by Chaplain (LTC - Retired) Pat Devine, U.S. Army
One of the most critical jobs for leaders during airborne operations is checking their paratroopers’ equipment. At the United States Army Jumpmaster School, leaders learn to do that by repetition. For nearly three weeks, Jumpmaster students conduct "circles," moving from one rigged jumper to the next, checking equipment on correctly rigged paratroopers. The purpose is to know by sight and touch what "right" looks and feels like, so Jumpmasters can quickly identify errors, make corrections, and paratroopers can safely perform their mission.
Perhaps you’ve heard a similar illustration comparing understanding the gospel with training to detect counterfeit currency: By becoming so familiar with the real thing, identifying variations becomes much easier. In other words, the best way to avoid errors and deviations is to intimately understand the real thing.
With that in mind, let me begin by referencing the Sufficiency Statement, which came online a few months ago to address the present (and several-year-old) dialogue in the biblical counseling movement. This document is invaluable in summarizing the doctrine of Scripture challenged by some within the biblical counseling movement. Knowing, understanding, and treasuring this doctrine is the beginning of recognizing departures from God’s revealed Word in the care of souls. As the statement reads, the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture "is a bedrock theological foundation of the biblical counseling movement."
The purpose of this post is to bring attention to the ongoing conversation to help us recognize variations when they appear. To be clear: Challenges to the view of Scripture represented in the Sufficiency Statement are not new, nor are they fading away. In many ways, the present debate is reflective of similar issues Jay Adams confronted in the first generation of the movement. We need to be wise, gracious, and faithful in our approach and conversations, knowing that faithful brothers and sisters in Christ who call themselves biblical counselors disagree with the Sufficiency Statement.
In a recent and timely Truth in Love podcast, Dale Johnson and Keith Evans helpfully provide the backdrop for what I’m addressing here, which is incorporating methodologies from outside of Scripture. Their discussion further highlights a larger issue in the continuing debate: Some are redefining historical concepts like integration, common grace, sufficiency, and even biblical counseling to make a case for what amounts to an integrated approach to counseling, while insisting they remain "within the family of biblical counseling approaches."[1] This easily leads to confusion and compromise, even an unwitting compromise, especially when some lack transparency about their sources and integrative methodology. In other words, to justify the integration of secular methods, concepts like the sufficiency of Scripture, integration, and even biblical counseling receive new definitions to fit the new integrative paradigm. This ongoing problem leads to confusion about the essence of biblical counseling.
One recent example is an article posted on the Biblical Counseling Coalition website and promoted in their email newsletter, Using Reflections as a Tool for Listening.[2] In the post, the author makes several assertions advocating a "tool" called "reflections" to accomplish three things: to demonstrate we are listening, to help continue the conversation, and to move the story forward. Of course, all three may be worthwhile hopes in the counseling relationship, and we would all do well to consider how we listen and exercise compassion with counselees. So, what’s the issue, and where does this methodology come from?
The blog lists no references, so it’s impossible to tell at first glance. However, the article is an adaptation from the author’s book, where a footnote indicates his indebtedness to the "wisdom" of three sources regarding reflections.[3] Two of the sources rely heavily on the methods and theory of humanist psychologist Carl Rogers, originator of client-centered therapy.[4] I don’t have space in this post to demonstrate the incompatibility of Rogers’s beliefs about God, humanity, and humanity’s problems with that of a Christian worldview. Suffice it to say, his views stand in dramatic opposition to God’s Word. What’s important here is advocating the use of Rogers’s methodologies, even subjectively modified ones, in the context of biblical counseling.
While not the point of this post, one may ask, "Is it always wrong or inappropriate to use reflective statements?" Of course not. In the course of conversation, we often reflect what we hear to confirm understanding.[5] Again, how to listen in counseling isn’t my focus here; though, for a helpful resource, consider the podcast God-Like Listening featuring Robert Jones.
What’s at stake is central to the current debates: lifting a methodology out of secular therapy, changing the method’s objective, then inserting it into biblical counseling practice. For clarity, let’s summarize what is going on here: Under the label "biblical counseling," individuals selectively utilize and encourage methods and practices derived from secular theories and systems, even systems from psychologists who are openly antagonistic to Christianity.[6] To understand why utilizing methods from secular systems is problematic, consider Dale Johnson:
[Secular systems are] dealing with a man that’s described differently. They have different goals, and so therefore, again, while it’s unintended, we’re dealing with the nature of man that’s not described in the Bible. We’re not aiming at the proper things that God describes or proper aims. And so that’s why it begins to destroy. Now, some people may choose that they want to do that. Well, there’s a category for that, right? Historically, that category is integration. And I’m just saying, if you want to do that, own it.[7]
Back to Jumpmaster School. When I returned to my unit and assumed my first Jumpmaster duty, I remembered my right forearm contacting with the paratrooper’s lowering line during an inspection. I also remember freezing and thinking, "My right arm isn’t supposed to touch the lowering line now." After hundreds of inspections of correctly rigged jumpers, I knew instantly something was out of order. So, consider the Sufficiency Statement as a resource in the present debates, as a reminder that God’s Word remains sufficient to address the problems we face.
by Chaplain (LTC - Retired) Pat Devine, U.S. Army
[1] Nate Brooks et al., "What Is Redemptive Counseling / Clinically Informed Biblical Counseling?," accessed July 16, 2024, https://www.sebts.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/What-is-RCCIBC.pdf.
[2] Joe Hussung, "Using Reflections as a Tool for Listening," Biblical Counseling Coalition (blog), June 16, 2025, https://www.biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2025/06/16/using-reflections-as-a-tool-for-listening/.
[3] Joseph Hussung, Learning to Listen: Essential Skills for Every Counselor (Greensboro, NC: New Growth Press, 2024), 75.
[4] Elisabeth A. Nesbit Sbanotto, Heather Davediuk Gingrich, and Fred C. Gingrich, Skills for Effective Counseling: A Faith-Based Integration (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2016); William R. Miller, Listening Well: The Art of Empathic Understanding (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2018).
[5] See Robert D. Jones, Kristin L. Kellen, and Robert Eric Green, The Gospel for Disordered Lives: An Introduction to Christ-Centered Biblical Counseling (Nashville, Tennessee: B&H Academic, 2021), 182.
[6] One author hails the work of Albert Ellis, who developed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Brooks et al., "What Is Redemptive Counseling / Clinically Informed Biblical Counseling?," 6.
[7] Addie Musheff, "The Use of Extra-Biblical Methods in Counseling," Https://Biblicalcounseling.Com/ (blog), accessed August 4, 2025, https://biblicalcounseling.com/resource-library/podcast-episodes/extra-biblical-methods-in-counseling/.
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