'Integrative Approaches to Psychology and Christianity Essay\r'

'Education and set-back out in the layman set-up or the what we strain here as Athens wiseness believes differently from the scriptural standpoint in whatever aspect of emotional statespan. Psychology in frequent, though embraces somewhat a objective position agree to some prop unitynts, is non able to do justice to a balanced consume of human air and most if non each(prenominal) of the idiosyncratic’s activities. Indeed, Author Dr. Entwistle (2004) argues virtually the general t dismissency to dichotomize or what he said as â€Å"to buy into the wave-particle duality amongst the ‘sacred’ and the ‘secular’ which is what comprehend Jerusalem and Athens as â€Å" in return exclusive categories.\r\n” From the outset I would akin to say my piece regarding the point where Dr. Entwistle is feeler from without blend ining arrogant in the resembling vein. He has work forcetioned a lot rough presupposition while at the same metr e sounds like he doesn’t anything about presuppositions. When he separated â€Å"Jerusalem” and the â€Å" perform” in his book, I immediately detected his lack of background in the realm of biblical theology. At the heart of deliverymanianity or the perform that Dr. Entwistle is referring to, there is no much(prenominal) duality.\r\nThe Church in each prop of it (or Christianity as we aptly put it) does non do any separation unless what Christ has separated. Meaning, our premise or presupposition starts with the fact that the Church and Christian sacredity or reliance if one would put it simply, stands on the Judaeo-Christian circumstance non a choice between â€Å"Jerusalem” or â€Å"Church. ” The fundamental re main(prenominal)der lies in the coarse divide between Christianity and Athens or secular wisdom. It is further between the secular wisdom and biblical knowledge does the password place a dichotomy.\r\n allow me state what led me to this view: it is because, theologically speaking, biblical authors explicitly wrote in their allowters from the Old to the New pass on playscripts that god has His own laws and statutes done which sprightliness in general must be regulated. The same knowledge explicitly and implicitly runs through the fabric of the whole Scripture (Old & New), which means that the presuppositions of all of the biblical authors, all fall into one prime presupposition: that there is one divinity fudge, and that this One God has revealed Himself through His laws and statutes.\r\nWithout the laws of God, man alone, with all of his learning, if they argon all apart from the revelation of God, is clear natural or secular. This is the reason that every man ought to know these laws or statutes or biblical principles and lonesome(prenominal) then rouse he apply these into all aspects of his secular life sentence. This could suffer been what Dr. Entwistle intended to mean. One canno t put in from the opposite side as what Dr. Entwistle had do instead as he hinged the statement from secular to the theological; though he tried to get his ideas from the likes of gr go through men like Dr. A. W.\r\nTozer and others. All those people’s arguments come from biblical presupposition: they cod total knowledge of the Scriptures that they applied to various realms of life which in turn caused them to spur their readers to do the same. Trying to oppose the standpoint of vindicator Tertullian, Dr. Entwistle plainly misunderstands all of their positions, thus complicating what could have been an uncomplicated and unified stream of thought. The main contri neverthelessing factors that led me to this viewpoint be my mortalal study of the countersign, and some whole kit and caboodle (massive) of Biblical scholars.\r\nThe following backchat of reviving the mind then is a byproduct of my own presupposition derived from the influence of these Biblical Scholars w hich intromit contemporary theologians like Dr. Vincent Cheung, Dr. Philip Johnson, and the father of Presuppositional apologetics Cornelius caravan Til, to name a few. This thorough discussion of proponent of the wicked (representing secular or Athens wisdom) and the discriminative counsel which embraces all of Judaeo- Christian principles (as all contained in the Bible) captures take up the essence of faith-spirituality molded from this basic presupposition.\r\nThe dichotomy is between what the Bible says all end-to-end as the Wicked or wicked counsel versus that of Godly wisdom. Dr. Entwistle unintentionally pursue a trichotomous delineation of Judeao-Christian theological thought from secular. This is not proper. Discussion Christians know that a big portion of God’s work in their lives is concentrated on renewal of the mind. Our born again pay back signaled the beginning of a new life for us rather than, as have been used by many figuratively, the end of our life ’s quest for truth.\r\nIt is the start of an individual’s real life in that it is the time when a person experiences the quickening work of God through His Spirit (Ephesians 2:1-7). Let’s think for a while our previous(prenominal) life as portrayed to us in the Bible: 1. ) We were once unaw bes spiritually †in trespasses and sins; 2. ) We once walked (lived our lives) according to the course of this world; 3. ) We once lived our lives ( craftyly or unknowingly) controlled by Satan; 4. ) We once behaved in a way that in everything we do, we only fulfill our desires and what †in our minds †looked dependable and pleasant.\r\nNow, knowing that we atomic number 18 naturally (without the saving condition of God) un responsive to God and fully responsive to the things that are not of God, we recognize our great need to be renewed or our minds oriented to the things of God †things that really function to Him and in this life (Romans 12:1-2). I. juridical Counsel. 1. ) Biblical/Godly Counsel †Its Necessity. in that location is a trend being proliferated in the area of guidance or vigilance in one’s life. The premise, if looked at the surface, seems to be sound and Biblical. It is somehow taken from the Bible. They are from the book of Proverbs.\r\nâ€Å"Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety. ” †Proverbs 11:14. â€Å"Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established. ”†Proverbs 15:22. These verses, however, when balanced with other portions of the Scripture, do not say that believers should heed suggestions from others without discrimination. Let’s take for example psalm 1:1-6. â€Å" fortunate is the man who walks not in the counsel of the sinful, nor stands in the channel of sinners, nor sits in the lavatory of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the sea captain, an d in His law he meditates day and night.\r\nHe shall be like a steer diagram planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its crop in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so, But are like the chaff which the wind drives away. then the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, or sin- ners in the congregation of the righteous. For the master knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. ” †It says here that the â€Å" call forth man” is he whose delight is in â€Å"the law of the Lord. ”\r\n†He meditates on it â€Å"day and night” (v. 2). What the Bible calls as â€Å"blessed” are not those who just swallow every selective information or trends who happen to be around. The blessed man’s â€Å"delight” is in the law of the Lord, and his pleasure to God’s law/word is made homely in his â€Å"meditating” on it †Å"day and night. ” â€Å" buoyant is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the room of sinners, nor sits in the bottomland of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. ” †Psalms 1:1-2. On the other hand, this is also a warning.\r\nA warning to those who are not measured and would let down their guard with regards to their upholding the purpose of meditating or checking everything with the teachings of the Scriptures. When someone starts to entertain the seemingly harmless conventional â€Å"advices” of the world without allowing the Bible (God’s Word) to filter those opinions/suggestions, the lurking danger sets in and the undiscerning is on his way to the premature direction for he has already given up thought to â€Å"ungodly counsel. ” He socialize and has given a benefit of the mistrust to counsel other than God’s counsel. This is a classic case of God’s word versus Satan’s lies.\r\nThe enemy succeeded in tempting the freshman couple †Adam and Eve. â€Å"Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep back it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, â€Å"Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. ” †Genesis 2:15-17. Going back to our immediate text in Psalms 1:1, let’s try to divide its wordings in cardinal divisions and see what does it say? It says: â€Å"Blessed is the man who does not (1) walk in the counsel of the wicked (2) stand in the way of sinners\r\n(3) sit in the seat of mockers. These three expressions are actually three stages of wickedness, or three steps towards spiritual deterioration. They illustrate the progressive stages of wickedness into which one who strays from God enters. According to the Word of God, this is what will happen to people who stray from the sound teachings of the Scriptures †they will go from bad to worse. And stigmatise that, with each stage, the ungodly (anybody who ventures on this path is called â€Å"ungodly”) becomes more resolute and his repulsion against the counsel of the inspired scriptures and righteousness intensifies (Cheung, 2007).\r\n'