Jim Berg claims that this nouthetic counseling program Quieting a Noisy Soul presents the solutions to anxiety, despair, obsessive compulsive behavior, panic attacks, anorexia, bulimia, and other problems.
Part 1 of this series covered the Problem (the noisy soul) and the Cause of the problem according to Jim Berg’s nouthetic counseling: your sin, specifically, your unbelief and your guilty conscience. “Noisy souls,” says Berg, “are self-absorbed souls.”
This post addresses his Solutions. That is, the way he says the one with the noisy soul should turn from your unbelief and stop being self-absorbed.
Solution 1: Come to Christ and purpose to be like Him
Berg bases this admonition on Matthew 11:28, which in the KJV reads
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Berg claims that the rest a noisy-souled person so desperately needs will be found in the instruction he give.
Come to Christ, yes . . . and purpose to be like Him? This is the problem.
We can purpose to follow Him. We can purpose to know Him. We can purpose to trust Him. But only He, through the power of His Holy Spirit, can do the work of making us like Him, as we look to Him in faith. Not only is this a more realistic Christian life, it’s also a more restful Christian life. When Jesus said we will find rest by coming to Him, but every admonition of the nouthetic counselors is only to keep striving . . . well, that just doesn’t add up. I covered that topic in much greater depth in my critique of the nouthetic counseling booklet Godliness through Discipline.
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The teaching on unbelief for the believer that I’ve heard coordinates with teaching on stronghold beliefs, or lies that we’ve accepted about God’s nature or intentions. It is based on Mark 9:24 when Jesus speaks to the father of a possessed boy who asks Jesus to do something for the child if he can. Jesus replies, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” The father replies, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
In this context, unbelief is not believing that God is who he says he is, and that he can do all things. This “unbelief” may occur unintentionally, but reveals where our minds need renewal through replacing strongholds with scriptural truth. The father’s statement reveals not only his work in choosing to believe, but also a reliance on God’s help to believe, showing it to be a spiritual work, as the Holy Spirit empowers both “to will, and to do.” (Phil. 2:13)
Is this different from the definition of unbelief that you are working from in your post?
I do appreciate these thoughts, and know that this story, this father, is often used as typical of the life of the believer.
But this man is one who didn’t know Jesus personally, in fact, knew Him only by reputation. He certainly didn’t at that time have the Holy Spirit, the way all believers did after Pentecost. I’m of the very strong opinion that he is not at all representative of a post-Pentecost Christian life.
I do understand that embedded lies, especially from childhood, can have significant effect on a Christian and need to be uprooted and exposed to truth, but I think they are not “unbelief” in the sense that this father is speaking of unbelief, and they also don’t seem to be what Berg is talking about with his condemnatory language.
Our faith (“belief”) is strengthened and grown through spending time with the Lord, getting to know Him, and seeing Him at work in our lives. It is grown through experiential interaction, whether that be through the written Word or directly with the Living Word. Paul said in Ephesians that he wanted those Christians to “know” the love of Christ that passes “knowledge,” as I discussed in this blog post: https://heresthejoy.com/2016/07/going-on-feelings/
The difference between (1) being an unbeliever who is beginning to see the truth, like this father, and (2) being a believer who still unkowingly believes some lies that need to be exposed and corrected, would I think be akin to the difference between (1) living in darkness while seeing beams of light and (2) living in the daylight but with some significant shadows. We want all the shadows gone. But we are not living in the darkness.
If a Christian feels like he is living in “Lord I believe, help my unbelief,” then instead of telling him to memorize and meditate on Scriptures about the attributes of God (though that’s a good thing to do), I’d highly recommend that he find out what his salvation is really all about. That it is not only the “justification” aspect of salvation that is by faith alone, but it is also the “sanctification” aspect of salvation that is by faith alone (without works). For me personally, this was probably the most crucial lie that I’ve found in my life, and I was deeply changed by coming to a foundational understanding of this truth.
What you have pointed out is excellent, but there is more. What Berg is recommending is the type of selfish Christianity that is peddled at BJU and Fundamentalism. Beg has never been burdened by discontent because he has always protected himself, and he has never passionately loved the oppressed and downtrodden. The prophets wept and lamented and complained to God about the plight of the poor and oppressed. God never blames them for this. Elijah was so inwardly defeated when Jezebel held onto the reins of power after he had done every single thing he could to save the godly from her, that he told God that he wanted to die. God didn’t blame him. God comforted him by showing Elijah the might power and of God and its mystery, and then He took Elijah to heaven in a flaming chariot. Elijah’s grief was not sin; it was the burden of a loving and just heart that could not find love and justice on the face of the earth.
Berg wants Christians to sit around being resigned, and he considers that a virtue. But Christ has told us to go do good in His name. The prophets and Christ have all told us to give of what we have (not what we can spare, but what we have) to the poor (not to the church, but to the poor), to invite the outcast and strangers into our home. To speak on behalf of the poor and oppressed. We are to labor for the name of Christ, and that does not mean sitting back and memorizing Bible verses while doing nothing. Berg is a prince over a lazy kingdom, and when its members become depressed, he can only advise more insulation and laziness. And he can only blame them. If he understood love itself, he would also be under the cross that it carries, and he would not point his finger so brazenly at people who suffer sorrow.
Thank you, Jeri. I agree that the insulation of the nouthetic counseling teachers is a big part of the problem. It’s as if they have developed a formula to keep the oppressed under.
Thank you once again. The clarity you bring to this admonishment (meaning of neuthetic from the Greek) system is powerful. Having gone through this very scenario in the past year, it’s healing simply to have it unmasked. And suggesting a survivor is responsible to go back and ask the perpetrator what their motives were and if they meant to do what they did (alone in the same setting where the ‘rape’ took place) is LUDICROUS. I won’t be doing that.
Thank you, Rebecca, for calling attention to this kind of legalistic, shaming message to hurting people, the kind of teachings that push the wounded and the struggling away from God and into the spiritual-emotional underground.
Reading this man’s teachings made me feel sick. When we are under attack, our hearts have been broken, our bodies fail for the stress of a hostile world or as a result of illness we did not bring upon ourselves, leave it to the it’s-your-own-fault, you’re-doing-it-wrong crowd to load us up with more guilt, a formula and a call to put on a phony mask of spirituality. But that is not God’s way. He calls us to offer comfort, encouragement and grace to the hurting, just as our Lord did. Oh, how the body of Christ has in so many ways grievously lost its way…
Jim Berg’s therapy advice reminds me of the Prosperity Gospel. Only instead of selling health and wealth these counselors sell “happiness.”
What if sinning makes me happy? Sometimes sin does cause happiness.
As C.S. Lewis pointed out, “We have no right to happiness.”
Happiness is not a hallmark of salvation.
“Come to Christ, yes . . . and purpose to be like Him? This is the problem.
We can purpose to follow Him. We can purpose to know Him. We can purpose to trust Him. But only He, through the power of His Holy Spirit, can do the work of making us like Him, as we look to Him in faith. Not only is this a more realistic Christian life, it’s also a more restful Christian life. When Jesus said we will find rest by coming to Him, but every admonition of the nouthetic counselors is only to keep striving . . . well, that just doesn’t add up.”
I have been thinking this for a long time. This is the first time someone has said and explained it in a way that validates my thought process.
We can only be like Jesus as much as we know Him, trust Him, and allow Him to work through us. Scripture reading contributes to that, but the Holy Spirit provides the connection that allows it to happen. When Jesus wants to work through me, I generally find my logic and reasoning opposed to it, but there is a part of me that knows to set that aside.
Modern technology surely suggests that all of this happens in our brain including things we’re inclined to consider coming from our heart. Striving to behave in certain ways based on logic and reason as if that part of our brain (the mind) is all that matters has a history of failing to bring us closer to God. It sets us up to try on our own to do the impossible.
I’ve learned that God’s presence and work is most evident when I appear to accomplish something that I know beyond all doubt that I could never do on my own. When that happens, it is the best feeling in the world.
Wow. Berg’s ‘counsel’ will do nothing but CAUSE a ‘noisy soul’ – – one which is fraught with striving.
In legalism like this, the burden of works descends heavily on the shoulders of the suffering, the rejected, the disillusioned and the weary. There is NO REST. There is NO SAFETY. There is NO INTIMACY, spiritually or humanly. And there is NO HEALING.
There is only ‘DIDN’T BELIEVE HARD ENOUGH’ and ‘DIDN’T TRY HARD ENOUGH’.
Years ago I took a course taught by a Calvinistic “neuthetic” counsellor. When he belaboured the point that all things are God’s will and we should try to find His purpose in them I posed a hypothetical question. If we would work on a project together and he would accidently sit on a piece of wood with a spike projecting upward should I explain to him that it was God’s sovereign will and he ought to find the Divine purpose in it or should I remove the projectile for him?
A woman pulled from a horrific car wreck;
a teenager carried out of a burning building;
a man frozen in “Shell Shock” on the battlefield;
how are they treated? The paramedics wrap them in a blanket, treat them gently with kindness, and say quietly, “They are in shock.”
No one accuses them of sin or unbelief because of the trauma they endured.
Rebecca, Thank you for this series. Home educated with BJU resources and also had several resources by Jim Berg and I believe his wife. (I’ve burned them long ago) … I had several Nouthetic counselors over the years. Much of the burden was put on me although at the time I truly didn’t want to believe it was a burden. I desperately wanted the marriage / family to be healed and glorify the Lord. The man I married told both secular and so-called Biblical counselors that I was the true Christian and that I was loyal, etc. … the burden was put on me to “continue loving him” … duh??? What do you think I had been doing all those years?? It’s like they had never heard me. It didn’t matter. The onus was on the wife / mother to sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice.
Forty years now … still here; non-verbal; adult children and their spouses favour ‘him’.
I’m so, so sorry. I pray that you’ll find solace in the Healer.
The ‘God is all you need, so be content’ ideology is so rampant in churchianity. Of course, when all you have is the Lord, He has promised to be the Comforter, close to the broken-hearted. (so why is it that those spreading these platitudes often are surrounded by people, have a spouse and children and are not living like hermits? Especially married folks telling singles that we just have to be ‘content’ might need a dose of their own medicine, to be forced to esperience loneliness and forced singleness for some time would be a real eye opener..)
Too so often people are being shamed and called bitter just because they want to have some human fellowship and compassion.. it is not too much to ask and should be freely given in the Body of Christ.
Having been labeled the bitter, angry woman so often just for longing for meaningful relationships I pray that I could be able to bless others with what I wish for myself. If there are people around me who have felt they have been left out and without, my prayer is that God would let me be a means of blessing and compensation to their lives uín any way He sees good.
There is one preacher I like (not mentioning the name but he is from the so cal ‘faith movement’… one of the few whose teachings have a good balance of grace and faith, and his main emphasis is God’s unconditional grace) and heard a neat testomony how he was in a ministers’ conference as a young, unknown preacher. Everyone tended to be from the ‘who is who in Charismatic movement’ -list, and he felt so out of place.. crying out to God in his heart. One brother approached him and gave him a hug that was from the Lord: not this shallow short church type of hugs but a real bear hug mediating the love of Jesus.. 🙂 Immediately making him feel welcome and included. That’s how it should be in the Body.
That is absolutely how it should be in the body, for sure. And yes, I do notice that the people telling lonely people to be content in the Lord are the ones surrounded by loved ones. Honestly, the callousness of this breaks my heart. And yes, when one is lonely one can find succor in the Lord, but it is SO callous and so not what Christ would have for other Christians to say that’s the way it should be. After all, we as believers are admonished to LOVE each other! Telling you to go off and be content with the Lord is NOT the way to do that.
If God was truly all I needed for wholeness and mental health then why am I still broken and sick?
Because the same God who created me has given me options, ordinary boring, not spiritual options to help me get better. I have herbs, minerals, things to improve my sleep, foods that build up and repair and other humans who have spent their lives scientifically studying the human body or mind in order to give therapies or medications to people like me. We are more than spirit beings trapped in revolting flesh. We in the image of God are spirit, body and mind. To foolishly think that everything is caused and cured in the spirit realm is like denying the Son and the Holy Spirit because Father God is the only one that truly matters.
Jim Berg does talk about the importance of diet, sleep, and exercise, among other things. I believe it’s in some online resources rather than this book, but he does acknowledge that the body needs to be cared for.
You mentioned that we need each other. Have you ever read WHEN PEOPLE ARE BIG AND GOD IS SMALL? It’s a biblical counseling fave. The author talks a lot about us not needing people but needing to serve people. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the book if you’ve read it. I read it after years of abuse and it added so much more confusion to my already muddled thinking.
I haven’t read it but certainly know of it, since for many years it has been such a popular book in the evangelical circles. I continue to be puzzled why the same people can teach how much we need “community,” but then turn around and say we only need God.
Thanks for the suggestion, and I’ll plan to get a copy and read it.