The Use of Scripture in Counseling

by Jay E. Adams

The Bible is the only textbook believers need to help counselees with their problems. Jay Adams explains why this bold statement is not only true, but gives hope to both the counselor and his counselee. Here he outlines the basis and purpose for using the Scriptures in counseling and lists these goals for the Biblical

·      Understand and evaluate the counselee's problem scripturally.

·      Seek to understand the Holy Spirit's purpose (telos) in every Scripture passage used in counseling.

·      Strive to meet each counselee's problem with God's full solution.

He cautions that the goals can be achieved only by counselors who "allow neither a distortion, dilution, nor admixture of the Biblical data to enter the counseling situation, whether introduced by the counselee or the counselor's own misuse of the Scriptures."

Here is specific help for all who want to do truly biblical counseling. As all have come to expect from the pen of Jay Adams, his guidelines are clear and understandable, the directions are explicit, and the examples given are pointed and practical.

Genres: Christian

106 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Jay Edward Adams is a Reformed Christian author. He has written over 100 books and these have been published in sixteen languages.
He received a Bachelor of Divinity from Reformed Episcopal Seminary, a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from Johns Hopkins University,a Masters in Sacred Theology from Temple University, and a PhD in Speech from the University of Missouri.
Adams' book Competent to Counsel launched the nouthetic counseling movement, a movement whose aim was to use strictly biblical counseling methods. He is the founder of the Intitute for Nothetic Studies.

Reviews

[Peter Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

A basic introduction to how to use the Bible in Christian counseling. As always, Adams is very practical. I found it helpful, especially with putting together a plan for how to help someone to change.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great reference for giving the basics about how to use the scriptures in biblical counsel. Lots of bible references for specific counseling situations --- in the back of the book.