by Marvin Fieldhouse
Editors’ note: This article follows directly from “PsychoBlasphemy, Part Two”[1] and is excerpted from Marvin Fieldhouse’s chapter titled “The Blasphemy of the Religious Psychologist” from his book And Tender Blasphemies.[2]
“THE BLASPHEMY OF THE RELIGIOUS PSYCHOLOGIST” by Marvin Fieldhouse. [3]
B. The Shallowness Of Human Methods
There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
Then there are more defenders of this cause, and they will say, “Yes, but psychology and Christian psychologists have done a lot of good for troubled men.”
Of course neither God nor men would deny that fact; but as men of God the only part of it that we do contend is the meaning and the eventual fruit of the words, “a lot of good.” You see, as stated previously, words mean a great deal. And good to the psychologist and good to God, while being spelled the same on paper and sounding alike to the ear have meanings, nevertheless, which are poles apart, even very hostile one to another. “Good” to the psychologist is derived from human methods of adjusting a man with other men; i.e. “group therapy” and “utilitarian values.” But “good” to God in this sense is derived from Divine methods of adjusting a man first with God; i.e. conviction for sin by the Holy Spirit and cleansing in the blood of Christ; and then the power to live alive a life pleasing to God.
So we have “a lot of good,” which is fought for by some and which means a kind of temporary benefit gotten from dealing with the symptoms of a disease; and “a lot of good” which means a permanent benefit, gotten from dealing with the cause itself. For illustration’s sake, it is like seeing the smoke of a volcano and forthwith fashioning a giant cork that will just fit the hole; and with that stopping up the smoke—that is temporary. But it is not going down to the source of the smoke—which is permanent! It is just as impossible to do that with a pick and a shovel as it is for the psychologist to deal with symptoms in the life of a man and so permanently cure his real disease….
The psychologist diagnoses man’s maladies generally as “social weaknesses,” “temperamental and emotional maladjustment”, “incompatibility”, “failure to see himself as others see him”, etc. The remedy in each case might vary somewhat in wording, but it means essentially this: better adjustment with self and society—some kind of self analysis, sensitivity training, group therapy…. The real trouble, the sickness and not the symptom, is sin, self-centredness, and disobedience to the revealed Word of God. And the cure—every time, if the doctor is God-trained and not self-trained—is repentance, confession, cleansing, adjustment with God by the Holy Spirit through the Word.
Remember it, because if you are dedicated to God, you will meet it today here and there and all over…. Sin is the sickness, and better adjustment with God through His Inspired Word is the cure. One cure is but superficial, ending in cruel disillusionment and frustration; while the other is deep and permanent, ending in victory—the glorious liberty therewith Christ sets men free from the power and pollution of sin. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36).
However you choose to view it is your own affair, but the Word of God is clear enough both as to view and wording: “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). “Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity” (Psalm 94:8-11).
And who is that man today who will dare to argue with the following grim fact in the matter? Was there ever a period on the earth like the present, when there were more spiritual and moral neurotics multiplying all over by the hundreds? And yet has there ever before been a larger army of spiritual quacks on hand—psychiatrists[4] and psychologists and philosophers—who are confidently treating symptoms as though they were sicknesses? The results of this “butchery of souls” is evident for all to see. It is chaotic, to put it bluntly. It is all so blasphemous on this serious level.
Furthermore, the problem is destined to get much worse unless God raises up a number of fearless Phineas-type men to thrust it through in the Name of Christ and so stay the awful plague. And I tell you that God will count it for righteousness to every man who so champions His cause at this crucial time. The field of evangelical smoothies with B.A.s, M.A.’s, Ph.D.’s and D.D.’s is certainly not going to see it that way though!
For some will say, “What is this talk of needing a Phineas to rise up and thrust it through? You grossly overstate yourself. Things are not that bad at all. There is not nearly so much evil in psychology as you suppose.”
So? For psychology there are defenders on one extreme declaring, “a lot of good” in it; and on the other extreme insisting that there is “not so much evil.” But here again, as before, we have the word evil used by man and God, not only each with a different meaning, but also with meanings which are mutually intolerant!
In essence, to the psychologist evil is only something added or something subtracted, a plus or a minus quantity, something quite harmless either mixed in or left out, because it is reduced easily to formulas and terms. “Evil” can be educated, reasoned with, disciplined and persuaded by words, or even effectively ignored if need be. “Evil” is certainly not some sinister force which is offensive to the holy nature of God, but only a temporary, unlovely twist in the temperament and the complex emotional make-up of man.
But the Bible evaluation of evil includes none of that evasive talk whatever. It sets forth evil as a leaven, permeating, multiplying, dominating, destroying. It is militant, defiant, incorrigible and bent upon havoc in man’s soul. utterly desperate and dedicated to defacing and marring forever the image of God in man.
In the following fable both the psychological and the Divine estimates of evil can be seen. You cannot miss their clear voices even if you see only with one eye and hear only with one ear.
A beautiful wedding cake weighing fifty pounds was brought into the reception hall and cut: colourful, lovely, appetizing. Large pieces were then placed on dishes and served to the 100 wedding guests. At a given moment everyone lifted his portion of cake as a token, a gesture, a toast of goodwill to the bride and groom, and then all together took a fair and tasty bite.
But as teeth came together in every mouth, there were heard crunchings, groans and sharp outcries from here and there all over the banquet hall. What was wrong? In horror everyone was spitting his bite of cake back onto his plate and then proceeding to pick out of it bits of ground glass and tiny black iron filings!
Just then the reception hostess appeared in the doorway, expecting to see the happy guests enjoying her fine cake; but she was met with angry scowls and dark question marks on every face. “What is wrong with the cake?” she demanded. “You are not eating it.”
And of course they had to tell her of its unhappy ingredients. To which she snorted, “And will you cast out all fifty pounds of this delicious cake for the sake of a mere two ounces of iron filings and one small ounce of ground window glass? Surely you can see that things are not nearly so bad as you let on. There is not so much evil in the cake as you suppose!”
Now that is closer to a Bible definition of evil, as contrasted with what evil means to the psychologist. Yet from God’s standpoint evil has not only the ability to ruin and destroy, but also the deadly propensity of maturing and developing—progress in degression, if you like.… So evil is like itself—at least that much; but it also multiplies, matures and grows into something more wicked, more spiritually grotesque, than its parent. It is the very nature of evil to do so.
Just so is sensitivity training the evil and maturing child of psychology. We will not herein speak at any length upon this vile and unbiblical practice mentioned so favourably by Mr. Jacobsen in his piece, “Partnership Training” (see “PsychoBlasphemy, Part Two”); but obviously Mother Psychology is beginning to pale and lose interest for many and sensitivity training is maturing and developing among men of the clergy, sparking in them such open immorality and demon consciousness as to be unbelievable.
“Evil”? “Not so much evil in psychology as you suppose”?
You will have to be awfully careful of your dictionary definitions of this word evil, my brethren, or like so many I know, you also will be calling evil good and good evil, putting darkness for light and light for darkness, bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isa. 5:20). Woe unto you when you do as the Japanese proverb advises: Sei daku wo awase, nomu (Mix the holy and the vile together and drink it down. It is all good for you!)….
The Blight of Human Glory
“I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. . . . And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them” (John 17:4, 22a)….
Man was created essentially to be fascinated by glory. to love glory and to impart it to others. Man as God intended him has a built-in instinct and appreciation for true glory. (As Satan has re-made him, he has an instinct, a hankering. for false glory.) The greatest work that Jesus did which gave dynamic and importance to all that He did was His imparting to men His fascination with true glory: He transmitted that which gripped Him of true value, what He thought and knew was great—“the glory of God as seen in the face of Jesus Christ”; “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
What glory have I passed on to others? What did I hear and see which fascinated me? What did I feel of value that I reproduced, the glory of God or the glory of a man? Was it that tragic, common deception of just passing on the glory of a man decorated and dressed up and called the glory of God; or was it the holy achievement of Jesus, “I have given them the glory which thou gavest me”? Everything done by man in the earth must be weighed over against His success, and anything else apart from that will be labeled complete failure.
Now whether we like it or not, we are transmitters of glory. To a greater or lesser degree we are either like Alexander the Great, infatuating ourselves and others with a certain worldly, selfish glory, or we are like John the Baptist, truly great, in our insisting upon and fulfilling the demand ourselves that “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Have you ever noticed in Philippians 3:17-19, where Paul with tears warns the believers of certain who “are the enemies of the cross of Christ” and who are therefore not to be listened to or followed because they “mind earthly things”? For one thing, the glory of the cross stands for the death, the end of a Man Who chose ignominious death for self-will and self-glory before He would take one step in any direction which would mar His Father’s glory. An enemy of the cross of Christ is anyone who has an estimate of glory which differs from our Lord’s; those “who mind earthly things” are those, therefore, who are infatuated with a personal, worldly glory at the expense of God’s and who are militant against all for which His redemption stands. They are fascinated, enraptured, with themselves, and they must consequently pass that fascination on to others: “I have given them the glory which I won on the world’s gay market.”…
In the palace of Pharaoh, Moses was a peerless example of parents who had passed on to him real glory before he was seven or eight years of age. They had spoiled him for this world in the same way that Colossians 2:8 warns of being spoiled for Heaven by philosophy and vain deceit: “By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible” (Heb. 11:24-27).
But psychology? What of glory does the psychologist impart?
He fits you for the passing world,
But spoils you for heaven;
And grooms you to the world’s applause,
Whose glory is but leaven.
…But Paul weeps and warns God’s people to be careful of these “enemies of the cross of Christ”; he says that they mind earthly things. No man can help being true to his secret idea of glory, a concept which is destined to go with him straight to the Judgment Seat of Christ and there to reveal to all the universe the exact set of values for which he lived. But woe to that person who has only talked glibly about heaven, while having actually trained those whom he loves most dearly to be highly esteemed in a world that hates Christ!
Every man wants some others of men to be like him. If that is to “follow me as I follow Christ,” then it is praiseworthy. But if it is to “follow me as I have followed worldly vanity,” then who in his right spiritual senses would dare to wish him Godspeed and thereby be partaker with his evil deeds? “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (I John 2:16, 17),
We are speaking about the Blasphemy of the Religious Psychologist. About him we can be at least as absolute as we have been up to this point, or else the Word of God has been purposely designed of God to mean the exact opposite of what it clearly states in passages like II Timothy 3:16-17: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”
To me at least one of the strangest things about psychology and all of its accompanying philosophies, blasphemies and inconsistencies with God’s Word is this: that pastors and missionaries can rather sneak off into the world [of psychology] for some months or years and then come back into the Church to cow the saints, “bringing their sheaves with them,” as it were; and with great pride and boldness a man can fetch back into the company of believers his ill-gotten gains, displaying them before all and be quite popular, quite respected for doing it. Few seem to have vision enough left even to object any more to this outrageous, outlandish practice. And if someone does raise a cry in defence of the truth—of course eventuating in unavoidable condemnation of error—then he is set upon by tongues and pens, himself accused of unlove and of being the critical villain in the Church, the enemy of all righteousness.
But notice what our Lord says in Mark 8:38: “This adulterous and sinful generation….” And in James 4:4: “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” Adultery has to do with an unfaithful partner in a marriage; and in this context it is the Bride of Christ playing fast and loose with the world, playing the harlot with other lovers. “Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness” (Prov. 30:20). It is in that Church setting that our Lord said this in Mark 8: 38 and I for one aim to be more concerned about these words than those of the unfaithful: “Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
Once when there was this brand of vileness in Israel, one Brother Phineas stood up and thrust the offenders through with a javelin. God counted it to him for righteousness, regardless of how the rest of the adulterers objected and reckoned it! “Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth” (Psa. 60:4), for “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him” (Isa. 59:19b). I said previously that in dealing with this blasphemy of religious psychology, that while speaking of individuals I was yet actually touching a vast and evil system in many lands….
Conclusion
All right, it is high time to close this point on “The Blasphemy of the Religious Psychologist,” with all of its implications and innuendoes, both individual and organizational. I close it by declaring that on the one hand God has not given me the ministry of saying finally who will be let into heaven and who will be sent to hell; that is my Master’s business. And on the other hand, He has not given me the ministry, either, of painting devils to look like angels; neither has He imparted to me a lawyer-like tongue that could win a case for a Jezebel, a Jacobsen, or a Clyde Narramore, if the fees were high enough. Let those do this work who are learned in the arts and who want the glory accruing from them. I never was good at disguising a wolf in sheep’s skin and then of convincing others that his howl was, in fact, only a bleat!
But the work which God has given me to do is that of correctly representing His truth in this life so that men will face themselves and measure their own lives by what God says and not by some project I am pushing. My business is to warn every man and teach every man, exhorting them daily lest they be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. And if they cannot and will not treat me in a similar manner, with God’s interests at heart for me, then I say, let no man trouble me with anything else.
One day we are all going to stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. There we will all have to answer the question, in essence, which Jesus put to the Pharisees in Matthew 21:25: “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?” And like you, I, too, will have had about seventy years on this earth to answer that question by the sum total of all that I did and said; so that when I am asked my answer for it at the Judgment Seat of Christ, my yea might be a clear yea or my nay a clear nay, with no nervous, no shifty, no evasive using of the kind of human psychology on God Almighty that I should never in the first place have used on men.
And what I say here, I say to the entire Body of Christ in any and every generation: “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col. 2:8). Yes, and to those of you who are determined to infect others with your deadly philosophies and vain deceits, regardless of what God or His men say against it, then I say this to you as from the spiritual mood of Acts 8:20: “Thy psychology perish with thee, for thou hast thought that the work of God might be done by the Philistines! ‘Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity’” (Acts 8:21-23).
Editor’s note: We have long said that Christians should not be practitioners (psychotherapists) or participants (clients) in psychotherapy. We call such ungodly activity “psychoheresy.” The church offers the best for believers, namely the Word of God, the work of the Holy Spirit in the fellowship of the saints who are willing to let God be their guide.
Books by Marvin Fieldhouse are available from Bethel Baptist Church, www.bethelbaptist.ca. Click “Bookstore” and then go “PDF Catalog.” Toll-free phone number: 1-866-295-4143.
Read PsychoBlasphemy, Part Two
Read PsychoBlasphemy, Part One
[1] Marvin Fieldhouse, “PsychoBlasphemy,” Part 2, PsychoHeresy Awareness Letter, Vol. 29, No. 1, January-February, 2021.
[2] Marvin J. Fieldhouse. And Tender Blasphemies. Japan: Biblia Books, 1972; reprinted by Bethel Baptist Print Ministry, London, Ontario, Canada, www.bethelbaptist.ca.
[3] Fieldhouse, op. cit.
[4] The psychiatrists were conducting psychotherapy, while currently psychiatrists do not do psychotherapy. A New York Times article titled “Talk Doesn’t Pay, So Psychiatry Turns Instead to Drug Therapy,” gives the reasons.