Membership Covenant

I am in agreement with the Constitution, By-laws, Standards of Conduct, Policies and Procedures, and the Doctrinal Statement of the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (which can be obtained on our website at www.biblicalcounseling.com) and hereby affirm my commitment to the sufficiency of the Scriptures in counseling as follows:

Biblical counselors affirm the value and usefulness of the entirety of God’s revelation, including general and special revelation. General revelation is a display of the goodness and power of God in the things he has made. The divine self-disclosure in general revelation leads to condemnation, rather than salvation (Rom 1:18-32). Special revelation is recorded exclusively and completely in the Scriptures. It is an inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient rule for all of life and faith. Because counseling concerns matters of life and faith before God, Scripture is an inspired, inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient rule for the presuppositions, principles, and practices of counseling (2 Pet 1:3-21).

We deny that the findings of secular psychology make any essential contribution to biblical counseling. God’s goodness allows that secular psychology may provide accurate research and make observations that are helpful in understanding counseling issues. Because unbelievers suppress the truth of God in unrighteousness, the efforts of secular psychology at interpreting these observations lead to misunderstanding. Because their observations are distorted by a secular apprehension of life, their efforts at counseling ministry will be in competition with biblical counseling. They cannot be integrated with the faith once for all delivered to the saints.