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Sufficiency: Historical Essays on the Sufficiency of Scripture
There are plenty of secular counselors who believe there is no place for the teaching of Scripture in counseling. There are also plenty of conservative evangelical Christians who love the Bible but believe it is a revelation of limited scope, which is not sufficient for counseling. Only authentically biblical counselors believe that faithful counseling is impossible without the Bible. This book celebrates our 40th anniversary, our rich theological tradition, and our commitment to Scripture by publishing a special edition of some historic articles on sufficiency that have been published throughout the years.
150 pages, Paperback
Published September 21, 2016
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About the author
Heath Lambert
32 books57 followersHeath Lambert (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Executive Director of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors and is the Associate Pastor at First Baptist Church Jacksonville, FL. He is also a visiting faculty member at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Lambert is the co-editor of Counseling the Hard Cases: True Stories Illustrating the Sufficiency of God's Resources in Scripture (B&H, 2012), and author of The Biblical Counseling Movement After Adams (Crossway, 2011), Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace (Zondervan, 2013), and co-author of Transforming Homosexuality: What the Bible Says about Sexual Orientation and Change (P&R, 2015).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 30, 2021
These truly are "historic" essays within the biblical counseling movement--at least, the ideas they contain and the men who penned them are foundational to the movement.
After a brief introduction by Heath Lambert, there are four essays. Wayne Mack defines the movement in "What is Biblical Counseling?", setting side-by-side the limitations and weaknesses of secular psychology and the richness and strength of biblical counseling. I have long thought about the relationship between biblical counseling and secular psychology, and I felt that Mack perfectly summarized this relationship by giving psychology an "illustrative" and "provocative" role, but not a necessary role. In other words, a biblical counselor does not need to read Freud to biblically counsel; and at the same time, I am sure that most of the men writing this book have read Freud to provide illustration for and to provoke their thinking.
Doug Bookman's article, "The Word of God and Counseling," was the most theoretically useful and challenging for me. He refutes: the "Two-Book Approach" to counseling which basically makes the Bible equal to modern scientific insights; the "No-Book Approach," which views biblical hermeneutics so skeptically that the Bible becomes hardly a useful book in counseling at all; and the "Rule-Book Approach," which weighs secular insights by the Scriptures, an approach superior to the others but which assumes, rather than proves, that secular psychology has anything substantial for biblical counselors to weigh.
David Powlison's article was titled "The Sufficiency of Scripture to Diagnose and Cure Souls." While it was perhaps the least rigorous in structure and argument, it was the most useful in practical wisdom and application. Our deepest problems, which psychology labels variously, are summarized in Scripture by the phrase "lusts of the flesh." If these are our core problems, then the Bible does indeed provide the cure for them.
Lastly, Heath Lambert contributes a new article for this collection (the others are drawn from the past), called "Counsel the Sufficient Word." Here he exposits a passage from 2 Peter 1 to show the power of God's word.
Overall, this was exactly the sort of book I was looking for, one which thinks carefully about the sufficiency of Scripture in counseling. The church I pastor exists "to exalt Christ and the sufficiency of his word." This book helps us do the latter as we help people work through the most difficult issues of life.
After a brief introduction by Heath Lambert, there are four essays. Wayne Mack defines the movement in "What is Biblical Counseling?", setting side-by-side the limitations and weaknesses of secular psychology and the richness and strength of biblical counseling. I have long thought about the relationship between biblical counseling and secular psychology, and I felt that Mack perfectly summarized this relationship by giving psychology an "illustrative" and "provocative" role, but not a necessary role. In other words, a biblical counselor does not need to read Freud to biblically counsel; and at the same time, I am sure that most of the men writing this book have read Freud to provide illustration for and to provoke their thinking.
Doug Bookman's article, "The Word of God and Counseling," was the most theoretically useful and challenging for me. He refutes: the "Two-Book Approach" to counseling which basically makes the Bible equal to modern scientific insights; the "No-Book Approach," which views biblical hermeneutics so skeptically that the Bible becomes hardly a useful book in counseling at all; and the "Rule-Book Approach," which weighs secular insights by the Scriptures, an approach superior to the others but which assumes, rather than proves, that secular psychology has anything substantial for biblical counselors to weigh.
David Powlison's article was titled "The Sufficiency of Scripture to Diagnose and Cure Souls." While it was perhaps the least rigorous in structure and argument, it was the most useful in practical wisdom and application. Our deepest problems, which psychology labels variously, are summarized in Scripture by the phrase "lusts of the flesh." If these are our core problems, then the Bible does indeed provide the cure for them.
Lastly, Heath Lambert contributes a new article for this collection (the others are drawn from the past), called "Counsel the Sufficient Word." Here he exposits a passage from 2 Peter 1 to show the power of God's word.
Overall, this was exactly the sort of book I was looking for, one which thinks carefully about the sufficiency of Scripture in counseling. The church I pastor exists "to exalt Christ and the sufficiency of his word." This book helps us do the latter as we help people work through the most difficult issues of life.
August 6, 2023
This book contains four essays on the doctrine of Biblical sufficiency (that the Bible is sufficient to counsel peoples' hearts. The main point of these essays is to show how a proper understanding of Biblical sufficiency should not lead to integration of secular psychology into Christian counseling. Biblical sufficiency is not something that is not new to me. However, these essays were a helpful reminder for me about the Bible's complete sufficiency to counsel people. The second essay (although extremely academic and containing a large quantity of footnote paragraphs, which I detest) was especially helpful as it examined the viewpoints of those who condone the integration of secular psychology. Each of the various viewpoints discussed was treated fairly and yet was shown to display an erroneous view of God's Word. I really recommend this book to anyone interested about psychology and how it plays into Christian counseling.
January 23, 2022
By far one of the best books I've ever read. I can't believe how many lies I believed without even realizing it from Disney movies and other similar things. This book exposed some of those lies. God's word is sufficient for our problems. These four men present that case in different and effective ways.
June 2, 2017
Really good. The different biblical counselors who wrote each essay in this book are telling us that in biblical counseling, Scripture is sufficient, that it is more than enough.
July 5, 2021
Focused and concise, yet purposefully not comprehensive in scope.
July 19, 2023
4.5 stars. A compelling work on why Scripture alone is sufficient in counseling.
August 23, 2024
Great great great collection of essays on the sufficiency of scripture as it pertains to biblical counseling.
December 22, 2024
great book! supplemental reading for marriage counseling class. 4 great essays... 2 were absolute faves, but all 4 are very good.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews