This article came up as a suggested read in light of a
'pastor', one Andrew Stoecklein's suicide. I don't know anything about him, I
can only go by what I see and read and to be honest it's not something I'm
interested in giving more than a few minutes to.
In one sense I am hardly surprised that such 'Church' leaders
are collapsing into scandal and now suicide. And yet who ever heard of such a
thing? While the congregation is grieved I'm sure, what a startling thing to
realise they were being led by someone so unqualified, so apparently divorced from
New Testament Christianity! But so it is with modern Evangelicalism. Its rotten
fruit is plain for all to see. Evangelicalism is built on a false foundation.
Seeking friendship with the world, they've lost their way and they no longer
know what the solutions are. They don't even know what questions to ask.
I pretty much shrugged my shoulders until I caught the
suggested link from this fine 'Apostle' who dares to place himself in an office
of high authority, as a prophet who apparently can speak for God... and yet
just the headline alone tells me he's a false apostle, an agent of the enemy.
Why? Look at the title.
Pastors Aren't Substitutes
for Therapists....
Apparently this gentleman has tried to commit suicide as
well. I could talk about whether or not he's qualified to hold office but that
would be pretty pointless. We're well beyond that.
There's a problem though. He's an 'apostle' but apparently
takes issue with Paul's teaching... Paul, the real Apostle who said that
Scripture is sufficient for all things, for doctrine, reproof, correction and
instruction in righteousness - that the man of God can be thoroughly equipped
for every good work.
The false apostle Bryan Meadows says otherwise and believes
that we need the world and its system in order to live complete and fulfilled
lives. The Scriptures aren't enough. We need Freud, Skinner and the DSM in
order to live for Christ. Instead of Paul, we get bi-polar disorder,
generational curses and familiar spirits. He ought to be careful, there may be
more to some of that than he realises but at this point it's safe to say that's
he bringing such judgment on himself.
He thinks self-esteem is the answer. Apparently he's learned
nothing from his experience as self-focus is at the heart of depression. The
emptiness and defeat of self-absorption would make anyone despair and in the
end despair even of life. This rotten harvest of self-absorption is at the very
heart of the West's spiral into death and self-destruction. It's not the demise
of Christendom, for that was but a myth, a sham-veneer at best. No, our culture
is going the path of all empires. It has become decadent and has entered the
terminal phase. It is a culture committing suicide and the acculturated false Church
led by its false teachers (such as Stoecklein and Meadows) is following the
same path. In some cases literally so.
The Church doesn't need therapists. Psychology is an
anti-Christian device that seeks to eradicate guilt or merely change behaviour.
It does not deal with sin. Its gospel is pure humanism. Combined with
Christianity it produces a kind of High Place syncretism, an ideology neither
wholly pagan, certainly not scientific and by definition sub- or
anti-Christian. The Church needs people and leaders that can handle the Word,
that know it. People who are permeated in the Word do not need therapy. They
may wrestle with the stresses of life but if they are saturated in Scripture
they have the answers, they know to repent, they know to pray, they know that
the only real answer is to turn to Christ and cast your cares upon Him. All
else is vanity, delusion and deception.
Turning to a therapist is a mistake. I won't make a sweeping
generalisation in this case but I will say that in some cases such a turn comes
down to a lack of faith.
What people need is the Scriptures and someone who knows how
to handle them, a sister, a brother or an elder permeated with God's Word. That
person if granted Spirit-formed wisdom wields a mighty sword that can vanquish
doubt and the vestiges of sin. Would the Church turn the prophets of Baal? They
do so when they turn to therapy and the modern pseudo-science of psychology.
The Scriptures do not say whether Samson did right or not.
Such an appeal is actually a classic case of missing the Redemptive-Historical
significance of his suicide. He was a Christ figure at that point, giving up
his life that the forces of death (in this case the Philistines) would be
destroyed. As with all Old Testament typology the picture is imperfect and
fails when analogically over-taxed. Elijah was also imperfect and though as a
prophet he was a type of Christ, his imagery also interplays with that of John
the Baptist who fulfills Old Testament prophecy as he is identified as a
typological Elijah returned. Just as John poignantly represents the weakness of
the Old Testament vis-à-vis the New, Elijah is surpassed by his successor,
Elisha who receives a double-portion of the Spirit.
Meadows the false apostle errs in citing these figures as
generating empathy for suicide. Of course King Saul, his armour bearer and
Judas are hardly examples a Christian would want to appeal to and I find his
reference of them to be bizarre.
Suicide is a serious problem in our society and one
exacerbated by the very economic system championed by the Christian Right. It
has destroyed entire segments of society, it has contributed to the breakdown
and dissolution of the family leaving people broken, despondent and without a
shred of hope. Drug addiction and suicide are so prevalent in certain regions
of the country that by any standard our society is in crisis.
That said, does therapy offer any hope? What exactly does
therapy fix? It fixes nothing, it simply drives people to foster mechanisms that
help them to cope, shift blame or find solace in the fact that 'it's not their
fault' or perhaps they have a 'disease' or a disorder.
The Scriptures tell of a Gospel, of a person Jesus the
Christ, the Risen King and Incarnate Lord, our High Priest in Heaven. With
Christ reconciliation can be found, not always with man but with God. This is
the foundation of any healing. The Gospel isn't about getting something or
fixing our problems. It is the means by which we are healed of sin's power and
fellowship is restored with our Creator. Though saved we are still sinners and
yet even as sinners we are being transformed.
We sin but this is not the same as sin having power over us.
That reality may not appear immediately but over time it should appear. Sin
will be with us until our dying day but it should not characterise our lives.
Contrary to some of the Pollyanna versions of Christianity that are out there
we are a sober people and filled with grief, frustration and sorrow. But since
we're not focused on ourselves it should never overwhelm us. There are not many
joys in this life, hopefully there are some and yet are true joy is found in
our blessed hope, the return of our Lord Christ. Thus like Paul, we are
sorrowful yet always rejoicing.
In Christ we have hope, we can forgive, we are granted eyes
to see, we die to self. These are the foundations of love and the means by
which relationships are restored and families are preserved.
Therapy is a Christ-less gospel at best and when the priest-sorcerers
of the profession try to weave Christ into their pseudo-scientific theoretical
models we are left with a watered-down gospel that doesn't facilitate a full
reckoning or full recognition of reality. Christ may be presented as a healer
but will a therapist call a 'patient' to repent? Will a therapist rely on
'training', the DSM, pharmaceuticals and methodologies or will they use
Scripture and point to Christ? This is not a both-and scenario. This touches at
the very heart of what we understand the Scriptures to be and the person and
work of Christ. Will these therapists issue the clarion call and the warnings
of hell? Will they push their patients to the point of brokenness? In other
words can the therapist replace the foolishness of preaching? Can a therapist
do the work of the Holy Spirit? Is there any Biblical basis for thinking the
Holy Spirit will work through a therapist as a valid 'means' of gospel
proclamation and the call to sanctification? Scripture itself tells us the
'means' by which God works and suffice it to say 'therapy' is nowhere to be
found. It has no place in the Church or the Christian life.
This is foolishness and worldliness at work in the Church.
Turn away from these false teachers. They are deceivers leading people off a
cliff. They are blind guides in every sense.
I will say that, besides the philosophical underpinnings under many approaches of psycho-analytics and therapy, a lot of it comes down to the fact that people are lonely, they need someone to "confess" to, and they want someone to listen. The advent of psycho-therapy is the industrial era, where bourgeois and the nuclear family, and all the protocols of respectability, began fostering this alienation. And Freud saw himself as a messianic figure, bringing a new modern religion to save people. But, perhaps not unexpectedly, this new cultus was only for the bourgeois, who had the luxury to engage in the repeat visits, the introspection, and the stresses of searching one's past. If the working poor tried to do it, they'd just kill themselves, and they should be left to sex and drinking to stave off their alienation and loneliness.
ReplyDeleteSadly, most churches have failed to understand many of the problems of the industrial revolution, many times having participated in spreading this debilitating system. You're right to preach sufficiency, but what it means in our epoch, especially its post-industrial one with its Brave New World entertainment complex and virtual economy, needs wisdom and understanding. The turn to embracing psycho-analytics and therapy is, like most things in Evangelicalism, not only a betrayal of sorts, it's also foolishness. They're adopting models from 30-40 years ago which even non-believers have discovered as defunct.
If churches were places where, besides receiving the word and the supper, we found friendship and confessors, and could find reprieve from the prestige rackets and respectability cult that haunts the modern world, then maybe the idea of therapy wouldn't take root. But, then again, I don't expect a mega-church to be anything but a giant entertainment-complex and source of alienating loneliness.
I found this news to be like a Christian version of Anthony Bourdain's death. It's an opportunity for the main stream media to repeat the same sermon about mental illness.
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