function and the Q&A function if you have any questions or comments on anything that we're talking about tonight. And we do have a section in tonight's session that I want to get some interaction using the chat function and show you some things and get your input on it. So feel free to participate in that way.

But I hope you're doing well. I hope that your studies are going well and that you're walking in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and finding his peace and joy through this season of life. And I'm looking forward to tonight's session on the dichotomous view of mankind. We're looking at theology exam number 10 tonight, and trust that this will be a good and profitable study for us all tonight.

So if you've been following with us in the class, we're broadly moving from the essay questions that deal with the doctrine of God to the essay questions that are now dealing with the doctrine of man. So we did two exam questions dealing with the attributes of God and then the nature of the Trinity.

And now we are moving into the general session dealing with the doctrine of man. And the two really go hand in hand. We can't understand who man is unless we understand who God is. And it really is, as I mentioned last week, the doctrine of man, which is the foundation for all that we do in biblical counseling.

It's really when it comes to the doctrine of man that the viewpoints of secular psychology and the viewpoint of biblical counseling diverges. We believe that man is made in the image of God and that man is made in the likeness of God to reflect God's glory and his character.

Man was made to live in relationship with God. And so if you take out the understanding of the true and the living God from your understanding of man, then you're going to end up with an inaccurate understanding of who man is. And I think that's what's happened in secular psychology and that's why biblical counseling is so important because we want to hold forth a true understanding of the doctrine of man.

So that's a little bit of why these essays are so important and why I trust you will give yourself in faithful study to these doctrines. I want to do a devotional tonight from 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and I'd like to both encourage us in a wonderful passage from God's word that is actually a passage that we use often in counseling.

I know that our counselors in this ministry use this chapter and this passage often to encourage counselees, but I think it's also a passage that is very relevant and applicable to our study tonight. When we're talking about the dichotomous view of man, we're talking about the idea that man is material and immaterial, that man has a body and a soul.

A man has an outer man, which is his physical body, and man has an inner man, which is referred to by various terms such as heart, soul, spirit, mind. All of that refers to the inner man, the immaterial aspect of man. And by man, I'm referring to humanity broadly.

I'm not using the term man to refer to gender, but I'm using it in the way that the Old Testament uses the Hebrew term adam in reference to humanity. And so when we're talking about man is material and immaterial, we're saying that man has a physical aspect, a physical component, and also an immaterial aspect.

Man has an inner man or the soul, and that's what we mean by the dichotomous view of man, that man has two aspects or two facets to his being, although man is an essential unity. So we can never really distinguish, like if I'm talking to my wife, I don't say, "Well, I'm going to talk to the physical aspect of my wife," but not talk to the immaterial aspect of my wife.

If I'm having a conversation with my wife, she's hearing me using physical ears, but she's also hearing me from the heart. And so there is a difficulty in knowing sometimes where does the physical aspect of man end and the immaterial aspect of man begin? Because man is an essential unity, it's sometimes hard to figure all of that out, like which side of me is reacting to this?

Is my physical nature reacting to what I'm seeing before me, or is it my heart that's reacting to what's before me? And in most cases, it's both because you're an essential unity. Man is essential unity, although he has a body and a soul. I think that perspective of man being immaterial and material is so foundational for counseling.

It's so foundational in how we understand counseling methods and interpretations of counseling issues. And one example of this is in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and Paul in this chapter is talking about the intense physical struggles that he encountered in ministry. As you know, that apostle Paul was enduring just incredible sufferings as he brought the gospel to the Gentile world and preached the gospel.

He talks about those sufferings in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 8, where he says, "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." So that is a very vivid description of the sufferings and the pressures that Paul endured in his physical body.

Those words "afflicted," "perplexed," "persecuted," "struck down," and then he uses this vivid description of his physical sufferings, "always carrying in the body the death of Jesus," describing the death as a process, that as you look at my life, you are seeing something of a reflection of the sufferings of our Savior when he walked to the cross.

This is a very intense description of the physical sufferings of Paul, and then he adds quite beautifully the phrase, "so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies." The reason why I'm suffering is to bring to you the gospel. So he continues, "For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh." So death is at work in us, but life in you.

So that was Paul's reality, afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, and he refers elsewhere in the book of 2 Corinthians to the toil and hardship, the hunger and the thirst, often without food and cold and exposure, beatings, imprisonments. He suffered much for the sake of the gospel, but here is the key statement I want you to get down in verse 16 where he says, "In the midst of all of this, we do not lose heart." Now watch this, and this is going to tie into our study tonight, the immaterial and the material aspects of man.

Why do we not lose heart? Why are we not discouraged? Why are we not downcast? Why do we keep being encouraged, and why do we keep having hope in the midst of all the suffering? He tells us, "Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." That's just a tremendous statement there.

Paul acknowledged that his outer self, his physical body, was wasting away. He just acknowledged that, that in this life, and it was not just aging, but it really was the sufferings and all that he went through, the beatings and the imprisonments, but there's also the aspect of everyone ages.

Everyone is living somewhere in the reality of that statement that our outer self is wasting away. Our physical body is decaying. The word "waste away," listen to this, it means to rot thoroughly. It's not exactly an encouraging statement, but it is true nonetheless. It means to ruin, to utterly decay, to corrupt, to destroy, and ultimately to perish.

That's just a stark reality of what's happening to our physical bodies. Anyone who's lived any length of time past the age of, say, 35 or 40 can relate to that statement. Our outer self, our physical body is wasting away, but Paul says at the same time, our inner self, the immaterial aspect of man, our hearts, our soul, our spirit, the inner man is being renewed day by day.

So, the idea here is that if you're only focused on the outer man, if you're only living for the physical body, then you have plenty of reasons to lose heart. Your outer self will waste away. Now, I know we're all trying diets, and supplements, and creams, and potions, and all sorts of different things to kind of delay the reality of that, and by all means, I think we should be responsible and be a good steward of our bodies, but in the end, everyone lives in the reality of our outer self will waste away.

If that's what you're living for, then you have every reason to lose heart, but Paul says our inner self is being renewed, present tense, day by day. Our inner self is growing strong, vibrant. Our inner self is experiencing spiritual transformation. We are not wasting away in the inner man.

We are ever growing stronger, ever more being infused with hope and with joy. Why? Because the Spirit of God does a work in the inner man to produce a heart that is filled with spiritual vitality and life, and so we do not lose heart. Bible teacher John Gill said this, that the internal hidden man of the heart is in a prosperous condition.

Our souls are in good health. The work of God is comfortably carried on in us. We have a sweet and repeated experiences of the love of God. We are growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, and like the palm tree, the more weight is hung upon it, the more it thrives, and like the children of Israel and Egypt, the more they were afflicted, the more they grew.

That is the joy of seeing what God is doing in the inner man, and then Paul ends up this beautiful statement and saying, "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." So the counseling implication for all of us is as biblical counselors, we minister to the inner man. That's our focus. That's where we are tasked to do our ministry. You have heard me said, and I'll say again, we are not medical professionals.

We are not licensed physicians. We don't prescribe medication. We don't take people off medication. We are not authorized to practice physical medicine in the local church. Now we do data gathering where we ask people about their physical health, but our role in our realm is not really in terms of the physical body.

We incorporate that in our counseling, but our focus really is in taking the word of God and ministering it to the heart so that the inner man of our counselee can thrive and grow strong even in the midst of the trials and the sufferings of life. Our focus is on the inner man, and we believe that no matter what goes on in this life, that the soul can prosper, that the inner man can thrive, that the heart can grow strong in trust and in confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so that is basically what we do in counseling ministry. We work with our counselee to renew their inner man day by day, and that's why as biblical counselors, we do not lose heart. We continue this ministry, and we've received it as a mercy. We understand all of the sufferings of this life.

We join with our counselees in groaning for the day when Christ will return and when there will be no more sorrow, pain, or suffering in life. We look forward to the day of our future physical resurrection where we will be given new glorious bodies that will be brought into conformity with the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we just long for that day.

And in the midst of our waiting, we groan in the midst of this life with all that is going on, and yet we believe that if the Word of God is heard and believed and trusted, that the soul can be satisfied, the inner man can thrive, and that is our joy and our privilege as biblical counselors to help people with that.

And as I've often said, if we want to impart that to others, we need to be experiencing that ourselves. And so let me just encourage you, don't lose heart. Take the Word of God and learn it. Eat of its glorious truths. Taste and see that the Lord is good so that your soul may prosper in the day of adversity.

Let me pray for us, and we'll get into our handout tonight. Father, thank you for this truth that we do not lose heart. We thank you that your Word is just very clear and stark on the realities of physical aging, physical illness, that Lord, all of us are in some stage of that process of seeing the outer man decay, and yet we thank you for this promise by the apostle Paul that the inner man can be renewed day by day.

We pray that, Lord, you would help us to experience that for ourselves. We pray that you would bless our hour today in looking at this topic, that, Lord, we would get focused as biblical counselors and know what our task is and know what it is not. And we just commit this time to you.

Thank you for each student here. Bless them in their studies. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, amen. Let's look at our handout, and I want to cover tonight the dichotomous view of man. By the way, that whole discussion of inner man and outer man, just know that, I mean, I incorporate that all the time in my pastoral ministry.

If someone asks me to pray for their arm, and they say, "I'm going in for surgery, and I want you to pray that the Lord will heal my arm," I will definitely pray for their outer man, their arm, and I'll pray that the surgery does go well, but I will also pray for their inner man.

So I'm not just content to pray for my friend, John, that God would heal his arm. I'm praying that, Lord, please heal John's arm and also bring his soul to you. Help his soul to prosper. May his heart trust in you and grow strong in the promises of God.

And so you want to incorporate that in your ministry, that we're ministering to both outer man and inner man, both the material and immaterial aspects of man. So let's look at the question tonight, and this is theology exam number 10, which is, "Provide a biblical description for the dichotomous view of mankind.

Explain the counseling implications of this doctrine with regard to the inner and outer man." Now, I've given you a handout. I'm going to walk through some of the suggested reading, but I'm not going to slavishly go through our handout tonight. I think the material from Grudem and also from Lambert is going to help you.

Charles Ryrie has a great chapter on the dichotomous view of man. I highly commend that to you, and those resources are going to help you walk through this doctrine. I'm going to spend most of my time tonight on that second aspect of the question, "Explain the counseling implications of this doctrine with regard to the inner and outer man." How does this doctrine inform the way that we counsel?

How is it practical, and how does it help us view counseling ministry? So I would commend to you the reading of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. Grudem has a very good chapter there on the dichotomous view of man, and then he gives a very good defense of the dichotomous view of man over and against the trichotomous view of man.

And trichotomy would see man as having three facets or three aspects. Trichotomy would make the distinction between body, soul, and spirit, where dichotomy would see man as being essentially body and then soul or spirit. There's not a real clear distinction between soul and spirit, but there are two terms that refer to the same essential aspect of man, which is the immaterial side of man.

And so Grudem does a great job in just explaining that and giving a good defense for dichotomy versus trichotomy. And he has a number of passages in his chapter that demonstrate that the term soul and spirit essentially refer to the same aspect of man, that they're virtually interchangeable and used that way in scripture.

And then Charles Ryrie has a good section in his work, Basic Theology, The Facets of Man. He calls man, I like this phrase, he calls man a bipartite unity, which emphasizes the two parts, body and soul, while also emphasizing essential unity. And so Ryrie does a great job articulating those truths.

I want to commend that to you. And then a couple of counseling related resources. We have Heath Lambert's A Theology of Biblical Counseling. I really encourage you to read that. Lambert walks through the counseling implications of the dichotomous view of man. And this was a helpful statement. I'll put this on the screen for us.

Lambert says that biblical counselors will address problems that are both physical and spiritual. It is a simplistic denial of a complex biblical teaching to insist that counseling problems could only be physical or spiritual. Counseling problems can be physical, spiritual, or combinations of the two. The complex interaction of body and soul combined with our limited knowledge as human beings may make it complicated or even impossible to identify a singular genesis of a given problem as physical, spiritual, or both.

And I think that's a helpful perspective that it isn't always apparent where the physical struggle ends and the spiritual struggle begins. But you have that basic framework of man being material and immaterial, and that is a framework that we use in counseling ministry. So one example of this is, let's say I'm struggling to sleep at night.

So do I have a physical problem or do I have a spiritual problem? Well, sometimes it's difficult to tell, right? I mean, it may be a physical issue. There may be some issue of aging or it may be some undiagnosed illness that is keeping me up at night. It may be a side effect from a medication or it might be a spiritual problem.

It might be I'm just anxious and I can't get my thoughts to calm down. And it may be that I need to learn to trust the Lord. It's hard to know. I mean, where does this physical problem and where does the spiritual problem begin? And I think that's just the complex idea of it's not always so clear cut that man is a unity.

He has two essential aspects, but the idea of bipartite unity is helpful in understanding that there is that tension of the two aspects of man, but essential unity. So we are always thinking through these categories when we counsel. We don't always know which part is physical and which part is spiritual, but we have these categories in mind.

Let's say that I meet with a counselee who's really depressed and I find out that, well, he's sleeping two hours a night because he's drinking Red Bull or Monster every two hours during the day. And he only eats carbs. He eats no protein. And then he's working 80 to 100 hours a week because he's being driven by a boss who's mad at him.

Well, it's not my job in that scenario to be the counselee's physician, but it is for the sake of data gathering helpful for me to gather those aspects of what's going on in his physical life. How much is he sleeping? What is his diet like? Is he exercising? What is happening physically?

Even though my goal in counseling is to help him spiritually, understanding some of those items is helpful in my interpretation of how best to counsel and how best to help him. And it would probably be a good suggestion to ask those questions. Why are you drinking Red Bull every two hours during the day?

And to get some kind of answer of, well, I'm really anxious that my boss is getting mad at me, so I'm really working hard at my job. And to do that, I need to have some kind of stimulants. It's good to explore that physical side of what's happening in the counseling ministry so that you can minister the Word of God to the immaterial side of man, so you can minister the Word of God to the heart.

So the point here is it isn't always easy to make a clear distinction between physical and spiritual, but we do have those categories of inner man and outer man in mind as we proceed with biblical ministry. So read Heath Lambert's The Theology of Biblical Counseling. And then I gave you in your Dropbox Winston Smith's article from the Journal of Biblical Counseling.

It's called Dichotomy or Trichotomy, How the Doctrine of Man Shapes the Treatment of Depression. Now, that's just a really good article talking about the counseling implications of a dichotomous view of man. And let me just throw this in at this point and just throw this out there and show you kind of why this matters in counseling and why ACBC wants you to write this essay.

So under a dichotomous view of man, you basically have this idea of outer man, inner man, physical versus spiritual, with a practical application that man needs a physician to treat the body and man needs a pastor to minister to the soul. So under a dichotomous view of man, the counseling implications would be that we would want our counselees to see a physician, to have a good medical doctor, and we would want them to be under the spiritual care of the local church.

I think by pastor, I would broadly include all those who are counseling and giving shepherding care to the flock of God. I don't mean just pastor as an office, but I would refer to anyone who is giving spiritual care under the broad idea of shepherding ministry. So we would basically break that up into our counselees need a doctor and they need to receive shepherding care from the church.

So we, as biblical counselors, would be on the right side of that table. We would want to focus on the inner man and we would desire to work cooperatively with a good physician to rule out any physical causes of the counseling problem. Now that's how a dichotomous view of man would impact biblical counseling.

What do you have under a trichotomous view of man? I have here, you have the medical professional on the left and the biblical counselor on the right. What about a trichotomous view of man? So under trichotomy, you have body, soul, and spirit. And a trichotomous would use passages such as 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 23 to argue for the idea that there are three essential aspects of man, body, soul, and spirit.

Now, as Winston Smith says in the article, that really the modern day argument for trichotomy is not so much a theological argument as it is a counseling argument. It's a means to get to an end in counseling. And basically what you have under a trichotomous view of man, you have the body.

And so man needs a physician to treat the body. You have this category of soul, which would include thoughts and emotions. In Greek, literally means soul. And so psychology would be the study of the soul. So you have the idea that man needs a psychologist for the soul. And then you have the third aspect, which is spirit, which is under trichotomy, the aspect of man that most directly relates to God.

And so man needs a pastor, man needs a church to minister to the spirit. So under this view of who man is, your spirit really does need to connect with God, but that can be done in a worship service at a church where you worship the Lord in song and you connect with God in that way.

But in order to deal with the soul, you need a psychologist. So you have a third aspect of who man is. So body, soul, and spirit requires physician, psychologist, and pastor. Now this is, if you look at that table there, this is what essentially many Christians, what they're doing.

I mean, this is essentially, I think, describes a broad section of what the evangelical church is involved with. I think you have many Christians who would go to a physician because they have illnesses and sicknesses and you have, they go to church because they want to worship the Lord.

But when it comes to the issues of the soul, they go to a psychologist. And that would be kind of a typical structure for many Christians. I don't want to overstate that. I don't know if it's majority of Christians, but I would say a broad section of Christianity today would involve church, psychologist, and medical professional.

So today's session is not a full-throated defense of integrationism or a biblical counseling over integrationism or biblical counseling over and against secular psychology. My purpose is really just to point out the counseling implications of taking a dichotomous versus trichotomous view of man. The majority of biblical counselors in ACBC would hold to a dichotomous view of man, that man is physical and spiritual.

That is what is in the ACBC standards of doctrine. You have this statement that God created the human person with a physical body and an immaterial soul, each possessing equal honor and essential to humanity. And the statement goes on, but you have that statement on dichotomy in the standards of doctrine.

And so most biblical counselors who are certified with ACBC hold to a dichotomous view of man. And the question would be, can you take a trichotomous view of man and be certified with ACBC? I think theoretically, it's possible, but you need to be very careful as to how you define your view and also the counseling implications of that position.

The majority of counselors in this movement would say that man has two parts, body and soul. So here's Smith's article, and he's really helpful on this. He says, "Trichotomy's current popularity, however, is not the product of a theological movement per se, but rather a counseling movement. Christian counselors such as Clyde Naramore, Tim LaHaye, and others have used the soul-spirit distinction to establish the pertinence of psychology to Christian counselings." He's saying they're not making so much a theological argument as they're trying to arrive to an end to justify this whole section of ministry to people that would be served in light of secular psychology or integrationist psychologists.

And so they're really justifying this middle category of we need a psychologist to minister to the soul. Now, Smith is going to say in that article that the soul underneath a trichotomous view encompasses thoughts and emotions. So if you want to connect with God, your spirit needs to go to church.

You need to worship the Lord and sing songs to the Lord so that your spirit can connect with God. But when it comes to the issues of life, your relationships, how you're dealing with just stress or how you're dealing with your job, and you've got all these thoughts and emotions from Monday to Saturday, that's where you need a psychologist.

And that would be a general application of the trichotomous view of man. In some ways, this is an oversimplification, but I hope you get the point that they're trying to justify this middle section of you need a psychologist to deal with thoughts and emotions. Now, if you look at that, thoughts and emotions, I mean, that is just probably just the broad section of life you're living there.

I mean, that's a huge category. If your thoughts and emotions can only be addressed by either a secular psychologist or an integrationist psychologist who borrows from secular psychology, then we have just conceded a huge section of ministry to secular psychology. We have conceded anything dealing with thoughts and emotions is not going to be dealt with by pastors in the church, but are going to be dealt with psychologists who operate outside of the local church.

And I think that's why ACBC wants you to write this essay, is they want you to think through the implications of whether you take a dichotomous or trichotomous view, and how does that impact counseling ministry? Do we need a psychologist to minister to the soul, or are we sufficient in the church because we have the word of God to address the issues of the soul?

Now, you've heard me say in year one, and I've said again in year two, that I'm not going to concede the study of the soul to secular psychology because the Bible talks to issues of the soul. If you just do a concordance review of the word soul and how many times the Bible addresses the soul in scripture, you will find that the Bible does not concede the turf of the soul to the secular world.

The Bible is written to address the soul, and the Bible is written to address the thoughts and the emotions that are characteristic of the soul. So in the biblical counseling world, we are not conceding that middle section to secular psychology. We are saying that that is exactly what the Bible addresses, is the inner man.

But if you read Smith's article, and I really encourage you to read that, he applies this understanding of trichotomy into a critique of Merneth and Meyer's book, and I think it's called Happiness is a Choice, a very popular book in the Christian world dealing with depression. And he just gives a critique in saying that according to Merneth and Meyer, they acknowledge that the thoughts and feelings affect the spiritual aspects, but problems and thoughts and feelings are understood primarily through the use of psychological categories.

For them, scripture serves primarily to validate psychological theory and to act as a guideline or guardrail for the soul rather than as a soul's explanation and cure. As an example of such thinking is Happiness is a Choice by Merneth and Meyer examined below. So what he's saying here is that under a trichotomist view of man, secular psychology is needed to address thoughts and emotions.

How does Merneth and Meyer address the thoughts and emotions of the soul? They borrow from secular psychology. They explain depression in terms of these four influences or factors, grudge bearing, childhood influences, personality disorders, and unmet needs and self-worth. We could do a further study on that, but that's just to enforce the idea that those concepts are being borrowed from secular psychology.

They're not being taken from the Bible. So I think in functional reality, what it does is it starts to look like this. That category of thoughts and emotions is huge. That's where we live. That's Monday to Saturday of every week. I'm living in thoughts and emotions and how am I dealing with the issues of life?

If you concede that middle category to secular psychology, you really conceded a huge portion of the Christian life to the secular world and to secular thought. I know that was a long explanation, but that's why this essay is so important, and that's why we want you to think through what you believe about dichotomy and a trichotomy, and the resources I've listed will help you to do that.

Now, with the time I have remaining, let me walk through some counseling implications of this doctrine. If you look at your handout, you'll find under the heading the simple statement that man is material and immaterial. Scripture is clear that man has essentially two parts. Man is material part, the body, and an immaterial part, the soul or the spirit.

Scripture seems to use the term soul and spirit interchangeably, and you have a, even from the very beginning in Genesis 2 verse 7, you have a physical component and a non-physical component. The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

What affects the body affects the soul. What affects the soul has an impact on the body. I can tell you that I am a much more godly person when I've had a good night of sleep, and so are probably you. If I've slept well, I've eaten a good breakfast, I'm much more likely to engage with worship on a Sunday morning and to hear God's word.

What happens to me physically affects me spiritually. The converse is true as well. If my soul is troubled, then I don't sleep very well. If I'm having conflicts, major conflicts with people in the church or people in my family, then it affects my soul. I mean, it affects me physically from blood pressure to whatever else.

There are physical ramifications of how you conduct your spiritual life, and you can think through a number of examples of how this is true. I have a ton of examples. One would be before I teach any class like this or before I teach any class in the church, I make sure that I eat protein, and whether that's eggs or chicken or whatever it is, I make sure that I have some kind of protein in my system, and I make sure that I stay away from sugary soda pop.

Why do I do that? Because I don't want to be really excited the first 15 minutes of my teaching and then crash in the middle of my teaching session, and so how I handle my diet in that sense has an impact on what happens spiritually in terms of ministry, and it would not serve you if I have a sugar crash in the middle of a teaching session.

Sometimes eating a couple of eggs before a teaching session is one of the most godliest things that I can do because that's one way that I can serve others, and so you see the physical and the spiritual are always interrelated. Now, you can see how this is helpful in counseling.

Sometimes in counseling, you have someone who's really depressed or just anxious, and you start asking questions, and you just find that they're not sleeping, they're not eating, they haven't seen a doctor in years. I mean, those are just things to explore. Sometimes seeing a medical professional will help to rule out certain issues so that you can focus on the heart, and sometimes someone will say, "I'm just fighting with demons.

I'm just battling with Satan," when really they're not going to sleep on time, and you need to deal with the physical issue before making a spiritual issue of it. Now, what I'm going to do, I'm going to skip to the end of your handout. You can read that on your own.

There's some good material there, but on the page of your handout that says page 27, at the bottom of that handout, there is a letter D that I want to skip to. I think this is three or four pages in, but I'm going to skip some material here, but I want to highlight this.

You have under letter D on page 27 that the physical body is affected by spiritual condition. Okay, so this is David in Psalm 32, where he says, and I'll read verse 1, "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit," and then he says in verse 3, "For when I kept silent," so David's saying there, "There was a time when I didn't confess my sin.

I didn't turn with my heart to the Lord," and it began with a spiritual issue. You see how these two aspects are always relating together? It began with a spiritual issue at the bottom, unconfessed sin, that's dealing with the immaterial aspect of man, but you'll note that in Psalm 32, David notes the physical effects of that unconfessed sin.

He says, "Because I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long." He says that, "My strength was dried up by the heat of summer." In this particular case, there was a spiritual cause for these physical afflictions. Be very careful with this. Not everyone who has a physical illness has an illness due to unconfessed sin.

Job would be the balancing example in contrast to David. Job was suffering with illness, but it was not because of sin. It was just because of God's sovereignty and God's sovereign plan, but in this case, in Psalm 32, David did not confess his sin and there were physical effects of that spiritual issue.

And so, David needed to confess sin. He says in verse 5, "I acknowledge my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. You forgave the iniquity of my sin." But you see how the physical and the spiritual are relating to each other.

You see another example in Psalm 38 where David says, "There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation. There is no health in my bones because of my sin. My iniquities have gone over my head like a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness.

I'm utterly bowed down and prostrate all day long. I go about mourning." And so, no soundness, no health, festering wounds, burning sides, he's feeble, he's crushed. There are physical aspects to his life because he has unconfessed sin in his life. Now, you can see how the physical and the spiritual are always interrelating.

What if you have a believer who is experiencing the physical consequences of unconfessed sin, and then instead of confessing sin as David did in Psalm 38, let's say this believer responds to those physical issues sinfully. This believer started off with unconfessed sin, experienced physical limitations because of that sin.

Instead of repenting, confessing sin before the Lord, he or she continues to sin and complains to the Lord and argues against God and refuses to submit. You can see that there will be even further physical effects and consequences because of the further sinful response of the believer, and the cycle will continue in that way until it is broken by confession and humbling before the Lord.

Now, this is just real life. This is what we see in counseling ministry. We see the cycle going back and forth oftentimes, and I'm very careful not to draw conclusions that a person has illness because of sin, but there are times once you begin counseling, you see that it is obvious, and even the counselee will tell you that it is because of sin that they're having these physical issues.

You see how the spiritual and physical are always relating to each other. In this case, the cycle was broken when David confessed to sin and drew near to the Lord. I think you get this, and we'll walk through some examples of this. Now, let me ask for some participation here if you've got your chat function ready.

We've got a few minutes here before we close, and let me walk you through some examples. Let's start with stress. Let's say that the issue begins with a physical issue, and the issue is stress. This is going to be relevant to all of us at some point, especially as we're working through these essays.

The DSM-5 actually has a category called trauma and stress-related disorders. There are people who have just been through tremendous stress and the after effects of that, but for our purposes in this example, let's just talk about normal, everyday garden-variety stress. You burn the toast, or you've been on the traffic in the freeway.

You're late for work. Your boss is mad. You're stressed because you're trying to write these essays, and your word processor's not working. Let's talk about normal, everyday stress in our life. Now, in some ways, that's a physical issue. It's a matter of getting from point A to point B in a certain amount of time.

You don't have enough time, but help me out here. What would be some sinful responses to a stressful situation? Help me out on the chat here, and let me get your input on what would be some sinful responses to a stressful situation. We have anger. That's really good. I can't relate to that at all.

You're on the freeway. You're sitting there. You're late for work. You're supposed to be there 15 minutes ago. You didn't check your SIG alert before you left, and so you're sitting there, and who are you angry with? Maybe you're angry at God putting in that situation. You're angry at yourself.

Why didn't I check the traffic and take an alternate? Life seems so unfair. We have complaining. Yeah, you're sitting there, and you're just – I'll just be real life with you that it's difficult to sit on that traffic and be in that situation and say, "Well, thank you, Lord, for the sanctifying trial, and I receive it from your hand.

I know that you're making me more like Christ." I mean, that is how we all ought to respond to stress, but many times it's complaining, "Why do I have to deal with this?" Rudeness, snapping at people. Excellent. Impatience, irritability. Very good. Grumbling, being short with others, becoming a recluse.

Very good. Anger sometimes shows itself in raised voices, in unkind words, and oftentimes it shows itself in a cold kind of withdrawal. Feeling sorry for yourself. Very good. I mean, those are absolutely – when you're dealing with stress, you can respond in that way of just, "Woe is me.

Everyone's invited to my pity party." I think we have pity. Very good. Excellent input. You see here that what began as a physical issue, which is stress, has now become a spiritual issue. The issue now is, how are you relating to the Lord? Now, let's reverse this, and let me ask this question.

So, you have here spiritual – when you respond in this way, when you're sitting in traffic, and you're responding with anger, complaint, having a pity party, and so forth and so on, does that relieve your stress, or does that increase your stress? Because I know in my case, that tends to increase stress.

It doesn't help you get to your work any quicker. It just makes the ride more unpleasant. And if you have someone in the car, and you're taking out your anger upon them, then that increases the stress as well. But let's reverse this. What would be some godly responses to being in a stressful situation like being in a freeway or burning the toast?

You can think of your own examples of that. What would be some godly responses to that situation? Yeah, give it to the Lord. I mean, that's exactly – you know, all of it is theological. That's where life is, is when you're in that stressful situation, it's a theological – it reveals what you truly believe about God.

Is He faithful? Is He sovereign? Is He wise that He's put you in this situation? Some great scriptures there, 1 Peter 5-7, 1 John 1-9, excellent. Praising God, a prayer would be a godly response. Thanking God that He's in control, praising Him for His faithfulness, praying that the Lord will get you to your office in a speedy way is better than complaining against the Lord.

Being thankful that you got to listen to the sermon you're listening to while on the drive, excellent. Yeah, I mean, there are good things even in those tough situations. Trying to see the offender as someone who may be hell-bound and praying for them. Yeah, I mean, anyone who cuts you off and maybe yells at you on the streets should have an occasion for mercy and for compassion, not anger.

So, you see in this that, going back to this, if you have a godly response to that physical issue, then you most likely will have a little less stress. Not always, it doesn't always relieve the pressure, but I've been in those situations where if I respond in a godly way, even on the freeway, that some of the stress is lessened or at least doesn't get worse because of an ungodly response.

Okay, let me work through one more example with you and then we'll close, but I just want you to see how the physical and the spiritual are always interrelating. What if we begin with the spiritual issue and the spiritual issue is anger? What are the physical effects of anger in your heart?

What happens to your body? And let's have a situation where maybe you're angry at a family member or someone in your extended family and it's not like just a quick burst of anger, like a five-minute anger. It's something that lasts over a week. You're brooding, bitter, upset, thinking ungodly thoughts, and it's kind of festering in your heart for over a week.

What's going to happen to your body when you have anger in your heart? Yeah, we have hair loss, heart palpitations, stomach hurts. Yes, yeah. Anxiety, high blood pressure, rapid pulse. Very good. Any effects on diet? I mean, do you guys eat well when you've got this bitterness in your heart?

Do you eat well? I mean, they say, you know, physically you eat best when, you digest best when you're relaxed. But when you're angry and your stomach's churning with anger, you know, there's effects on your diet. Losing weight. You know, there can be, in an unhealthy way, you can lose weight because of unresolved anger.

Not sleeping well. You know, insomnia. Just sitting in bed and just thinking of all the things this person's done wrong to you. Now, when you're living that way physically, what happens to your soul? It began with anger. There were physical effects. But what happens when you're not sleeping well?

What happens when you're not eating well? What happens when you have these bodily effects? You're going to have difficulty concentrating on the word. We have moving away from the Lord. Very good. Not wanting to spend quality time with God. That's right. Yeah, excellent. I mean, there's going to be issues.

You know, if you're up late Saturday night, and you're angry and bitter, you're going to have a hard time waking up Sunday morning and hearing the sermon in a good frame of mind. And so we don't always know, and we have some more examples here, but I'm going to end here.

But we don't always know when does the physical end, where does the spiritual begin. But we have these categories in mind as we're working through counseling issues. We need to have this framework when we're asking questions, doing data gathering. We need to ask about the physical and then move to the spiritual.

But the idea here is that we as biblical counselors are tasked to minister to the soul. That's our turf. That's where the word of God is sufficient to transform the soul, to minister to the heart. And so we want to be there. We don't want to spend all of our time on the physical.

It's a good discussion. We should pray for that. But that's not our expertise. We are experts as biblical counselors on soul issues because we have the word of God and the word of God is able to transform the soul. So I trust that that will be a helpful primer for you for this essay.

And work through just explaining dichotomy, demonstrating from scripture your understanding of dichotomy. Work through why you're a dichotomist, not a trichotomist. And I think there's really good resources in Grudem Systematic Theology to help you with that. Many verses there that just kind of walk you through how the soul and the spirit are used interchangeably in scripture.

And then talk through some physical, some counseling implications. What are the implications of this doctrine in how you would approach counseling? And just what are some ways that you would use this framework to minister and to help people with the issues of life? So I hope that's helpful for you, and I hope that that's a good overview of this topic.

So what I'm going to do, I'm going to pray for us. If you want to hang out for five, ten minutes, and if there's any questions I can answer, I'll be happy to answer those questions. But this will kind of conclude the official meeting, and thank you so much for joining us.

And I do pray, as Apostle John said, that I pray it would go well with you and with your health, and also that your soul, that it would go well with your soul. John was concerned with both the physical and the spiritual as he ministered to his people. So let me pray for us.

Father, thank you for this overview of what your word says about the body and the soul. And we just thank you, Lord, that you've given us this clear teaching. And we pray that we would be faithful stewards of our bodies, that we'd be able to offer up our bodies as living sacrifices to you, that we would be able, Lord, to steward both the health and the illnesses of our physical body for your glory.

And Lord, we pray that you would help us to be well in soul, that our souls would prosper, that even as the outer man is decaying, that the inner man would be renewed day by day, and that we would not lose heart, that even in the midst of physical challenges, that our hearts would be filled with joy and with hope and with confidence.

And we pray that it would be well with our souls. And I pray this for each of my brothers and sisters here. Thank you for gathering us in this online format. Pray that you would bless their weeks and give them your grace. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right. Amen. Well, I'll hang out for five, 10 minutes, if any of you have any questions that I can answer with the essays. Otherwise, God bless you. And we'll sign off for tonight. All right. God bless you guys. Okay. Great question. We had a question. How do you determine when you've spent enough time on the physical and transition to the spiritual issues when counseling?

It's a great question. I think the general approach is really to eliminate physical factors. So, you know, asking about a person's sleep schedule, diet, exercise, work schedule, really is there to eliminate certain physical factors. I mean, having them see a physician would be helpful in just ruling out, okay, is there any illness here that is not diagnosed, or is there any medications that are causing side effects?

And you're not there to fix or to treat the body. You're trying to eliminate the physical factors so that you can focus on the spiritual issues. I'm trying to think of an example here, but I think the easy one is depression. If someone is depressed, well, there could be physical factors to that.

There could be spiritual factors to that. And I would be asking questions on the physical just to eliminate, you know, that, you know, if a person's saying that they're depressed and you find out that ever since they went on a certain diet, they've just been depressed all the time, then you might want to talk through, you might want to adjust your diet just to eliminate that as a factor.

And then once you've worked through all that, then now you have the issues of the heart and you can address those because that's all that's left. But I wouldn't be exploring every physical issue. I would just be trying to eliminate those factors so that I can minister God's word to the heart.

But it's an excellent question. And data gathering takes time. Inventory takes time. It all takes a lot of time. When in doubt, ask more questions. So it's a great, great input. Okay, great question. When answering the question about the dichotomous view, do you need to explain and contrast the trichotomous view?

So great question. I don't know if I've seen essays that have passed that have not touched the trichotomous view. I would encourage you to deal with the trichotomy view and just list a couple verses that the trichotomists would use to justify their position and then give the contrasting response.

I think, you know, a brief response is helpful. You don't need to go into all of the details. But if you list, for example, 1 Thessalonians, I think it's 1 Thessalonians 5.23 that, you know, a trichotomist would use this verse to justify that there's body, soul, and spirit. And then just give two to three verses which use spirit and soul interchangeably.

And there's a number of those in Grudem's chapter.