Is biblical counseling important now more than ever? Dr. Keith Evans offers insights on the purpose and importance of biblical counseling, tracing the practice through the Bible to its relevance today.
"Is biblical counseling important now more than ever?" is a challenging question in the sense that yes, it's immensely important now, but it's always been vitally important. So how do we capture that balance there?
"Is biblical counseling important now more than ever?" is a challenging question in the sense that yes, it's immensely important now, but it's always been vitally important. So how do we capture that balance there?
Historical Importance
I seek to make the argument in my classes that biblical counseling didn't begin in the 1960s and 1970s. Biblical counseling actually began in the garden, as God is speaking his Word to individuals, and he's applying that Word to their circumstances and to their setting of giving his Word to Adam, to Eve. And then, we just see that throughout all of time continued. You see that traced throughout the Scriptures: that faithful shepherds are not only just speaking the truth, they're applying it to the particular situations of life. They're making sure that the people understand it, as well.Biblical counseling didn't begin in the 1960s and 1970s. Biblical counseling actually began in the garden, as God is speaking his Word to individuals, and he's applying that Word to their circumstances.I think about Nehemiah 8, that not only was Ezra reading the Word, but then the Levites are ensuring that the individuals are understanding the meaning and the sense of it. And so you just see that concept throughout the Scriptures. You see it in the New Testament, of course, as well. Jesus himself—the great Shepherd—but then you see, in the apostolic ministry and so forth, and then that's conveyed to us in the pastoral epistles, that this is the shape that the counseling ministry should take, that the individual application of the Word should take.
