True religious affections are distinguished from false. Affections that are truly spiritual and gracious, do arise from those influences and operations on the heart, which are spiritual, supernatural and divine.
Jonathan Edwards

Inner Healing book reviews

Inner Healing book reviews

Inner Healing

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I have just recieved two books that I thought the Christian Brethren may want to read. These are available at Christian Bookstores or can be ordered if not in stock.
With the Demonic heresy of Inner Healing and Psychology under the disguise of being Christian invading the Church, we need to study the Word of God and to hear what other men of God have to say on these Spiritual cancer sores that are destroying the spiritual lives of many.

…Dave Geauvreau

1st book is “PSYCHOHERESY” – The Psychological Seduction of

Christianity by Martin and Deidre Bobgan. Forward

Experts in the secular world are increasingly expressing their disillusionment with psychotherapy and exposing both its impotence to help and its power to harm. At the same time growing numbers of Christians are awakening to the staggering fact that many church leaders, though well intentioned, are feeding psychotherapy’s deadly poison to the Body of Christ. Alarmed by the accelerating psychologizing of Christianity, a larger segment of the church than most leaders realize is looking for definite answers to specific questions.

In my travels I am repeatedly confronted by those who want to know exactly where and why the teachings and practices of specified Christian psychologists are not Biblical. No one is better qualified to provide such answers than Martin and Deidre Bobgan, and this is exactly what they have done in the following pages. In so doing, they have rendered a great service to the chruch.

The careful and scholarly yet readable critique the Bobgans have provided is not intended to judge the hearts of the individuals they name nor to destroy their reputations. The only purpose is to examine popular and influential teachings in the light of science, logic and Scripture. Issues, not personalities, are dealt with. Christian leaders should be held accountable for what they say in books, magazines and pulpit or on radio and television. Certainly no one can object if what he has stated publicly is quoted or questioned publicly. If any church leader is granted immunity from challenge or correction, then Reformation was in vain and we are back under the unscriptural authoritarianism of a Protestant popery.

Those who intend to influence the Body of Christ by what they say can hardly complain when others who disagree check their teachings against the Bible. Issues vital to the church and daily Christian living must be dealt with openly. For too long the false claims of Christian psychology have gone unchallenged. If its teachings are valid and Biblical, then its proponents have nothing to fear from a factual and Scriptural analysis of its tenets; and if its precepts are in fact false and dangerous, then lovers of God and truth will be grateful when error is exposed.

In this their fourth book the Bobgans have provided a valuable service for us all. The wealth of research material they have gathered makes fascinationg and at times shocking reading. A vivid and important picture is presented of both secular and Christian psychology that will be informative and challenging even to students of the subject. The following pages will not only hold the interest of but intrigue and broaden the horizons of the average reader, and will serve as a valuable reference handbook for everyone. I heartily recommend this important volume.

Dave Hunt, author of numerous books including Beyond Seduction and coauthor of The Seduction of Christianity.

2nd book is “INNER HEALING” – Deliverance or Deception? by Don Matzat. Forward

This book presents a critical evaluation of the teaching and ministry known as inner healing, soul healing, or the healing of memories. My purpose in writing this book is threefold: to provide information about the questionable concepts from the fiel of psychology that undergird inner healing; to raise questions regarding the potential problems and confusion created in the merging of these concepts into the body of Christian teaching; and to present a biblical alternative to inner healing.

With the exception of the last few chapters, in which I share with you that biblical alternative, I did not “enjoy” researching and writing this book, for it is a critical evaluation of a teaching that is being promoted within the body of Christ by well-intentioned Christian teachers. I do not enjoy criticizing brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus by scrutinizing what they teach. If I did, I would need to examine my own heart and be reminded that “love does not rejoice in the wrong.” I offer this reminder to you the reader.

Those who teach and promote the ministry of inner healing will probably criticize this book and view it as the cause of division and controversy within the body of Christ. But on the other hand, I believe that a great deal of the confusion and controversy surronding the inner-healing ministry could have been avoided if the innerhealing teachers would have openly shared the sources behind their teachings.

While the authors who write the books advocating the innerhealing ministry clearly indicate that they use concepts from the field of psychology and that they appreciate the insights gained from psychology, they do not come clean and reveal their specific sources. Why is this? Are the inner-healers teachers afraid that if the body of Christ knew the sources of their teaching, the teaching itself would be rejected? If they had initially been forthright in revealing the sources, and if they also had provided an acceptable rationale for the use of concepts drawn from the field of psychology as a foundation for a Christian ministry offering a healing spiritual experience, the months of research that went into the writing of this book would not have been necessary. Christians themselves, on the basis of the honest, open information provided by the inner-healing teachers themselves, could have made up their own minds as to the validity of the inner-healing ministry within the body of Christ.

If God’s people wnat to understand the basis of inner healing they are forced to plow through the theories governing human behavior proposed within the field of psychology. Not many within the body of Christ have the desire or perhaps even ability to understand the variety of ideas which make up psychology. We cannot discuss inner healing on the basis of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Romans, or Ephesianss. Rather, we are forced to understand Freud, Jung, Missildine, Berne, Rank, and the like.

Researching the inner-healing technique is not an easy task. In addition to the fact that sources are often hidden, it is very difficult to discover clear definitions in the writings of the innerhealing authors. It is generally known, for example, that all refer to the technique of visualization is used by inner healers. They all refer to the method, speaking of “visualization prayer,” “faithimagination therapy,” “consecrated and committed imagination,” or “active imagination.” Why? What is the purpose of using imagination? Where did the idea originate? Is it based upon Scripture? If not, which school of psychology utilizes visualation as a therapeutic technique? These questions often go unanswered. Clear definition is often lost in verbal piety and the sharing of personal testimonies.

I have attempted to do as honest a job as possible of research and evaluation of the various psychological concepts undergirding inner healing. I have sought to explain these concepts, many of them quite complex, in understandable terminology. I am not writing for the trained counselor or theologian, but for the average Christian who is seeking some insight into the existing problems surrounding the innerhealing ministry. I am beginning with the assumption that those who are reading this book have had some exposure to the ideas presented within the various schools of psychology. My purpose is not to destroy the inner-healing movement as such, but rather to point out what is behind inner healing. If such exposure does bring harm to the inner-healing movement, so be it. I do not believe that any legitimate movement of God within the church is damaged by bringing it into the light of public scrutiny, since their major motivation is the welfare of God’s people.

I do not wish to build a reputation on the practice of criticizing the teachings of other people. I hope that you will find within these pages helpful insight which is drawn from the Word of God and which will help you to live and walk in Christ Jesus. It is also my fervent prayer that, as a result of the reading of this book, you will commit yourself to remaining securely within biblical boundaries in your pursuit of truth and life-changing experience. To this end, may God be praised!

  • Donald G. Matzat March 1987