Failing systems, part 2

Responding to my last post, one reader commented on the section dealing with the failure of Psychology with the following:

“Certain paradigms of psychology (specifically the psychoanalytic and humanistic you mentioned) do not lend themselves well to science. That said, there are models, such as the cognitive-behavioral model, that are far from pseudo-science. The CBT model fairs so well in its attempts to demonstrate statistical significance in therapy, that is has even rivaled and surpassed the efficacy of many psychotropic medications. This is not some contrived psycho-philosophical idealogy that some Austrian intellectual pulled from a half-baked positivism; this is science. Is it an end-all answer? Absolutely not; but, if you are proposing that a nouthetic model is the only way to go, then I would ask that you take a second look at what you are considering.”

I would like to underscore two features: first, the posts I am making at present have nothing to do with counseling, but rather theology. This is in response to John Calvin’s axiom, that “Knowledge of God and Knowledge of Ourselves are Mutually Connected.” Note, how “it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity.”i Second, the reader is aware of the contribution of nouthetic counseling and calls for a reconsideration, but on what basis? Furthermore, as demonstrated in my post, I pointed out that psychology as is practiced today is nebulous and cannot provide an answer—my reader has agreed psychology is not an end-all answer. And I do contend that nouthetic model is “the only way to go” on the basis of finished work of Christ Jesus.

Here is an opportunity to point out that the first chapter of Calvin’s Institutes is often considered to be psychological, but that was far from his intention in writing. One individual posts a very compelling case as to how “John Calvin Led Me to Repent of Christian Psychology.” Wherein the soul is touched, there is psychology. But now that we’ve catalogued failures of other systems of self-understanding, we would be amiss if we did not now consider God’s perspective.

Theologically, we are still able to say that that “anthropology is the study of man” in terms of a literal definition. Man’s creation, existence and purpose has only one logical explanation — God the uncreated Creator. The Scriptures clearly and distinctly teach that God created man, that he is the result of an act of immediate divine creation. How can we trust God’s perspective as recorded in the Bible?ii First, the Bible records a certain, verifiable history. The facts recorded in the Bible, including the creation and probation of man, lie at the foundation of God’s whole revealed plan of redemption. Second, the Bible records the appropriate and necessary introduction to verifiable history. The whole of scripture rests upon the record of the work of creation. Third, the Bible quotes itself and is quoted by people throughout history as being the true account of the creation of the world. All evidence which goes to support the divine authority of the Bible sustains the historical verity of that record.

To be fair, we should mention some opposing viewpoints. The Atheist may reflect one of three standpoints, the first of which states that man is made ex nihilo, out of nothing from nothing and for no reason. This is significant because many cultures of the world, while claiming some level of theism, hold to this viewpoint. The premise is that man is the result of eternal matter, matter that was always there and would always be there, a swirling mass that eventually produced man. African theologian John Mbiti describes an example of this thinking in folk religion: heaven and earth were joined together by a rope. The inhabitants of both worlds went up and down the rope. One day, two brothers came down from the society in the sky, but one returned there and the other remained on earth. The brother who remained here had sons who in turn founded different tribes.iii The story does not really tell us where man can from. The account assumes the inhabitants were already there. Where did the rope come from? Who put it there? The story only tells us that the inhabitants of two ancient worlds settled in one place or another.

A second and third atheistic approach contends that man is either the result of eternal dualism, the result of good and evil eternally battling back and forth and in the course of battle man somehow came into being (this can be seen in many religious writings of the world as well, which at this point begs the question, “can the approach really be atheistic?”); or, that man is the result of eternal purposelessness, and there is nothing for him.

Consider further Evolutionary Pantheism or polytheism. Pantheism states that all is god and any distinction between man and God is eliminated in an ever-changing cosmos. Many Oscillating Big-Bang theorists reside here with the idea that man is a molecule of “godness” or a piece of reality. Nothing different about man from everything else. Polytheism attempts to show that man is God’s representative of the forces of the cosmos. This was a dominant pre-Darwin (1859) idea.

Theistic teaching even has some competing views: that man is intentional, created in the image of one God; or, man is a mistake, the result of forces at work in the world—and if man is a mistake, then woman was more of a mistake! Egyptian mythology teaches that man came from Ra and purpose or meaning does not come from life, but death, when one’s ka talks with the gods before the person enters the afterlife.

The Babylonian mythologies tell how the gods fought because someone was making too much noise and it was from the bodies of the dead gods laying around (zodiac), that the universe was formed and Man came from one of the bodies.

The Greeks give us many different stories, but the theme remains common: everything was basically created by gods sleeping around with each other (procreation results in creation); and, when jealousy ensues, more creation happens! As gods fight they get cut to pieces and their destroyed genitals become man. But what value is placed on man here? Man made from blasted god genitals?

What about Woman? The Greeks could not decide on a story, so they give us two: that woman was created as crafty and deceitful, for the purpose of getting revenge against another god; and/or, Jupiter (Zeus) made the first woman and sent her to Prometheus and his brother, Epimetheus as punishment because they had stolen fire from heaven; the woman was sent to be punishment for man.iv

These are nice stories, but they do not tell us who man is. They tell us that God (or gods) created man as other things were created and there exists no distinction between man and everything else. Again, John Mbiti sums up many African Traditional Religions in one phrase on this point: man fell down from the sky or the heavensv. Navajo tradition says that man came up through holes from under the ground and is no more than a toad.

Monotheistic teaching is unique compared to other religions and philosophies. Look at what Biblical Creation shows, that God is distinct and has created distinctly. The Biblical story gives man dignity despite the fact that it was written about the same time of some of these other accounts. What makes the Biblical record different? First, look at God’s nature: He is pure, holy, righteous, just and not at all comparable to the creator of the other stories. While man’s perspective says that the immorality of the gods was the immorality of the people, God’s perspective says that man is to be like His creator (we will cover this later). While man’s perspective says that the gods tired of man’s problems, they desert man, leaving to go to another place far away from man. The Bible shows that God did not retreat but became man to deal with man’s problems.

What does God say?

Gen 1:27 “God created man in his own image; in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them.” (NASB)

Gen 9:5-7 "Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man. As for you, be fruitful and multiply; populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it." (NASB)

What does the world say when God is not in the picture?
1) Life is cheap.
2) If you are not special, you are nobody.

Conclusion:
1. “We are told to think of ourselves first and are shown how to get on top by using and manipulating others, by intimidating before being intimidated. We are told how to be successful and how to be number one. We are counseled to find meaning in the heritage of our family and ethnic roots, with the expectation that finding out where we came from will help explain where we are and perhaps where we are headed. But such approaches give only a psychological gloss that helps cover, but does not help remove, the underlying problem of meaning in life.

Others set about trying to establish their worth by works righteousness, some even becoming heavily involved in church work and other Christian activities. They look for praise and commendation, and before long they are entrapped in the same kind of hypocritical religious games that characterized the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. As their self–satisfaction grows their spiritual lives shrivel, because such effort feeds the flesh and cripples the soul.
But every human effort at self–improvement or self–satisfaction—no matter what its religious covering may be—is subject to the law of diminishing returns. Genuine and lasting satisfaction is never achieved, and increased achievement only brings increased desire. More importantly, the guilt and fear that cause the dissatisfaction are suppressed but not alleviated. The longer such superficial games are played, the deeper become the depression, anxiety, and feelings of guilt.

The only way a person can achieve a true sense of self–worth, meaning, and significance is to have a right relationship to his Creator. A person without Christ has no spiritual value, no standing before God, no purpose or meaning in the world. He is like “chaff which the wind drives away” (Ps. 1:4).

A Christian, however, is a child of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. If he has no comprehension of those blessings he needs to understand the position he already has in his Savior. To give such Christians the right understanding of their position and possessions is the foundational thrust of Paul’s Ephesian letter.”vi

2. “This saying, that a man can by his own effort and good works acquire salvation, is foolish and absurd so long as the man is not born again. World-rulers and teachers of morality say, “Become good by doing good,” but this is what I say, “Become good yourself before doing good works.” When that new and good life has been entered upon, good deeds will be the natural result.
It is only a fool that will say that a bitter tree by constantly bearing fruit will at last become sweet. As a matter of fact a bitter tree can become sweet by being grafted on a sweet tree, so that the life and qualities peculiar to the sweet tree will pass into the bitter one and its natural bitterness will pass away. This is what we call a new creation. So too the sinner may have the desire to do what is right, and yet the only result is sin; but when he repents and by faith is grafted into Me the old man in him dies, and he becomes a new creature. Then from this new life which has its origin in salvation good deeds come forth as fruit, and this fruit abides for ever.”vii

“What you believe is a matter of life and death. Many years ago medical doctors believed sickness was caused by something in the blood. Although this is true, doctors in those days did not understand how to cure what was wrong in the blood. Because of this they believed that when a person got sick, enough blood should be removed from the person to take away the sickness. This was actually done by a medical doctor to George Washington, the first president of the United States. Washington had a sickness in his old age. The doctor who treated Washington wanted to save his life but he actually killed him by bleeding him to death because what he believed was wrong!

This can also happen in spiritual matters. It is possible to be very sincere but to be sincerely wrong, resulting in eternal death. In John 8:24 Jesus said, “If you do not believe that I am the one I clam to be you will indeed die in your sins.”viii

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iJean Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Translation of: Institutio Christianae Religionis.; Reprint, With New Introd. Originally Published: Edinburgh : Calvin Translation Society, 1845-1846. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), I, i, 2.
ii Hodge, Charles. Systematic Theology. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1871.
iii Mbiti, John. Concepts of God in Africa. London: SPCK, 1970. p. 165
iv Bulfinch’s Mythology, http://www.bulfinch.org/fables/bull2.html
v ibid.
viMacArthur, John. Ephesians. Includes indexes. Chicago: Moody Press, 1996, c1986.
vii Singh, Sadhu Sundar. At the Master’s Feet. London: Fleming H. Revell: 1922.
viii O’Donovan, ibid.