Dynamic Biblical Counseling

By Thomas A. Walters

This Special edition of “Dynamic Biblical Counseling” is
dedicated to the American homeowner. The American dream
of homeownership that is available to everyone has been sold
to the American public; however, not everyone is financially or
educationally prepared for home ownership. It seems that the
American homeowner has not the education regarding how to
prevent foreclosure. Perhaps it is not completely the homeowners
fault, because often times unscrupulous and predatory realtors,
investors, mortgage companies and even loss mitigation companies
have sometimes compounded the problem. This fact, coupled
with a lack of education regarding financial budgeting has turned
the “American Dream” into an “American Nightmare.” Preventing
this nightmare is the purpose of this book and mission of Gold
Cross of America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 28, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462825011

Thomas A. Walters

Dr. Thomas Walters is a Bible scholar, counselor and educator. He has taught grades kindergarten through university levels. His education includes a Ph.D. in Biblical Theology from Southern California Graduate School of Theology with a concentration in Biblical Counseling. His accomplishments include teaching at Montemorelos University (Nuevo Leon, Mexico), Southern Adventist University (Coliegedale, Tennessee) and Indiana University of South Bend (South Bend, Indiana).

Book preview

Copyright © 2009 by Thomas A. Walters

Cover Art: Holy Hug by Thomas Walters

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Rev. date: 02/17/2022

Xlibris

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Contents

Chapter One

Dynamic Spirituality: A Biblical World View

Chapter Two

Dynamic Spirituality: Behavior Change through the Holy Spirit

Chapter Three

Dynamic Spirituality: The Nature of God

Chapter Four

Dynamic Spirituality: The Biblical Opposites

Chapter Five

Dynamic Spirituality: Psychopathology

The Goals of Dynamic Biblical Counseling

Chapter One

Dynamic Spirituality: A Biblical World View

To achieve Dynamic Spirituality we may need to change our world view. We are living in a world in which the even the idea of living in harmony with an outside source, higher power or God seems to be a very ridiculous concept to many. People learn to put themselves first and not to really care about others or their needs. One may drive down any major highway, such as Interstate 4 that passes through Orlando, Florida and see this selfishness in operation. People jump into lane in front of you without even the thought of signaling beforehand. The consequences leading sometimes to terrible accidents that could have been avoided, if the other person was thoughtful and had the common courtesy to signal before making a move. As a result of this selfish thinking millions of people are not living happy or healthy mental, physical or spiritual lives.

How does the counselor help an individual to live a more fulfilled life in the Twenty-First century? First, the counselor must help people to move from selfish thinking to unselfish thinking. People in general and even Christians in this day in age may not think consistently with a Biblical philosophy of life under-girding their behaviors. The counselor must strive to have a view of life that includes looking at life from God’s perspective. A unified Christian view of life and the individual may seem like a very esoteric scenario, but in all reality, the opposite is true. A truly spiritual view of the whole of reality and of God’s revealed truth is essential before the counselor may help the individual to change their behavior significantly in a more healthy direction.

In the Renaissance the concept of Congruentia or the unity of the parts to the whole was an important aspect of Renaissance architecture, literature and knowledge in general. Leonardo Da Vinci was not only a mathematician and engineer, but a philosopher and visual artist as well. Most modern theories of counseling are reductive in nature. We are living in a very specialized age. Specialization is a method that we use to help define roles and define disciplines. This may be a necessary aspect of study. It has also created a tendency to blind sight us, because in our specialization we have lost sight of the whole picture of reality. During modern times the field of psychology has become divorced from its mother philosophy. Psychologists have also traditionally separated their discipline from medicine and religion to devote their study to the mind.

In the discipline of counseling, the concept of the whole person has been lost. The specialist seeks through the discipline of psychology to understand the mind of the individual; however the mind is sometimes treated as divorced from the body or the soul of the individual. The individual has also been treated separated from the dynamics of family interaction. We have lost sight of the context of which mankind is, based on a revelation of communication between God and mankind. The counselor by relegating his/her study to the mind only loses the physical, spiritual, and cultural context of the background of the individual. These factors are important to the understanding of why a person behaves in the manner that they do. To the Christian counselor it is important not to separate the mental, physical,