Our contention is that where there is any anxiety or depression or emotional disturbance there is always some element which only the gospel of grace can fully and effectively deal with.

Real wholeness only comes through the gospel. Therefore there is a distinc­tively Christian approach to dealing with such problems. This being so, the Church must be actively involved where these problems exist.

What is Man?⤒🔗

When God made man, he formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7). From this and similar Scriptures the traditional view of the nature of man's existence has been derived.

There is a physical part to man — he was made out of the dust of the ground. The elements that go into making up his body are the very same elements as are com­monly found in the world around us. From one aspect, we are indeed part of the physical creation and, we may add, share in the poten­tial for disorder, character­istic of it since the fall.

Man, however, is more than merely physical: he is an animal but not just an animal. There is a non­physical aspect to his consti­tution. To speak of the breath (literally the "spirit") of life gives testimony to that. Thus, traditionally, we have spoken of man having a "soul" or "spirit". He has higher faculties than the merely physical ones and can lay claim to kinship with God.

But the most important point to bear in mind, in connection with our subject, is that it is the two of these together, united, that make man what he is. The body is not the prison house of the soul as if the physical and the spiritual were natural enemies. They are natural partners. As the computer hardware needs the software to make it operative, so the two parts of man are woven together to make a unified whole.

Disorder in Human Experience←⤒🔗

Both these constituent parts that go into making man what he is have been affected by the presence of sin.

Because of man's sin, God said: "Cursed is the ground because of you" (Genesis 3:17). Thus he let disorder loose in his perfect world. Paul, referring to this, speaks of the creation having been "subjected to frustra­tion" and being "in bondage to decay" (Romans 8:20-21). This means that the physical world in general is subject to deterioration and decay. Because the human body is part of the physical creation, it is subject to the same deterioration and decay. Hence Paul speaks of us as "outwardly wasting away" (2 Corinthians 4:16).

This "cursing of the ground" accounts not only for physical frailty, but for the physical illnesses that invade the body. For these physical ailments there may be physical remedies — though, we may add, these remedies are not finally effective. The way to the final cure for all physical ills involves the dissolution of the body into its separate parts and the "redemption" of it — something which will be effected at the Second Coming of our Lord.

Similarly, sin affects people's lives. It disorders their emotions; it darkens their minds (see, for example, Romans 1:21-25); it affects their conduct. We do not believe that sin resides in our physical nature — that it is simply a chemi­cal imbalance in the body which is capable of being redressed by manipulation of the genes or by the injec­tion of an appropriate sub­stance. Sin is a spiritual disorder for which there is only one remedy: the grace of the gospel and all that that implies.

Working Together for Ill←⤒🔗

But this way of looking at the disorders that afflict us has been put in terms too simplistic to do justice to the real situation. Man is not composed of two indepen­dent parts — the physical and the spiritual — but these two parts are so closely related that he is to be regarded as a unity. This close relationship between the two aspects of man's life is seen both in the way in which disorder affects him and the way in which that disorder is to be cured.

Sin, according to Jesus, comes from the heart, that is, from the inner life of man (Mark 7:21-23); but certain sins at least are expressed outwardly, in our physical body. And sometimes this can result in exposure to physical side-effects: for example, sexually trans­mitted diseases can be a by­product of immoral con­duct; cirrhosis of the liver can result from habitual over-indulgence in alcohol; and worry is a contributory factor to a host of physical ailments. Thus the whole of man is involved in the dis­order that comes from the presence of sin.

Psalm 32 is a good exam­ple of the way in which man's sins affect him through and through. This Psalm is generally acknow­ledged to have been penned in the aftermath of David's adultery with Bathsheba — an event in which not only adultery, but lying and drunkenness and culpable homicide were involved (2 Samuel 11).

Of importance in this con­nection is that unconfessed sin resulted in physical symptoms of distress. David says:

When I kept silent, (that is, when he failed to confess the sin he had com­mitted) my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long ... my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.Psalm 32:3-4

This is a striking illustration of how man's bodily and spiritual welfare are related to each other. Unconfessed sin brought physical dis­orders.

The fact is that whether disorder originates in one area of man or the other, it affects the whole: physical and spiritual disorder impinge the one upon the other.

Working Together for Good←⤒🔗

The same intertwining of the different aspects of our nature is seen when we look at the cure Jesus applied to people's ills. Mark 5:30-34 is a striking case in point.

Here we have the story of the woman "with the issue of blood". There is obviously a physical disease here — a longstanding haemorrhage — and that would seem to have been the basic problem. But it had affected the whole of her life: according to the customs of her time, laid down in Old Testament law, both her family life and her social relationship would be severely disrupted by this. This might well have brought an inner trauma that, I believe, is indeed hinted at in the gospel accounts. She was damaged in the whole of her life by this physical illness.

And Jesus deals with her in the entirety of her being. By a miracle he heals the sickness; he overcomes her diffidence by urging her to come forward and express what had happened; and he gives her encouragement and assurance by the words that he speaks. He heals her through and through.

Working According to a Biblical Pattern←⤒🔗

If we accept the close rela­tionship of body and spirit, then not only will it be easy to see that physical and spiritual disorders are inter­twined, we will also be able to grasp that all healing must be holistic — directed to the whole of a person. Or to slant that high-sounding theory towards the parti­cular area that is neglected, all true healing must have a spiritual element in it.

Where illness has origi­nated in the physical life, the spiritual input may be rela­tively small — confined, for example, to relieving anxie­ties that may have arisen from it. But where the dis­order stems from sin and the failure to confess it (as in the case of David in Psalm 32) or where the case is a com­plex one — a mass of anxie­ties and guilt feelings and physical symptoms — where the physical and the non­physical are so intimately intertwined that it is impos­sible to say where the malady originated, the spiritual input will be the greater.

In principle, the holistic approach which our theo­logy requires involves a part­nership. For Christians this will usually mean that the medical establishment deals with some aspects of a disorder, the church with other aspects.

But this pattern is not being followed — for a variety of reasons.

Key Concepts Rejected←⤒🔗

It is obvious from this that where medical practitioners do not accept this Biblical view of man's constitution, or where they do not accept the reality of sin or guilt, or the need for repentance, or the power of grace to cleanse, renew and relieve anxieties, there is not the basis for effecting the sort of healing that Christians should be looking for.

These concepts (sin, guilt, repentance, grace) are gener­ally rejected today in society as a whole. To be "non­judgmental" is a favourite concept: it works on the basis that there is no absolute standard of right and wrong and that no one can say another is in error. Although there is no need to be harsh in confronting a person with God's word (at least no harsher than the Word of God requires), a nonjudgmental approach, in the sense in which the word is generally used, does not fit the Christian per­spective.

Given    the general approach of society to these key Christian concepts we have mentioned, we can with some confidence conclude that in a medical establish­ment that presumably includes a fair cross section of the population, distinctive Christian ideas are largely rejected. Where they are not, the situation, of course, is different.

Christian Counselling Rejected←⤒🔗

Throughout the years, the influence of the Church in society has been steadily eroded. More and more areas — in the fields of education, health and caring — have been taken over by professionals. To this move­ment, many Christian people have willingly given their consent, and so for (almost) all their problems they turn spontaneously for help, not to the church, but to professionals in different fields, not caring whether they be Christian or not. They reject the ministry of God's people and turn to other sources for help not recognizing that their problems have a spiritual aspect that only the ministry of Christ through his church can deal with.

If God has given gifts to his people and these gifts are being properly developed, then Christians should not need to turn elsewhere for the spiritual aspect of their problems.

Abdication of Responsibility←⤒🔗

In saying this, there is no criticism of the profes­sionals, whether Christians or otherwise, who engage in healing, counselling or caring. The fault lies not with them but with those who have entrusted to them what they are not equipped to deal with, that is, dis­orders with a spiritual aspect. The fault lies not with the caring professionals but with the Christian Church.

The Christian ministry has, in general, gone along with the situation we have described: some ministers do not even think that pastoral care is their duty. Others, who have some thoughts of developing that side of their ministry, find themselves — through temperament or lack of training or both — to be woefully ill-equipped for the task, and discover that the resources of the church have not begun to be mobi­lised in support of this sort of activity. They may well discover, too, that Christian people do not want them to be involved in any real way in problems involving fears, anxieties, guilt feelings or depression — "it's not their job".

Grasping the Opportunity←⤒🔗

Nevertheless, I believe that to some degree the pendulum is swinging back to admit the need for a spiritual solution to be applied to spiritual problems. The need for a holistic approach seems to be recognised. Where that is happening the church should be ready to grasp the oppor­tunities. This means that in our selection and training of candidates for the ministry and the eldership, we should ensure that there are those who are equipped not just for the relatively impersonal task of expounding the Word in formal settings, but for applying the Word with tact and sensitivity in a personal way to those who are anxious and guilty, or battered and bruised by the circumstances of life. It involves the stirring up of all Christian people to the needs of one another and the organisation of God's people in a supportive minis­try to those wrestling with anxieties and fears, loneli­ness and despair. Above all, it involves the Church recog­nizing the need to take back from the world the service which we have all too readily delegated to it: counselling that is distinctively Christian.