marriage counseling: titanic doctrine

[Steven]

The following article can be found at InformationGospel.net:
http://www.informationgospel.net/mar...counseling.htm
Looking for a Biblical response. Thank you,
- Steven

Marriage counseling was shipwrecked right out of the Harbor

In our Christian experience, most Christians have rightly learned that doctrine comes out of the Scriptures; not that they always follow these principles, but that most of Christendom has excepted the fact that the Scriptures determine doctrine. The major sects Baptists, Nazarines, Assembly of God, Calvary Chapel, Foursquare and Lutherans also would agree, in principle at least, that Scripture does determine all doctrine.

There are many in-house debates in modern christendom: whether someone should be dunked, partially dunked or whether there should be sprinkles; but, all doctrine, being like batter, must be dunked into the hot oils of the Scriptures, which purifies the end product, or, like gold, refined in the refiner’s fire, which pulls out from the molten mass the dross.

In our modern theology, we find an eclectic mix of supposed doctrines that cannot be supported from Scriptures, often backed up by passages taken completely out of context. For example: modern christianity’s contempt towards smoking; the Scriptures do not specifically address someone who smokes. Not that I advocate smoking, there is just no place in Scripture that addresses this issue. This Scripture: "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19) is often used to back up this abhorrence of smoking, but taken in context this passage instead speaks of believers being commanded vehemently not to unite themselves with prostitutes, or engage in any type of lascivious acts: (1 Corinth. 6: 12-20)

"15. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

16. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

17. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

18. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

19. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?"

These doctrines often appear very innocent and helpful even.

There are some in modern cristendom who hold strongly to nutrition principles or certain dietary practices, which is fine, until they begin to espouse that the Scriptures somehow supports their new doctrines about food. The New Testament does not support these doctrines, but leaves it up to a man’s own conscience about whether he should eat healthily or be Krispy Kreme number one customer.

These are just some of the examples of how in order to justify the modern culture’s proclivities, these people try to adjust certain passages of Scripture, trying to validate the coinciding with societal opinions and fads. As the societal trends get more crazed, so do the yearnings to follow them.

Thirty years ago, if someone in a church condemned homosexuality from the Scriptures, 99% of the Church would have agreed with said person. Today, if a believer says that the Scriptures condemn homosexuality, the majority of modern christians would condemn that believer and through their hypocrisy they would spout verses about ‘love’, foolhardily taking them out of context, adding to Scripture and unconsciously approving of the inglorious act; God’s judgement of the homosexual is love, that one would fear Him, repent and turn away from these sins, accepting the atonement of Christ.

Here in America, in the fifties we began to see a rise of women’s independence, as well as a rise in divorce and adultery. By the end of the sixties, the trend was fully conflagrated. Most of our modern christians were birthed in this period of time, when feminism, adulteries and fornications were running rampant. Marriages, being under constant assault, began to fall apart.

Starting with Catholicism, the priests, and then pastors, began to apply modern psychology and philosophy to their theology in an attempt to recover these failed marriages by bringing in a concept which is often referred to in this day as ‘marriage counseling’, a sort of mediation of the priest, or pastor, between the husband and wife. Modern christendom bought this philosophical psychology hook, line and sinker and re-shaped the role of a pastor, changing his duties that were laid forth in the Scriptures.

What is now practiced in the majority of modern christendom cannot be found in the Scriptures, but is instead rooted in Catholicism as ‘church traditions’ to be followed; these philosophies and ideas became pre-eminent over the proper exegesis of Scripture.

Some of these traditions are as follows:

By meeting together once a week at the cathedral, or church building, you have experienced The Church; as one wise philosopher said, "By meeting on Sunday I get that commitment out of the way..."

The New Testament church did meet regularly, as commanded in Hebrews, sometimes even daily, but due to looming persecution (which is promised to all believers) they met secretly in homes, or out in fields and their experience was not limited to part of one day a week, but encompassed every day.

The modern churches collect tithes to support the needs of their building, when the New Testament church collected tithes specifically for the needs of the brethren, such as the hungry, the persecuted saints, widows and orphans. Jesus condemned the pharisees in Matthew 23, saying "which is greater? The gold or the Temple which sanctifieth the gold?"

Modern christendom has dictated the role of a pastor and has excluded the rest of the giftings of The Church, such as the evangelist, the prophet or the teacher. The pastor, instead of discharging the duties of ministry, like setting men up to preach and teach and publicly reading Scriptures, is now consumed in speaking a message on Sunday and marriage counseling. The Scriptures place the responsibility of The Church on the men of His Body, and the pastor, as the shepherd, is to oversee the discharging of the duties to these men, who likewise have authority over their own wives and children, washing them with the Word of God.

Because the authority of the men has been removed in modern christendom, there is friction and rebellion in marriages over power struggles of who is going to lead the home, when the Scripture clearly put this responsibility on the man, whom is the head of his house, whom is responsible for his wife’s and children’s actions and should be held accountable for any inability to lead with Scriptures.

The modern idea of marital counseling is decidedly unbiblical, as there is no evidence of this doctrine in the Scriptures; nowhere in the Scripture will you find Jesus, Paul the Apostle or any other apostle, any of the old testament prophets, Moses, or Abraham practicing in the secular art of marriage counseling. The Scriptures speak generally or corporately to or about marriage and of roles of wives and husbands within the Body of Christ. No where do you find one church leader intervening into a marriage, save for one possible example: Ananias and Saphira, where the Apostle Peter called into question their offering, they lied and were struck dead by the Holy Spirit as a result. This even was not about their marriage, but of their holding back a portion of what they had promised as a couple, and then lying to the Holy Spirit.

The practice of marriage counseling has not led to the success of marriages but has instead led to the success of feminism, oppressive children and homosexuality as an end result. Just over-viewing the last thirty years, we see feminism as a theme of the seventies, the eighties embodied the rise of rebellious children and the nineties were an evil celebration of the homosexual coming out of the closet. In the old testament God destroyed Soddom and Gomorrah and entire tribes as a result these debaucheries, and in the Scriptures we do not find any disciple or old testament prophet or anyone led by the Spirit of God ever committing the act of homosexuality or participating in it in any way. This particular act is utterly condemned in the strongest language of the Scriptures.

Some of the regenerates, such as King David or Samson in Judges, did fall into sins which were natural to man, such as adultery and fornication, but never into the unnatural. When the unnatural happened in the old testament, God’s wrath was kindled against even His own people; the Scripture speaks of this wrath as God ‘winking’ at their sins, but now He commands every man and woman to repent.

My question to you, members of The Church, the Body of Christ, is this:

As the Titanic sinks, why do you continue to play the marriage counseling fiddle when the Scriptures do not support it?



We, as believers can have peace and joy in our marriage only if we are willing to submit ourselves to Christ and His word. The Scriptures are very specific on the role of a wife and the role of a husband, speaking corporately to the Body of Christ; the husband is to wash his wife in the Scriptures and to love her as Christ loved the Church, as befits a man of belief. The role of a wife is to submit herself to her husband, show reverence to him and to perform her duties in the home, as befits a woman of faith.

You have to ask yourself: are you currently acting in the roles defined in Scriptures? If not, then you should question whether you be in the faith. Is Christ, whom you have made profession of, really Lord over your life? Obeying Jesus’ commandments is love for Him.

"If you love me, you will obey what I command." John 14:15

We, as The Church, were once in disobedience and darkness, heading for hell, but we turned from our previous sins and repented of them, and although the Church does not always walk perfectly, we do not participate in the sins that 1 Corinthians 6:9 states, and being filled with His Spirit we are obedient as a result of our salvation through Christ, as we walk in the Light of His word.

Marriage counseling is unbiblical and has no place in The Church; it leads to the glorification of man, the destruction of marriages, steals the innocence of children, promotes acts of lasciviousness and the end result is shipwrecked faith.

Beware of these type of shipwrecked doctrines, which do not glorify Christ but man; these gentlemen work deceit through good words and fair speeches towards sales of sensationalism, that they may make merchandise of you, The Church.

Blessings. - Steven

We encourage you to email the author to prove or disprove, from the Scriptures, the intent, meaning, purpose or doctrine of this piece.
http://www.informationgospel.net/index.html [/QUOTE]

[spl_cadet]

Marriage counseling is unbiblical and has no place in The Church; it leads to the glorification of man, the destruction of marriages, steals the innocence of children, promotes acts of lasciviousness and the end result is shipwrecked faith.

Funny, and all this time I thought it was to encourage the spouses to communicate and patch up the problems that were undermining the marriages

And where did they get the idea that marriage counseling is a part of Catholic theology?

[Pilgrim]

The modern idea of marital counseling is decidedly unbiblical, as there is no evidence of this doctrine in the Scriptures; nowhere in the Scripture will you find Jesus, Paul the Apostle or any other apostle, any of the old testament prophets, Moses, or Abraham practicing in the secular art of marriage counseling.

Nor will you find in scripture any indication of communication via computers or internet...SO STOP TYPING YOU SINNER!

[Steven]

Can't find the roman catholic church in the bible either. You may want to hold off on mass this weekend.

- Steven

[Pilgrim]

If I was Catholic to begin with you might have a point. Might want to do more research next time. But I suppose the same could be said of what ever means of worship you are engaging in this weekend.

By the way, why are you still typing?

[Steven]

you can pray for me...

[spl_cadet]

Today @ 11:35 AM post located here
Steven:

pilgrim,

Can't find the roman catholic church in the bible either. You may want to hold off on mass this weekend.

- Steven

I'm the Catholic guy, not him.

[Bib Lit Major]

Steve...look careful below the blue letters below his avatar and you will see "Presby[terian, I presume] Mod."

[Pilgrim]

But egads! Presbyterian is not in the Bible either! What am I to do!? (Well, presbuteros is but can that be a Biblical mandate for my denomination?)

Seriously though, what is behind the idea that a thing must be explicitly found in scripture for one to engage in it?

I think my example of the computer and internet not being mentioned in scripture as a means for communicating theology or faith is a good one.

Where do you draw the line?

I suppose the issue is that sometimes we forget that our most significant relationship is with the LIVING WORD Jesus Christ and substitute in irrational ways the written word.

[Steven]

does it matter? its the daughter of the mother.

PIlgrim,
I owe thee my sincerest apologies. I took 'presby mod' to mean that you were an elvis fan...

"A little less conversation...." :elvis:

[themuzicman]

There is no mention of the King James Version in the bible, either?

I hope you all know koine greek....

Michael

[Pilgrim]

come to think of it, there is no specific mention of "koine greek" either, or language at all! What are we to do?

[spl_cadet]

Today @ 03:39 PM post located here
Pilgrim:

come to think of it, there is no specific mention of "koine greek" either, or language at all! What are we to do?

Actually, the OT does make reference to Aramaic somewhere in it.

[Bib Lit Major]

It does make no mention of people speaking Koine Greek, (at least in the NT) though there is the reference to the language being on the inscription at the cross.

Yesterday @ 05:43 PM post located here
spl_cadet:



Actually, the OT does make reference to Aramaic somewhere in it.

The NT actually refers to the "Hebrew dialect" as well, which at least part of the time means Aramaic, though this is debated.

[darcutm]

Last I checked Theology debates weren't in the Bible either....You bunch of Heathens!