Christianity And Psychology Are Incompatible

GBC is a psychology free church because we believe that psychology and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible. Consider the following.

Psychology= "Psuche" (“Soul”) & "Logia" (“The study of”)
 
Who is really qualified to speak about the soul?

Psychology attempts to provide answers to soul questions that are different than those provided by the Bible. But the Bible claims to be sufficient. So the Bible and Psychology will always be in conflict.
 
Human behavioral disfunction can be categorized into some basic categories that all happen to start with the letter “A”.
 

• Anger (Violence, Contention, Aggressive)
• Anti-Social (Mutilation, Destructive, Stealing, Lying, Infidelity, Homelessness)
• Addiction (Drugs, Pornography, Shopping, Gambling)
• Anxiety (Phobia, Panic Attacks, OCD, PTSD)
• Anguish (Depression, Despondency, Despair, Bi-Polar)
• Avoidance (Family disfunction, Relational barriers)

 
The Bible uniformly and universally diagnoses all of these things as SIN. A serious problem arises when we diagnose these things otherwise. For example, consider the following case.

John Hinkley Jr., was a man who really liked actress Jodie Foster, so he decided the best chance he had to get her attention was to assassinate the President. So he went on a mission to shoot President Ronald Reagan and successfully shot him on March 30, 1981. He also ended up shooting four other people. The Psychiatrists (“The Professionals”) were immediately called in to evaluate him and it was like they hit the mental disorder jackpot. They diagnosed him with depression, dysthymia, and schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder…and he was found “not guilty” by reason of insanity.
 
In other words, Hinkley was innocent because he suffered from a disease that caused his behavior. The reality was that Hinkley should have gotten a sentence of life in prison. Psychology may think it is helping humanity, but it consistently serves to obscure God's truth.
 
“People with cancer, diabetes, and heart disease don’t stalk women and open fire on a crowd in an attempt to murder a president. All disease exists in a world tainted by the sin of Adam, but there is something about many “mental illnesses” that are moral in a way that other diseases are not.” -Heath Lambert, The Gospel and Mental Illness, p. 24

“Research has yet to identify specific biological causes for any psychological disorder.” The Biology of Mental Disorders, U.S. Congress Of Technology Assessment, 1992

“The field of psychology today is literally a mess. There are as many techniques and methods around as there are researchers and therapists. I have personally seen therapists convince their clients that all their problems come from their mothers, their stars, their biochemical makeup, their diet, their lifestyle, and even their karma.” Dr. Roger Mills, Psychologist

Is a Christian Psychologist legitimate?
 
Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
 
Whenever we encounter a worldly philosophy that contradicts the Gospel in any way, we have a spiritual obligation to stand in opposition to it. If we remain silent, we are guilty of dereliction of duty.

“Religion is comparable to a childhood neurosis…While the different religions wrangle with one another as to which of them is in possession of the truth, in our view the truth of religion may be altogether disregarded.” Sigmund Freud, The Future Of An Illusion
 
“When a man is freed of religion, he has a better chance to live a normal, wholesome life.” Sigmund Freud
 
“Experience is for me the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own experience. No other person’s ideas are as authoritative as my experience…It is to my experience that I must return again and again. And neither God nor man can take precedence over my own experience.” Dr. Carl Rogers

Basic Reasons That Christianity And Psychology Conflict

1. Psychology teaches that God does not exist (Psalm 14:1)
2. Pschology teaches that God's word is not authoritative (Psalm 19:7-9)
3. Psychology teaches that understanding Evolution is the foundation for understanding man and his problems (2 Corinthians 10:5).
4. Psychology teaches that people are generally good by nature (Romans 3:10-12).
5. Psychology teaches that people have the answers to their problems inside of themselves (Jeremiah 17:9).
6. Psychology teaches that solutions come from studying the past (Philippians 3:12-14).
7. Psychology teaches that spiritual problems can be dealt with by physical means (This explains the popularity of Anti-depressants, Chemical Imbalance Treatment, and ECT Therapies).
8. Psychology teaches that we are the way we are because of what others have done to us (Romans 3:23; 6:23).
9. Psychology excuses sin as a result of one or more arbitrary non-spiritual disorders (The "Disease" model).
10. Psychology teaches that people with spiritual problems must be treated by "Professionals," and cannot be sufficiently helped by a Christian with a Bible.
11. Psychology teaches that the fear of God is useless to restore people (Proverbs 9:10).