okay uh so spiritual disciplines as far as um he mentioned uh the idea of the reading of the scriptures and uh just practice of spiritual disciplines how would those apply to um biblical counseling how would you recommend that ah and transformation AAL prayer and Lex lexio Divine lexio lexio jaina the idea of uh Divine reading yeah transformational prayer yeah so of I think he's asking go ahead okay there we go hello hola hola um spiritual disciplines are very important uh last night I talked about the importance of being in good habits in your life so
prayer uh singing a regular time in scripture uh one of the things I've noticed uh through the years is this though I know people who are disciplined with reading the Bible for example but it just becomes a routine in their life uh it it's I have to do this to be a good Christian and that's the wrong motive I'm really concerned about the motives being right I do not read my Bible because I have to I read my Bible because I want to uh I want to be hungry for the Lord uh I don't want
to pray because that's just what Christians do uh I want to pray because I'm in relationship with the god of the universe so I want to teach my counes to be worshippers uh life is not about mystical experiences life is about living believing the promises of God and spending time in relationship with uh my Creator so I want to teach my counsel how to walk with the Lord and habits are very important uh we have uh humans have a a tendency toward bad habits and I want to help people build really good habits in their
life but it always has to be from the right motive for the glory of God and to be in relationship with God for okay so many re many forms of research have been used to speak for and against the biblical worldview um but it seems like science has some good things to offer and so the idea is is this not an inconsistent thing how would you address that it's like we end m it's it's similar uh to what we talked about yesterday uh that it's the interpretation of the natural world that differs between secular and
Christian so for example I could go to the city of kuaba here in Brazil and I can look at the massive crater that clearly exists there but I have to interpret how that got there so science is essentially means knowledge and the Bible says that God spoke the natural world into existence so that which exists was created by that which is not seen so science isn't a thing in itself we're essentially all living in the natural world uh by the way we're all scientists we're always theorizing and testing that theory there is no magic IAL
person called a scientist I I love the book by Richard Leonard who was the head of of placebo studies at Harvard it's a very short book about 100 pages and it's entitled um uh the ideology of biology the doctrine of DNA yes and he opens the book saying that scientists aren't born they're products of their society of their faith of their relationships so we should stop treating them as if they're something special now I love science because God created it but I don't like secular interpretations of science so a lot of the science they're actually
honest about their interpretation and it reflects biblical truth but a lot of times as you've heard this week what they claim to be science is actually an interpretation of science I I'll answer this question a little bit longer because this is something I give a lot of time to I think it's important to understand that there's actually different philosophies of Science in other words there isn't just a science that it doesn't exist secularists literally believe that they can create knowledge so for example within psychiatric constructs they will openly admit that that these have not been
discovered for example if you read uh Dr Alan Francis book saving normalan Fran he he says that there are are two things that guide uh epistemology or or that that function as epistemology within Psychiatry the first is utilitarianism does it provide utility so if you read the dsm5 they literally say that the constructs were created for clinicians insurance and research they were not actually created to help people which really explains the system well in my opinion the second thing is their epistemology is based on on a very proud concept it's similar to the the actual
uh very false teaching in Christianity of name it and claim it that if I can come up with a concept uh then I can actually develop that concept into existence so they actually don't believe that schizophrenia is real they they actually call it a working concept until a better truth comes along that can replace that in one of the quotes of my new books I cite a very well-known scientist and he says our our pet theories are constantly being replaced by by truth that we discover so we must hold Loosely to the dogma of today
that flies in the face of scripture we have fixed truth to depend on and I would also add that that nature is fixed as well and and I think it's important to distinguish between uh gender roles in in regard to this they are literally saying if we feel a certain way we can develop that into being scientifically true whereas the Bible teaches and we believe that truth is fixed even in nature so we seek to discover truth we don't create truth and and you need to understand secular philosophy of science is that we can actually
develop or evolve truth into existence uh lastly the existence of the field of science actually shows that we are absent of Truth both spiritually and in the natural world two are spiritually and and naturally so whether natural Revelation or special Revelation you and I have a desperate need to pursue truth and if God Truly Spoke the world into existence as the Bible claims then both Pursuits will not only be good but point is to God and of course the supernatural always is our lens to interpret the natural okay that was really long okay [Music] so
what are the criteria that we can use uh to use some of these psychological Concepts and he mentions Young and um cognitive therapy and uh he and then would these be inconsistent if we use these wouldn't these also come from secular mindsets so what are the criteria for using those don't they all come from the same humanist presupposition question so something about young why so what are the criter for using that is aular Con why would we that not truth stolen actually changing mind the question is yeah the question is what criterias do we use
to to use secular psychologists things like young and then cognitive behavioral therapy um because yes uh the wording of the question I think is it seems to me like it's backwards so I want to start with the Bible and build my whole system out of the Bible uh if cognitive behavioral therapy happens to find something that is in the Bible it was already in the Bible so I do not start with psychology and say what can I learn from the psychology now there are some people that are interested in that in doing that uh I
am more interested in exhausting what scripture says and building my system out of scripture uh I only have one life and if I'm going to spend my time I'm going to spend it exhausting scripture not exhausting psychology you have to remember that there are hundreds of psychologies uh you could spend your whole life studying hundreds of psychological theories and they write articles against one another uh they are in debates with one another about what is truth I do have to be informed about the psychologies because I teach courses so I listen for the things that
seem to be getting the most attention and then that's where I do my reading but that's just because I want to be informed about cultural issues and then when I'm reading them I'm evaluating it through my seven principles but it is not so that I can change my count my counseling system I I already have a complete counseling system uh if cognitive behavioral therapy uh has found truth again it's things that were already in the Bible just one more thing about cognitive behav behavioral therapy it is not deep enough the theory is work on the
thinking and beliefs and it will change Behavior beliefs but ours our system is much deeper we are dealing with desires of the heart what the Bible would call the affections that's not just cognitive thinking and how it relates to your behavior it has to do with the motives of your inner person and why you do what you do and I would urge you to do reading on the heart and what does the Bible say about the heart uh the word heart is used over a thousand times in the Bible I'm done okay even a broken
watch marks the time twice a day so if Neuroscience is our and they put it in quotes battle arena the field of battle and it's such a recent science don't we run the risk of later down the line having that sabotage because of a new discovery I don't think it is a Battleground I think it's very simple uh there's organic and inorganic in other words the brain and the mind are completely different so it only becomes a Battleground if we accept what's called bior reductionism or physicalism it kind of shocks me how many Christians believe
that the mind and the brain are the same thing as seculars teach so Neuroscience will never change any belief that I have based on scripture in fact the irony is it actually uh points to scripture and and increases that let me give you an illustration of how uh just recently in in my own studies I was kind of Blown Away at how psycho the concept of psychosis occurs in our deep sleep state in another in other words every single thing they're calling a symptom of schizophrenia we do every night as we enter in Rim sleep
including things uh that that are called Catatonia in fact in while we're sleeping in riml it's called Antonia essentially our bodies become paralyzed and we we lose feeling uh if we didn't then we would get up during our dreams and act them out maybe even hurt people uh uh medicine in general has theorized that in the deep sleep they could actually do surgeries and you wouldn't feel it which is exactly what God did in Genesis chapter 2 when he took the rib from Adam uh the Bible also uses three metaphors to describe our delusional nature
drunkenness blindness and deep sleep the the metaphors only work if there's truth behind that in other words what we call science is always catching up with the truth of the word of God I I'll tell you a secret the reason why I use so much science in my writing and what I speak is because the vast majority of you if I asked would say you believe in the sufficiency of scripture but as soon as a guy in a white coat says something contrary especially if it's a whole bunch of guys we want to believe that
and that is showing that we actually believe in the authority of science or scientism really if I can say it this way in in a loving way science will always be inferior according to scripture to the word of God but you can't study scripture and realize that science always points us back to God in Proverbs the father says go to The Ant and and you Slugger and see how the ant without supervision is disciplined in Ecclesiastes chapter 1 Solomon uses the the uh uh unsatisfied reality of natur such as how a river never empties itself
or the sun continues to go around the Earth or the wind never stops blowing then to say your eye and my eye and ear are never satisfied we have the gift of marriage to point us back to the the the beautiful Covenant of Salvation with Christ and I'll stop there because we would be here all day looking at nature and how it points us back to Christ so we're looking at science as a Battleground I would lovingly just say that's that's that's an error of presupposition okay F when you say that differences in thoughts affect
our body um wouldn't that be similar to what coaching does and what would be the difference between that that thoughts affect like the neuroplasticity your thoughts affect your body that part coaching as in like life coaches yeah life co uh life coaching is a form of discipleship well coaching life coaching coaching a form of discipleship it's taking someone from point A to point B um and and I'll leave that as simple answer remind me of question it's just the idea I was thinking about my grandchildren TD [Laughter] [Laughter] I I have many pictures to show
you if you would like to see them I just got some new ones this morning okay I would like to see them okay so what would you say what would you AR argue if someone said they see in hypnosis a valid form of dealing with problems this the simple answer is no uhon simp and no um the biblical thinking behind that would be part of the biblical thinking behind that would be this I should not allow someone else to control my mind I'm not supposed to be brought under the power of anything drugs things are
not supposed to to uh dominate my body so a main concern I have with hypnosis is I would be surrendering control to someone else to control me uh but then I have many biblical principles and philosophical reasons why I would be opposed to hypnosis as well I would just remind you of my seven principles and you can evaluate any secular Theory using those seven principles and I I'll add to what Dr Baker has said that the most famous psychiatrist in the history of of biopsychiatry with the exception of Freud uh all suggested a material means
of curing the inorganic Soul so the very first Psych iatrist was Anton Mesmer Anon Mesmer he's highly regarded as the first psychiatrist in English we even have a word mesmerizing I guess you have it here too I just made one up possible okay um and it's based on Anton Mesmer uh the Lancet Journal which is a a highly regarded medical journal in England L one of the first uh advertised uh mesmer's technique of hypnosis as effective and ironically decades later they they openly admitted and ret retracted their statement saying that that it's completely uh they
called it snake oil you have to remember that the placebo effect even works uh for those of you who don't know the placebo effect is essentially replacing a pill for a sugar pill in other words our faith can actually uh change and help us internally but even physically um so if you move throughout Psychiatry they always believe in materialism that doing something material to the body then will fix our spiritual nature I I won't take too much time on this but one of one of my f one of my favorite uh I say it tongue
and cheek one of my favorite psychiatrist is Dr Benjamin Rush one of the founding fathers of America Rush he he was a theist but many people believe he was a Christian but he is well known and highly regarded uh he he actually had three ways of allegedly treating mental disorders blood letting which is essentially draining blood and he sadly killed a lot of people he invented a a bilious chair which is a spinning chair that's uh spun rapidly and he wouldn't stop until people vomited and a laxative pill that caused horrific horrific internal problems so
imagine his clinics blood diarrhea and vomit everywhere and he is counted as one of the most important psychiatric figures and literally you can go through history of Psychiatry and see all these famous psychiatrists related to their alleged treatments of mental disorders psychotropics are no different in fact many uh leading secularist are now admitting that we will regret what we've been promoting as health I won't go into hypnosis but there there actually is a habituation of Deceit involved in hypnosis uh they they try to to place people into a state that we enter into our dream
state where things can actually be suggested so that you begin to believe them so I would never recommend any material thing to try to fix uh immaterial problem problem in in scripture the the replacement of the ministry of the holy spirit in any way whether it's telling the future or uh specifically in taking a chemical for for a gift of the spirit like [Music] self-control is in Greek called PHA and there's a strong warning and for and a forbidding of Christians to participate in replacing the ministry of the holy spirit in any way there are
physical reasons to take drugs but if you think about it the secular world needs the Holy Spirit just like you and I do but they have to replace the holy spirit with some material gimmick just something to think on okay in all these discussions about using secular theories there's a passage of scripture that gets forgotten uh Psalm 1 says this listen to verses 1 to 3 so Christians are called to think differently than the world uh and I'll I won't go into a long explanation but there is a Doctrine called the doctrine of antithesis uh
we don't think the same as the world our minds are supposed to be transformed by truth and not conformed to the way the world thinks uh antithesis is a key part of what's called presuppositional apologetics and it was uh developed by a man named vantil and there's a debate going on right now about vantil versus a Dutch Theologian named Herman bavin and I think I'll stop there okay can I say one quick thing yes going back to the question about psychologies but directly related to Psalm 1 uh if we treated uh false religions like we
do psychologies then we would be arguing well jah's Witnesses have a lot of truth shouldn't we consider some of the things that they're saying Dr Baker made this point previously in 2 Corinthians 10 tells us that we are to destroy every thought and knowledge that is raised against the knowledge of God so we're what we're doing may seem a little harsh to some of you but truth is life and we must guard that and sadly many times that's interpreted as being harsh or mean or uh not loving as biblical coun the most loving thing we
can do is to lovingly confront those we care about you can't separate Truth and Love is schizophrenia a physical problem a an illness or a spiritual problem uh to to quote J Adams J Adams schizophrenia is not a thing it's an idea so to to answer that question uh schizophrenia just redescribes someone who has a split mind um there's another biblical counselor who's gone to be with the Lord named David palson and he argued uh years ago that schizophrenia is a euphemism it's a symbol I argue that it's a failure to explain in other words
when they can't explain why someone is in a psychotic State they just call them schizophrenic I've counseled dozens of and I don't want to say families uh uh PE uh individuals but families I always meet with the family in each case has been completely different some people uh have participated in drug use some people have have had an affair and they are struggling in deep persistent guilt others have had diabetes and been prescribed a medicine that has caused insomnia in other words it's incorrect to view schizophrenia as a thing there is always an explanation though
so when you hear the term schizophrenia or bipolar you should realize the clinician has actually failed to explain they're literally just uh categorizing People based on symptoms and and I won't go into the bizarre nature of all this uh but you you can literally have schito type personality or drug induced psychosis where they literally have the exact same symptoms as schizophrenia but they recognize that drugs have actually caused the the insomnia and thus The psychosis the same person and I've counseled people like this can go to several different doctors and be labeled as schizophrenic and
the drugs looked at as a comorbid disorder in other words where the actual explanation exists it's completely minimized to being a symptom or another disorder as God Wills I get to speak to a group of of I think a 100 Physicians if I'm not mistaken this next week in Brazilia and I'm going to walk them through all the science shows that sleep uh deprivation and disregulation are what lead to schizophrenia I don't believe it leads to schizophrenia I believe it leads to psychosis that gets called schizophrenia and actually psychosis is the normal and healthy reaction
to not sleeping some of you have shared with me that that going two or three days without sleeping you went into a psychotic State that's actually healthy because if you didn't you would go into uh you would actually die from not sleeping so I'll leave it at that okay okay so what is the approach to people who have already been diagnosed and are taking medication for and then they listed schizophrenia bipolar you know anything so what would be the biblical counsel in approach to someone who is already on medication and then the final question was
should they ask their psychiatrist to suspend the medication um I'll answer first and then you can add whatever you want to add I do not argue with people about their diagnosis um I want to spend my time showing them a Biblical Al alternative to the symptoms that they're having and just so I don't forget to address this we are not Physicians we train all of our counselors not in to get involved with advice about medicines there can be legal liability with having those kind of discussions when you are not a licensed physician the one exception
we make to that is to warn people about the side effects uh psychotropic medicines are very powerful I feel compelled to Out of Love tell people you need to talk to your doctor about the side effects um I'll just give you a little more detail on medicine uh there's an effect called parkinsonisms uh people in the United States have taken so many psychotropic medications it has now done permanent damage to their brain and they are being diagnosed with Parkinson's [Music] disease it's called yes but it's a type of parkinsonism yes parkinsonisms is the general term
so people are being diagnosed with a real disease called Parkinson's disease but it's not from that so you have anything you want to add I've got a lot I can add uh so I agree with Dr Baker I I I almost never talk about drugs Baker in fact we just went through four sessions on trauma and I didn't have drugs in my notes at all and what I've learned over and over in counseling is when people begin to see themselves as God sees them they start questioning this this eugenic concept of disorder it is literally
right out of Nazi Germany in fact Emil kin who invented the constructs of schizophrenia in bipolar Al coined the term psychopharmacology the dsm5 is actually patterned off of his original book of psychiatric Nostalgia Psy I do want to say to you though that there's something you need to understand about the majority of my counseling [Music] in regard to psychiatric disorders besides those in my own church I I counsel a lot of people around the world and when they are introduced to me they're at a state that they've usually exhausted the psychiatric system and they've typically
gotten worse by being in that system and they're desperate for help so I never try to convince anyone to go on or go off of drugs but if they're wanting help I'm going to get them help with a licensed physician to do that um they they uh Dr Baker noted that these drugs are antagonists they they work against healthy function there is not a single psychiatric drug that actually restores Health that is a complete lie the medical term is an antagonist they work by blocking dopamine reuptake or serotonin reuptake in fact are you ready for
this uh what are called antipsychotics are classified as major tranquilizers and they're considered to be genotoxins they literally are are being studied right now as a possible cure for cancer because they destroy healthy uh the healthy genome they destroy cells uh and I could go on and on of of what's taking place here the condition that Dr Baker referred to is called of discinesia uh there's also of um uh aasia where people feel like demons are coming out of them or they're in fire inside and many of the suicides OCC Ur occur from aasia and
that's why the blackbox warning is on these labels so although I would never tell anyone to go on or go off drugs I personally would not let any of my children or my wife if I can help it go on these drugs it is widely understood that these drugs do not heal now let me give a caveat uh if someone is not sleeping they will be uh prescribed the exact drugs they would for a mental disorder Dr Baker talked about motive I think the bi biblical ethic behind taking drugs has to be is my problem
organic or inorganic God is all for taking medicine for organic problems so if insomnia is a problem I'm not opposed to taking medicine to allow sleep but there's always a reason why a person isn't sleeping and if that problem is anxiety or guilt which is or inorganic which the Bible talks about then that needs to be addressed but but long-term use of things like major tranquilizers or antis psychotics is sadly known to destroy dopam magenic systems which allow us to sleep so I actually think it would be unloving for for me to not share that
people need to understand truth rather than these lies like the chemical imbalance Theory so I could talk a lot more but I'll I'll stop there okay okay for were you thinking of your grandkids okay should we fight integrationism between uh the the psychology and uh the is he had the uh the church but he was talking about the word of God and if so what should we do should we fight integration within biblical counil so put it all together okay so should we fight integration integrationism uh within or with like you know the marriage of
psychology and the word of God and how should we go about doing okay um I don't want to fight anybody um I want to be kind I want to be loving but when things are questioning the sufficiency of scripture and the authority of scripture I have to say something uh I hope that this week you haven't thought that I've been antagonistic I I haven't wanted to be antagonistic uh but I have been addressing integrationism this week whether you realize it or not uh I've said at least three times we have a complete belief system system
we do not need to mix with the psychology so I have been addressing integrationism all week uh but I haven't been doing it in an antagonistic way I've just been trying to get you to think uh I only have one life so I have to be careful how I use my energy and what I'm going to spend energy uh addressing and part of my calling in life is to help people to have confidence in the Bible but that also means I have to address my concerns with others what they're teaching uh my last sentence would
be uh Ephesians tells me to speak the truth in love uh 100% agree uh we we don't wrestle against uh flesh and blood but against principalities and Powers scripture also tells us that there must be divisions among us because truth does separate in that way but as a uh principle I don't cut people off who disagree with me if they're truly in Christ I want to uh help them in their sanctification we're still one in the faith uh I will as Dr Baker said address uh falsehood it's unloving not to do so but I really
desire for those who disagree with with God's word not not with me to come into truth so I I grew up in a very uh legalistic phical environment I'm thankful my parents were not and and I saw how my dad desired people to be uh convinced and won by God's truth and within biblical counseling there are people that I disagree with and sadly have cut me off but I'm thankful for Godly men like Dr Baker who who have have put his uh kind of Mark in the sufficiency and superiority of Christ and I would I
would say as a whole biblical counseling is really headed towards uh the superiority and sufficiency of Christ but just like in the church where we're warned in scripture there will always always be those that are always pulling uh others away from truth I personally don't write reviews about other uh writers that I disagree with even books that are in the back of this room just my own personal uh philosophy because I I truly believe that God's truth changes people uh not not my rationale not my uh waxing eloquent or going after people it I do
when I recognize falsehood uh uh then go to scripture to be able to better explain to people why that's false so I I just encourage you that uh if we're to win people to truth it's really the holy spirit that wins them uh we have have to speak truth but we have to do so in a gracious way and lastly if I can just encourage you one of the questions I get asked most as I speak uh really around the world is how do I convince people in my church my pastor my friends my family
to accept biblical truth it's the same answer I give for people that ask me how can I change people trust God that he changes people if people begin to see your life and others around that you counsel change they won't be able to deny the empirical evidence and they will come start asking for their own issues one of the reasons our church is growing in New York is because families have come for help and their pastors aren't giving them that biblical help for real life issues and they they long for that and I don't have
to tell them you should come to our church and I don't want to pull people away from good biblically based churches but I'm going to tell you if you start preaching practical things that we talk about in counseling your church will grow let God change hearts and in his time some of you will take uh uh this week and forever your life will be changed some of you will be like I'm not there and it may take five years for you to come to that realization it's God's work in his timing One S uh want
to ask you to be aware of what's going on in biblical counseling be aware there are some in biblical counseling moving toward integration so just listen and [Music] evaluate
