“I Can Name That Tune!”
Some of you may recall the old TV game show, Name That Tune. Contestants would compete to name the title of a famous song. The catch was, they had to name that tune with after hearing the fewest notes possible. They would compete by saying, “I can name that tune in 5 notes!” Then the other contestant might call out, “I can name that tune in 4 notes!”
Well, in today’s post, I am saying:
“I can name, summarize, and apply the 10 major Bible doctrines for biblical counseling in under 1,000 words!” (636 to be exact.)
The 10 Systematic Theology Categories/10 Major Bible Doctrines for Biblical Counseling
In Gospel-Centered Counseling: How Christ Changes Lives, I address the biblical counselor’s foundational question:
“What would a model of biblical counseling look like that was built solely upon Christ’s gospel of grace?”
I break this question into 8 ultimate life questions—questions that every biblical counselor must ask and answer. These 8 questions cover the classic 10 systematic theology categories of the ten major Bible doctrines:
- Bibliology: The Doctrine of the Bible
- Theology Proper: The Doctrine of God the Father
- Christology: The Doctrine of God the Son
- Pneumatology: The Doctrine of God the Spirit
- Anthropology: The Doctrine of Man
- Hamartiology: The Doctrine of Sin
- Soteriology: The Doctrine of Salvation
- Ecclesiology: The Doctrine of the Church
- Eschatology: The Doctrine of the End Times/Future
- Angelology: The Doctrine of Angels and Fallen Angels/Demons
8 Ultimate Life Questions
I take these classic doctrinal categories and address them with biblical, relational relevance today, calling them 8 Ultimate Life Questions.
- The Word: “Where do we find wisdom for life in a broken world?”
- The Trinity/Community: “What comes into our mind when we think about God?” “Whose view of God will we believe—Christ’s or Satan’s?”
- Creation: “Whose are we?” “In what story do we find ourselves?”
- Fall: “What’s the root source of our problem?” “What went wrong?”
- Redemption: “How does Christ bring us peace with God?” “How does Christ change people?”
- Church: “Where can we find a place to belong and become?”
- Consummation: “How does our future destiny with Christ make a difference in our lives today as saints who struggle against suffering and sin?”
- Sanctification: “Why are we here?” “How do we become like Jesus?” How can our inner life increasingly reflect the inner life of Christ?”
Tweet-Size Summaries
In Gospel-Centered Counseling, I spend 320 pages developing these core doctrines for biblical counseling. Here, in tweet-size summaries are those ultimate life questions and answers.
Question 1: The Word—“Where do we find wisdom for life in a broken world?”
Chapter 1: Tweet-size Summary
- To view the Bible accurately and use the Bible competently we must understand the Bible’s story the way God tells it—as a gospel victory narrative.
Chapter 2: Tweet-size Summaries
- The supremacy of Christ’s gospel, the sufficiency of Christ’s wisdom, and the superiority of Christ’s Church provide the wisdom we need for counseling in a broken world.
- We discover wisdom for how to live life in a broken world from the wisest person who ever lived—Christ!
Question 2: The Trinity/Community—“What comes into our mind when we think about God?” “Whose view of God will we believe—Christ’s or Satan’s?”
Chapter 3: Tweet-size Summary
- We must know the Trinitarian Soul Physician personally to be a powerful soul physician.
Chapter 4: Tweet-size Summary
- To know the God of peace and the peace of God we must know our Triune God in the fullness of His holy love demonstrated in the cross of Christ.
Chapter 5: Tweet-size Summary
- Because Satan attempts to plant seeds of doubt about God’s good heart, God calls us to crop the Christ of the cross back into the picture.
Question 3: Creation—“Whose are we?” “In what story do we find ourselves?”
Chapter 6: Tweet-size Summary
- The whole, healthy, holy person’s inner life increasingly reflects the inner life of Christ—relationally, rationally, volitionally, and emotionally.
Chapter 7: Tweet-size Summaries
- Theology matters.
- Understanding people biblically matters.
- Biblical counselors pursue compassionate and wise counseling where our love abounds in depth of knowledge about the heart in the world.
Question 4: Fall—“What’s the root source of our problem?” “What went wrong?”
Chapter 8: Tweet-size Summaries
- The essence of sin is spiritual adultery—choosing to love anyone or anything more than God.
- Sin is not just a thief caught in a crime; sin is an adulterer caught in the act.
Chapter 9: Tweet-size Summaries
- Apart from Christ we’re condemned as adulterous spouses, dead in sin, separated from the life of God with depraved heart capacities enslaved to sin.
- Sin is what personal beings imagine, think, choose, do, and feel as they desire and love anything or anyone more than Christ.
Chapter 10: Tweet-size Summary
- Fully biblical gospel-centered counseling deals thoroughly both with the sins we have committed and with the evils we have suffered.
Question 5: Redemption—“How does Christ bring us peace with God?” “How does Christ change people?”
Chapter 11: Tweet-size Summary
- We must build our biblical counseling models of change on Christ’s gospel applied to Christians—justified, reconciled, regenerated, and redeemed people.
Chapter 12: Tweet-size Summary
- Through regeneration our new heart has a new want to; through redemption our new heart has a new can do.
Question 6: Church—“Where can we find a place to belong and become?”
Chapter 13: Tweet-size Summary
- Together with all the saints the church is the place to belong to Christ and the Body of Christ and to become like Christ.
- Sanctification is a community journey.
Question 7: Consummation—“How does our future destiny with Christ make a difference in our lives today as saints who struggle against suffering and sin?”
Chapter 14: Tweet-size Summary
- As saints who struggle with suffering and sin, we must crop back into the picture our future purity (the wedding) and future victory (the final war).
Question 8: Sanctification—“Why are we here?” “How do we become like Jesus?” How can our inner life increasingly reflect the inner life of Christ?
Chapter 15: Tweet-size Summary
- Sanctification is the art of applying our complete salvation by God’s grace, Spirit, Word, people, and future hope so we increasingly reflect Christ.
Chapter 16: Tweet-size Summary
- Gospel-motivated/empowered heart change puts off/puts on affections, mindsets, purposes, and mood states so we increasingly reflect the heart of Christ.
Bob, thank you for your work for the Lord and His people
i wonder if you can recommend any resources to help a 20 year old college student who is a believer, trying to navigate a tense situation at home
with unbelieving parents. Mom’s language is yelling, Dad is pretty much absent, except to go to work. She is planning on getting married in a year, and wants to honor
the Lord and her parents, but her Mom just goes off on her for petty things, and then won’t talk to her for days.
Any resources come to mind?
Jim, I replied in person privately. Please let me know if you received it or if you had any further questions. Bob
Thank you so much! The Pastor of the Church I attend for over 15 years has consistently taken us thru Systematic Theology and Pilgrim’s Progress! Initially, I was lost and overwhelmed coming out of man-centered ‘religion’ into Christ-centered living! However, by God’s Grace and ministries such as yours, I feel joyful with opportunities to gain more insight into God’s Holy Word and my assignment on earth!