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Friday, December 9, 2011

Psychoanalysis / Psychology - not Christian tools (book review Part 2)

See previous post Part 1 of my book review where I gave my comments to specific passages of the book Learning to Know the Child – An Introduction to Child Psychology by Ad. Haentzschel, Ph.D.
Below is the second part which gives Bible passages that teach quite a different way to understand children... or indeed all human nature.

What does the Bible have to teach about this subject of getting to know the child?

    In what condition are children born?
    - Psalms 51:5 "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me."
    - John 3:6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."
    - Romans 8:7 "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be."
    - Genesis 6:5 "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
    - Genesis 8:21 "For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth"
    - 2 Kings 2:23 "And as he (Elijah) was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
    - Romans 3:10-18

    Does "modern" teaching hold any promise of benefit?
    - Malachi 3:6 For I [am] the LORD, I change not.
    - 1 Samuel 16.7: But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for [the LORD seeth] not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.
    - Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
   
    Do parents know about their children?
    Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children...
   
    What is the main goal in teaching/training children?
    Luke 18:16 Suffer little children to come unto me
    John 8:31 If ye continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed

    What are children to do according to the Lord?
    Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord
   
    What are fathers to do for their children?
    Ephesians 6:4 Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
    Colossians 3:21 Fathers, provoke not your children [to anger], lest they be discouraged.
    1 Timothy 3:4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity.
    1 Timothy 3:12 Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.
   
    How are we to view earthly family members, including children, in our relation to the Lord?
    1 Samuel 2:29 "Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering,... and honourest thy sons above me."
    Luke 14:26  "If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple."
   
Does this teaching go against the earlier passages cited?  No, Scripture cannot be broken.  If there is to be any "observation" of children to better "understand" them, then it must be as the Lord would have us view them.  Scripture BEAUTIFULLY supplies this.  Scripture is not lacking such that we are forced to "scientifically" study them (science falsely so called).

What does Pieper say on this?
    Pg 543- 544, Vol 1 of his Christian Dogmatics: While natural man, after the Fall, still retains a certain amount of intelligence in natural things, he is utterly incapable of understanding spiritual matters... and he turns to the Law.. as offering him a way of salvation...Therefore Scripture gives the intelligence of all natural men this rating: "Having the understanding darkened" (Eph 4:18)..."Are ye so foolish?" (Gal. 3.3)  Nor can any human schooling or culture remove this lack of intelligence. 
    Pieper quoting Luther page 545: "So utterly is he bereft by sin of all wisdom and counsel".
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
I say NO to all the teaching of "Psychology" in the church. Prof. Adolph Haentzschel was one of the army of teachers in the modern (English) Missouri Synod that were loosed to question the Bible and it's teachings.  Prof. Franz Pieper was gone and his successors could not stand up against the hot breath of modernism.

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