The Doxology
RO150-02

With these verses, we come to the conclusion of the doctrinal portion of the book of Romans. This conclusion is in the form of a doxology of praise to God. These verses are an expression of praise for all that Paul has taught in this book, and also very specifically for what he has just completed in a segment upon the Jewish people, in chapters 9, 10, and 11. The apostle Paul understood how God works, and what He can accomplish, and Paul is impressed. Most people today do not know a great deal about God; about His principles; and, about what He is doing. Furthermore, they don't care – let alone to be impressed with it. The Bible is a closed book to most people. So, all that they know about God is what preachers say, which is often not very accurate. And they, therefore, because they feel they are simply dealing with preachers, do not be hesitant to resist what is taught concerning the mind of God. The Bible, however, presents a picture of God which leaves no room for redefining what He says and what He does in order to suit the opinions of sinful man's reasoning.

The doctrinal portion of this book of Romans has, as you know, been devoted to explaining how a person can go to heaven. And as the Bible makes it very clear, it's a very narrow entrance, and a very specific path; namely, through Jesus Christ. Everyone born into the human race is born in sin. So, everyone is lost. No one can pay for his moral guilt, Paul has taught us, before God. So, all are doomed to an eternity of hell. For this reason, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the penalty of death for the sin of mankind. God's justice, therefore, Paul has shown us, has not been fully satisfied against human sin. So, human sin is no longer a problem. God can give righteousness as He chooses, as a gift, to anyone that He wants to give it to. He has called to salvation, and he has regenerated spiritually certain ones through faith in Jesus Christ. He has done this apart from their human works.

I heard a rather prominent speaker on television yesterday make the declaration that most Catholics are going to heaven. I wondered whether he understood the Catholic doctrine of salvation by works. You ex-Catholics sitting here today, I will recoil from such a thought, knowing that a Catholic who is true to His Works plan of salvation is never going to make it into heaven, from the pope on down. And that is the problem that Paul has faced in the book of Romans. The Jewish people said, "No, we don't like your plan, which is so exclusive in Jesus Christ, and we will not accept that as the way into eternal life. But God says that the gate is small, and the path to heaven is narrow, and most people are going to miss it. So, the vast numbers of human beings who have lived over the history of time are going to be in the lake of fir. However, God's gift of salvation to the believing sinner is irrevocable, and it's an absolutely trustworthy plan.

Paul has pointed out to us, that those of you who trust in Jesus Christ to get you into heaven – you will neither be disappointed; nor, will you stand ashamed someday before God with sin that has not been covered. All other systems of salvation, which are sincerely offer to God, are rejected.

O, the Depth

The Wisdom

For this reason, Proverbs 2:6 tells us that true wisdom can only come from God. You cannot get wisdom because you have a high IQ. You cannot get wisdom by going to school. You must get wisdom directly from God, which means you must get it out of the Word of God. True wisdom cannot be found by human reasoning. Job 28:12-13 and Ecclesiastes 7:23-24 make that very clear when they declare that man by his own reasoning simply is not going to come up with true wisdom. Human wisdom, as a matter of fact, produces nothing but grief. Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 spell out how, when men think their way through to what they think is smart, it's dumb, and it causes grief. And human wisdom is not a blessing. It is a curse.

What this word is referring to a divine viewpoint frame of reference in the mind, which is governing one's decisions. Therefore, it is something that human beings cannot come up with at any point in time. Human wisdom is always doomed, and it is actually demonstrated by God to be monumental stupidity. This is what Paul means in 1 Corinthians 1:19-20, where he says, "For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise (human viewpoint wisdom), and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is disputer of this age? Hasn't God made foolish the wisdom of this world?"

We've got a society today that's in a lot of trouble in many respects, and it is there precisely because it has been dominated by leaders and opinion-makers who have sat down and reasoned themselves through to what they considered was wisdom for man's blessing, and have found that they do not have wisdom on their own. When you go at it with human reason (that contaminated by sin), you will come up with the wrong answers. You must get wisdom from outside of yourself. Then you have the capacity to make the right decisions.

For this reason, Proverbs 2:2 wars us that we should listen to God's wisdom with very attentive ears. God's divine viewpoint wisdom is recorded in the Bible, in such books as Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. Those are wisdom books, concentrating specifically on giving you good ideas and good judgment on how life is to be lived. And what those books simply tell you is this is how God made you, and this is how human relationships are established, and this is how things work. If you live according to those principles, life will be a prosperous and a satisfying experience.

James 1:5 gives us good news because it says that God will give wisdom to any believer who goes to God and says, "I want it."

It is not surprising that Proverbs 1:7 tells us that fools do not respect, and they do not seek, the wisdom of God.

It is those who are skeptical toward the Bible who never, never secure real wisdom, because we're never in touch with the real answers of life, as Proverbs 14:6 points out. So, real success in life is getting in tune with God's point of view.

For this reason, believers should pursue wisdom as one would pursue his true love. Proverbs 4:5-13 give an extended description of treating wisdom as your one true love.

Wisdom is, in fact, the prudent fear of God in all of His Holiness. Job 28:28 points that out.

Also, wisdom brings respect to those who have it (1 Kings 3:28).

There are certain people that you recognize are people who think God's thoughts after God. Therefore, these are people who have wisdom. And when you have a problem, that's the person you want to talk to you. When you're in difficulty, or when you're in a tough situation, it is a person of divine viewpoint wisdom that you want to listen to – not the person with high IQ who is devoid of true wisdom.

The apostle Paul, looking back at what he has written in this book under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit, particularly with the issue of salvation, is absolutely awed. And he is struck by the deep riches of God's wisdom that could come up with the solution for taking a sinner into heaven. You must try to imagine what it is like to walk into an absolutely pure place where there is no evil, and to have the blotch of a sinner present in such a surroundings. The only way I suppose I can describe it is for you to be at a wedding. You hear "Here Comes the Bride," and the bride walks out in her glistening white gown, and she has just dropped a bottle of India ink on the front of her gown. You look, and what would your reaction be? You would consider it an ill omen for the wedding and for the marriage. You would think all kinds of bad things. It's a terrible thing. It shouldn't be there. You would be horrified. Well, this is like being a sinner, and being in God's presence.

Now, how are you going to solve this? You and I are acquainted with all kinds of human plans of salvation. And none of them work. It took real wisdom. And that's why Paul is awed that God could solve the problem of taking all of us into his heaven.

Knowledge

But man's knowledge, on the other hand, is only partial, and is always flawed. 1 Corinthians 13:9-12 indicate that.

Divine viewpoint knowledge, the Bible says, is actually more valuable than material wealth. Proverbs 8:10 says, "Get information that comes from God. That kind of knowledge is worth everything."

The Holy Spirit is the one who gives us divine viewpoint knowledge to the believer who will seek. Proverbs 2:3-5 and John 16:12-15 describe all that for us. It is the Holy Spirit who is ready to be our teacher.

It is the fear of God's holiness which is the first piece of information (the first bit of knowledge) that a human being needs (Proverbs 1:7). Once a person becomes concerned about God's holiness, you have made the first giant step forward with information that will carry you into a happy eternity. The religious zeal that people have, which is detached from the knowledge of the Word of God, leads to the pursuit of self-righteousness as we have seen here in Romans 10:1-3, where Paul said, "That's the problem of the Jewish people. They're zealous for God. They have self-righteousness, but they got the wrong information.

So, the rejection of God's divine viewpoint knowledge results in great personal loss of blessing. Hosea 4:6 pointed that out to the people of Israel. Any lack of true divine viewpoint knowledge about God, furthermore, will result in people succumbing to evil practices. Hosea 4:1-3 told the Jewish people that their evil was because they had wrong information from God.

However, in the Millennial Kingdom, knowledge of God, we're told, will cover the earth (Habakkuk 2:14, Isaiah 11:9). That's going to be a very interesting society in which to live. Now, you and I can hardly find anybody on the street that we can talk to who has any frame of reference about Scripture. Some of these people are religious. They sit in little groups where they exchange shallow information with one another. They have never been instructed in the deep things of the Spirit of God through the system that God has provided in the local church ministry. So, they have no real knowledge of God. You do not have the facts, and you cannot put things together. And that's what wisdom is. Wisdom is taking the information, and putting the thing together in a way that is blessing to you. It is a supreme combination. And Paul is awed at how divine viewpoint enriches one's life. Proverbs 24:1-4 points that out.

So, knowledge is information, while wisdom is the use of that information to honor God and to secure personal blessings. God's knowledge and His wisdom are used to fulfill His decree (His plan).

So, the apostle Paul here, beginning at Romans 11:33, is awed by the wisdom and the information that God has, as He has reviewed what God had to do in order to get people into heaven. God's wisdom is discerning insight that produces maximum results, and Paul is impressed.

Unsearchable

The Judgments of God

God's Decisions

You and I have heard a great deal of offense expressed over the idea that the disease of AIDS is a consequence of people who are violating God's moral principles, and that God just would not cause a baby to be born with AIDS. It's thinkable that God would make that decision. Yes, He made that decision, but He made that decision on the basis of absolute justice; on perfect righteousness; and, on the execution of His laws. God is not being cruel. God is being consistent. Therefore, His judgments are absolutely unsearchable. Men without God (without Scripture) do not come up with God's thinking. And that's Paul's point here. God's judgments are governed by His perfect justice and His absolute righteousness. That's the way He had to deal with salvation. He could not ignore sin. He could not pretend that something was not so. He had to say, "Yes, you are a sinner. You cannot come into My heaven. The penalty of this is death. My justice requires that it be satisfied." And then He came up with a solution.

God's Ways

Absolutely Nobody can Trace out God's Ways

So, when people sit down and say, "This is how God should act," they always come up with the wrong answers. That's why the religions of the world come up with a system like: "If you act good most of the time, then God will take you into heaven. He won't hold your bad against you." That is human reasoning. And that is not the way God thinks. It's only sinful human arrogance who would challenge how God does things to accomplish a perfect plan of salvation for mankind.

So, the rationale behind His ways is what Paul is talking about. And Paul says that this defies human analysis. The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 55:8-9 put it this way: "'For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,' says the Lord, 'For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts your thoughts.'" You may add to that Matthew 11:25.

It is simply the arrogance of the nature in us that will credit human reason with the ability to evaluate and to judge the acceptability of the laws of God. Most people today are contemptuous of what the apostle Paul says here about God's incomprehensibility. Most people do not like to think that they're not in God's class. Most people do not like to think that they're not smart enough to come up with some good ideas too. And the apostle Paul is saying, "The depth of the riches of God's wisdom and knowledge cannot be touched by man." He is saying that God's judgments are absolutely unsearchable. You cannot fathom them. God's ways – you cannot trace them. You cannot trace how God does things and how he would do things. All this must come from Him. He has to tell us. It is the unregenerate intellects which begin with the assumption that, if God does exist, that He has not spoken to us in a trustworthy manner, and therefore, we are not bound to obey the Bible. This is why there is resistance toward the Bible. Anytime somebody wants to do something sinful, they challenge our being able to understand what the Bible says about that subject. But God's word is very clear. It is the unregenerate, proud intellect that assume that the Bible is not trustworthy. So, sinful human reason creates a fallible God in its own image, so then it feels he can judge that God.

What is Paul saying? He's saying, "God is everything, and we are nothing. The apostle Paul responds to this with adoring amazement toward God's thinking and toward His work. God has a true evaluation, and the right way of dealing with sin; wit sinners; with nations; with governments; with societies; and, with religions.

Who has Known the Mind of the Lord?

It's interesting that Paul question is formed from a verse of Scripture. He's taking this from Isaiah 40:13. And indeed he is closing down his final arguments, here in this doxology, the way he should – by basing it upon the authority of the Word of God. So, he takes the statement of Isaiah, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he forms question: "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" The question is: who has the capacity for thinking, and for making decisions, like God does? Man's natural reasoning capacity, at best, cannot know what God thinks. Isaiah 55:8 tells us that we're not in the same league with God's thinking at all. What man can do is learn what God thinks. Now, how is man going to learn what God thinks? That's the point of everything Paul is talking about. You must know what God thinks.

There is the battleground today. There are two main battlegrounds in these final years of the church age. One is the battle to capture the minds of people. Secondly, is the battle to fill those minds with true Bible doctrine instruction. And I can tell you that that's where the devil is doing his big work today. He is fighting against every effort to capture the minds of children; of young people; and, of adults for God's viewpoint. And we are, in the religious realm, being fought by people who do not like what they call "those Bible doctrine churches." That is because the emphasis in them is laid upon knowing what God thinks rather than what man thinks about what God thinks. It is the emphasis upon using God's method of local church structure, with a pastor-teacher-elder who has the ability to convey God's truth, because it was a burden placed upon him, so that people can rise in the knowledge of what God really thinks, and not all this shallow nonsense of folks sharing their mutual ignorance and assumptions.

Knowing Bible Doctrine

A lot of counselors today don't know enough about the Scripture to be able to guide people. They should not even be opening their mouths. But they've got a reputation. They are impressive. And certainly the secular psychiatrists and psychologists have zilch to say, practically, of what is a profit to a human being, because they do not have the first prerequisite of wisdom: information from God; and, the capacity to put it together.

Now, the Christian who is enlightened with Bible doctrine – the Bible makes a very dramatic, amazing declaration about that person. It says that that is the person who has, in his head, the very mind of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16 says, "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that we may instruct Him? But we Christians have the mind of Christ." That's not just because you're a Christian, but because you receive the knowledge and the information through instruction. This is the reason, I say again, for the local church ministry with its pastor-teacher gift. It is vital to believers that it functions. It makes, furthermore, the difference between your wasting your life, and going to heaven, and then standing there, letting tears roll down your face at the Judgment Seat of Christ, that Lord has to come up and wipe away; or, for you to have used your life so that your stand there in great happiness, joy, and satisfaction of the rewards you receive. Nowhere is God's mental brilliance, of course, more evident than in the foolproof plan of salvation, which He devised for all of us.

Most people, however, are offended by this plan. Most people think that God's plan for salvation is downright foolishness. 1 Corinthians 1:18 puts it this way: "For the preaching of the cross is to them that the parish, foolishness; but to them that are saved, it is the power of God."

1 Corinthians 2:14 puts it this way: "But the natural man (the unsaved man) receives not the things of the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

A large number, if not most of the people who go out into eternity, are not totally devoid of a knowledge of the gospel, but they have considered it bad news. They have considered it foolishness. They have considered it an insult, and they do not accept it. Whole racial groups such as the Jews are offended by the gospel, they consider it foolishness. Most people will thus reason themselves into the lake of fire forever.

So, this first question that Paul asks is "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" It denies the power of understanding God, and in judging Him until God explains himself?

Who has been God's Counselor

So, what does this question deny? This question denies man the power of advising God. And a lot of people really don't like that.

Who Gives God Something First, with a View to being Repaid?

Now, Paul is quoting Job 41:11 again in forming this question. It is important to remember that everything you I, as human beings, have, we have received from God, so it's already His. Where did you get your body? Where did you get the functioning of that body – the amazing intricacies? You don't want to think too much about the individual parts of your body, and what each part does. It just scares you. When you start thinking of all the little pieces inside here, and how they all tick and fit together, you get to thinking: what if one of them doesn't work? Some of them are so crucial such that, if they don't work, that's the end of the line. Yet, God just keeps it working day-after-day, and year-in, and year-out. What does God need that He hasn't first given us? What keeps you from falling over unconscious right now? What enables you to sit here, and keep thinking, and have the privilege of taking this information into your soul, and storing it in your human spirit, so that all this week you will be blessed and prospered as the Spirit of God cycles up this information and this truth to your thinking when you need it; let alone how you have the capacity to get here? Of all these pieces that we have, there's nothing that we have that God has not given us. So, what are you going to give to Him, which is not already His?

The point is that man has nothing to give God, and therefore, God can never be a debtor to any of us. Paul reacts to this flight of divine grace with awe and joy and gratitude. As we have learned from this book of Romans, the Jews thought that they had something to give God, for which God would recompense them with eternal life. In Malachi's 3:13-15, you can read about the Jews who were complaining about the fact that they tried to do things for God, and it doesn't make any difference. He doesn't reward them, as if they had done something for God that God needed to have done so that He could make it.

Man always wants to place into dependence on human beings, but God doesn't need us. Sinners are justified entirely on the basis of what God has done for them, not on their merit that deserves a return. That's a simple doctoral principles. And many people are going to the lake of fire because they still think that they can do something for God. You can't do anything for God. It is God who is always doing it for you. It is God who calls you to salvation. It is God who gives you the capacity to believe. It is God's who graces you out. And do you know what it is that God blesses in you. It's not your effort not your sincerity; and, not your dedication. What God blesses is when He sees His absolute righteousness functioning in you. That's when he blesses. When you take in the Word of God, and you start living on that, now absolute righteousness is functioning, and God says, "Hey, I want to feed up to overflowing." And He's sitting up in heaven, I can assure, tapping His foot, just waiting to cause your cup to overflow. But it is the Word of God that gives you the capacity of the righteousness that God is willing to prosper. The only thing God honors is His own righteousness. Sinners are justified in what God has done.

So, this third question denies man the power of imposing any obligation upon God. The apostle Paul did not try, as you know, to appeal to the intellectuals of his day by whittling God down to their ideas. He did not try to make the sovereignty or the grandeur of God fit the peanut-sized minds of men. The apostle Paul simply demanded of intellectuals, such as on Mars Hill in Athens, that they be converted to Jesus Christ, and really get some divine viewpoint smarts. He demonstrated that when he called their attention to the fact that they lacked information. The very fact that they had an altar out there to an unknown God testified to the fact that these smart philosophers didn't know at all. And Paul pointed out to them that this unknown God is the real God that he was able to point them to. Their human philosophy will never be able to figure out anything about this God. It will never be able to come up with ultimate reality. It has to be information that somebody brings to us.

So, the apostle Paul himself warns us, in the book of Colossians, as Christians, not to let the dumb intellectual humanist philosophers spoil our true biblical knowledge of God, and about how life fits together. He says this to us in Colossians 2:6-9: "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walking in Him; rooted, and built up in Him, and established in the faith (doctrinal principles); as you have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving, beware, lest anyone spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, and after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." And to me, this is one of the saddest sights that I have observed, when somebody who comes from a Christian perspective, and from Christian opportunity, and he gets out there into the world of the intellectuals and the philosophers of our day, who operate without true knowledge, and without true wisdom, and goes with the philosophers, and turns its back upon the principles of the Word of God. It is the humanists who arrogantly live by their philosophy. But I notice that these same humanists have great reservations about dying by those very same philosophies.

Verse 36 concludes this great 11th chapter of Romans. It's a final expression of praise to God. And Paul sums it all up, to put God right out there in front where He belongs. Verse 36 says, "For of Him." The Greek word is "hoti," and that means "because:" "For because of Him," meaning that God is the source of everything. He is the Creator. Then he says, "Through Him." This is the Greek preposition "dia." God hold His creation together in his functioning. God did not make the creation, and then walk away from it. He is the source of it. He keeps it running. And why? Paul says, "To Him," which is the Greek preposition "eis," which means that God works His creation to fulfill His great degree (His great plan).

What does He do this in? It says "In all things." The Greek word is "pas." God handles it all, and therefore, Paul says, "God is the source; the means; and, the end of everything. And that's the reason he can be debtor to no man. Matter is not eternal. God made it. Creation did not evolve. God made it. Creation does not hold itself together. God sustains it. Sinful man has lost the communication and the fellowship with God that was once normal in the Garden of Eden. But it is the light of Scripture that restores that communication and that consequence.

Glory

I would like to close today with suggesting to you the opposite of what Paul is talking about. As I pointed out, most people do not accept this viewpoint. Most people do not take this idea concerning God. For example, let's look at a few people in history who have taken exactly the opposite position of what Paul says here about God; about our being indebted to Him, and He not to us; and about our being unable to figure His ways, and to pass judgment upon His decisions, and so on.

Immanuel Kant

George Hegel

Consequently, nobody knows anything about anything. And Hegel captivated the intellectual world. He said that there was no basis, again, for absolute truth of Scripture, as the Bible claims. That was one of his objectives. Everything is relative, so right and wrong will change over a period of time. They is furthermore, no need to be concerned about suffering divine judgment for one's actions, because you can't say that you have done something wrong. What this did was free people to indulge their sin natures. Governments and societies could set up their own moral code and secure their own goals. You can see why Nazi Germany and communism love Hegel's thinking. Relative thinking today is also viewed as the ultimate of scholarship – intellectualism. One result of Hegel is the total disregard of biblical morality and all the consequences.

Charles Darwin

However, Darwin knew there was a snake in the woodpile. And he tried to cover his tracks. He said, "If, in a reasonable period of time, after the publication of my principle here, we have not found fossil records of transitional forms, then everything that I have taught is not true." Now that's really getting to the evolutionary biologists today, because it has been 125 years, and they've dug and dug, and found not one thing. And Darwin was right. If you don't feel connecting links, you can't say that one thing gradually transferred into another.

Furthermore, they found that in geological strata, like explodes (bingo!). All of a sudden, there it is. It goes from the simplest to the most complex. That's what happens when God creates.

Well, Darwin's theory, however, did serve to rid mankind of a Creator God who was controlling things. That is exactly what Paul was talking about. There is a God out there. You don't tell Him what to do. You don't give Him information. Let's get rid of Him. This God is a hindrance to us. So, Darwin got rid of having to worry about God, because now you didn't have to worry about what God said as Creator. You didn't have to lay down the ground rules anymore. You can make up your own.

Evolution

Theistic Evolution

Secular Humanism

Karl Marx

Dialectical Materialism

Well, communism has promised a world of plenty, and universal peace. This is a doctrine of demons. Now, I don't care if you don't like that. The last time I said that in a service, I had a person who came up to me in great indignation that I called socialism a doctrine created by demons. It is the doctrine that is devised by Satan to create a utopia on earth in order to counter the Kingdom of God which is to come in the millennium. Communism always has to be forced on the people. Then it has to be kept there by brutal police power. It creates shortages; poverty; low standard of living; and, death. Communism itself could never survive if it wasn't for nations like the United States who constantly prop it up and help it. Communism is Satan's great creation for giving power to a few. And don't forget that communism is designed for power.

George Wellhausen

John Dewey

Some years ago I visited a public school system when they were hot on open classrooms. They would have a room the size of this auditorium or larger in which all the classes were meeting, and all the noise was there. And teachers were trying to teach little segments by themselves. I had the teacher who took us around and said, "This is new, but I know that this is the finest way of teaching that has ever come up. My son Stephen and I were together, and after we walked out, I said to him, "Do you know what that system is designed to do? It just hit me. It's another system of collectivism. It is to train the child to be part of a mass rather than: "my room; my teacher; and, our group." It is designed to teach children to become part of the machine as a whole. That's directly from the ideas of John Dewey. Children were taught to do their own thing in progressive education, to learn, when they feel they need to know something by doing – not memorizing anything.

Well, this system creates a dependence upon others because it produces incompetent illiterates, and progressive education has spawned the ignorance; the violence; the drugs; the sex; the foul language; and, the socialism that is characteristic of state education. High school graduates are cultural morons.

I was amazed the other day to hear Secretary Bennett of the United States Department of State saying that we must revise the curriculum of the high school level: "We must now require students to take four years of English." And I said, "They're not doing that?" He said, "We must require them to take three years of science." I said, "They're not doing that?" He said, "We must require them to have at least two years of a foreign language." And I said, "They're not doing that?" And he went through all the stuff, which is what I did, including art, and cultural features, and band, and fine arts. And suddenly, it hit me. These are not the normal things that are required. We are producing cultural morons and illiterates. Ad out of that comes antagonism toward God and country.

Sigmund Freud

Freud, was very antagonistic toward a person's background. He considered that the cause of a lot of people's problems, such as how long your mother left you in your diaper that wasn't changed. That caused great neurosis for you that now is coming out in your adult life. It's a deliberate indulgence of the lusts of the sin nature. And what does it produce? It has produced rapists; perverts; child molesters; homosexuals; abused women; incest; fornication; and, adultery. What the Bible calls "sin," Freud said, "It is not sin. It is a sickness. It's a disease."

Psychology and psychiatry can do little to solve human mental and emotional problems, because those problems are basically spiritual. The best counseling in the world is a preacher standing in a pulpit, teaching a congregation Bible doctrine principles? If they have that, they have it all.

It's interesting that leading psychologists and psychiatrists today are having a lot of second thoughts about Freud's principles, because they're discovering that they really can't help people in the long-range, and those people that do get help would have gotten over their problems on their own. Indeed, if you have a chemical disorder, then you have a medical problem that needs correcting. But the basic issues of life is one's relationship to God; and, your eternal destiny after death. That gives mental and emotional stability.

Kierkegaard

Dr. John E. Danish, 1988

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