Solomon Lecture Series, Lecture 26: The case for Truth in Christian counseling
The following post contains some highlights from the twenty sixth and final lecture in the Solomon Lecture Series, presented by Dr. John Woodward. The entire lecture series is available, here, at Grace Fellowship International
- We as counselors are stewards of God’s Word, not inventors. We discover God’s truth.
- Exchanged life counseling is an application of biblical truth by the Spirit of truth. The Holy Spirit is the counselor working through us.
- True doctrine is foundational to our message. Truth must be anchored on God.
- Although we can’t comprehend all reality, we can apprehend specific truth that God has revealed. Wiktionary defines comprehend as embracing or understanding it in all its compass and extend, whereas apprehend means to lay hold of a thing mentally, so as to understand it clearly, at least in part.
- Doctrines regarding salvation are essential doctrines and must be taught as truth. Distinctives are issues like method of baptism and are not worth arguing over.
- Philosophy without God’s Word is futile, as there is no compass without it.
- Modernism states that science will lead to eutopia. Post-modernism states that we don’t have absolute truth.
- There are attacks to the truth from inside and outside Christianity.
- Don’t assume that a Catholic is unsaved and a Protestant is saved. But we have to be aware of the differences between us and Catholicism.
o Ultimate authority: Rome says that the tradition of the mother church establishes what is true and the Pope, when he speaks officially, is the official spokesman of that truth. The Church interprets the Bible. Post-reformation, we believe that God’s Word is the basis of truth.
o Salvation through faith alone or a mixture of faith and good works: Rome says it’s a mix. We say saving faith produces the fruit of good works.
o Salvation by grace: Rome will say that it is by grace but imagine a fountain with seven pipes coming out of it. You might say that this is a fountain of grace but you have to get grace through every pipe in the fountain. The seven sacraments of Rome are the dispensers of grace. We believe that grace comes directly through the Lord Jesus Christ, not through the church.
- Theological liberalism assumes that everyone is a believer. It minimizes the Bible by saying that it is interesting but no authoritative.
- Be aware of the errors of the emergent church, emergent village.
- Those within the exchanged life movement can sometime focus on the love of God and not His holiness and justice. Some say that God doesn’t want us to sin because God knows it’s bad for us. Rather, God doesn’t want us to sin because it is against His holiness.
- Ask God to give us wisdom not to have a man-centered ministry, rather a Christ-centered ministry.