Lies My Therapist Told Me

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Nate Devlin. July 5, 2026. 1 Corinthians 2:6-16.

Summary

Why spend the rest of the summer on the Bible and mental health? Four reasons. First, about six months ago I read Greg Gifford’s book Lies My Therapist Told Me. His definitive Christian critique of secular therapy shows how the secular worldview assumed by most mental health professionals undermines the church’s ability to understand and help with mental health problems. Therapists may relieve symptoms, but they miss the underlying biblical issues and spiritual causes.

Second, a recent rediscovery here at Beverly Heights of Jay E. Adams, author of Competent to Counsel, which came through conversations with Pastor Peter Chace. Adams was an American Reformed theologian and pastor, the founder of nouthetic counseling, from the Greek nouthesia, to admonish, confront, or instruct by the Word of God. He emphasized the sufficiency of the Bible for mental health problems, sin, and personal change.

Third, the overwhelming amount of concerning data. About 23.4 percent of American adults claimed to have experienced mental illness in 2024. Gallup data from 2025 put adults depressed or being treated for depression at 18.3 percent, a historic high. Roughly 40 percent of high school students report persistent sadness or hopelessness, and suicide remains a leading cause of death for young adults.

Fourth, I turned fifty this year and have been reflecting on twenty-five years of pastoral counseling. I am not a clinical counselor; I offer pastoral counsel by the Word of God. Those years have left me with two convictions. First, the promotion of a sound mind is a necessary and legitimate ministry of the church. Pastors are counselors; their ancient work was the cure of souls. “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). Second, the big idea: good mental health begins with possessing the mind of Christ. Paul says “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), and possessing it is the single greatest benefit one can have for stable, lasting mental health. Yet most of modern psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy try to address mental well-being absent Christ. They try to address depression, anxiety, fear, and thoughts of self-harm without ever referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. This cannot possibly help. They do not recognize the Bible’s distinction between the inner man and the outer man.

So what is the mind? The Bible distinguishes between the brain, which is material and part of the outer man, and the mind, which is immaterial and part of the inner man. They are intimately connected, but the mind will outlive the brain. There may be an issue with your mind that no surgery and no medication can touch. There is no amount of surgery, no amount of pills, no amount of medical help that can directly address a mind problem. The brain should receive proper care from a medical doctor, but a doctor cannot treat the immaterial mind with medicine, because the natural state of the mind is corrupted by sin. Renewal comes only through Christ by the Holy Spirit, and a renewed mind in turn stewards the outer man with wisdom.

Here is the irony. Psychiatry literally means healing of the soul. But after the rise of Freudian psychoanalysis, psychiatrists usurped the pastor’s role as the authority on the mind. Psychiatrists have become secular pastors. They do not seek to change your mind; at the end of the day they offer life advice with the authority to write prescriptions. The psychiatrist offers you advice so that you can feel better about your bad decisions. In 1966 the sociologist Philip Rieff published The Triumph of the Therapeutic, arguing that Western culture shifted from religious and moral authority to a therapeutic culture centered on the self. Religious man, whose goals were salvation, virtue, and duty, was replaced by psychological man, whose goals are well-being and self-fulfillment. The therapeutic culture promotes personal authenticity. This is how we have people who look at themselves and say, I feel like I am a woman trapped in a man’s body, and I cannot be authentic until I can express who I think I am, not what God has said, but who I think I am. It promotes freedom of choice, and that is why all of us in our culture today are pro-choice. That orientation finds its way into the church: many in the modern American evangelical church today are pro-choice, because that is what makes me happy. Was Rieff correct? Yes. After sixty years we have the most therapeutic culture and the worst mental health. Time to try the Bible.

The church must defend the biblical distinction between mind and brain. If you have a brain problem, seek medical help. If you have an inner man problem, you need the mind of Christ, which the church is commissioned to minister. Reject the spirit of our age: therapy helps you feel better about your rebellion against God, while the wisdom Paul describes conforms your life to God’s purposes. Take responsibility for your mind; therapy teaches you to avoid it. Worship is the best medicine. Come each Lord’s Day, because God calls you. He invites you to confess, consecrates you, communes with you at the bread and wine, and sends you out to live well and be healed. Christ has come to renew your mind and to renew the world through you, the church.

Key texts: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16; 2 Timothy 1:7

For reflection

• Where in my life have I assumed that mental health belongs only to the professionals and not to Christ and his church?
• Do I treat my struggles as brain problems, inner man problems, or both, and whom have I asked for help with each?
• What would it look like this week to take responsibility for my own thinking and to treat weekly worship as medicine?