Simply Profound and Profoundly Simple

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In the current post at Biblical Counseling Coalition, Pat Quinn underscores the simplicity of biblical counseling in contrast to the ever-increasing complexity of secular counseling labels and methodologies. He writes,
 
“Both secular and biblical counseling acknowledge the ever-expanding number of troubling life issues for which people seek counseling. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) has undergone five editions, increasing its diagnostic categories from 102 in 1952 to 265 in 2013. Within biblical counseling, New Growth Press, the largest publisher of counseling mini-books, currently has minis on approximately 155 counseling topics. Whichever way you look, there is a prolific (overwhelming?) number of counseling issues! It begs the question, “Is there a foundational, unifying diagnosis and cure that provides a larger context, makes sense of all issues, and gives hope for deep and lasting freedom? This question leads us back to biblical counseling basics.
 
“Matthew 1:21 gives us the ultimate reality and final (not the only) word about counseling [‘She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’]: Jesus saves us from our sins. This ultimate reality and final word can be expressed in three statements:
 
  • Sin is our deepest problem.
  • Jesus is our only Savior.
  • We receive and live out this saving grace through justifying and sanctifying faith.”
The rest of the article expounds on those three statements through some insights from Galatians 3:10-14. Please read this article here: biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2023/08/25/the-ultimate-reality-and-final-word/
 
We heartily agree about the importance of simplicity in biblical counseling, staying rooted in the basics. But BCC contributors write from a viewpoint of dichotomy (i.e., body and soul instead of body, soul and spirit), with a Reformed model of sanctification (with identification with Christ as implicit instead of explicit). Thus, most of their content would be considered as “phase 4” in emphasis (Romans 12-16). [1]
 
As Exchanged Life Counselors using Spirituotherapy 2.0, we would add some clarifications to this article.
 
Clarified diagnosis:
The root problem is not just sin, but sin, self, and strongholds.
 
Clarified remedial process:
Not just sanctification by faith, but Christ-centered sanctification by faith, oriented around Jesus Christ as Lamb, Lord, Life, Liberator and Leader. This relationship is experienced in redemption, identification, liberation and devotion (4 phases model).
 
Clarified counseling agent
The Holy Spirit as Ultimate Therapist ministering to and through the Discipleship Counselor and counselee.
 
In the article’s concluding Questions for Reflection, the author asks: “Do you see your counselees as primarily ‘suffering sinners’ or ‘sinning sufferers’? It makes a difference.”
We prefer a third option: “suffering/sinning saints.”
 
So, although this article is helpful in reminding us of simplicity in the contrast of the complexity and confusion of secular therapy, Nouthetic Counseling’s model of man and view of sanctification go beyond simplifying to some shrinkage.
 
Chuck Solomon used to say that the most frequent criticism of Spirituotherapy was that it was too simple. But the truth of the Cross is profoundly simple and simply profound (1 Cor. 1:23,24). Therefore he would advise us with this principle: “K.I.S.S. — keep it simple…saints!”
 
-J.B.W.
 
 

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