|
Exposing Psychology, Exalting Christ |
|
|
|
|
| ||||
|
| Theophostic Counseling - The Next Breakthrough or Another Deception?Question: "My daughter sent an email today asking if I'm familiar with a site: www.theophostic.com. It sounds like her friend is interested in it, it looks like a Baptist site with a counselor named Dr. Ed Smith from Theophostic Ministries. I was just wondering if you know anything about this, I have no idea and don't know how to answer her question." --JE, Internet Answer: We are glad you asked about Ed Smith's Theophostic Counseling. This is a deeply psychological method of treating people's problems, which Dr. Smith claims he received as a direct revelation from God. But it is not biblical because it looks to the past to fix the present, and it uses occultic techniques forbidden in Scripture. In Theophostic Counseling, the person's problems are thought to be the result of painful experiences from the past (a psychological assumption). The counselor takes that person back to the painful experience to uncover the "lies" that the person felt at the time ("It was my fault", etc.). During this process, the person visualizes Jesus at the scene and observes his words and actions. Once the counselor "discerns" that the lie is found, the counselee repeats the lie over and over again, until he/she hears Jesus say something to them that sheds "light" on the "darkness" of the "lie", which brings healing. In reality, this treatment uses occultic techniques such as visualization and guided imagery. The Bible condemns sorcery, witchcraft, divination and other such practices that try to uncover "hidden knowledge" and get "healing" through some type of technique to reach an altered state of consciousness (see Deuteronomy 18). They have been practiced for thousands of years by witch doctors, shamans and fortune tellers, but now Christian therapists are using them! Visualizing Jesus involves summoning, or calling up, Jesus in your imagination and into your scene from the past, in order to achieve forgiveness and healing. Jesus can look any way you want Him to, and He will do anything you want Him to do. You control the whole event. There are many problems with this from a biblical point of view, the most obvious being that in this scenario you are becoming a god that controls the universe of your imagination, telling Jesus how to look and what to do. When in reality, as Christians we are subservient to God and we say, "not my will by thine be done." Jesus is the master, we are the servant. We cannot manipulate Jesus through our imagination. Second, this Jesus could start to take on a personality of His own, and will be saying and doing things that you no longer control, i.e. it's like you're watching a movie in your mind and you don't know what's going to happen next. Agnes Sanford described this type of experience in her life, and many others have as well. It is clear here that a real spirit being has been contacted and the person is observing this spirit being's actions and words. This spirit being who Christians think is Jesus is really a demon disguising himself as an angel of light, since the practice of contacting spirit beings, whether they are called Jesus or Jim or Joe, is forbidden by God. Also, when we create Jesus in our minds and visualize Him in our imagination, we are worshipping an image, which the 2nd commandment prohibits. Visualization is actually a form of idolatry. The God we worship is not an image but a living Person who dwells inside us and who is revealed in the Holy Scriptures. He is with us always, in every situation we face. We don't need to imagine and visualize Him with us, because He already is, because His Word says He is. We claim this promise by faith - no imagination or visualization is necessary. When people say they have been healed through this process - how visualizing Jesus through Theophostic Counseling "works" - they are missing the point. Knowingly or not, these people really contacted spirit beings (demons) who gave them what they wanted, at the expense of truth. Lots of people are doing things in the name of God today because they "work", but they are being deceived, and Satan knows it. We know of no place in the Bible where prophets and saints went back into their sinful past and visualized God to heal them. They simply believed in Him and walked by faith in His promises of forgiveness and new life. What was the "one thing" Paul did? "FORGETTING WHAT IS BEHIND and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained." (Phil. 3:13-16) Theophostic Counseling uses inner healing and recovered memory techniques, whose dangers are described very well at http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/inheal.htm and http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/memory.htm. We hope this helps give you an overview of the psychological and occultic dangers of Theophostic Counseling.
|
|
