"Psychology is the study of behavior and mental processes."
That's a definition from a non-Christian school of psychology and that is really it in a nutshell. Sure there's some history to modern psychology that includes atheist thought, but if a person is mature in scripture, they will know how to separate the philosophical good from the bad and walk away empowered to be a blessing. In other words, understanding the evolutionary worldview holds no threat to those who hold to a Christian worldview.
Jeremiah 15:19.....and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth
Studying the behavior of something and learning from it is nothing new in scripture
Pro 6:6 -8
Go to the ant, you hater of work; give thought to her ways and be wise: Having no chief, overseer, or ruler, She gets her meat in the summer, storing up food at the time of the grain-cutting.
The point of that scripture is that we can learn from nature and improve our lives IF we will learn instead of rejecting truth. This is an important point, because some people have reduced the bible to an object of worship and have a difficult time learning objective, spiritual truth from nature. This in spite of the fact that Romans clearly states that all of creation gives witness to God's eternal power and deity. We need not fear learning from nature, because our Father created nature, he created all the things that are visible and invisible and then tells us to learn from nature about his power and deity. On that note, Pavlov learned something about how people are conditioned by environmental influences through associating food with another object which would make the experiment dog salivate. He learned this by studying the behavior of dogs in a laboratory experiment. For instance, when he would feed a dog, he noticed the dog would salivate, which is normal behavior. But one day, he noticed that the dog began salivating at the sound of his footsteps or the door opening or closing. He began doing experiments to understand why the animal salivated at the sound of footsteps when no food was present. He began to turn on a light just before it was time for feeding and eventually the dog would begin salivating when the light turned on. Pavlov then removed the food but continued to turn the light on; and the dog still salivated when the light came on even when there was no food. He concluded that this was learned behavior and believed that it could be applied to human beings also. His experiment became known as Classical Conditioning. Not many years later, B.F. Skinner came up with Operant Conditioning, which is similar to Classical Conditioning but uses reinforcement to INFLUENCE behaviors. That is an extremely simplified explanation of Classical and Operant Condition but if you wish to learn more then, Google Pavlov or Classical Conditioning, to get more info on his work.
How does this relate to Psychology, God, Christians and our behavior?
While every person is unique and responds differently to stress here's a couple of generalizations along with some hard facts.For one, no one is born a Christian at birth. That means whatever environment a person is raised in then it's going to influence their view of the world, and themselves.Probably the best and most tragic example are children who have been abused either physically, verbally, emotionally, or sexually. Young boys who have been abused often grow up to be abusive themselves. They may abuse others or they may have internalized the hate their parents showed them and become suicidal because they have been conditioned to believe that they are everything their parents, teachers, or those of influence on their minds, told them. They have been conditioned to believe they are worthless, useless or bad etc etc.
Some of these people come to faith in Christ and have a genuine conversion, yet still exhibit some of the same suicidal or violet tendencies from their pre conversion life. Why?Because while their faith has given them a spiritual birth and new life their soul (mind emotions, imaginations, decision making skills) have not experienced the totality of this new life or spiritual birth in Christ. This is exactly why in Romans 12:2 we are commanded (not a suggestion) to renew our minds so that we can be transformed in our thinking, worldview, and behaviors. However, sometimes the people who have been conditioned to believe they are worthless don't know why they are depressed because some events of the past have been buried deep in the heart or subconscious. Sometimes the events of the past have been so traumatic that it becomes almost impossible to face them in order to receive help. Other times, some people sincerely can't even see that their behavior is destroying relationships and causing them deep depression. They have become so accustomed to the conditioning that it seems like a normal way of life to them. I suspect or have a hypothesis that this is one reason some people are attracted to abusive relationships. It's because the abusive relationship FEELS normal because that's what they are used to feeling. That's going to be one of my research projects for my thesis sometime down the road.
What do we do with these precious souls who have been born again in their spirit yet are bound to the environmental influences from their past?
And we are just talking about one type of issue here, there are other psychological issues such as learning disabilities that cause a person depression. Anxiety attacks that have no logical explanation, until a person is in therapy with a skilled therapist who not only can apply the word of God to their life, but knows how to uncover the underlying thought processes that are causing the anxiety. Yet a skilled therapist doesn't even have to use the scripture or be a christian in order to help someone. That upsets some ministers but the fact is that it's not much different that going to a medical doctor for help. And the reality is that every good and perfect gift comes from our Father above. There's nothing in that scripture that says these good and perfect gifts come through Christians only.
What do we do with these precious souls? Too often we have tried to cast out demons, blame it on rebellion, accuse them of having a "Jezebel spirit," blame it on not knowing the bible well enough, blame, blame, shame, shame, that's been the standard procedure, although that is beginning to change. We preachers have been conditioned to believe that becoming born again is the cure all for every psychological ailment known to man. Yet our loving savior watches and remembers his own words, " The spirit of the Lord is upon me to ..... heal the broken hearted." I remember one man from my old church who had epilepsy. He came across as blunt, gruff and almost anti social at times. We became friends and he began telling me his story of how he was accused of being demon possessed at his old church when he would have seizures. The leaders at that church had been conditioned to blame everything on demons or spirits if a person did not respond to their prayers properly.This man had been verbally abused most of his life and grew to think he was worthy of living in prison because he had been CONDITIONED by his environmental influences to believe he was worthless due to his physical illness. One of the pastors at the new church had enough sense and love to take him to the doctor and get him on medication that gave him a reasonably normal life. This pastor also showed him love and respect as a human being and guess what happened. He began to be emotionally and psychologically healed by the love of another human being acting as the representative of Christ towards this man. I became friends with him and all I did was encourage him by telling him what God really though of him. It was difficult for him to believe the truth and challenging at times, but he slowly began believing that he had worth as a human being. Guess what? He also began trusting me as a friend. This isn't rocket science!
The point of all this is to realize that psychology is not evil. It actually neutral and just a gift to help others when in the proper hands. Just as there are misinformed preachers who attempt to cast out demons instead of loving people, so there are misinformed psychologists who deny spiritual realities. It's not the science that's wrong, just as it's not the scriptures that are wrong. It's people who misinterpret scripture and/or psychological principles because they themselves have been conditioned by their environmental influences to view life a certain way.
Jesus came to heal us spirit, soul and body. In other words, he is totally invested in healing the whole person not just a small section of our lives. Jesus is frankly the greatest psychologist who has ever lived and who ever will live. Who knows the subconscious mind and motivations better than our creator? Who knows which word needs to be spoken at just the right time to facilitate emotional healing. Who knows better how to communicate love to a depressed and/or anxious person in order to elevate them to a belief in their worth as a person created in the image of God? Jesus came to heal us not destroy, humiliate, shame, or condemn us for our psychological abnormalities. His greatest glory is to take someone from the ashes of sorrow and give them the beauty of grace and mercy. The more a person is conditioned by the environment of Gods presence, the more healing and wholeness they will begin to display in their life.
Dan Dickerson © 2015
