirit which are. If we merely study Philippians, I believe we would receive more than just how to think but also what to think, gain a better understanding of joy and where it comes from, Christ’s humility and what it means to truly be humble. It explains the prize we have in Christ, and our goal to be like him and so much more. All this we can consume our thoughts on, which will change our desires, which will change our emotions, what will drive us to pursue Christ likeness and bring praise and honor to our heavenly father in which psychological techniques are not needed. 

So Ladies, I pray you see Christ in His word, long to be like him, walk in the Spirit and be guided by Him, praise God and bring glory to him in thought , word and deed. I pray you get Scripture into your head, I pray…you are in his word