/ Nathan Eshelman

Whatcha Presupposin'?

I have been reading a lot on biblical counseling lately as I prepare for a class at the beginning of August. What has impressed me over and over as I drudge through the 2700 pages of pre-class reading is that Biblical Counseling is nothing more than presuppositional counseling. We take the Word of God as it stands, presupposing that the Scriptures are sufficient for faith and life. Then they are applied to each situation that arises in a counseling setting. Seems logical to me.

A generation ago this was unheard of. The Church is making strides in believing and applying the Scriptures.

Before the Biblical Counseling trend (I use the term endearingly), there was a movement in apologetics towards presuppositionalism. We take the claims of the Word of God, we believe them to be true, and we use them to defend the God of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says “in the beginning God created...” it does not give 4 chapters with the  traditional proofs for God’s existence and then say, “in the beginning, this God which we have just proven to exist, created...” We presuppose the claims of the Scripture and use them as our starting point for presenting the Christian Gospel.

Two generations ago this was unheard of. The Church is making strides in believing and applying the Scriptures.

Before the Biblical Counseling trend and before the Presuppositional Apologetics trend (and I use the term endearingly) there was another presuppositional application of the Scriptures. The Scriptures were presupposed to supply all that the Church needed for faith and practice, and this included worship. Presuppositional worship, which as far as I know has never been called that, is the idea that the Scriptures provide all that we need to know about how God desires to be worshipped. The Scriptures need to be our starting point for worship.

We say that the Scriptures are sufficient for counseling. We say that the Scriptures are sufficient for apologetics. Why do so many in the Church want to add to the worship of God- are not the Scriptures sufficient for worship?

Three generations ago anything else would be unheard of. May the Church make strides in believing and applying the Scriptures.

Nathan Eshelman

Nathan Eshelman

Pastor in Orlando, studied at Puritan Reformed Theological & Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminaries. One of the chambermen on the podcast The Jerusalem Chamber. Married to Lydia with 5 children.

Read More