Scripture quotations are taken from the Authorized …

1 Scripture quotations are taken from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy TO MINISTER:THE BIBLICAL CARE OF SOULSC opyright 1996 Martin and Deidre BobganPublished by EastGate PublishersSanta Barbara, CaliforniaLibrary of Congress Catalog Card Number 96-86500 ISBN 0-941717-11-9 For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:That no flesh should glory in his of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:That, according as it is written, He that glori-eth, let him glory in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:26-31).

2 CONTENTS1. The Biblical Care of Souls in the Body of Getting Past the Obstacles to Caring for Every Believer Called and Competent to A High Calling; A Common Caring for Souls Inside and Out ..716. The Whole Counsel of God ..877. Salvation and Sanctification in the Care of Living and Ministering by Faith ..1239. Ministering Hope to One Another ..14110. Ministering Love to One Another ..15111. Ministering Mercy and Truth ..17112. Caring for Souls through Cautions to Heed in Caring for The Care of Souls in Your Believers Competent to Minister the Care of Notes ..250 We have been on a journey since writing our firstbook, The Psychological Way/The Spiritual written a number of books along the way, but aswe were writing Against Biblical Counseling.

3 For theBible, we found it necessary to tell Moody Press that wecould no longer support our book How to Counsel fromScripture,2because we had departed from the biblicalcounseling movement and were voicing our How to Counsel from Scripturecontains muchmaterial we still uphold, some of it supported the bibli-cal counseling movement from which we had Press kindly put the book out of print. Thiscurrent book, Competent to Minister: The Biblical Careof Souls, is a natural result of having departed from thebiblical counseling movement and includes many of the 1 The Biblical Care of Souls inthe Body of Christ3biblical reasons why we did.

4 Here we encourage thechurch to return to its biblical Reformation was a turning point in church his-tory. Two great teachings of the Reformation are SolaScripturaand the priesthood of all believers. SolaScripturameans by Scripture alone. The priesthood ofall believersmeans that believers, guided by the Wordand empowered by the Holy Spirit, are equipped andcalled to minister to one another in the Body of book rests heavily on those two doctrines. It is acall forward to confidence in the efficacy of Scripturesand the knowledge that:All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and isprofitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,for instruction in righteousness: That the man ofGod may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto allgood works (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

5 This book is also a call to believers to use the Wordempowered by the Spirit to minister to one who are Christians are competent to ministerby the grace of God; you can care for care of souls depends upon all of the alones ofthe Reformation:Sola Scripturaby Scripture aloneSola Gratiaby grace aloneSolo Christoby Christ aloneSola Fideby faith aloneSoli Deo Gloriaglory to God aloneThese principles apply to all aspects of salvation,including justification, sanctification, and are to continue their walk with the Lord onthe same basis as their initial salvation by Scripturealone, by grace alone, by Christ alone, by faith alone,and to the glory of God alone.

6 All these apply within theindividual life of the believer and within the Body ofChrist, in which we have the fellowship and the priest-hood of all to Minister4 Mutual care within the Body of Christ, performed bya priesthood of all believers also depends upon thesesame principles. We want to emphasize this at the verybeginning because of the tenacious tendency to useother means for living the Christian life and solvingproblems of living. Psychological counseling violatesthese biblical principles. Theories and methodologiesunderlying psychotherapy have come from the wisdomof men and cannot be integrated with Scripture withoutdoing violence to the Word of God.

7 Psychological coun-seling depends on the works of the flesh rather than thegrace of God, even when practiced by the flesh is strengthened and spiritual growthmay be retarded or counseling is not by Christ alone, evenif the counselor is a Christian, because the models andmethods are unsanctified human means and dependupon unsanctified human effort. Psychological counsel-ing depends on a faith other than faith in the Word ofGod and the work of the Holy Spirit. Psychologicalcounseling depends on faith in the counselor and thecounseling process. Finally, psychological counselingcannot be Soli Deo Gloria, because the psychologytogether with the counselor and the so-called counseleeget the credit.

8 Even when some credit is given to Godbecause of a counselor or counselee being a Christ-ian, the glory is not glory to God of what is called biblical counseling fails tosupport these solid biblical principles as well. About 25years ago Dr. Jay Adams wrote a book titled Competentto Counsel. His book marked the beginning of what isnow known as the biblical counseling movement. WhileAdams was attempting to encourage pastors to ministerbiblically, rather than psychologically, he solidified theidea of counseling as a process for Christians. Now,after years of involvement in the biblical counselingmovement, we realize it was a mistake for him to call it counseling in the first place.

9 What should go onbetween believers in the mutual care of souls wouldThe Biblical Care of Souls5better be called ministry, personal ministry, care ofsouls anything but counseling. Why? If the processof mutual care and personal ministry of the Word ofGod had been called ministry rather than counsel-ing, many of the unbiblical aspects of the biblical coun-seling movement (such as charging fees) may neverhave been incorporated by those who wanted to minis-ter biblically. Can you imagine anyone charging for min-istry? Would any Christian even think of charging afellow believer for extending mutual care in the Body ofChrist?

10 But, call it counseling with counselors and counselees, and no one questions the required fee,because that s exactly what happens in the world. Pro-fessional counselors charge fees for counseling their counselees. The words counselingand counselorhave becomepowerful symbols that place too much emphasis on theprocess (methodology) and the person conducting theprocess ( expert ). Even when Christians use the wordscounsel(verb form ), counselor, counselee, and counsel-ing, the terms are bound to meanings, expectations, andprocedures of psychotherapy. Because of the psychologi-cal baggage of such words , Christians should try toavoid using them in reference to biblical ministry, evenwhen referring to personal ministry involving thoseseeking wisdom and those attempting to help throughlistening and speaking.