Christians live in a world of many toils and struggles, temptations and sins. Daily we fight to battle sin, to love God more than we love ourselves, to serve other people and not ourselves. Yet, we do not despair, because God has given us the scriptures which are sufficient for all of our life’s complex problems.

Editors Stuart Scott and Health Lambert are professors of Biblical Counseling at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Furthermore, Stuart Scott is the Executive Director of One-Eighty Counseling and Education, and Health Lambert is the Executive Director of Association of Certified Biblical Counselors. Both are equipped for speaking on the topic of Biblical Counseling with much authority.

Summary

Editors Stuart Scott and Health Lambert purpose for writing the book is clear from the outset. They seek to convince the reader that the Bible contains all we need as Christians to live a life of godliness, in other words it is sufficient (2 Tim 3:14-17). They did not seek to make these arguments in the abstract, rather with this book was filled with stories of people and their problems in a sinful world. Every story found hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the power of God’s word to change people’s lives. From Jason who struggled with a homosexual lifestyle to Mary who struggled with paralyzing fear, every counselor was unwavering in their resolve to base their counseling on scripture, knowing that it is the only way for someone to change.

In the late 60s, the Biblical Counseling movement started to counteract the secular counseling of the day. Scott and Lambert represent a furthering of that worldview.  They believe that every counseling system has a worldview: Secular Psychology believing that the Bible is irrelevant for counseling, Christian philosophy sees the bible as relevant, but not sufficient and Biblical Counseling believes that God’s Word possesses everything essential for living the Christian life (5, 13). The Biblical Counseling worldview best represents a high view of God and a low view of man. Much of their work can be seen as a building on Jay Adams, one of the founders of the Biblical Counseling movement.

They end their book with a passionate plea for a recovering a vision of one-on-one discipleship which relies on the sufficiency of scripture (301). Sadly, there are two kinds of people who neglect the use of scripture: (1) those who do not truly understand the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture and (2) those that do understand it, but do not want to take the necessary time to help people who are struggling and have complex situations (302). Our churches need to be a place where we believe in the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture and care for people enough to get in messy situations.

Critical Evaluation

To support the editors’ main purpose they created a compilation of many counseling cases from many different counselors and counselees. In some of the stories the counselees had had a long history of abuse in which they are learning how to handle according to God’s Word. In some scenarios, the counselee spent years in misunderstand and misapplying God’s word creating an emergency in their own lives. For Ashley, she thought that there was nothing wrong with wanting to be healthy; however, her standard of healthy was not in accordance with biblical teaching on eating. This created a dangerous situation for her both physically and spiritually, one in which left her passed out in the university library. Nevertheless, in this situation and every other counseling situation, the counselor pointed the counselee to the Cross of Christ reminding them that God has given them a way of escape in every temptation they face (1 Cor 10:13). Also, it was their heart that was the wellspring of life, and they needed to guard it with much care (Prov 3:5-8).

One pragmatic critique of the Biblical Counseling movement is it may work for the “average Christian,” but it would never work with those who are clinically depressed, OCD, anorexic, etc. Those who argue against the Biblical Counseling movement say that those people should be left to professionals. Every chapter of this book excellently demonstrated that change can happen by the scriptures, confession of sin and a reliance on the Holy Spirit. For example, Brain’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder seemed like a helpless situation, best left to medication and the professionals. And yet, the reader marvels at Brian’s slow and steady progress towards a life that is honoring to God. His counselor, Steve Viars, said it “Was a difficult and seemingly bizarre case . . . Often these “impossible” or “bizarre” ministry opportunities draw you closer to Christ as a counselor and teach you about his sufficient grace” (84). Thus, each chapter demonstrated, even if only at a pragmatic level, that biblical counseling does work and it can change lives.

Additionally, this book is a much needed addition in the field of Biblical Counseling. There have been plenty of arguments written on the sufficiency of scripture within counseling, and the need for the rise of this type of counseling. However, there have been many questions about practice, or what do you do when you get a “hard case.” Scott and Lambert created an excellent book that would explain to readers exactly how some have counseled those hard cases. Thus, making the arguments move from abstract to concrete.

This book was not only helpful in the larger Biblical Counseling context, but it was helpful on a personal level. It was helpful for me to read about each counselors approach to explaining the process of counseling. Each scenario dealt with seemly different and unrelated problems, yet each counselor continued to focus on a few key verses of scripture in each of the counseling sessions: Proverbs 3:5-6 and 1 Corinthians 10:13.  More than any other verse, 1 Corinthians 10:13 bring hope to hopeless situations. God is faithful, and because he is faithful he does not leave his children without a way of escape. Praise be to God for his faithfulness to his children. Praise God for books like Counseling the Hard Cases, to remind us of the sufficiency of scripture for our lives.

Scott, Stuart. Counseling the Hard Cases. Nashville: B&H, 2012