Beware of Boundaries Spin-Offs: Comparing Psychology to Scripture

It's very important to realize how much false teaching is influencing Christianity.

Once a teaching gains a foothold, it is hard to get people to let go of it. And it affects solid believers as well as baby Christians and fake believers.

Boundaries is one of those teachings. See Are Boundaries Biblical?

And one sign that a false teaching has infiltrated the church is the way it becomes part of people's vocabulary and it produces numerous "spin-offs."

For example, I recently read author Lysa TerKeurst's explanation of her best selling book Good Boundaries and Goodbyes and her description sends up red flags: 

"Most healthy therapeutic principles come from the Bible. However, somebody has to be trained to make the connection between our emotional health and those biblical therapeutic principles... Psychology and our understanding of the Bible work hand in hand. So, I needed someone who knew the Bible and psychology so that I could tend well to my spiritual and emotional health." (source)

This explanation is a good example of the Boundaries teachings which claims that the Bible is not enough -we also must add the “wisdom” of psychology. 

Henry Cloud started the Boundaries fervor in the early 90's and the book has sold over 4 million, becoming a popular teaching among Christians. It has contributed to many estrangements and brokenness is families, encouraging people to set up boundaries instead of learning how to deal with difficult relationships biblically. And it often appeals to the least mature family members.

Cloud has a high view of his wisdom, claiming that “standard Christian answers” weren't helping people with their emotional problems so God gave him special knowledge about how to apply the Bible using psychology. He believes his solutions to human relationships are based on “understanding certain basic developmental tasks” (source). In his bio, Cloud mentions the influence of two Freudian theories and doesn’t mention Scripture at all (source).

Cloud uses Scripture throughout his books, but the majority of times it's used incorrectly, taken out of context, and wrapped up in Boundaries rhetoric. 

Psychology Bends with Culture

Psychology is a secular belief system with varying methods and differing conclusions.When Christian counselors combine psychology with biblical truth, the Bible typically gets sidelined or misused. 

A further proof that psychology not a "science" is the way it bends with culture. For example, in the past the American Psychiatric Association considered homosexuality an unhealthy disorder. But they formally removed it from the list of disorders as culture became more accepting of it. 

Conclusion

No one can deny that the Boundaries teachings have infiltrated the church and become extremely popular. And no one can deny that they include lots of Scripture in their books.

But they contradict, confuse, and misuse Scripture more often than they present it accurately. And the fact that Boundaries teachings are so readily accepted is based on our lack of discernment and lack of careful scholarship in the modern church. 

Let's be like the Noble Bereans in Acts 17:11 and check all things against Scripture.