CCN-601 Topic 2 Overview Divine Creation: A Christian Theory of the Person - The Imago Dei Introduction It is time to unpack the story a little bit more. The Bible begins by telling where the world and its inhabitants came from. It asserts that God created all of it, simply by his word. Words are powerful. There is an old saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me." One's personal experience and the Bible itself (Prov. 18:21a: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." ESV) can be used to debunk this proposition. Human words are powerful, and much more so, God's. The first few verses in the Bible reveal a Being that has the capacity to create realities simply by imagining and speaking them into existence. Creation ex nihilo is the Latin expression meaning, "making something out of nothing." So, this creative Being is the first cause of all things, who is himself uncaused, in other words eternal—he has no beginning and no end. (By the way, if this is true, it answers several very difficult philosophical questions: How did something come from nothing? How is the something that individuals know—universe, earth, ourselves—ordered rather than disordered? Where does a sense of morality and reason and beauty and love come from?) The biblical God created light and space, and then the earth and the plants and animals, and then the symphony rises to a crescendo as he creates a man and then a woman. What is unique about the biblical God, compared to most of the other gods on offer during the time Genesis was written, is that he seems to be so kindly disposed toward people. The earth, from its atmosphere to the seasons to the plants and animals all seem to be form-fitted by God, just right for the man and the woman. Scientists call this the anthropic principle: the earth, sun, moon, atmosphere, plants, and weather seem to be perfectly fine-tuned to sustain human life (Barrow & Tipler, 1988). In addition, the biblical story says that God made the man and the woman for a particular reason: to serve as his representatives, as benevolent caretakers over everything he created. So, toward that end he gives them instructions about what they are to do: have children, multiply and fill the earth, take good care of it, and basically oversee everything. Then in a very interesting twist in the story, he tells them there is one thing they should not do: Everything on the planet is for them except for one tree, which they must not eat from because if they do they will die (Gen. 1-3). This discussion will resurface in the Topic 3 Overview. The Imago Dei Read Psalm 8: How does this Psalm teach you to think about people? What is the psalmist's response to his realizations about people and God? How should this psalm impact how you go about the task of counseling? You may not have thought about it this way, but the Bible is a very personal book: it is replete with ...

1. CCN-601 Topic 2 Overview
Divine Creation: A Christian Theory of the Person - The Imago
Dei
Introduction
It is time to unpack the story a little bit more. The Bible begins
by telling where the world and
its inhabitants came from. It asserts that God created all of it,
simply by his word. Words are
powerful. There is an old saying, "Sticks and stones may break
my bones but words will never
hurt me." One's personal experience and the Bible itself (Prov.
18:21a: "Death and life are in
the power of the tongue." ESV) can be used to debunk this
proposition. Human words are
powerful, and much more so, God's. The first few verses in the
Bible reveal a Being that has the
capacity to create realities simply by imagining and speaking
them into existence. Creation ex
nihilo is the Latin expression meaning, "making something out
of nothing."

2. So, this creative Being is the first cause of all things, who is
himself uncaused, in other words
eternal—he has no beginning and no end. (By the way, if this is
true, it answers several very
difficult philosophical questions: How did something come from
nothing? How is the something
that individuals know—universe, earth, ourselves—ordered
rather than disordered? Where
does a sense of morality and reason and beauty and love come
from?)
The biblical God created light and space, and then the earth and
the plants and animals, and
then the symphony rises to a crescendo as he creates a man and
then a woman. What is unique
about the biblical God, compared to most of the other gods on
offer during the time Genesis
was written, is that he seems to be so kindly disposed toward
people. The earth, from its
atmosphere to the seasons to the plants and animals all seem to
be form-fitted by God, just
right for the man and the woman. Scientists call this the
anthropic principle: the earth, sun,
moon, atmosphere, plants, and weather seem to be perfectly
fine-tuned to sustain human life

3. (Barrow & Tipler, 1988).
In addition, the biblical story says that God made the man and
the woman for a particular
reason: to serve as his representatives, as benevolent caretakers
over everything he created.
So, toward that end he gives them instructions about what they
are to do: have children,
multiply and fill the earth, take good care of it, and basically
oversee everything. Then in a very
interesting twist in the story, he tells them there is one thing
they should not do: Everything on
the planet is for them except for one tree, which they must not
eat from because if they do they
will die (Gen. 1-3). This discussion will resurface in the Topic
3 Overview.
The Imago Dei
Read Psalm 8: How does this Psalm teach you to think about
people? What is the psalmist's
response to his realizations about people and God? How should
this psalm impact how you go
about the task of counseling?
You may not have thought about it this way, but the Bible is a
very personal book: it is replete

4. with passages describing people and God, who is himself the
prototype for personhood. For
example, Psalm 8:5-6 says that people are crowned with glory
and honor and granted
dominion, with all things on earth being placed under them as if
they were kings. And yet it is
important to notice in Psalm 8 how the Bible's perspective on
humanity is God-centered: "You
are mindful of him… You care for him…You have made
him…and crowned him… You have given
him…O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the
earth." On the one hand the dignity
and value of the person is celebrated, but on the other hand this
psalm is theocentric, because
that is how reality is. God is worshiped, not man. God is the
sun, and people are but moons.
People do not generate light on their own.
God intended (and still intends) that one particular part of the
created order, humanity, would
reflect his light and his glory, thereby representing his image.

5. Central to what it means to be a person is that every human
being is created by God, like God,
and for this God. Following are some thoughts and applications
of the Imago Dei (Latin for
"image of God") to counseling.
Every Person Is Created by God.
Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis are written to highlight two things:
God is the creator of
everything, and people are his special creation.
Genesis (1:26) contains an interesting transition when it
describes how God created people. At
that point, the Creator's method gets personal. There is a
transition from the previously typical
mode of creating, "let there be" (an impersonal metaphysical
decree) to "let us make" (a much
more personal and relational statement like one might say to a
spouse or child, "let's make
dinner together.")
And then again in Genesis (2:7), God's creative method gets
personal: the Lord God "formed
the man…and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils."
God's personal touch is obvious in the description of how he
made this particular species, this

6. particular part of his creation.
Even the name of their location, "Eden," in Hebrew carries the
connotation of delight, luxury, a
pleasant place. The trees and fruit are designed in such a way
that they are "pleasant to the
eyes and good for food" (Gen. 3:6). Like a good father designs a
home for the children he loves,
God pays special attention to how he made people and even the
place in which they were to
reside. As noted earlier, this planet, from its atmosphere, to the
motions of the sun and moon,
to its geology, to the composition of plants, all seems to be
tailor made, just right to support
human life.
Furthermore, God's creative role is not confined to the original
creation of the forefathers in
Eden, but instead is continued every time a baby is conceived
and then develops inside and
then outside of the mother's womb, by God's providential design
for all things.
Psalm 139:13-14: "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted
me together in my mother's
womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

7. Wonderful are your works."
That people are created by God has implications for counseling.
It means that every person you
counsel is not here as a result of an impersonal, unguided
evolutionary process, but is specially
designed by an intelligent, holy, loving personal Being. There
are no chance human beings.
Every counselee exists because of God's choice.
That they are made by God, in such a personal fashion, confers
great value upon them. Like
pricey designer purses or watches whose value goes way beyond
their functionality, individual
value comes from the one who designed and made people. This
is the source of the counselee's
identity and value. The honor and dignity inherent in each
counselee calls you to care for them,
to respect them, and to listen well to them.
Created Like God—in the Imago Dei.
Perhaps the most amazing thing the Bible has to say about
people, however, is not that they

8. are created by God, for that does not in itself set people apart
from the rest of creation, but
instead that people are designed in the very image and likeness
of God. This is reiterated three
times in Genesis 1 and 2, and in several other places in
Scripture.
To be human means to be made, not just by, but even like God.
So, every man, woman, and
child you counsel is a reflector and in some way a
representative of God, which should lead to
humility and awe. You have been chosen by God to serve them,
to love them, to speak truth
into the broken and wrong places in their lives. The image of
God in a man or woman may be
effaced, but it cannot be erased. Those you counsel are similar
to God in a way that may not be
visible, however, because of the devastating and distorting
effects of sin and suffering in their
lives.
Theologians refer to this similarity, this likeness, as the Imago
Dei, and have debated what it
actually means to be created in the image and likeness of God,
especially what constitutes the
image. Millard Erickson's (2013) Christian Theology provides a

9. helpful review of the variety of
perspectives, pointing out that some theologians anchor the
image in the human mind—that
people are rational, intelligent, self-aware beings; others in the
human conscience—that people
are moral/ethical beings capable of discerning and choosing
right and wrong, good and bad;
others believe the Imago Dei consists in that we, like God, have
the capacity to exercise a type
of dominion, control, and stewardship over this delightful
planet. People represent God as
subcreators of culture, fulfilling the cultural mandate (Gen. 1-
2).
Some theologians believe that the essence of the Imago Dei is
relational, that people, like God,
are relational beings capable of communication and personal
connection, of loving and
receiving love. People, like God, are not solo acts but instead
are pervasively relational beings
and are to be properly connected with one another and with
God.
The Imago Dei is what separates every person from the animals,
plants, and the rest of
creation. The unique dignity and sanctity of every human life,

10. regardless of age, color, race,
gender, or economic status in life is rooted here. This is the
basis for a radical equality of worth
and value—among all persons, regardless of color, status,
gender, age, appearance, IQ, or
religion.
James M. Houston (1989), when commenting on Blaise Pascal's
conversion to Christianity,
wrote, "Now the grandeur of the human soul, in spite of the
reality of human sin, gripped him
with new power" (p. 17). Learning to see each human as an
Imago Dei should "grip us," sanctify
your view of those you counsel, and dignify your relationships
with them.
Genesis 9:6 and James 3:9-10 say the reason people should not
murder or even curse a human
being is that to do so is deface the image of God (cf. Job 31:13-
15; Prov. 14:31). Some people
might take offense if they saw someone burning their country's
flag, because their flag is more
than a piece of cloth to them; it represents something much

11. greater and more important to
them. You should be offended and repulsed in the same way
when God's image bearers are not
loved and taken care of as they should be. To disrespect a
person made in the image and
likeness of God disrespects God, because that person represents
him. It is far worse than
desecrating your national flag.
Created for God
Part of what makes any relationship with God "proper" is
acknowledging that we
ourselves are creatures, that we owe our very existence to God,
and that there's
nothing so special about us that we need to exist in the first
place. We live at and for
God's pleasure…So learning to be a Christian is, in a sense,
learning to see all of life as
gift. (Shuman & Volck, 2006, p. 44)
The Bible's take on the purpose and order for individual lives is
theocentric. Isaiah 43:6-7 says,
"Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the
earth, everyone who is called
by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and

12. made." Furthermore, Acts
provides the following:
And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on
all the face of the
earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of
their dwelling
place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way
toward him and find
him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for "In him
we live and move and
have our being." (Acts 17:26-28)
Every human being is created, designed for God.
According to the Westminster Assembly (1647), to answer one
"Man's chief end is to glorify
God and to enjoy him forever." The essence of the Imago Dei is
the capacity for a particular
type of relationship with God, characterized by love, worship,
and obedience.
A direct implication of this theocentricity in counseling is that
every thought, desire, emotion,
action, and impulse of each counselee is both known by God
and evaluated by God. Your
counselees are responsible for themselves. And, even more

13. importantly, they are responsible to
another. Everybody is morally obligated and accountable to God
(Heb. 4:12-13). Ed Welch
(1994) writes, "properly comprehending the image of God
teaches us to see people, at their
very root, as people-who-live-before-God and as people-who-
are-to-live-for-God" (p. 31). To
counsel persons made by, like, and for God means that there are
no God-free zones in the
counselee's life or in counseling.
Every counselee exists because of God's intelligent and
purposive design. They are not
autonomous independent, self-made beings, but instead are
contingent beings put here by
someone else and for that someone's purposes. Whether
counselees realize it or not—and
often you must help them remember, according to the biblical
story, a Christian worldview, and
psychology—it is God's mission for which that they are created.
Realizing this and helping them
to realign their life with God's purposes may be difficult, but it

14. helps them to recover a true and
lasting sense of purpose and meaning. As they apprehend God's
mission with their minds and
then if their hearts are captured by his vision of a glorious life,
their desires, affections,
thoughts, motivations, and then choices, actions, relationships,
habits, and practices can be
progressively reordered for their good and God's glory.
Human Constitution: Body and Soul, Natural and Supernatural
"The Word Became Flesh" (John 1:14).
It is nearly incredible to contemplate the descent of God, an
onmicompetent spiritual Being
who created and sustains everything in the universe, pinpointing
himself in the velvet skin of a
baby, weighing just a few pounds, unable to feed himself, or
walk, or talk.
It is just as remarkable that this supernatural, extraordinarily
holy spiritual Being would not only
become flesh but would also choose to reside within the bodies
of flesh. Nevertheless, that is
the story and it is the New Covenant: God would come someday
and not just dwell with people
but also dwell within man. The Christian faith and its practice is

15. about both the body and the
soul.
It is obvious that the persons you minister to are not angels—
mere spirit beings. Nor are they
mere physical beings—biological robots. What are the
implications of this belief that people are
both soul and body, for counseling?
How Do You Minister to Embodied Souls?
God is a spirit being who created people in like manner, as
spiritual beings, but also in his
wisdom with bodies as the means/instruments through which to
accomplish his mission on
earth. With inspired bodies people serve God, exercise
dominion over the rest of the material
world, and love and counsel other embodied persons.
The body cannot be reduced to spirit, and the spirit or soul
cannot be reduced to body. Each of
these two parts of the person has its own integrity. However,
even though body and soul are
different things (substances or essences), they are made for each
other, and it is their union
that makes people human beings. Therefore, you should be
careful with questions like, "Is that

16. a spiritual problem or a physical problem?" that tend to force
individuals into simplistic
dichotomous responses. The Bible affirms that people are both
natural and supernatural
beings, and that the material body and the immaterial soul affect
each other.
It is important to note that "psyche" and "mind" are other
commonly used terms that refer to
the immaterial aspect of individual being. In fact, the word
"psyche" is derived from Greek and
is usually translated "soul." (Please note that "mind" is not
synonymous with "brain." The brain
is a physical thing while the mind is not.) Soul, spirit, mind,
and psyche are each closely related
terms that refer to particular aspects of individual inner
nonphysical self. With respect to the
essential nature, or constitution, of human persons, many
conservative evangelical Bible
scholars and theologians, as well as many historic orthodox
Christianity, have embraced what
philosophers call substance dualism (Cooper, 2000). This
simply means that people are

17. composed of an immaterial soul or spirit and a material body.
Human persons are
simultaneously supernatural and natural beings, composed of
two parts or essences
("substance" is the philosophical term), which exist in a
constantly interacting unity but an
essential duality: one functionally, but two essentially. A human
person is an embodied spirit
being, made in the very image and likeness of God.
References
Barrow, J., & Tipler, F. (1988). The anthropic cosmological
principle. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.
Cooper, J. W. (2000). Body, soul, and life everlasting: Biblical
anthropology and the monism-
dualism debate. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co.
Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard
version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway
Bibles.
Erickson, M. (2013). Christian theology. Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic.

18. Houston, J. (1989). The mind on fire: Faith for the skeptical and
indifferent. Portland, OR:
Multnomah.
Shuman, J., & Volck, B. (2006). Reclaiming the body:
Christians and the faithful use of modern
medicine. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press.
Welch, E. (1994). Who are we? Needs, longings, and the image
of God in man. Journal of
Biblical Counseling, 13(1), 25-38.
Westminster Assembly. (1647). Westminster shorter catechism.
Retrieved from
http://www.westminsterconfession.org/confessional-
standards/the-westminster-shorter-
catechism.php
© 2019. Grand Canyon University. All Rights Reserved.
For this Discussion Question, complete the following.
1. Review the two articles about bank failures and bank
diversification that are found below this. Economic history
assures us that the health of the banking industry is directly
related to the health of the economy. Moreover, recessions,
when combined with banking crisis, will result in longer and
deeper recessions versus recessions that do occur with a healthy

19. banking industry.
https://www.frbsf.org/economic-
research/publications/economic-letter/2006/may/bank-
diversification-economic-diversification/
https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg/publicati
ons/research/economic_quarterly/2005/winter/pdf/walter.pdf
2. Locate two JOURNAL articles which discuss this topic
further. You need to focus on the Abstract, Introduction,
Results, and Conclusion. For our purposes, you are not expected
to fully understand the Data and Methodology.
3. Summarize these journal articles. Please use your own words.
No copy-and-paste. Cite your sources.
350 words. Provide references
For this Discussion Question, complete the following.
1. Read the first 13 pages of the attached paper which discusses
the effect of government intervention on recessions.
https://mpra.ub.uni-
muenchen.de/78053/1/MPRA_paper_78053.pdf
2. Locate two JOURNAL articles which discuss this topic
further. You need to focus on the Abstract, Introduction,
Results, and Conclusion. For our purposes, you are not expected
to fully understand the Data and Methodology.
3. Summarize these journal articles. Please use your own words.
No copy-and-paste. Cite your sources.
350 words. Provide references
For this Discussion Question, complete the following.
1. Read the two articles below that discuss why fuel prices
fluctuate. Research two of these types further.

20. https://www.forbes.com/sites/eco-nomics/2012/03/05/five-
reasons-gas-prices-rise/#65d89df61e02
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/2014/1031/Why-do-
gas-prices-rise-and-fall-5-driving-factors/Oil-A-volatile-
commodity
2. Locate two JOURNAL articles which discuss this topic
further. You need to focus on the Abstract, Introduction,
Results, and Conclusion. For our purposes, you are not expected
to fully understand the Data and Methodology.
3. Summarize these journal articles. Please use your own words.
No copy-and-paste. Cite your sources.
350 words. Provide references
CCN-601 Topic 1 Overview
What the Bible Has to Do With Life
Introduction
When you think of the Bible, what do you think? What images,
associations, and
emotions come to mind?
If you were asked to describe the Bible in one or two sentences,
what would you say?
Perhaps a starting point is to say that it is a book, or more
accurately a collection of 66
books, each with its own characters and themes, that flow into

21. one main story. In saying
this, you are acknowledging that the Bible is literature, in one
way like any other book—
material written for a particular purpose. Literarily, it is
comprised of a variety of
different types of literature or genres: history, law, wisdom,
poetry, letters, and
apocalyptic literature.
In some ways, the Bible is just like any other book, but in other
ways, it is very different.
According to Christian tradition, and the Bible itself, it is
divinely inspired
communication originating with God but penned by human
authors, approximately 40
of them writing in three different languages over the course of
about 1,500 years. This is
what makes the Bible unlike any other book and the reason it is
called the Holy Bible or
Sacred Scripture. People call it "Holy" because they believe
there was one supernatural
author who assured that each of the authors and books were
aimed at accomplishing
the same purpose, that it was and is true in all that it affirms
and teaches, and that its

22. content is more important than that which is found in any other
book in world history.
So, what is the Bible about? There are a lot of good answers to
that question. According
to Bartholomew and Goheen (2004), "biblical Christianity
claims that the Bible alone
tells the true story of our world" (p. 20). Like most stories, the
Bible proceeds from a
beginning (the first two chapters of Genesis), to a middle
wherein a conflict develops
that needs to be solved, and tension builds as the key characters
take their places (the
rest of the Old Testament). And then after a very long wait (the
intertestamental
period), the hero of the story arrives and saves the day, bringing
a shocking and yet
wonderful solution that was not exactly what everybody
expected (the Gospels). The
story proceeds by telling about the implementation of that
solution (the New Testament
letters) and then, to the end of the story wherein the good guys
win and the bad guys
lose (Revelation). God and love and goodness win, and he and
his team live happily ever

23. after.
Worldview
A worldview is a person's internalized framework for seeing,
interpreting, judging, and
comprehending life and reality. It is a conceptual paradigm
composed of basic beliefs or
presuppositions that are absorbed from family and culture and
religion, and is much
more automatic and subconscious than conscious. Your
worldview is the big picture or
map that directs and guides your explanations for and responses
to life. It is an
interpretive system by which individuals explain and make
sense of life. It functions like
a map, orienting and guiding individuals toward answers to the
major questions of life,
including understanding of people and why they do and think
and feel the way they do.
Every counselor has a basic perspective on what life is about.
Counseling theories arise
out of the theorist's particular worldview, entailed within which
is their view about

24. people and problems and solutions. What is a human being? Are
people merely physical
things, or are they more than that? Is spiritual stuff real, or just
a figment of your
imagination that makes you feel or function better? Is the
American dream the real
purpose of life?
According to Albert Wolters (2005), a worldview is "the
comprehensive framework of
one's basic beliefs about things…. Your worldview functions as
a guide to your life. A
worldview, even when it is half unconscious and unarticulated,
functions like a compass
or a roadmap" (pp. 2, 5).
Contemplate the following statement by J. D. Hunter (2010):
Perhaps the most important thing to realize is that this
"worldview" is so deeply
embedded in our consciousness, in the habits of our lives, and
in our social
practices that to question one's worldview is to question
"reality" itself.
Sometimes we are self-conscious of and articulate about our
worldview, but for

25. most of us, the frameworks of meaning by which we navigate
life exist
"prereflectively," prior to conscious awareness. That is, our
understanding of the
world is so taken-for-granted that it seems utterly obvious. It
bears repeating
that it is not just our view of what is right or wrong or true or
false but our
understanding of time, space, identity – the very essence of
reality as we
experience it. (p. 33)
As a counselor, you will counsel out of some theory that is
related to some worldview
that provides the basis for how you understand what is wrong
with people and how you
should go about helping them. A particular worldview grounds a
counseling theory,
which then directs counseling practice.
The counseling theories that you are learning provide
explanations for human behavior,
thought, and emotion. They organize your knowledge about the
person and guide what
you observe and ignore, and how you interpret, explain, and

26. predict how people work.
Thus, your counseling theory and practice arise out of some
very basic beliefs about
reality and life and people.
Consider the following questions:
1. What is a human person? Are humans just physical things, or
are they spiritual
beings also? If they are both, how do body and soul relate to
one another?
2. What are we here for: self-actualization or something
greater?
3. What on earth is wrong with people? Why do they kill one
another and themselves?
Why is there so much abuse, disorder, and unhappiness?
4. How do you fix this mess, or your mess?
Many counselors are naïve about both their personal worldview
and the worldview of
the counseling theories they employ. The job of this course is to
make sure that is not
true of you.
So, if the Bible tells the true story of the world, the Bible
functions as the primary source

27. for developing a Christian worldview, a Christian psychology,
and a Christian perspective
on counseling. Therefore, if your counseling is going to be
Christian, you will have to
become more conscious of your worldview and let the Bible
provide the primary cues
for your worldview and your psychology. "Psychology" in this
paragraph, mean the basic
beliefs about what a person is, what the purpose of life is, why
people do what they do,
and what is most essentially wrong with them.
The Bible and Counseling
What would be a proper relationship between the Bible and
actual counseling
practices? A variety of answers can be found among
contemporary Christian counseling
authors.
For some, the Bible's primary function is that it provides an
infallible or trustworthy set
of essential truths or control beliefs that serve as a grid to filter
error out of their
counseling theory and practice. These control beliefs enable the
counselor to screen out

28. that which is contradictory to God's Word, to filter the ungodly
toxins out of a secular
counseling concept or technique.
For example, the Christian counselor's control beliefs would
include the biblical doctrine
of original sin that would screen out Carl Rogers's (1961)
contention that people are
basically good, but would allow into their system Rogers's
contention that counselors
should be accepting and warm and exhibit positive regard
toward their counselees (of
course, versions of this insight can be found in Scripture and a
thousand other places,
many preceding Rogers).
Many Christian counselors would agree that Scripture should
play this arbitrating,
judging, filtering role in counseling, much like an official in
sports does, blowing the
whistle when the players violate the standards and rules of the
game. So, many
Christian counselors believe the Bible should function as a
protective screen, filtering
secular error out of concepts and methods.

29. Some Christian counselors go further and assert that the Bible
can be more than a
referee or filter. They assert that the Bible provides essential
truths that counselors
must incorporate in order to properly understand and care for
their counselees. The
Bible functions as a foundation providing general concepts such
as the nature of
persons, the purpose of life, moral standards, and guidelines and
attitudes for
relationships. Their counseling model rests broadly upon this
conceptual foundation
even though the details for the counseling model are provided
by the social sciences,
common sense, and personal experience.
But some would say this is not enough, not sufficiently
Christian. John Piper's (2001)
comment reflects this concern:
Bible-saturated counseling does not treat the Word of God as an
assumed
foundation which never gets mentioned or discussed or quoted.
"Foundations"

30. are in the basement holding up the house, but they seldom get
talked about, and
they are usually not attractive. That is not an adequate metaphor
for the role of
Scripture in counseling. The Bible has power and is the very
truth and word of
God…. It has a power to rearrange the mental world and waken
the conscience
and create hope. (para. 8)
Another perspective is that Scripture functions like a counseling
manual or textbook in
which individuals find a divine encyclopedia of human
problems and God's solutions.
Solution
s are then sought in Scripture as if it were a recipe book,
explicating steps or
principles for the cure. From this perspective, the only
legitimate problems are those

31. explicitly referred to in Scripture. As a result, problems like
anorexia or bipolar disorder
are viewed as invalid secular fabrications because they cannot
be found explicitly in the
Bible.
Biblical counselor and pastor, Paul Tripp, warns against
viewing the role of Scripture in
this way. "There are many issues the Bible doesn't address in a
topical fashion. The Bible
has nothing explicit to say, for example, about schizophrenia,
ADD, teenagers, family
television viewing, or sexual techniques for married couples"
(Tripp, 2002, p. 26). He
further avers that,
The Bible is not a topical index, a dictionary, or an
encyclopedia. The Bible is a

32. storybook. It is God's story, the story of his character, his
creation, his
redemption of this fallen world, and his sovereign plan for the
ages. (Tripp, 1997,
p. 58)
Finally, Tripp (2004) concludes, "the Bible was given so that
the God of the plot would
be the God of your heart, and you would live with a deep and
personal commitment to
the success of his story" (pp. 172-173). David Powlison (2007)
concurs, noting,
"Scripture is not a textbook on ethics or theology of preaching
or counseling. It is the
sourcebook" (p. 2).
This course contends that Holy Scripture is the sourcebook for
Christian counseling and

33. that it does in fact provide the true story of the world and the
people that inhabit it.
Therefore, we will assert that Scripture should play a
comprehensive role, a normative
role, and a transformative role in a counseling model that merits
the name of Christ the
Lord.
Comprehensive
The scope of the Bible is universal. It provides a worldview, a
comprehensive
perspective of the cosmos and its inhabitants. Individuals use
God's Word to interpret
God's world and the persons within it that he created in his
image and likeness. This is
not to claim that the Bible is exhaustive or explicit in

34. addressing all things in detail or
that it answers all questions that might be asked. It is to say that
it interprets cosmic and
human history and each individual life in such a way that their
true meaning and
purpose is revealed.
Thus, Scripture provides a perspective on people, problems,
change, and counsel that
answers the most important questions about the source of
problems: how individuals
can change and flourish, and what authentic, careful and
compassionate help looks like.
It gives a meta-narrative through which individual narratives
find their meaning and
purpose. You must know God's story before you can begin to
make sense of the stories

35. of others that you aim to counsel. That is what this course is
about.
Normative
The Bible is the norming norm, a basic guideline for
understanding people, problems,
and how to help them change. It provides answers to the big
questions in life. Who is
God and what is he like? How are God and people related to one
another? What is the
nature of humanity? What is and how does one achieve the good
life? What is wrong
with the world, that person, or me? How can we change? What
is the nature of wise,
effective love? Scripture provides general and sometimes
specific answers to these
questions.

36. Therefore, primacy and finality are granted to the Bible. It is
given the first word and the
last word. Theologians characterize Scripture with words like
divinely inspired, infallible,
inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient. This means that Christian
counseling distinguishes
the Word of God from any other words. Therefore, it begins
with the question, "What
does the Bible have to say about…?" Of course, this assumes
that counselors are
biblically literate and also that they accurately interpret and
properly apply Scripture to
the matters of counseling. Biblical literacy is therefore essential
to full-orbed Christian
counseling.
Transformative

37. Scripture is divine communication that aims to transform
people, inside and out.
Because it is supernatural and divine, it has a creative and
effective power that cannot
be ascribed to any other word or text. To say that it is
transformative is to say that it not
only explains life, it changes lives. It is creative and restorative.
It is holy script—a blend
of the Spirit and text—that has a unique capacity to open eyes
and turn on the lights in
lives darkened by whatever. It can be more than a referee or
filter that controls error
and protects from secular, atheistic impurities that may infect
one's counseling model. It
is capable of functioning as a well of relevant truth, brimming
with living water from
which counselors themselves drink and then under the Spirit's

38. direction pass on to those
they counsel.
Conclusion
One way to understand Christian counseling in the professional
world is that it is like
being a missionary in a foreign land. One must be honest, wise,
and respectful of others
to do this in a way that is honorable and professional and yet
still Christian.
References
Bartholomew, C.G., & Goheen, M.W. (2004). The drama of
Scripture. Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic.
Hunter, J. D. (2010). To change the world: The irony, tragedy,

39. and possibility of
Christianity in the late modern world. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.
Piper, J. (2001). Toward a definition of the essence of biblical
counseling. Retrieved from
www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/articles/toward-a-
definition-of-the-essence-
of-biblical-counseling
Powlison, D. (2007). The practical theology of counseling.
Journal of Biblical Counseling.
25(2), 2-4.
Rogers, C. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston, MA: Mariner
Books.
Tripp, P. (1997). Age of opportunity. Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R.
Tripp, P. (2002). Instruments in the redeemer's hands.
Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R.

40. Tripp, P. (2004). Lost in the middle. Wapwallopen, PA:
Shepherd Press.
Wolters, A.M. (2005). Creation regained: Biblical basics for a
reformational worldview.
Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
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