First, My Working Definition 

• A sufficientist is a historical biblical counselor (church history of Christian soul care) who holds the theological conviction that the Bible is sufficient for life and godliness. A sufficientist holds the theological conviction that the Bible’s sufficiency, authority, clarity, and profundity provide the wisdom to discern, assess, and evaluate (seeing with new eyes) when, how, and if to use extra-biblical information such as research, science, and neuroscience as a soul physician of embodied-souls.

Now, What Am I Talking About?: A New Hashtag # 

Social media is so interesting. The latest social media hashtag # I’m seeing is #Sufficientist which, as I understand it, was shared by an ACBC attendee with an ACBC speaker. I’ve not yet seen a definition on social media. If you’ve heard or read an official definition, please feel free to share it.

#BibleCn #BiblicalCounseling #EmbodiedSouls #Sufficiency #Sufficientist

What the Word Says

When we hear a modern, man-made term like “sufficientist,” it’s always wise to go back to our sufficient Bible to define the term scripturally. Adams, Bettler, and Powlison used 6 different “R” words to describe the process of interacting biblically with man-made terms:

1. Recycle
2. Reinterpret
3. Reshape
4. Reconcile
5. Redeem
6. Recast

Biblical definitions allow us to have wise, intelligent, gracious, bridge-building, iron-sharpening-iron conversations. Of course, the last thing any of us would want is for man-made terms to become man-made walls of division and man-made tools of judging oneself as right and others as wrong.

My Working Definition 

Given the form of the word “sufficientist,” it is being used as a modifier to describe a person (or group of persons) who believes in the sufficiency of Scripture.

Now that you have more background, here, again, is my working biblical definition of #Sufficientist. Note that I am saying this is my take on defining this—or on redeeming it, to use Adams’s word. I’m sure others have other definitions. I’d like to hear them.

• A sufficientist is a historical biblical counselor (church history of Christian soul care) who holds the theological conviction that the Bible is sufficient for life and godliness. A sufficientist holds the theological conviction that the Bible’s sufficiency, authority, clarity, and profundity provide the wisdom to discern, assess, and evaluate (seeing with new eyes) when, how, and if to use extra-biblical information such as research, science, and neuroscience as soul physicians of embodied-souls.

Why Share My “Take” on This? 

I love words. I love interactions. That’s why I helped to launch the Biblical Counseling Coalition in 2010 with the twin goals of promoting collegial relationships and producing collaborative resources. By sharing my take on “sufficientist,” I’m hoping to invite conversation that promote iron-sharpening-iron relationships.

Sometimes when new, modern words are invented, the end result is separation instead of conversation. The word becomes “our word” that “identifies us” as part of the “in group” or the “right group.”

Our creation of a new word creates a new boundary.

Our new word creates a new wall of division, a new partition of separation.

Our new creation creates the implication of rightness versus wrongness.

Our creation of a new word creates a holy huddle of “our right team” against “your wrong team.”

By providing my working biblical definition of “sufficientist,” I’m reclaiming this word for all of us as biblical counselors. I’m inviting conversations:

“Here’s how I would use ‘sufficientists,’ especially in the context of the Bible and extra-biblical resources for biblical counseling. What do you think? Where do we have commonality? Where do we see things a bit differently? Where could we learn from each other as fellow, mutually respected members of the body of Christ?”

By the Way… 

If anyone might think, “Wait, you can’t claim or reclaim a word someone else made up!” First, why not?

Second, “sufficientist” has been around for at least fifteen years in the legal field. See: A Sufficientist Approach to Reasonableness in Legal Decision-Making and Judicial Review. So, as it is being coined in the biblical counseling world, either knowingly or unknowingly, it is already a borrowed modern secular term—that no one person or group can claim. 

Join the Conversation 

Thoughts? Further development? Your biblical definition? Definitions you have heard others use?

In our use of “sufficientist, where do we have commonality? Where do we see things a bit differently? Where could we learn from each other as fellow, mutually respected members of the body of Christ?