A Biblical Counseling Evaluation of ACBC’s “A Biblical View of Trauma, Part 2”

A Word from Bob 

ACBC has launched a new podcast series on trauma. Omri Miles, on X, encouraged people to engage with the series. For my engagement with Part 1, see, Trauma and the Body.

Today, I’m interacting with Part 2, where Dale Johnson and Francine Tan continue their conversation. For a shortened version of this post, see, 12 Catalytic Trauma Questions for Biblical Counselors.

The Big Picture: 4 Areas of Iron Sharpening Feedback 

As I listened to and read the transcript of Part 2, I had four major reflections and iron-sharpening recommendations for consideration:

• Areas #1: Further develop your biblical “sufferology”—your biblical counseling theology of suffering, trauma, and the impact of traumatic suffering on the embodied-soul, including examining whether God’s Word distinguishes between “general suffering” and “traumatic suffering.”

• Area #2: Further develop your biblical theology of embodiment—what the Bible teaches about our being embodied-souls; and further develop your methodology of embodied ministry—what the Bible teaches about being soul physicians of embodied-souls.

• Area #3: Further develop your understanding of CIBC—commit to a more accurate understanding and characterization of Christian clinically-informed biblical counselors (CIBC).

• Area #4: Further develop your theology of God’s providential shepherding of human history through His sovereign common grace via the progressive development of the Creation Mandate.

I’ll examine each of these in more detail, using biblical, theological, and historical (church history) input as the foundation for my assessment.

Area #1: Biblical Sufferology: A Biblical Counseling Theology of Suffering and Trauma

Recommendation 

• Further develop your biblical “sufferology”—your biblical counseling theology of suffering, trauma, and the impact of traumatic suffering on the embodied-soul, including examining whether God’s Word distinguishes between “general suffering” and “traumatic suffering.” 

I appreciate that Part 2 of the ACBC video series on A Biblical View of Trauma offers a preliminary theology of suffering. I applaud the efforts of Dale and Francine.

Their initial interactions about suffering echo my lifelong biblical counseling ministry. For forty-plus years, I’ve focused on the Bible’s teaching on suffering—biblical sufferology:

A biblical, theological, historical (church history), and pastoral model that highlights parakaletic soul care for suffering, including biblical teaching about sustaining empathy (“it’s normal to hurt”) and healing encouragement (“it’s possible to hope”).

See Gospel Conversations: How to Care Like Christ for detailed training in sustaining and healing soul care. In each of my twenty-five books, I include a focus on biblical sufferology. Two of my more recent books have highlighted the need for our biblical counseling movement to grow in the area of counseling for suffering:

1. Parakaleo and Noutheteo: Understanding and Applying Two Richly Practical Biblical Counseling Words.

2. Consider Your Counsel: Addressing Ten Mistakes in Our Biblical Counseling.   

A Catalyst and an Encourager…

For more than forty years, I have sought to encourage the modern nouthetic counseling  movement toward a more comprehensive approach to counseling—one that includes parakaletic soul care for suffering, along with their longstanding nouthetic spiritual direction for sin.

I recall in 1996, speaking with a NANC Fellow who shared with me,

“The people in our church don’t come to us as pastors with suffering issues. They come to us with sin issues.” 

I was floored.

I mentioned to him that parishioners in my church came to me consistently both with issues of sin and of suffering. I also suggested that perhaps the dear folks in my friend’s church had been conditioned by the model of nouthetic counseling to believe that their pastors only wanted to focus on issues of sin, and not on suffering. By God’s grace, these iron-sharpening conversations had a positive impact on my friend’s approach to comprehensive biblical counseling.

I also remember in the early 2000s speaking at a major biblical counseling conference. My six sessions were on grief (four session) and on ministering to those who had experienced the horrors of sexual abuse (two sessions). Before presenting at the conference, I reviewed the entire list of sessions presented at the conference. There were over 100 presentations—and my six were the only ones directly focused on parakaletic soul care for suffering.

Lest you think I’m alone in my iron-sharpening feedback about the need for a more robust biblical focus on sufferology, read Heath Lambert’s dissertation/book. In it, Lambert (the former Executive Director of NANC/ACBC) builds his case that Jay Adams’s nouthetic model was deficient in the area of addressing suffering.

Trauma-Informed Therapy: An ACBC Catalyst 

As I read the podcast manuscript, it dawned on me that God is using modern secular trauma therapy as a catalyst to encourage the modern nouthetic biblical counseling movement to think more deeply about biblical sufferology. That is nothing new. Jay Adams frequently spoke of secular psychology as a “catalyst” for his thinking. Adams was psychology-informed and neuroscience-informed. His copious study of secular thinking prompted him to return to Scripture with more specific questions and a more specific focus.

I believe that God, in His affectionate sovereignty, is using the secular world’s focus on trauma-informed care, plus numerous biblical counselors focusing on caring for the traumatized, as a catalyst to motivate ACBC to develop a more robust approach to soul care for suffering. I thank the Lord for this.

That catalytic impact could continue. Specifically:

A more informed understanding of current thinking on trauma could be a catalyst for ACBC to examine the biblical distinctions between the broader category of “suffering” and the more specific category of “trauma.”

Personally, after spending forty years studying a biblical sufferology, current discussions on trauma recently led me to begin a cover-to-cover, Genesis-to-Revelation, biblical study of trauma, or what I’ve sometimes called, “traumatic suffering.” I am still developing my own “biblical traumatology” (I just now coined that phrase). I readily acknowledge that I have much more thinking to do on a biblical counseling theology and methodology of the specific category of trauma.

Here are some collations of my initial thinking on the Bible, embodied-souls, and traumatic-suffering.

• 560 Biblical Passages on Embodied-Souls.
• 128 Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: Being Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls.
• The Gospels, Traumatic-Suffering, and the Embodied-Soul.
• 8 Wisdom Literature Resources for Biblical Counseling, Trauma, and Embodied-Souls.
• 6 Biblical Counseling Convictions.
• 50 Biblical Counseling Resources on Trauma and Trauma Care.
• 15 Resources About Clinically-Informed Biblical Counseling (CIBC).

A Dozen Catalytic Trauma Questions 

Some of the catalytic questions that current trauma-informed thinking could elicit for biblical counselors might include:

1. How are modern researchers and thinkers defining “trauma”? How are they distinguishing between the broader category of “suffering” and the more specific category of “trauma”?
2. What is current (imperfect) neuroscience research on trauma saying about its impact on the embodied-soul?
3. Are there any additional questions that I could bring to the text of Scripture based upon current research and neuroscience thinking about trauma? About trauma’s impact upon the body/brain?
4. Does the Bible in any way distinguish between the category of “suffering” and the category of “trauma” or “traumatic suffering”? Are these categories the same? Different? Overlapping?
5. If the Bible does make distinctions between the broader category of “suffering” and a more specific category of “trauma,” what are those distinctions? How does the Bible depict them? What are the differing ways the Bible depicts trauma impacting the embodied-soul versus how suffering impacts the embodied-soul? What are the differing ways the Bible encourages sufferers to respond to suffering versus responding to trauma?
6. How can I look at current thinking on trauma through the lens of Scripture? How could the “new eyes” of Scripture enlighten me to see potential errors in modern trauma thinking and potential common grace insights in modern trauma thinking?
7. How can I fairly assess current trauma theory? What does it mean for a biblical counselor to examine trauma theory not only using “co-belligerent” research (research that is against trauma theory), but also using peer reviewed research that supports trauma theory?
8. What adjunctive role might there be for neuroscience research into the impact of trauma on the body/brain?
9. What adjunctive role might there be for physiological interventions when providing soul care for embodied-souls who have experienced traumatic suffering?
10. There are well over 500 biblical passages on the complex interconnection and interrelationship between the body and soul. How might these passages help create a biblical counseling theological anthropology of the embodied-soul? How might these passages help create a biblical counseling methodology of being soul physicians of embodied-souls?
11. There are hundreds of biblical passages on the lasting/lingering impact of suffering, abuse, and trauma on the body. How might these passages help biblical counselors understand the trauma sufferer? How might these passages help biblical counselors ponder appropriate physiological interventions?
12. The Bible values the body. God created the embodied-soul “very good;” He “fearfully and wonderfully made” the embodied-soul. There are hundreds of examples in the Bible of God ministering to the body and valuing ministry to the embodied-soul. How might these passages help biblical counselors to think through comprehensive ministry to the whole person? How might these passages help biblical counselors to ponder appropriate physiological interventions?

Some might reply,

“But “trauma” is a worldly word. Why should biblical counselors search the Scriptures for a concept like that?”

Well, “OCD” is a “worldly word,” but biblical counselors have written a great deal on a biblical understanding of OCD. The same is true with other words/concepts like “scrupulosity,” “bi-polar disorder,” “schizophrenia,” etc., that biblical counselors have addressed. This is Jay Adams’s concept of the “catalytic” impact of being informed about current concepts in the world of science and psychology—and then seeking to think them through biblically.

Room for Development: The “Progressive Sanctification” of ACBC’s Biblical Sufferology and Biblical Traumatology 

Again, I welcome Dale and Francine’s introductory understanding of the Bible’s wealth of relational wisdom on suffering—a biblical sufferology for biblical counseling. I pray that they will continue to expand their thinking, including additional relevant biblical perspectives on:

• The definitions of and distinctions between “trauma” and of “suffering.”
• The impact of traumatic suffering on the body.
• The role of neuroscience findings in more fully understanding the impact of traumatic suffering on the embodied-soul.
• The legitimacy of intense emotional responses to traumatic suffering.
• The role of lament in responding to traumatic suffering.
• The role of counselor empathy for the sufferer: feeling with the sufferer and not needing to fix their feelings.
• The role of counselor patience: non-shaming, lingering listening to the sufferer’s painful story of suffering, trauma, and abuse.
• The place for physiological interventions as we seek to be competent, compassionate, comprehensive soul physicians of embodied-souls.

Area #2: A Theology of Embodiment 

Recommendation: 

• Further develop your biblical theology of embodiment—what the Bible teaches about our being embodied-souls; and further develop your methodology of embodied ministry—what the Bible teaches about being soul physicians of embodied-souls. 

From the 27:35 mark of the podcast to the 28:12 mark, Dale and Francine denigrate the use of various physiological interventions. Note: I am not promoting these various interventions. However, I do want us to think biblically about physiological interventions for embodied souls.

Dale and Francine say:

“The methods that, you know, you try to give relief like a breathing box, a breathing technique, meditation, grounding, neuro feedback. Um, not only not proven by science, but they’re not going to bring about true and lasting hope. Um, and, the you know, at best placebo effect at best, you know, temporary placating this thing, but what it also does it’s a redirection away from God. When a believer is overwhelmed by suffering what they need is to be overwhelmed even more by the greatness of who God is by the love of Christ.”

I know of no clinically-informed biblical counselor who says that physiological interventions “bring about true and lasting hope.”

I would dispute the notion that physiological interventions are “a redirection away from God.” This is a common mentality in today’s biblical counseling world. In Should Biblical Counselors Counsel About the Body?, I provide several more examples of ACBC counselors dividing soul from body, and then valuing soul treatment over embodied ministry.

Later, at the 29:20 mark, Tan and Johnson share:

“One final thought I’ll give and in the same way that we should reject any methodology that wants to veil the nature and character of our God in the midst of human suffering…”

Methodologies that address the embodied-soul do not have to “veil the nature and character of God.” Instead, comprehensive care for the whole person honors how God designed us. See, Every Square Inch of Human Existence: Kuyper on God’s All-Encompassing Common Grace. God’s sovereign common grace glorifies God. See, Common Grace and God’s Glory: Kuyper on Amazing Common Grace.

There are several problems with the mentality that addressing the physical somehow competes with the spiritual or minimizes God’s glory.

Biblical Consideration #1: There is no such thing as a non-physical, all-spiritual being.

We are embodied-souls by God’s design. See, 560 Biblical Passages on Embodied-Souls. Theologically, ministry to people is not either/or—either we focus on the soul or we focus on the body.

Biblically, ministry to people is both/and—we focus on the whole person as an embodied-soul. In Do Biblical Counselors Focus on the Soul, or on the Body, or on the Embodied-Soul?, I explain biblically why we counsel the embodied-soul.

Biblical Consideration #2: Jesus focused on the whole person—focusing much of His ministry on physical healing.

In Jesus: Soul Physician of Embodied-Souls, I collated and summarized 618 verses in the Gospels where Jesus focused on ministering to, caring for and healing the body. I won’t repeat all of those observations and applications now (you can read the post), but I will provide this summary:

As biblical counselors, if we minimize or neglect ministry to the whole person—to the body, to the embodied-soul—then we are not Jesus-like soul physicians.

Biblical Consideration #3: The Bible consistently addresses the physical without in any way demeaning or devaluing ministry to the body.

The ministry of Jesus is more than enough to teach us the value of soul care for the body. However, there are many additional biblical examples of the value of ministry to the body. Here are some samplers…

• In 1 Kings 19, God ministers to the exhausted body of Elijah.
• In Jonah 4:6, God ministers to the exhausted body of Jonah.
• In Matthew 4, angels ministered to the exhausted body of Jesus.
• Throughout the Gospels, Jesus rested and renewed His embodied-soul and taught His disciples to do the same.
• In the Garden, Jesus’s suffering impacted Him physically and angels came and strengthened His embodied-soul (Luke 22:43-44).
• Paul prayed three times for the removal of his thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12:8).
• Paul used the medical knowledge of his day to counsel Timothy to “use a little wine for his stomach” (1 Timothy 5:23).
• The Bible highlights the spiritual importance of wise care for the body (1 Corinthians 6:13-20).
• The Bible commands us to discipline and master our bodies (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
• The Bible teaches the finite, fallen, groaning nature of our current bodies (Romans 8:18-27; 2 Corinthians 4:8; Psalm 78:38-39; Psalm 103:13-16; Isaiah 40:6-8; 2 Corinthians 4:7; 1 Peter 1:24-25).
• The Bible describes our sanctification and glorification as including our whole “spirit, soul, and body” (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
• The Bible exhorts us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2).
• The Bible honors the value of physical training and exercise (1 Timothy 4:9).
• The Bible repeatedly teaches the interrelationship of and interconnection between the body and soul—the complex, back-and-forth influence of the body on the soul and of the soul on the body (560 Biblical Passages on Embodied-Souls).

The body was not an “add-on;” it was not an “after thought” for God. God created our bodies, our embodied-souls, “very good.” God “fearfully and wonderfully made” our bodies, our embodied-souls. No biblical counselor is saying, “Focus exclusively or even primarily on the body.” Instead, the Bible teaches us to minister to the whole person—to the embodied-soul. God’s Word encourages us to see the whole person and not spiritualize them as angelic disembodied beings. God’s Word highlights the sacredness of the body—of the embodied-soul. God’s Word equips us to minister as soul physicians of embodied-souls.

Biblical Consideration #4: Creating a dichotomy between the value of ministry to the body versus ministry to the soul aligns not with Scripture, but with secular platonic thought and gnostic religious thinking.

The Bible does not elevate the soul over the body. The Bible unites the body and soul—embodied-soul—and values them together, equally. It is secular platonic philosophy and worldly gnostic religion that separates body and soul and that values the soul over the body.

In summary:

• The Bible does not divide body and soul; the Bible unites body and soul—embodied-souls.
• The Bible does not devalue the body; God created the embodied-soul “very good.”
• The Bible does not denigrate (disparage, degrade, depreciate, vilify, belittle, malign) ministry to the body; the Bible commands, illustrates, and honors ministry to the body.

Here are further resources on biblical ministry to embodied-souls:

• In Should Biblical Counselors Counsel About the Body?, I provide 27 resources explaining biblically why biblical counselors should counsel about the body.
• In I’m Never More Christ-Dependent Than When I’m Doing Deep Breathing Exercises, I share my person testimony explaining how physiological interventions are a reflection of Christ-dependency, rather than putting my faith in a method instead of in Christ.
• In the following two posts, I share church history examples of godly pastors—pre-neuroscience, pre-trauma-informed counseling—who understood the wisdom of embodied care and physiological interventions. 1. Spurgeon’s Depression…And His Body/Brain/Embodied-Soul. 2. 6 Lessons from a Depressed Puritan Pastor.
• 128 Free Resources for Counseling the Whole Person: Soul Physicians of Embodied-Souls.

Here’s my hope. In a year, or five years, or ten years, I hope that my writings, the writings of other Christians, and the neuroscience writings of Christians and non-Christians will serve as a catalyst for ACBC to develop further their theology of the embodied-soul. I hope that they will see that physiological interventions are not “unspiritual.” It is “spiritual” to minister to the whole person as an embodied-soul.

Area #3: Characterizing CIBC Brothers and Sisters 

Recommendation: 

• Further develop your understanding of CIBC—commit to a more accurate understanding and characterization of Christian clinically-informed biblical counselors (CIBC).

As I’ve noted several times, while I do not describe my approach as CIBC, I have great respect for my Christian brothers and sisters who practice CIBC. It is Christianity 101 to represent others honestly. Jason Kovacs, on X, questions whether the first two ACBC videos is doing that. Kovak’s questions 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 especially relate to these perceived mischaracterizations of CIBC Christians.

“Here are a few sincere questions for @acbc after listening to their first two videos on trauma:

1. How are you defining trauma?

2. How are you defining ‘trauma-informed’?

3. Which Biblical Counselors are claiming that the Bible does not speak to trauma? Where do they say that?

4. Which Biblical Counselors are telling counselees to put their hope more in secular trauma frameworks than in Christ?

5. Can a Biblical Counselor recommend a breathing exercise for temporary relief without communicating that is where one puts their hope?

6. Can a Biblical Counselor offer temporary safety and stability while also seeking to ground a counselees hope and stability in God’s Word and Work in Christ?

7. Where are your claims about these Biblical Counselors documented?”

In ACBC’s second video, here are several specific examples of undocumented allegations against CIBC brothers and sisters. First, at the 10:43 mark in the video, speaking of Christian CIBCers, they say,

“They want to exegete that person by using the framework of van der Kolk. They want to exegete that person by using the framework of trauma theory. They want to understand that person by using theoretical ideas of neurobiology.”

Can you document where CIBC Christians are saying this?

Clinically-informed biblical counselors are saying that they exegete and understanding sufferers through the Bible’s theological anthropology of embodied-souls. They are saying that the Bible is their sufficient and authoritative guide to assess/evaluate any extra-biblical information—whether from van der Kolk, trauma theory, or neurobiology. CIBCers are seeking to be informed, just as Adams and sought to be informed by 1960s teaching on the nervous system—see, INC: Informed Nouthetic Counseling.

Starting at the 18:27 mark, they say:

“And what I what I hate is happening right now is it seems as though we’re abandoning our deep heritage of a theology of suffering that’s so immense and comprehensive in the Bible. It seems as though even if we want to hold that tightly, that we’re  putting it as a as a secondary help when this is very frontal in the Scriptures.”

Can you document where CIBC Christians are “abandoning our deep heritage of a theology of suffering” and are “putting it [a theology of suffering] as a secondary help”?

At the 21:02 mark, they say,

“About, you know, wanting to understand people’s human experience or wanting to be compassionate, wanting to sympathize, all that is well and good, but that would be so amiss to not look at Christ.”

Can you document where CIBC Christians are “not look(ing) to Christ”?

At the 24:50 mark they say,

“Any hesitancy that we have to utilize revealed truth about God and his nature and his character for our good in trauma is not a healthy approach.”

Can you document where CIBC Christians are hesitant “to utilize revealed truth about God and His nature and His character”?

At the 27:23 mark, they claim:

“So, um I just, I don’t want us to run after myths that veil the beauty and the depth of what we see in scripture.”

Can you document where CIBC Christians are “run[ning] after myths that veil the beauty and depth of what we see in Scripture”?

Our CIBC brothers and sisters in Christ have repeatedly affirmed their commitment to the centrality of Christ and the gospel, the sufficiency and authority of Scripture providing us with “new eyes” to evaluate and assess any extra-biblical information, the beauty and power of the Bible’s theology of suffering, and the primacy of speaking God’s Word in love in the care of traumatized, suffering people.

For primary source documentation of the actual biblical convictions of CIBC Christians, see:

• What Is Redemptive Counseling / Clinically Informed Biblical Counseling? by the faculty of SEBTS’s biblical counseling department.
• What I Mean by Clinically-Informed Biblical Counseling? by Brad Hambrick.
• Fieldstone Counseling: About Us which highlights how they are “biblically-based, Christ-centered, and clinically-informed.
• Christ-Centered, Clinically-Informed Counseling for the Whole Person by Jason Kovacs. 

Our CIBC brothers and sisters in Christ are directing suffering people to all of the biblical passages and theological principles that Dale and Francine discussed. They are building their approach to traumatized people on God’s all-sufficient Word.

CIBC Christians are not doing less biblical interaction than Dale and Francine. They are doing all of that, and more. They are using God’s Word as the lens through which they read and assess imperfect neuroscience to help embodied-souls to comprehensively address the impact of traumatic suffering on their bodies.

Area #4: A Theology of God’s Providence 

Recommendation: 

• Further develop your theology of God’s providential shepherding of human history through His sovereign common grace via the progressive development of the Creation Mandate.

This fourth point is a bit complicated, but important to ponder. At the 1:36 mark of the video, Dale and Francine are discussing God’s revelation in Scripture about trauma and how it relates to modern trauma theory. Then they share:

“It’s interesting to me to think that in the goodness and kindness of the Lord that in his revelation that he would have withheld information that would have been so critical and so important for us to know…”

At first glance, without a theology of God’s affectionate sovereignty in history, that sounds so spiritual! “God would never leave His people without information they need! Therefore, this or that new, more recent understanding, is unnecessary, imperfect, and likely invalid!”

Sadly, this is a common misconception. Let’s address this both logically and theologically…

First, Let’s Think Logically (and Historically) 

Logically, we need to acknowledge that in God’s providential control of history, we have been left for a time without many new advances and much important information. We would now be naïve and even foolish to dismiss them. Consider just a few examples of advances that were “withheld” for much of human history…

• IPV: Inactivated poliovirus vaccine—the polio vaccine.
• Smallpox vaccine.
• Anesthesia: Anybody want to opt for open heart surgery without anesthesia?
• Insulin for diabetes.
• Chemotherapy for cancer.
• Blood transfusions.
• High blood pressure medication.
• Cholesterol medication.
• Neurological understandings of the cause, prevention, and treatment of strokes.
• Etc., etc., etc…

No one should proclaim that God was not good and kind for 1,000s of years because these advances did not arrive until the past 150 years of human history.

Only the foolish would eschew such advances because they did not exist throughout all of human history. “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty” (Proverbs 22:3).

Some will quickly retort, “But that’s science for the body and brain!” Well, neuroscience is a  science for the body and brain. It is the imperfect information used for much of the biological/physiological aspects of modern trauma therapy. And human descriptive observations and peer-reviewed research about trauma’s impact on the body is imperfect information used for much of the biological/physiological aspects of trauma therapy.

Others will then counter, “But neuroscience is a new and imperfect science. We can’t fully trust it!” Well, oncology is a new and imperfect science, and yet most people trust their oncologist’s recommendations regarding imperfect cancer treatments. If we wait for the perfection of any scientific advancement, then we will wait forever. Science, for all its value, is finite, imperfect—yet still beneficial.

Still others will respond, “But the philosophical foundations of trauma therapy are unbiblical.” Clinically-informed biblical counselors use the “new eyes,” the “lens” of Scripture, to evaluate the philosophical foundations of trauma theory and to assess the potential appropriateness of physiological interventions. Just like Jay Adams in the 1970s did with neuroscience, sleep studies, and the nervous systems—even using the nervous system knowledge of his day as support for his nouthetic counseling approach! See, Jay Adams, Nouthetic Counseling, and Neuroscience.

One additional logical reflection: the nouthetic biblical counseling movement is new. It is a fifty-year-young modern movement started by one man in the 1970s, based predominantly on one word (noutheteo) used only eleven times in the New Testament. In light of Dale and Francine’s thinking on new, novel ideas, we might ask, “Why did God withhold nouthetic counseling from us until the 1970s ‘if it was so important for us to know’?”

Second, Let’s Think Theologically: God’s Providential Historical Shepherding 

God created us in His image as under-shepherds and under-scientists. He gave us His Creation Mandate to study, understand, subdue, advance, and have dominion over the earth.

“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground” (Genesis 1:28).

God did not create Adam and Eve and place them in the 21^st century with laptops, cell phones, airplanes, or neuroscience. God created Adam and Eve and expected and exhorted them to progressively increase, fill, subdue, rule over, and advance their dominion on earth.

God designed His world to be one where we grow and advance—where we progressively increase dominion over the planet—the Creation Mandate.

We need a biblical theology of God’s providential shepherding of human history through His amazing, God-glorifying common grace, through studying natural/general revelation, and through observational wisdom gleaned and gained from using the minds God has gifted us with.

We need a Wisdom Literature understanding of God’s command that we use our brains to advance our understanding.

• The Wise Observe Life and Learn: We are to “ask the animals, and they will teach us, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell us; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you…” “Is not wisdom is found among the aged? Does not long life bring understanding?” (Job 12:7-8, 12). We are to look to the gazelle and to the ant and learn wisdom (Proverbs 6:5-6).

• The Wise See the Fingerprints of the Creator in All of Creation and Learn: Psalm 19:1-6, about the beauty and value of natural revelation, is just as much inspired Scripture as Psalm 19:7-12, about special revelation. Romans 1 teaches that the unregenerate suppress the knowledge of God revealed in creation. However, the regenerate discern God in creation and, as under-scientists, learn from and about creation, leading to progressive advancement in human knowledge for the good of humanity and the glory of God.

In His affectionate sovereignty, and through His common grace, God providentially shepherds humanity’s progressive implementation of the Creation Mandate. That is God’s role.

Our role is to progressively learn, to progressively develop understandings that inform us in how to treat image bearers—embodied-souls. This includes God’s sovereign will that in the 20^th and 21^st centuries we would benefit from modern advances in neuroscience to help us—in an adjunctive way, under the authority of Scripture—to minister to the embodied-soul impacted by traumatic suffering in our fallen world. This also includes potentially helpful physiological interventions, whether they be rest in the hot springs of France (Spurgeon), or sleep (Jay Adams and the benefit of neuroscience information about sleep studies), or deep breathing exercises (me: I’m Never More Christ-Dependent Than When I’m Doing Deep Breathing Exercises).

And Church History Says…

Physical interventions do not replace God. They honor God and His good gift of the Creation Mandate extended through His sovereign, shepherding common grace.

Richard Baxter understood this:

“Use the best means for the recovery of the sick, which the ablest physicians shall advise you to, as far as you are able. . . . No means must be trusted instead of God, but the best must be used in subservience unto God” (Richard Baxter, The Christian Directory, 535).

As Calvin insists, it is sinful to refuse to avail ourselves of information and advances given freely by God.

• “But if the Lord has willed that we be helped in physics, dialectic, mathematics, and other like disciplines, by the work and ministry of the ungodly, let us use this assistance. For if we neglect God’s gift freely offered in these arts, we ought to suffer just punishment for our sloths” (Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, II.2.16).

• “We shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it wherever it appears, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God. If we regard the Spirit of God as the sole foundation of truth, we shall not despise it wherever it shall appear” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2.14).

• “Whenever we come upon these matters in secular writers, let that admirable light of truth shining in them teach us that the mind of man through fallen and perverted from its wholeness, is nevertheless clothed and ornamented with God’s excellent gifts…. Shall we deny that the truth shone upon the ancient jurists who established civic order and discipline with such great equity? Shall we say that the philosophers were blind in their fine observations and artful descriptions of nature?Shall we say that those men were devoid of understanding who conceived the art of disputation and taught us to speak reasonably? Shall we say that they are insane who developed medicine, devoting their labor to our benefit? What shall we say of all the mathematical sciences? Shall we consider them the ravings of madmen? No, we cannot read the writings of the ancients on these subjects without great admiration” (Calvin, Institutes, II: 2.15, 273-275).

As Kuyper insists, it is a false, overly-spiritualized mindset that rejects God’s providential common grace for our body—our embodied-soul.

• Kuyper insists that the doctrine of common grace opens our eyes to God’s comprehensive focus on not just our soul, but on our body also—on our embodied-soul. Kuyper speaks of Christians falling into a wrong, one-sided focus on the soul, saying that they wrongly, “…refuse to take into account the significance of Christ also for the body, andfor visible things, and for the outcome of world history” (Common Grace, Vol. 1, 269).

• Kuyper taught that we make a false, unbiblical dichotomy between the sacred and the secular. The Bible however, makes everything sacred. “Consider well that thereby you run the serious riskof receiving Christ exclusively for your soul and of viewing your life in the world and for the world as something standing alongside your Christian religion and not as being governed by it” (Common Grace, Vol. 1, 269).

• “The world [in this false overly-spiritualized mindset] is a less holy, almost unholy area that should take care of itself as best it can. And with but one more small step you arrive imperceptibly at the Anabaptist point of view, which ultimately focused everything holy in the soul, and dug an unbridgeable chasm between this inner, spiritual life of the soul and the life around you. Then science becomes unholy, the development of the arts, commerce, and business become unholy, as well as holding office in government—in short, everything becomes unholy that is not directly spiritual and focused on the soul. The result is that you end up living in two spheres of thought. On the hand the very narrow, reduced line of thought involving your soul’s salvation, and on the other hand the broad, spacious, life-encompassing sphere of thought involving the world. Your Christ then belongs comfortably in that first, reduced sphere of thinking, but not in the broad one. And then from that antithesis and false proportionality proceed all narrow-mindedness, inner untruthfulness,  not to mention pious insincerity and impotence” (Common Grace, Vol. 1, 269).

For much more on God’s sovereign common grace, see, Common Grace and Biblical Counseling: Wisdom from Reformed Theologians.

Final Reflections 

In order to become competent soul physicians of embodied-souls who counsel people impacted by traumatic suffering, we need to develop:

• A robust theology of suffering and of trauma. The ACBC podcast with Dale and Francine offers a helpful beginning in the area of suffering. I applaud their efforts here. It resonates with my focus over the past 4+ decades. However, in my assessment, the ACBC podcast with Dale and Francine fails to consider and address whether God’s Word distinguishes between “general suffering” and “trauma suffering”—and the impact of traumatic suffering on the embodied-soul.

• A robust theology of embodiment—a theological anthropology of the embodied-soul. The ACBC podcast with Dale and Francine, in my assessment, lacks this.

• A robust theology of God’s providence in history—a theology of God’s providential shepherding of human advancements through His sovereign common grace. The ACBC podcast with Dale and Francine, in my assessment, lacks this.

Additionally, in order to have true iron sharpening conversations about biblical counseling and trauma:

• We need to represent one another accurately. The ACBC podcast with Dale and Francine, in my assessment, lacks this. They repeatedly mischaracterize Christian clinically-informed biblical counselors.