Competent to Counsel by Jay Adams

To summarize, Dr. Jay Adams in his book Competent to Counsel questions the entire system of psychiatry and psychology. He argues that their presuppositions, whether based on placing responsibility away from the individual or the purported remedy being morality defined by whatever is good for society, the system must be destroyed and rebuilt based on the Scriptures alone. The Scriptures argue that man's ultimate problem is sin, whether physical or mental. Biblically, man's sin is clearly laid on him alone; he is responsible. Because of these truths, the answer to the sin problem is not anthropology, humanist dogma, Freud, or the present or future of psychology. The answer to the sin problem is repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ alone, not some baptized humanistic "ism." Thus, Adams hopes pastors will not defer or refer to psychologists primarily but as a last resort, for Christians properly trained in the Scriptures are competent to counsel, more so than anyone else.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit actively using His Word through the centrality of Christ in the pastor's counseling, sinners will be sanctified. Pastors will find that much of the so-called mentally ill are not suffering from mental illness at all, but the effects of unrepentant sin. The answer for the Christian counselor is to lovingly respond, detailing the Scriptures, holding the recipients accountable to the Word of God, encouraging them to biblically acknowledge and respond to their existence in God's world. Sinners must constantly believe and remind themselves that they are not the gospel, and that nothing or no one else is, save Jesus Christ the Righteous.

Something I Disagreed with

I thought Adams' use of James 5:14-16 was interesting. I think the weakness in his use of these verses is his disregard for the proper order of the verses. Adams argues that pastors are to probe about the possibility of sin in an individual's life whenever they visit the sick. The problem is that James does not encourage pastors to do this in these verses. James actually encourages the sick to call upon the elders and to confess their sins, not for the elders to probe about the sin that is present in their lives. I actually find this suggested probing nowhere in the Scriptures, but I am a novice compared to Adams.

It seems that to me that in this instance, Adams is delving in the area of the work of God the Holy Spirit. I do not believe it is the pastor's responsibility to seek out the secret sins of his congregants, but he is to preach the Word and deal with the sins that are openly visible. This seems to be the danger of nouthetic counseling. All pastors are sinners, so there is a real danger to move into areas of counseling that are not our responsibility.

Furthermore, in every instance in the Scriptures whenever someone was being punished physically because of his sin, God always let the person know that his sin was the reason he was sick. This is true both corporately and individually. After all, if God loves those whom He chastens, then is He not punishing the person because He loves him? God wants the person to repent; so, He punishes him. Not letting the individual know the reason he is sick seems to defeat the purpose for the sickness. Granted, God did use men sometimes as instruments of God the Holy Spirit to reveal this to the individual or nation, but to this I simply say that if God the Holy Spirit tells me as He told these prophets, then I will gladly probe the individual's sinfulness. However, until God the Holy Spirit tells me beyond the Scriptures, I will not try to do His job for Him, for I do not believe I have Scriptural warrant for such action. These are just some concerns I have; but I really am a fool compared to Adams.

Personal Application

Based on the arguments presented by Adams, I believe in the past I have been too quick to refer others to a "professional" Christian counselor. Though I have only recommended this on a few occasions, I have doubted the sufficiency of the Scriptures. I assumed that such issues as a teenager who cuts herself and a 30 year old faulty marriage were tasks too daunting for my 25+ year old knowledge; however, now I understand that the Scriptures are sufficient to answer these two sin problems. I believe in the sufficiency of the Word of God, but Adams helped me to see and understand the inconsistency of my theology as applied to my counseling ministry. It does not matter whether or not I have experienced the person's problem or have studied the person's problem outside of the Scriptures, for the person's problem is ultimately his or her sin; and I have the answer to this problem in the Scriptures.