Can Your Memories Be Healed?

Tom:

Thanks, Gary.You’re listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a program in which we encourage everyone who desires to know God’s truth to look to God’s Word for all that is essential for salvation and living one’s life in a way that is pleasing to Him.In this first segment of Search the Scriptures Daily, we’re winding up our series on “Psychology and the Church” based upon the video, “Psychology and the Church: Critical Questions, Crucial Answers.”Dave, as you know, last week we began discussing the ways in which anti-Biblical concepts of psychotherapy have filtered into the Church and how they are being believed and practiced within various movements that often deny that what they’re doing has anything to do with psychology.The Inner Healing Movement, for example, which was brought into the Church, we mentioned this last week, by Agnes Sanford. Also there was former President Jimmy Carter’s sister, Ruth Carter Stapleton, John and Paula Sanford, Rita and Dennis Bennett, we could go on and on. John Wimber was influential in bringing it into the Vineyard Movement.Now, none of these people were psychotherapists, yet most of what they were doing regarding inner healing was psychobabble.It’s as simple as that, Dave. And, why would I say that?Don’t they have something to do with psychic determinism, healing of memories, visualization?We went over many of these things.

Dave:

Well, let me explain it very quickly for those out there who may wonder.Inner healing, well, the idea is that, it’s a Freudian idea, but, as you said, it comes from psychology, that we are what our childhood has made us, we’ve had experiences in the past, traumatic experiences, some of them that have influenced us in the subconscious, and we are not even aware of why we do certain things.Somebody said, Well, that’s a Freudian slip, well anyhow it was something back in there.So, how are you going to get at this?First of all, the Bible doesn’t talk about this, Paul says, “Forgetting those things that are behind, and reaching forth unto that which is before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”But in inner healing you’ve got to go back into the past and uncover these traumatic experiences, and that would be psychotherapy to a large extent.Now the Christianized version is, Well, we go back there—now we are going to ask Jesus to uncover these memories—and we’re going to then call upon Jesus, we are going to visualize ourselves in this traumatic situation so that Jesus can better heal it for us, and then we will visualize Jesus coming along and dealing with this for us, and then we will be delivered.Now, many, many problems, Tom, of course Jesus never practiced this, neither did Paul or anyone. It’s not biblical, it’s not taught in the Bible.Furthermore, just from simple common sense would tell you—how deep is this silk hat thatI’m digging into to find my memories?Now when I uncover a memory that, supposedly, was the key, and it seems to relieve me for a time, but then, O my, I’m just sinking back into this depression, or these problems, whatever they are.Well, there must be another memory back there, that must be it.As long as I’m drawing water from this well it becomes a very deep well, it becomes endless, it will never satisfy my thirst, there’s got to be more and more and more.It’s hopeless by its very nature.

Tom:

And Dave, we’ve seen it time and time again to tragic results.Some of these memories are actually induced, and the person who is being psychologized, who is being ministered to by these Christians who say, No, this has nothing to do with psychology, this is really the Lord’s work.But false memory syndrome came out of that and it has destroyed many families, many lives.

Dave:

You’ve got husbands and fathers who were accused of sexually abusing their children, or their wife, or whatever, and this person—and I know of a few of these cases, but many of them have been written up to the extent that these people formed an organization, false memory syndrome, they got together to defend themselves.And it’s not scientific, it is not biblical, of course, and it has been proven memory is a very tricky thing.You can deceive yourself into thinking you remember what never happened, particularly if you were put into an altered state of consciousness under hypnosis, to the extent that the state of California, and many other states will no longer accept testimony in court from a person who has been hypnotized regarding anything to draw up memories, regarding anything concerning this particular case, because the experts will tell you that you, in fact, you cannot avoid introducing false memories.Tom, as you know, for example, this was—look into very carefully at Cal State University at Long Beach, by a couple of professors there.And they found that under hypnosis you could come up with anything!You have a person in a deep state of hypnosis and suggest you are being approached by a flying object, a UFO, you know, you don’t have to say much more than that, and the person will go through the whole routine.Oh, they are landing and little green men coming out and they’re taking me in putting me on the table for medical examination.Or if you say to the person, You are in the process of dying, now describe what is happening.They will give you the whole story of going through—

Tom:

—a light at the end of the tunnel, and so on.

Dave:

Yeah, going through this dark tunnel, and this beam of light, and so forth.So, they discovered that it is the state of consciousness that induces these memories.Now, where do they come from?Some of these people never followed UFO’s, and so forth.Well, as we have quoted a few times probably, Sir John Eccles, Nobel Prize winner for his research on the brain, he described the brain as “a machine that a ghost can operate.”And other neuroscientists have said the same.Now, Eccles believes that we are non physical beings living in a physical body.By his experiments he located what he called, the SMA, the supplementary motor area, where the connection is made between the spirit and the brain.But in an altered state of consciousness that connection is loosened and another spirit can interpose itself, begin to tick off the neurons in the brain.This is exactly what the hypnotist is doing.A hypnotist who—Tom, we did this to one another when I was in the military, in the barracks.We put a guy with his heels on one bunk, just his head on the other, get that guy as stiff as a board and you could just sit on him.Or you could create all kinds of delusions, that he’s out of the body, or you’ve got a bucket of water, tell him it’s gold coins, and this poor guy is trying to fill his pockets with these gold coins.Now, we know then that hypnosis—well, it’s even more than that—let me go one step farther, Tom, and there are many, many examples we could give.I hypnotize you Tom, I put you—ofcourse we wouldn’t do this, it’s demonic—there’s a cat on your lap, Tom, and you hear a purr, you pet it, you feel its fur, and now I tell the cat to scratch you—Meow! Scratch marks on your cheek, how about that?I mean, these are some of the experiments that have been done, because it is demonic.So now, if the hypnotist can control, make you do things and imagine things, we are not the only minds in this universe.There are other minds out there, not just embodied minds like the medium in a séance thinks they are in contact with, dead relatives and so forth, or the mystic Hindu masters from the past, but these are demonic entities.You want to visualize Jesus coming along?Jesus will not come along, appear to you for that, but demons will be willing to do it.Let me just quote one person, Calvin Miller, his book, The Table of Inwardness.I think it’s the beginning of Chapter 7, he says:“One door opens into the world of the spirit, imagination”!What?And he goes on to tell you, “If you really want to get to know the Lord, then you must visualize him.You can sit on his lap, you can hug him” and so forth.And then he goes on further and he says:“I’m looking as I look into his hazel eyes and I enjoy the sun glinting on his auburn hair.”What! you say his eyes are dark and his hair is black?Well, have it your way, you have to see Jesus as you want to see Him.I mean, Tom, is this nonsense?It’s worse than nonsense.

Tom:

It’s visual idolatry is what it is, Dave, without a doubt.

Dave:

But you are creating it, and whatever you want to create, Richard Foster, for example, says, it won’t be just an exercise in imagination, Jesus Christ will actually come to you, speak to you in his voice, and so forth.Now, we’ve got a demonic entity masquerading as whatever Jesus you want him to be.

Tom:

Dave, of course you just mentioned two of the leaders in whole contemplative movement, those who are leading the evangelical church into, really Catholic mysticism, but let’s pull back just a little bit.It’s amazing to me that, aside from really the demonic aspect, that those who go into inner healing, that those who are involved in these Christianized methodologies that are based on Carl Jung and his approach—

Dave:

Carl Jung, who was himself demonized, who acknowledged this, who had spirit guides.

Tom:

But Dave, all it takes is a suggestion.For example, we’ve had cases of pastors who were accused of, with their own children, having satanic ritual abuse in the basement of the church.Now, where did that come from?Now I’m not saying that that couldn’t happen, but when you have case after case after case, there is something seriously wrong here, Dave.And all of this came into the church, again through psychology, psychotherapy, through that model of interacting with people based on Freud and Jung and Maslow, and so on and so forth.

Dave:

And how did this happen?It happened under an altered state of consciousness in a psychiatrist or a psychologist’s office, and now the pastor’s reputation is ruined.In fact, some of them have even been prosecuted and put in prison because of these false memories induced by these “Christian” psychologists and psychiatrists.

Tom:

Dave, I want to shift over to methodologies and techniques.For example, you have people like Neal Anderson, who was the chairman at the Department of Practical Theology at Talbot, and he has a methodology and technique.We talked last week and mentioned briefly 12-Steps.Well, he has 7 steps, and his 7 steps have to do with issues of the past.Again, he believes in the integration of psychology and theology.So you find many of these techniques with his methodology, and he has 7 steps, but they involve generational sins and renouncing relatives or your relatives were involved in Masonry or something like that and they picked up a spirit, and so on.Again, this is pseudo-psychology, but it’s really occultism.

Dave:

Well, it’s not pseudo-psychology, because they are into this, and Christian psychologists certainly are.

Tom:

Right.

Dave:

But Tom, again, a little common sense will stand you in good stead.How far back into the past do you have to go?My father was from England, my ancestors probably were druids out there at Stonehenge.How am I supposed to uncover all of this, and how do I know what to—It’s like Mormons have to go back into the genealogy, get baptized for everybody in the past.They don’t try to do this nonsense, but this is as much nonsense as their nonsense.

Tom:

Who is to know now, Dave, this is everywhere, Dave.

Dave:

Right, you go into a Mormon bookstore, Desseret bookstore and there they are, all of these psychology books.So Tom, it’s a never ending process.How can I be sure that I have renounced or confessed all the sins of my ancestors, and how can I be sure that just renouncing it in a general way—now that’s too vague—now I’ve got to get more specific, and that’s where inner healing comes in.So I’ve got to go back and I’ve got to uncover what this really is.It is contrary to the Word of God, never taught, never practiced by the apostles or by any of the great preachers and evangelists of the past.Where did it come from?It came from psychology!Where did it come from?Very evil men, anti Christians every one of t hem.

Tom:

Dave, I have a—I found a course here at a Christian university.This is called, Course 301, it’s Prayers That Heal the Heart.I want to go over them, and you can take this course, you don’thave to be enrolled fully in the university, but for $408, you can sign up for this course.

Dave:

Wow!

Tom:

Listen to this: The course teaches a series of 7 specific prayers that will break bondages within your heart caused by spiritual forces.This is what we have just been talking about.These prayers include breaking generational sins and curses, severing ungodly soul ties, removing negative beliefs and inner vows—See, how it connects with everything, mind science, positive confession, and so on—healing traumatic scenes and casting out demonic energy that has connected itself with these inner wounds of the heart and the soul.This is Jungian stuff.

Dave:

Yeah, but it’s nonsense, Tom.Demonic energy, what do you mean, demonic energy?

Tom:

Well, you know they don’t want to say demons themselves, because this is a university, Dave.It says the entire human process is sealed by doing an intensive meditation on biblical passages that bear on the issues of being healed so God can grant you illumined insights from His Word.So, what are we doing here, Dave?We’re not only integrating psychobabble, but this really occultism in terms of the techniques with the Word of God.

Dave:

Well yeah, but you could earn $400 by promoting this kind of stuff.

Tom:

That’s what caused you to take the course, unbelievable!

Dave:

Right, it’s a money making business, furthermore, Tom, we have in the church—I shouldn’t mention it, but then I always say that and then I do mention it anyway.I’m sorry, we have a lot of men, probably women as well, in the church, speakers, experts supposedly, who have phony doctorates.And I won’t name names, but they know who they are, but they’re not listening anyway, but they love to be called “Doctor” in fact, some of them insist on being called, “Doctor”.

Tom:

Well, it’s supposed to enhance your credibility, Dave, people are going to listen to what you have to say.

Dave:

Jesus said:Don’t be called, Rabbi, Rabbi, and you’re not looking for the praise of me.But now, let me relate it to this, Tom.So, we’ve quoted Paul, Acts 20, in the past—“Of your own selves,” he said to his favorite elders, Ephesian elders, “shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.”Now, why do they come up with this stuff?Well, we want to be on the cutting edge, we want to have something that you just can’t get this out of the Bible—you see, all truth is God’s truth and there are other sources of truth, and we’ve gotten this from the wisdom of the world, we got it from the spirit world in fact, from Jung, and so forth, and now we want you to believe this—see, we have to have something a bit special, we can’t just give you a biblical exegesis, I mean, anybody can do that—but look at this, we have insights into your problems—

Tom:

Leading edge stuff, Dave.

Dave:

Yeah, and pay us $400 and you’ll be able to take this course.Yes, and you’ll be drawn farther from God and from His Word than you ever were in the past.Because the whole basis of this is, God’s Word is not sufficient, and that’s a lie, it is evil.

Tom:

Dave, it really grieves me because there are people out there that are hurting.What we are saying here, we have compassion for people going through this stuff. We just don’t want them to buy into something that’s so bogus that it’s going to lead to more trouble and more trouble and more trouble because it’s not God’s Word, it’s not God’s truth.Jesus said, “If you abide in my Word you are my disciples indeed, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”That’s what we are trying to encourage here.

Dave:

Amen.

Tom:

One of the most popular of these things of late is theophostic prayer ministry, and this something developed by Dr. Ed Smith. I think he has a legitimate doctorate, “But the basis premises have never changed that our present pain has its roots in childhood memories and their interpretation.”This is Freudian!

Dave:

Tom, I just can’t remember any verse in the Bible that tells you that.Where would you get an idea like this?Now we’ve got to go back and hunt.Childhood memories—I would be hard pressed to go back and try to remember every traumatic experience I had in my childhood, and maybe the one that I’ve overlooked, that could be the key to the whole thing.

Tom:

But you see, Dave, he brings the Lord into this and says:“Theophostics corrects these by offering a mystical experience where the person receives a revelation, supposedly from the Holy Spirit about the memory and the correct interpretation of this.”Now Smith isn’t saying that, but somebody who is a critic of this program said it. And that’s the way it works.Se,, Dave, it doesn’t make any difference how irrational, how unbiblical as long as it is experiential and you just bring Jesus into it, it’s all going to be okay.

Dave:

You could experience it.

Tom:
Yeah.Well, Dave, biblical counseling, we’re encouraging people to get back to the sufficiency of God’s Word, but we’ve seen the church develop a kind of a biblical counseling methodology that’s no different than the world.In other words, you have somebody who is trained as a counselor, they set up an office, they charge a fee, you come in, either with your spouse or whatever the situation might be, they charge you by the hour, or, you know, you make a donation.Now how is this any different than the way the world goes about it?And isn’t it a problem, Dave, because it’s problem solving oriented rather than maturity, discipleship, growth in the Word and in the Lord?

Dave:

There are two basic problems, Tom.Number One, they are trying to integrate the Bible, not only into psychology, but those who claim that they are truly biblical are adopting the methodologies of these people,they have become professionals.You are a professional you’ve got a license and you have to charge, and when you’re charging you’ve got to have something to say.Why would they come to me?And as Paul said in Acts 20 to the Ephesian elders, “Of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.So, you’ve got to have something special.Now, furthermore, the fact that they charge for it is not biblical.”Men, you are more interested in the income,I don’t care how honest you are, you look upon this person as another patient, another source of income.Furthermore, Tom, this is not the way discipleship works.You should be counseling people that you love and you know and they should come to you because of that.There should be this relationship, it should happen within the church, and the church should be able to provide this.There should be couples who can counsel couples, and so forth.

Tom:

You know, Dave, let me just interject this.Going back to the biblical counseling approach adopting the methodology, the model of the world, that speaks to—well, wait a minute—we’re just going to solve everybody’s problem, you come in, you’ve got a problem.So now, your congregation in a church is thinking, Oh, he’s got this problem, I’ve got that problem.Now, Dave, am I being simplistic here?If I come to know the Lord, all right, maybe I’ve come in the church with all kinds of problems, and then I grow in maturity.I begin to read the Word, I recognize from the Word what the Lord doesn’t want me to do, but my growth, my maturity, you said discipleship and so on, doesn’t maturity have a lot to do with whether I’m going to have problems or not?

Dave:

Tom, if we’ve got a few seconds, I could think of many examples, I’ll just think of one.This young woman who won’t give the details why she came to me, and I led her to the Lord.She was in a cult, she was in all kinds of problems.I didn’t even know she was living with a man out of wedlock, I didn’t say a word about that, she immediately broke that relationship because the Holy Spirit had come into her heart. Christ had come into her life, and she knew the difference between right and wrong.Now if you have a new born babe and they desire the sincere milk of the Word. And God will feed them, we don’t have to try to solve all their problems, lead them to the Lord and let them follow Him.

Tom:

Right, and then we have body ministry, let the believers minister one unto another through God’s Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.