Welcome to the reading of Dr. Richard Ganz's book, Psychobabble, The Failure of Modern Psychology, and the Biblical Alternative, copyright 1993, by Richard Ganz. This book is read and distributed with the author's permission. This MP3 audio file is a production of Stillwaters Revival Books, which offers a large selection of free and discounted classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed resources on the web at SWRB.com. We continue our reading on page 109. Chapter 10 Becoming New Creatures God's people are meant to bless, strengthen, encourage, and biblically counsel one another. Church leaders should spearhead these activities. All too often, however, they do not do it. Pastors who will otherwise be committed to the principle of the sufficiency of Scripture will compromise at the point of counseling. They will relinquish their God-given and God-ordained authority at the doorway of the high priests of psychology. I was forcefully reminded of this in the case of Betty, who came to my attention when a pastor called me for advice. Betty was not in his congregation, but she had been a friend for years. He knew her to be a committed Christian. Betty's husband had recently been laid off from work. She still had a good job, her children were grown, her husband wasn't worried, and the house was paid off. But Betty nevertheless brooded about possible dangers. She became obsessed with fear that she and her husband would be impoverished. Betty's sister recommended that she be taken to the local psychiatric hospital for help. After a quick evaluation, the doctors admitted Betty to the hospital. She was placed on medication, but was still depressed. At this point my pastor friend called to ask my advice. I told him to get her out of there and begin dealing biblically with her fears and the inaction that her depression caused. The pastor said that the family was unwilling to take her out of the hospital even though weekend home visits were Betty's best times. Two weeks later the pastor called again. He was alarmed because he had just discovered that Betty was about to begin a series of electroconvulsive shock treatments, ECT. ECT was discovered in the 1930s by the Italian psychiatrist, Ugo Serletti. As he walked past the slaughterhouse, he noticed that the cattle had electrodes attached to their heads. He found out that a relatively small shock rendered them unconscious. thus it was possible to slaughter them in a more humane fashion. He began applying the shock in his psychiatric practice at the local hospital. In the last half century, shock therapy became one of the most widely practiced therapies in the world. Although there have been numerous outcries against it, it remains a staple in the arsenal of the modern psychiatrist. I told the pastor, Contact her pastor and warn him of the dangers of ECT, that it begins a treadmill of regular rounds of ECT in increasingly serious depressions. Remind him that ECT will not deal with Betty's fears and her lack of trust that God will take care of them during this difficult time. He told me that Betty's pastor was at the hospital during his last visit. He overheard him telling Betty and her family that ECT was a wonderful treatment. About two weeks later, Bob called me to say that he had just returned from a visit with Betty. She appeared in better spirits than he had seen her in a long time. I could sense his underlying confusion. He was wondering if ECT really was a wonder cure after all. I told him to ask Betty about her experience with ECT. He came back and told me, as I knew he would, that she had absolutely no memory of ECT, or of any of the events immediately preceding it. Sure, Betty seemed better. Her recent memory, and all that had triggered her depression, had been removed, as if magically. Yes, Betty could expect a brief respite from fear and depression, but ECT was no cure. ECT had not dealt with the root of her distress. There was absolutely no reason to assume that continuing problems in Betty's life wouldn't prod her to return for ever-decreasing periods of peace through an ever-increasing number of ECT treatments. Betty is a Christian woman with a Christian family and a Christian pastor, all of whom allowed a barbaric form of treatment with negligible, if any, long-term benefits and potentially serious long-term effects to be used instead of the Word of God. Biblical counselors are committed to God and His work, not just in our prayer closets and on the Sabbath, but in our work. We want to bring every thought captive to Christ, and in so doing, witness the power of God, not the power of man. This is just what God offers. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come." 2 Corinthians 5 17 Young Christians know that the Bible says they are changed, but they often understand this change to be primarily an affective reality. That is, they assume that because they are changed, they must feel changed. They believe they will feel more loving, gentle, self-controlled. This, too, does take place in the course of our sanctification. Our feelings, like all else, are redeemed by God to be used for His glory. When their feelings don't change immediately, it can lead to massive disappointment in poorly instructed new Christians. These new believers often react with anger and disappointment. I don't want to be a Christian anymore. I don't feel any different. I still have homosexual feelings. What good does it do being a Christian? I thought that God would take those feelings away, or at least take the temptations away. Every biblical counselor has heard similar accounts dozens or perhaps even hundreds of times. Yet God never says He will take away bad feelings or temptations. He says instead that with the temptation He will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10.13 The glory of God is not that you are never again tempted, but that in the midst of your trials, instead of giving in to sin, you flee to Him and do what's right. To the glory of God you learn to say no to sin and yes to God and to his standard of righteousness. Failure to understand this point leads to cruel bondage. We open ourselves to the suggestion that our Christian faith isn't working and whip ourselves into the psychotherapist's office at the first available appointment. But this is not what God tells us in this passage. His power is real, but corruption still continued to plague the child of God until the end. This is the reason for the constant admonitions in the scriptures to put off the old and put on the new. It is confirmation that certain areas of our lives, though truly set free from the law of sin and death, Stubbornly resist relinquishing their hold on sordid but familiar postures and attitudes. Hence the commandment, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Romans 12 2 in IV. Emphasis Mine. Being a new creature means to be a part of a new order. We do not have the old thoughts immediately eradicated. Don't be discouraged when facing a difficulty. Don't be disheartened at temptations. What did you expect? Don't answer, I know what you expected, at least what you hoped. You hoped as a holy person to be out of the battle, you hoped your lust and wrong desires would never again trouble you. Not so. We are holy in spite of the continuation of sin and sinful impulses. We are holy in the battle, and the battle wages in us. We are a battlefield, every bit as much as the national, political, civil scene, every bit as much as the family is a battleground. Yet by God's grace we can stand our ground in the power of the Holy Spirit, by His strength, and we can see personal victory. So then, rather than despairing at the difficulties, remember that what you are really experiencing is the tension of living between two worlds. Every believer is appropriating the powers of the age to come in this age. To expect no difficulty is to deny sin and its power. The mighty change is within, as God's Spirit takes progressive control of a believer's life and equips him or her to face the tension between the two worlds and win. Every believer must realize that only the miracle of grace accounts for his or her change from a natural to a spiritual person. 1 Corinthians 2, 14 and 15. Every believer must realize that to be regenerated is to be emancipated from Satan's kingdom and to be placed into the kingdom of Christ. It is to be transformed from a child of disobedience, Ephesians 2, 2, into a child of obedience, 1 Peter 1, 14. It is to take an unbeliever, including his mind and heart, which are at enmity against God, and make him into a loyal subject of the king. Indeed a war is being fought. In any war the major issue must never be how the troops feel in the battle, but rather are the troops battling regardless of how they feel? Surely the king wants happy troops. He has done everything to facilitate this, but the King demands our active participation in His cause even when we don't feel like it. This is where many people have trouble. They believe the change in coming to Christ should make them feel different. While changed feelings follow obedience, coming to Christ doesn't necessarily make a person feel better at first. In fact, The changes one undergoes and the possible friction in relationships with people who don't understand what is happening often contribute to feeling worse. However, there is one principle that facilitates peace during the early and more trying times in the Christian life. The Christian grows in his or her understanding of the truth gradually. Advance in the Christian life comes a little bit at a time. One of the great problems of young Christians is their proclivity to act as though they know all the truth. Many people, highly excited and almost intoxicated with their newfound faith, act as though they can learn nothing from anyone. Some of them, while learning very little, parade about in arrogance and presumption. True Christian knowledge inevitably leads to humility, because the knowledge of God is humbling. Thus the hope of the believer is to be progressively deepened in faith and progressively conformed to Christ. Those who shepherd the flock of God ought to instruct their people in perseverance, not only for salvation, but also in order to taste more deeply of the good things of God.