Rich in Christ

If you don’t know that you are a billionaire, you might foolishly take out a loan from the local loan-shark to cover a $10,000 debt. This is the plight of the church. We fail to realize that we’re billionaires (1 Cor. 3:21-22; Eph. 2:6; 1 Peter 2:9), and so we seek out loan-sharks. Failing to see that we already have everything we need in Him (2 Tim. 3:16-17; Col. 2:9-10), we compromise our inheritance by seeking unbiblical therapies and philosophies.

Even something as seemingly innocuous as behavioral therapy (BT) represents a betrayal of our inheritance. In a controlled and supportive setting, BT gradually and repeatedly confronts the fearful client with the object of his/her fears in an attempt to “systematically desensitize” the client to these fears. If the client fears mice, then a mouse will gradually be introduced in a relaxed environment, until the client realizes that the mouse doesn’t present a real threat.

In a new and controversial variation of behaviorism, David H. Barlow subjects his clients to the full extent of their phobias at the outset without any systematic desensitization. For example, a client who feared reading his poetry before others was required to stand up before a hostile crowd of fellow patients staging all forms of threatening behavior.

Barlow is convinced that all of the preliminaries such as relaxation techniques are unnecessary, and he has the statistics to prove it. He reckons his success rate to be “as high as 85%.” In a 12/2/03 New York Times Magazine article, Lauren Slater states that, through Barlow’s methods, one client “trained his own brain to believe (italics mine) in its strength.”

Behaviorism is, in its very essence, belief training. Nothing is accomplished apart from acquiring the belief that the client is stronger than the fear. Slater writes perceptively that

Once people disarm their terror, once they realize they (italics mine) can survive it, then you have detoxified the problem and in some senses provided a cure (pgs 34-37).

Once they realize that they can survive the terror, they can confidently resume their life without the lurking threat that the phobia will reemerge and again take control. What’s the matter with that? From a Biblical perspective—everything! BT teaches two things: that the threat isn’t that great, and, whatever it might be, you can handle it. Sometimes the threat isn’t that great. Mice aren’t particularly threatening. However, when it comes to other things, we all have our limits. We can only endure so much depravation and frustration. We can only endure the loss of air, water, or food for a limited time. Likewise, we also have our limits when it comes to rejections and failures. BT teaches an unwarranted self-confidence.

Instead, God sends us trials, afflictions, and weaknesses to show us that we have to trust in Him, not in ourselves:

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord (Deut. 8:3).

We experience brokenness, not to show us that we can handle it, but rather, that God can (2 Cor. 1:8-9)! Knowing whom we serve is the route to freedom (John 8:31-32). Instead, we resort to loan-sharks and submit to an alien theology that places upon our shoulders the unbearable weight of self-trust.

Daniel Mann