| Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A |
| Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A Q&A |
I recently saw a short letter to the editor in the July-August 2000 issue of The New Oxford Review, a conservative Roman Catholic magazine article called "Spiritual Power for the Warriors on the Beach." In it there is a discussion about hermits. The Roman Catholic church apparently has canon law on the subject. The article goes on to mention the emergence of this phenomenon in the 10th and 11th centuries to combat the corrupting influences of simony and the birth of the Carthusian and Camaldolese eremitical orders about this time. The article points to Matthew 24:12 ("And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.") as the reason God chooses some to pursue the ascetic and "mystical" life to combat the mass apostasy which we witness in the neo-Modernist world.
Would you discuss hermits from the Lutheran point of view, what their history and purpose was in the early Church, and what role they might play today.The word hermit comes from the Greek for a "desert dweller." The transferred meaning is "one who lives in isolation."
The idea of living in isolation is not a New Testament concept, for Christians are the light of the world, witnesses of Christ, left on earth to tell the good news of salvation. People who isolate themselves cannot do these things.
The institutional or official church did not invent hermitism or sanction the first hermits. Hermitism was a lay movement. Some of the earliest (late second century) hermits were fugitives from persecution.
After persecution ended there were men (and later women) who chose the solitary and ascetic life to escape from the corruption of the world and what they perceived as the worldliness of their fellow Christians. The motivation of some was to seek a new kind of "martyrdom" after the Roman Empire stopped making martyrs.
By the early 4th century there were hermits living in community, at which point they were no longer literally hermits. In some ways the catholic church (the Christian Church of the Roman Empire) came to regard those who lived the monastic life as a rival force, admired by ordinary Christians and beyond the control of the bishops.
The Council of Chalcedon (451) enacted legislation to limit and control monastic institutions. Some of this legislation did become part of Canon Law. There was, as the inquirer notes, later legislation addressing other issues.
Through the centuries, hermits made positive contributions to the life of the church and society. They carried on mission work and engaged in Bible study. They were a civilizing influence with their work ethic and their willingness to serve.
Lutherans do not foster or favor mysticism, since we believe that God comes to us and we do not discover him. We believe that he comes to us with the good news in Word and Sacrament. Lutherans regard the underlying spirit of hermitism or monasticism, from its very inception, as work righteous.
Why does WELS continue in the "Christian Psychology" movement, instead of getting back to the Word of God as their only foundation in counseling? Christian Psychology is a rather newly formed movement originally meant as an alternative to secular counseling. Formed with no-doubt good intentions, its basis is not Biblical. Psychology was invented by Freud and furthered by avowed atheists in order to escape the Church and it's moral teachings. It basically treats man as good inside, with his "mental" problems being a result of something done wrong to him by either his environment or some other person. We are however, evil inside as a result of sin-only with a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus can anything we do be considered "good" and that knowledge itself is a gift of God.
The counseling centers WELS is associated with integrate secular counseling with the counsel from the Bible. They take secular counseling with the secular degrees they have received as their foundation and then hack away on that which they're standing, bringing in quotes from the Bible to repair the cracks they've created! Further, psychology is not a science, but merely subjective thought; it's always changing and the diagnosis and remedy for any problem can be as different as the different names each Christian counselor has.
If it were truly Christian, it should be truly Biblical. That means no outside center, but members who had the talent of counseling would work from within their local church. That means no insurance, but counselors would be paid a salary by the local church- not based on how many counsels or how long they keep their clientele. That means no secular training or degrees, but anyone who has a saving faith (one which also must be constantly growing and that's only possible by daily reading and study of the Word of God) is fit to counsel another brother.
Any pastor should be able to counsel even the most serious of so called mental problems. One does not need a "professional" with a secular degree to help him in his mental thought, he needs the Lord Jesus Christ! Granted, first such a person should seek a complete physical because there are diseases and injuries that can impair the normal brain functions and therefore thought, but beyond any confirmed medical brain problems, the reason we think or act inappropriately is a result of our sin! If the pastor is too busy to personally counsel each member himself, he should take inventory of his congregation and appoint those members so blessed with the gift of advising to be the local in-church counselors.
I've been to many a Sunday service where the WELS pastor would give a strong Biblical message many times using quotes from the Bible such as "...there's a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death." Proverbs 14:12, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16, or "A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep." 1 Corinthians 11:28-30, but then in the bulletin I would find an add for the local counseling center. How sad! We don't believe what we preach!
The "Christian Psychology" movement is a great deception by the evil one in these last days. It has infiltrated every denomination I know. Let's get back to the Bible and return to the Word for our answers. Nobody can add to the only Truth and we don't need any human crutches when we have the only secure Foundation. If we believe Jesus can raise us from the dead to everlasting Glory, why do we believe He can't help us in all our earthly problems? The Bible is sufficient!Thank you for your concern about the WELS and Christian Counseling. I also share your concern. But my earthly attempt at "keeping the evil away" is different from yours. I have served in the parish ministry for 22 years. During that time I did much counseling. In connection with my preparation for teaching at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary I studied for and obtained a Master of Social Work degree. I know first hand the dangers of Freud and Jung and their theories and the theories of others like them in the secular psychology world.
I do not know which counseling agency you are speaking about that is advertised in your church bulletin. I would expect or guess that it is Wisconsin Lutheran Christian Counseling. During the past 12 months another pastor who has a degree in psychology and I have provided extensive training to almost all of the counselors of this agency so that we might rightly call the counseling that they do, Bible-based counseling, rather than the type of Christian Counseling you describe which pastes a band aide of Scripture on a problem rather than dealing with the problem from a scriptural point of view.
Our instruction of these counselors included extensive instruction and practice in how to use Scripture in counseling sessions with various types of mental health problems. Different sections provided extensive study in the Old Testament Scriptures, the Psalms, The New Testament Scriptures, and the doctrines of justification and sanctification and Law and Gospel and church and ministry. Other sections of the course compared various secular theories of counseling to the Scriptures. Practical application exercises accompanied each of these sections. The practical application exercises always forced the students to use Scripture in ways that made it the basis of counseling rather than a secular method or theory. We are confident that learning took place. We cannot guarantee that it is always used. Each new employee of WLCC will be trained in this course of study.
This course is available to all mental health professionals in fellowship with the Wisconsin Ev. Lutheran Synod. About seven are currently enrolled in the course.
You mention original sin and the need to address sin when counseling. A foundational part of each practice section and a large part of each of the lessons in this course forced the students to wrestle with how to use Scripture to bring people to repentance. Again and again in the course we deal with the issue of human sinfulness and Christ as the only solution. He is the forgiveness of our sins. He is the salvation of our souls.
I hope from what I have written that you can see how careful this agency which is made up of your fellow-WELS members has been to train its counselors in the use of God's Word to bring about repentance and to encourage spiritual healing.
We have tried to discourage integrating secular counseling with the counsel from the Bible. Integration puts secular counseling on a par with Bible-based counseling. We have emphasized the need to do Bible-based counseling rather than the integrationist approach that you describe. God's Word must remain the authority for what we preach and teach and counsel.
The other major point that you make is that "any pastor should be able to counsel even the most serious of so called mental problems." I would agree with you to a point. You acknowledge the need to get a physical medical opinion from a medical doctor. But you seem to disavow the existence of mental or emotional illness. You don't talk like a Christian Scientist until you get to mental or emotional illnesses. Then you do. A Christian Science Practitioner, of course, disavows the use of a medical doctor.
They call it the "practice" of medicine because some good scientists that are called "M.Ds." are practicing medicine on their patients. Theories of treatment and methods of diagnosis are constantly changing. They don't have it perfect. They aren't God. They don't use God's Word. (Or few of them do in their practices.) Nothing is much different in the field of mental health professionals. It is a science. Things are constantly changing as they are in any human scientific area. They don't have it perfect. They are not God. Few use God's Word.
Think of mental illness affecting three areas of our lives -- or three areas of our lives affecting our mental state.
Spiritual -- Here the pastor or the concerned church member must always be involved. Sometimes the pastor will refer the troubled member to members who have the talent to counsel. I submit that this happens when WELS pastors refer to WELS counseling agencies so that their people are counseled by their fellow WELS members.
Physical -- Here, as you admit, the scientist who is entitled, "medical doctor," can best handle the situation. The member will still need spiritual counseling.
Mental and Emotional -- Here I would hope to persuade you that some of the methods and ways that the scientists who are called "mental health professionals," have proven to be effective in helping people think more clearly and organize their thought patterns more clearly. Spiritual counseling is certainly necessary here because of sin and guilt and the need for repentance and absolution.
As you see the need to refer to science for help in physical areas, I hope that you would be willing to see the need to refer to science for help in the area of mental and emotional health. As I provide pastoral counseling to the member who has breast cancer, so will I give pastoral counseling to the member who is agoraphobic or obsessive compulsive.
To give our pastors the training that you suggest with your statement that any pastor should be able to counsel even the most serious of so called mental problems would mean adding two years of schooling to their 12 years of preparation for the ministry. One of those years would be a year of further classroom work. Another would be a year spent in getting experience in counseling as our seminary students now get experience in teaching and preaching during their vicar year. We do not have the resources, nor do we have enough candidates for the ministry to add two more years to their training.
I would hope that you would view the counselors at the WELS affiliated counseling agencies as your fellow WELS members. That is what they are. I am sure that they would all tell you that they want to work with your pastor to provide the best mental health help to our WELS members. I don't appreciate fees and insurance companies either. But the worker is worthy of receiving reimbursement for the work provided.
I do like your idea of training in-church mental health spiritual counselors.
I do not agree with you that "the reason we think or act inappropriately is a result of our sin." It is a result of this being a sinful and imperfect world. It may not be the result of a particular sin that I have committed, however. My relative with breast cancer has the disease because this is a sinful and imperfect world, not because she committed any particular sin for which God is now punishing her. My relative with depression has the mental illness because this is a sinful and imperfect world, not because she committed any particular sin. She needs spiritual counseling with the Word of God. She ought to receive this from her pastor or fellow Christian to whom he might refer her. She needs medicine to help her from her medical doctor. She may need "talk therapy" to help her begin to pattern her thinking in more productive ways. A good Bible-based counselor would be the one to help her here.
God's blessings as you wrestle with this difficult issue.Is hymnosis a valid form of treatment for a Christian?
Hypnosis is a broad field to discuss in a few short paragraphs. People have made fortunes and reputations doing hypnosis and writing about it. There is hypnosis designed to control groups of people. We think of the orchestration of crowds practiced by the NAZI leaders in Germany during the 1930s. Some might call that a type of mass hypnosis. We think of the brain washing techniques supposedly used by the North Koreans during the Korean War and sensationalized in a movie called, "The Manchurian Candidate."They may have involved some form of hypnosis. We think of hypnosis used in entertainment at county and state fairs and in night clubs. In cases where hypnosis is used to control or manipulate others and in cases where hypnosis is used to mock and belittle others, we would not want to be involved with the use of hypnosis as sensitive Christians who love their neighbor as they love themselves.
There is also hypnosis that is used in the mental health profession. This has come under increased scrutiny due to the recent rash of repressed memory syndrome court cases in which therapists have been sued for using hypnosis in unprofessional ways. Under hypnosis mental health clients supposedly remember all kinds of abuse and devil worship practices which were forced upon them as children. The idea or theory was that under hypnosis people would recall those repressed memories very clearly when they could not recall them in any other way.
It was believed by some in the mental health field that memory recall was much more accurate while under hypnosis than under more normal circumstances of therapy. Recent studies and rather high profile cases have debunked these theories that promoted the accuracy of hypnosis induced memory recall. It is now felt that hypnosis allows too much room for practitioner manipulation of client, whether deliberately planned or inadvertently occurring.
There is also mental health practitioner presuppositions that become involved in hypnosis therapy. The mental health professional who treats his or her clients who are suffering from some forms of eating disorders with the presupposition that eating disorders in young adults can always be traced back to some form of childhood sexual abuse which the client experienced as a child, may not be the person you would want to treat your child for an eating disorder by means of hypnosis therapy. While under hypnosis people can be much more open to control and manipulation and suggestion than when they are not hypnotized.
As a Christian I never put myself voluntarily under hypnosis or allowed myself to be hypnotized. Hypnotism was never suggested as a treatment therapy for any mental health or physical illness I have had. God has given Christians our reason as a handmaiden to His Word and our faith. When we remove His gift of reason from ourselves, we can open ourselves to all sorts of control by others. Every human being is responsible for his or her actions, whether alert and awake or under hypnosis. In most cases a Christian will not want to voluntarily place himself or herself into situations in which others through hypnotism might be able to manipulate or control him or her. This would especially not be done on a whim or for entertainment purposes.
Science claims to have discovered ways to use hypnotism and self hypnotism to help people relax and enjoy improved mental health. Where these ways do not involve the Christian in pagan religious practices and where the mental health professional overseeing the hypnosis therapy is well trained and competent, hypnosis may be a method of treatment to which a Christian may submit. It probably would not be the first course of treatment one would use or to which one would submit. But it may be a therapy that may work when other types of treatment have not worked or when the other types of treatment may cause the mental health patient severe and unwanted side effects. The key person in connection with hypnotism is always the mental health practitioner or professional overseeing the hypnosis therapy.
What kind of training has the mental health professional received in the hypnosis therapy which is suggested? What is his or her record of success with the type of mental illness that is to be treated with hypnosis therapy? What does his or her record show regarding manipulation and control of clients? With how many cases of repressed memory has the person used his or her type of hypnosis therapy?
The Christian will want to ask these questions and receive answers that satisfy him or her and his or her care-giver. There is nothing wrong with questioning the methods of a mental health professional in the presence of a loved one. There is nothing wrong with obtaining a second opinion. God has given us our reason and our loved ones to help us make difficult decisions in our lives. God has given us medical techniques to help us. As with all blessings from God, they can be abused by human beings.
There is no Biblical basis to say that hypnosis used to treat certain types of mental illnesses by thoroughly trained and qualified mental health professionals is unscriptural. Because we are responsible for our actions at all times, we will be very careful about submitting to hypnosis.
I just read the most recent question regarding scouting. While you answered the specific question of scouting, there were some other questions raised that interested me.
Does stating "one nation, under God" fit into the same category as acknowledging the existence of a creedless god as the scouts do?
What about the inscription "In God We Trust" on currency?
Finally, is it wrong for a Christian who is interested in getting politically active to take an oath of office which includes both an oath to Country and to "God"?
What is the Biblical evidence for our stance?
The Bible does not directly address the role of oaths to God in an officially secular society since such a society did not exist in biblical times. We obviously can never swear in the name of a false god.In the context of American civic religion the statements "one nation under God" and "in God we trust" can refer only to the generic God who also appears in the teachings of Scouting and the lodge. If taken as religious statements or confessions, these statements promote a false concept of God, which we have to warn against. Their purpose, however, is to assert that the laws and actions of a nation are subordinate to the laws of God and that a nation has no right to ignore the laws of God or to supersede them. As a statement of principle in the pledge of allegiance, "under God" is a correct statement of the principle that governs nations, but it is not an accurate statement of the reality in our country today. In discussing the statement with others we have to make clear in what sense it is true and in what sense it is false. We should not use the pledge in contexts in which it would give the impression of agreement with a false view of God.
If we take oaths which include the name of God in legal settings, we can make it clear that we are swearing in the name of our God, the true God, not of any other. In fact, the law usually allows substitution of an affirmation for an oath. There should not be a situation in American civic or political life that requires us to make a pledge or oath that involves a false god.
Do you [the WELS] believe in 2 nd amendment?
As a church, we believe in obeying the government (Romans 13:1-7).However, we would oppose the government if it ordered us to do something clearly at odds with God's will (Acts 5:29). (Nothing in Scripture tells us that the 2nd amendment is opposed to God's will.) In our society, that means that we also uphold the constitution. It is not for us as a church to say whether any part of the constitution should be changed. We have a political/legal process for that, and we encourage our Christian citizens to work individually within the legal process if they want change. We do not advocate political causes. Our call is to proclaim and teach God's saving Word.
SEARCH our Q&A archives using the subject you have in question as your keyword. Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod ©
2929 N Mayfair Road
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53222
www.wels.net content is copyrighted unless otherwise stated.
Request written permission to copy.
Bravo! Bravo!