At first glance, Psychology and Christianity may seem totally incompatible. In our postmodern culture, popular and clinical psychology has come to be seen as an alternative or replacement for faith. I would contend that much of what is called psychology today is a degeneration or perversion of Biblical truth. If all truth is God's truth, then some of what psychology offers, if True, is of God. But deep discernment is required.

The greatest psychologists and finest methods ever devised still do not approach the insights into human nature provided in the Bible. The reason is clear. Only God knows the human heart. Man cannot discern it because he is deceived. And only Christ is sufficient to fill the needs of the human heart. Nothing needs to be added to Christ if that fact is appropriated jn Spirit and Truth. The Christian view of man as body, soul, spirit and mind outweigh physical explanations that reduce the brain to chemical reactions.

The Biblical view of psychology must be rooted then in the Biblical view of humanity. Biblical anthropology (the study of man) must inform any view of psychology the Christian forms. The humanistic view of psychology premises that man is perfectible and that only our faulty social institutions and societies have hindered man's ascent to moral and psychological flawlessness. Thus the world's version of psychology emphasizes self improvement and actualization. That is its fatal flaw.

Christianity starts off with the acknowledgement that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." I am not OK and you are not OK. Our natures are twisted apart from God's redemptive act. That twisted ruination is not removed by having a different attitude toward self, but in dying to self and living in Christ (Galatians 2:20).

In this way, Christianity provides a much more realistic approach to one of man's deepest problems: true moral guilt. Christianity proclaims that true guilt is objective and so guilt feelings are justified. Man is psychologically damaged as a result of bad moral choices, which have consequences for the whole man, which end in death if not dealt with. Biblical Christianity teaches moral responsibility.

Furthermore, the Christian worldview demands that we see the mind, spirit and heart as more than just reflections of the physical brain. Imagination, creativity, conscience, and faith have supernatural moorings and real meaning. Only Christianity provides an accurate diagnosis on man's deepest problems. Only Christ can save us, heal us and restore us to a well balanced psychological state of mind.

We are compelled to address the fact that some psychological concepts and practices owe their existence to common grace and Biblical models. Much of what is declared psychological in nature can also be traced in part to physical and medical anomalies that can be treated by medicines that God enables men to refine. These instances must be discerned properly, as there is no physical remedy for man's greatest problem: a rebellious human nature separated from Christ.