The Genesis of Counseling

The secular worldview—with its flawed response to questions like “What is man?” and “What is his need or problem?”—dominates not only secular environments but even some churches. It employs a naturalistic and evolutionary anthropology that does not glorify the Creator and ultimately brings ruin to mankind (Romans 1:21–32).

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If we want to help mankind, we must always be prepared to give a reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15), based on the counsel God has revealed in his Word from the very first verse.

Therefore, if we want to help mankind, we must always be prepared to give a reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15), based on the counsel God has revealed in his Word from the very first verse.

Since When Does Mankind Require Counsel?

Second Peter 1:3 states that divine counsel is sufficient for everything mankind needs for life and godliness. But chronologically, Genesis is the historical account that shows humanity depending on divine counsel, even before the fall (Genesis 2). Humanity was created for God (Revelation 4:11) to depend on him (Acts 17:28) and his counsel (Isaiah 30:1; Psalm 1:1–2). We were not created to be autonomous or independent!

The author of Ecclesiastes says, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). This means that life without divine counsel becomes vain, absurd, and meaningless. If humanity wants to correctly answer the important questions of life (Where do we come from? What is the purpose of our lives? How should we live? Where are we going?), it must interpret facts within the framework of divine counsel.

From the beginning, man was created to be directed (Psalm 32:8–9), sustained (Matthew 4:4), and transformed (2 Timothy 3:16–17) by divine counsel (“In the beginning was the Word . . .” John 1:1). This is not intrinsic to human nature but comes from outside ourselves.

This reveals a risk. What happens when the counsel man receives and accepts is flawed or insufficient? Remember what happened in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve followed Satan’s counsel.

If God’s Word Is Not Followed, Ruin Is Inevitable.

Satan continues trying to seduce humans into believing his deceitful counsel by promoting supposed autonomy, which is ultimately destructive. Satan, the father of lies, seeks to deceive through hollow philosophies and deceptive reasoning (Colossians 2:8). A prime example of this is secular views of origins, which have even infiltrated the church.

The attack from evolutionists on the biblical narrative of Genesis is not merely about God as Creator but also about the implications: If God is the Creator, he sets the rules. He is the universal Lawgiver, the source of the moral law that governs all creation.

Evolutionists have misinterpreted the facts.

Evolutionists have misinterpreted the facts. Their errors extend beyond geology, cosmology, and biology to anthropology. They misdefine humanity and its problem, as well as the means, cause, and purpose for which everything exists.

This attack is rebellion against the truth. It seeks to suppress the truth by their unrighteousness (Romans 1:18–25). This rebellion, which rejects God as Creator and Lawgiver, has led to the gangrene of relativism (2 Timothy 2:16–18). We live in a world without a firm standard for life’s choices and decisions. We desperately need a reliable source of authority—a source of counsel that enables us to live and live abundantly (John 10:10; Romans 5:17).

It is essential to note that while general revelation leaves humanity without excuse regarding God’s existence, it is insufficient to comprehensively address human need and glorify God. We need his special revelation. We need all of God’s counsel from the very first verse.

The Genesis of the Authority of God’s Word for Counseling

Most counseling books focus on New Testament passages to guide the church in providing counsel for humanity.

• Ephesians 4 speaks of the biblical process of change and contrasts God’s counsel with human counsel, highlighting the futility of the unregenerate mind.
• Romans 6 teaches about dying to sin and becoming servants of righteousness.
• James 1 addresses resisting temptation and the consequences of unrepented sin.
• 2 Peter 1 confirms that everything we need for life and godliness has been given to us through the knowledge of God who revealed himself.

These are very important pieces of advice, but it is also very important to understand that the origin of counseling was developed in Genesis. It is the foundation of all of God’s special revelation. It is the foundation of all the counseling we need.

What Does Genesis Provide as the Foundation for Counseling?

• We are told that God created everything in a wonderful, amazing way! We are informed that God is capable of bringing all things into existence through his Word and shaping them in six 24-hour days (Genesis 1). This should fill us with awe, lead us to worship, make us give thanks, and trust because the One who can help us is the Almighty God.
• In it, the authority of the divine counsel is established above alternative counsels, such as Satan’s counsel (Genesis 3).
• God presents himself as the supreme authority, as the Creator of all. Therefore, God’s counsel stands above all other counsel.
• We see the counselor (God) in sessions with his counselee (Adam), even before the fall.
• In Genesis 1, we clearly see the position of God and man. We are not autonomous; we did not create ourselves (Psalm 100:3). The Lord is our God. We belong to him, by him, and for him—to him be the glory forever (see Romans 11:36).
• We witness the first of many rejections of divine counsel (Adam and Eve preferred a different counsel than the one given by God).
• We see the beginning of the effects of the curse of sin (Genesis 3–11), which increases the need for biblical counsel.
• Despite the disastrous consequences of sin, we see the hope of redemption given by God in his gospel. (Genesis 3:15 prophetically announces that Jesus would come to redeem what was lost.)

This is part of everything God has given us in the first chapters of Genesis.

Another important aspect to consider about the origin of counseling is that the account in Genesis must be historically true because how could we maintain our trust in the entire Word of God if the first chapters of Genesis are not true? How could we use the entire Word of God in counseling if it were doubtful in any part?

Satan knows that if trust in the historical narrative of Genesis falls, trust in the rest of Scripture will gradually fall as well.

Genesis 1–11 is the portion of Scripture that has been most attacked. Satan knows that if trust in the historical narrative of Genesis falls, trust in the rest of Scripture will gradually fall as well.

What Would Happen if the First Chapters of Genesis Were Not True?

If the teaching of Genesis 1 and 2 is not reliable, why should we believe anything else in the Bible?

• If there were no creation as described in Genesis, why should we believe what John wrote in John 1:1–4, 14?

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

• Why should we believe what Paul says in Colossians 1:13–18, which presents Christ as the Creator and Sustainer of everything?

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

• Why should we believe the words of Peter in 2 Peter 3:11–13?

Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

God will destroy the entire universe that he created in the beginning. He has the power to destroy everything quickly, just as he has the power to create everything quickly (Genesis 1).

It is therefore necessary to have the same determination that the Apostle Paul had before the elders of Miletus:

I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house. . . . I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. . . . For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. . . . Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Acts 20:20–32

For Paul, all of God’s counsel is useful for admonishing (counseling) believers! Paul valued all Scripture (from the first to the last verse) as the authoritative and sufficient source for counseling, edifying, and glorifying God.