Results of Psychology

Since the inception of the ministry of Setting Captives Free in July of 2000, we have had the privilege of working with numerous people with spiritual problems. Approximately 165,000 people have taken our online courses and many more have gone through our material in book or email form. It is beyond the scope of this writing to point out the mixture of truth and error that is inherent within most teachings of Christian psychology, and many other ministries address the dangers of psychology as contrasted with biblical truth, so we will not attempt to do so. Instead, our goal in this writing is to discuss our observations regarding the result of Christian psychological teaching on numerous people.

The majority of people who come to our ministry in bondage to sin do so with a good knowledge of psychology. A large number of them have been to psychological counseling (Christian and otherwise), many of them for years, and they come to us with a thorough understanding of brain chemistry, neurons and synapses, and of "trigger points" that cause them to "act out" in ways that are "not positive." They understand how their past and their parents have contributed significantly to their current condition, and they may often explain the need for chemical therapy as prescribed by their psychiatric doctors.

The problem is that they are still tightly bound by the chains of their sin. Somehow the knowledge they have gained and the chemicals they are taking have not been effective in releasing them from bondage to pornography and sexual impurity, gambling and gaming, gluttony and laziness, or drinking and drugs, etc. While they hope to "do better" and to "sin less" they never seem to find the type of freedom declared in Romans 6:17-18; the type of freedom that takes us captive to Jesus and makes us happy slaves of His.

While we at Setting Captives Free make no claim whatsoever to being experts in the area of psychological treatment and/or drug therapy, we are able to report that we have observed the results of psychological counseling on thousands, even hundreds of thousands of lives, and that result is, at best, similar to a band-aid on spiritual cancer and, at worst, a great deception that keeps people enslaved to the destructive life-style of sin.

While this short article is not intended to focus on those who have become ensnared by psychology, our desire is to expose the destructive nature of psychology, which is man-focused, and to exalt the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to completely free sin-captives and release them from their bondage.

We have watched these previously very knowledgeable, yet enslaved, people turn to God's Word and seek the help of God's Spirit and, in so doing, are dramatically changed by God. He gives those who embrace Jesus the "freedom of God's sons" and the enjoyment of life in and for the glory of God. He gives the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair (Isaiah 61:3). We have yet to see these types of results occur through any form of psychology, Christian or otherwise. Only the gospel is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16), and only the gospel produces the "such were some of you" people who are changed from the inside out (1 Cor. 6:11).

For further reading, we recommend the following:

Why Christians Can't Trust Psychology, by Dr. Ed Bulkley

Sincerely,

Setting Captives Free Board of Directors:

Mike Askins
Bryan Reif
Shon Bruellman
Mike Cleveland
Brian Hogan