A Biblically based commentary on current issues that impact you
Theophostics: Unbiblical Teaching Wedded to Mystical Experience
A Warning against the Unbiblical Teachings of Ed Smith
by Bob DeWaay
“Seeing that His
divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness,
through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and
excellence.” (2Peter 1:3)
A few weeks ago my wife and I were
driving to the house of some close friends, listening to a tape of Dr. Ed Smith,
the founder of Theophostic counseling, who was preaching at a large evangelical
church in our city.1 As we listened, my wife asked, “what kind of
sermon is this?” The sermon was filled with psychological terminology, a
sprinkling of Scripture giving 21st century psychological meanings to 1st
century concepts, and many anecdotes to convince the listeners that every one of
them needed “Theophostic” ministry. After some time my wife looked at me and
said, “Why are these people listening to this? We heard this 25 years ago.”
As we
continued to listen we heard about “performance based spirituality,” “lie-based
pain,” “first memory interpretation,” and other concepts that have nothing to do
with anything Christ or the Apostles teach in scriptures. Smith claims that our
negative emotional responses are caused by memories of the first time something
similar happened earlier in life. As I listened I had a very negative response,
so maybe Smith was onto something. I felt angered that heresy dressed as therapy
was being pushed on well meaning Christians under the guise of God’s word in a
“sermon.” I was distressed that people were being put under bondage by his
suggesting that if they feel upset about losing their job then they have no
genuine faith that “God will supply” all their needs. I was dismayed at his
claim that if they behave more cheerfully in church than they do in their car on
the way there, then they are guilty of practicing “performance based
spirituality.” I was outraged at the suggestion that every negative emotion is
proof that we need counseling and that if we say we do not need the counseling
we are just “putting on a performance” and are like Martha and not Mary. Sure
enough I was experiencing the same emotions now as I did 25 years ago listening
to similar false teaching.
Theophostics and its Key Premise
Theophostics
is false teaching dressed in psychological garb: that is the point of this
article and the premise I will defend for the rest of this paper.
Dr. Edward M.
Smith, the inventor/founder of Theophostics Ministry (formerly TheoPhostics
Counseling) claims that through Theophostics, people are delivered from
emotional pain, totally and permanently.2 Once free from emotional
pain, these individuals can break free from sin habits supposedly caused by
their “lie-based thinking,” and live free from emotional pain without effort of
maintenance.
These results
cannot be obtained through what Smith calls “cognitive truth” (understood by the
mind), but can be obtained through “experiential truth” (found in subjective
experience) in which a person is brought back to the first memory of a similar
emotionally painful experience and receives personal revelation from the Spirit
of Christ about that experience. According to Smith, people who repent and
obey God without having this experience are guilty of “performance based
spirituality,” and are merely masking their “lie-based pain.” So the former
alcoholic who quits drinking, but who still has temptations to drink, is merely
“performing” and is guilty of “works salvation” unless he has a mystical
experience that heals the true cause of why he or she started drinking (a
childhood memory and a lie based on it) and thus never has a desire to drink
again, without maintenance. Then the person is truly free. Here is how Smith
describes it:
Often victory is falsely equated with the cessation of a particular
behavior and its replacement with a more acceptable one. For example, we may
stop compulsive eating or not eating by replacing it with daily jogging . . . We
might quit drinking and overcompensate with religious behavior. Any attempt to
overcome our lie-based pain by adjusting our behavior is works salvation (Smith:
164).
By Smith’s
definition, what used to be called “repentance” or “faithful obedience” is now
“works salvation.”
A key category
in Theophostics is “lie-based thinking.” Smith defines lie-based thinking as
thinking based on how one interpreted his or her first memory of an event that
caused pain. For example, if a woman was sexually abused in childhood and then
began to believe, “I am a shameful person and this is my fault,” that is
“lie-based thinking.” Smith supplies dozens of examples like this. The point of
Theophostic ministry is to have the Holy Spirit cause the memory to come back in
a vivid, emotional way, and then subjectively reveal to the person what the
truth is. For, example, the person might hear in his or her mind (not from the
counselor), “it was not your fault, you are not shameful.” That revelation cures
the person of lie-based thinking and the negative emotions go away instantly and
permanently. Though this is supposedly a work of the Holy Spirit, it is
evidently dangerous because Smith warns his readers that they need his training
before they can be involved with it (Smith: 20).
It is
important to understand that “lie-based thinking” as defined by Smith is not
addressed in the Bible. This category has nothing to do with what the Bible
teaches about “the lie” which is in opposition to the gospel. When Jesus said,
“you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free,” he was referring to
His objective teachings, not a mystical experience that changes one’s response
to a childhood memory. There is no record anywhere in the Scriptures of a
ministry that brings subjective revelations to a person’s past memory and then
changes how they interpret the memory.
Smith gives
examples of what such lies are like: “Lies such as, ‘I am bad, no good, not
lovable, rejected, abandoned, shameful, evil, and so on’ cause us to feel bad,
not what happened to us” (Smith 86). Such “lies” cause the damage, not the
event. The truth, however, is that the Bible itself says that we are bad,
shameful, rejected and evil, if we are ashamed of the gospel and reject it (Luke
9:26). The person who had these thoughts before meeting Christ did not believe
lies, but understood the Biblical truth about all who are unregenerate. We
should realize how evil we really are and come to Christ through the gospel for
forgiveness and freedom. The Bible never once rebukes a sinner for considering
himself “evil.”
When Jesus
offered to set people free, the religious leaders became offended and claimed
they had never been in bondage. In fact they (like all of us) have been in
bondage to sin because of believing “the lie.” The lie, as first taught by the
Serpent in the Garden, is the idea that we can be like God through receiving
forbidden knowledge. The lie is embraced by all who reject the gospel and will
be taught by antichrist at the end of the age (2Thessalonians 2:11 in the
Greek references “the lie.”).3 The lie in its simplest form is that
we can trust man. The truth of the gospel says we must trust God on His terms.
If we believe the lie we are in bondage and headed for hell; if we believe the
truth through the gospel we are free and headed for heaven. Smith’s mysticism
tells Christians that if they have negative emotions it proves they are not
free.
This citation
will show how brazen Smith’s claims are: “Once the lies are removed from our
experiential knowledge and we find perfect peace, we are in a place where we can
appropriate the Word of God in our lives” (Smith: 113). This means that we need
Theophostics or the equivalent first then we can understand and live out
the teachings of the Bible. If this is right, then it is impossible for one to
be a Berean and search the Scriptures to see if Smith’s claims are true. A
person would have to first blindly submit to Theophostic counseling, get rid of
his or her emotional pain stemming from first memory experiences and the
resultant lie-based pain and then when sufficiently free from “lie-based
thinking,” one could get something out of the Bible.
Elsewhere
Smith bristles at the fact that some people have written warnings about his
teachings without first having gone through all the training (of course paying
for it) and then watching the results (Smith: 138). He seeks to Teflon coat
himself from correction by implying that all who disagree simply have not had
Theophostic ministry or asked his permission to disagree (Smith: 137). That is
like saying you would have to become a Mormon and experience what the Mormon
church prescribes before you could discern if it is wrong or not. The Bible then
cannot correct Theophostic teaching because those of us who study the Bible
without having had Theophostic ministry are simply stuck in our cognitive “data
base of truth” and cannot understand the Bible experientially.
The key
premise of Theophostic teaching is repeated over a dozen times in Smith’s book.
It is this: “Everything we know, feel, or are mentally aware of has its roots in
a first-time experience” (Smith: 31). He further explains, “For emotional
healing, we need to identify three basic elements: the present emotional pain,
the original memory containers; and the original lie(s)” (Smith: 32). He repeats
this later like this:
Once the original experience is recorded, with its
emotional response and belief interpretation, it changes very little over time,
even with the accumulation of additional data that is contrary. This original
experience becomes the grid from which all similar additional life experiences
are measured, interpreted, and emotionally experienced (Smith: 70).
For
Theophostics to have any validity, this premise must be true. If it cannot be
proven, then Theophostics has no point because finding the first memory and
invoking a subjective revelation to reinterpret it is what this ministry is all
about. At the end of this article we will return to this premise and discuss its
validity.
Billions of Clients
The key idea
in marketing is to create a need for your product in the mind of a potential
client, the more clients the better. Smith has made the whole world population
potential clients by claiming that any “lie-based thinking” is proof of our need
for Theophostic healing (or something of the same ilk under another name). He
asks, “Think over the last few weeks. Were there any moments in which you were
frustrated, stressed, angered, worried, anxious, taxed, upset, fearful, hateful,
argumentative, defeated, or pressured? If so, there was probably a lie at the
source of these emotions” (Smith 95).
Other proofs
are used to show that we are in bondage to “lie-based thinking” and need
Theophostics: 1) if we do well 2) if we do badly. Those who do well are
performance-based people trying to cover their pain. Those who sin overtly are
acting out in their pain in an attempt to dull or escape it. If you are human
and have emotions, you need Theophostics! If you say you do not, you are in
denial. Smith writes, “Some of us deny and hide our lie-based thinking better
than others, but we all need God’s truth to find healing” (Smith: 64 – remember
that “God’s truth” in Theophostics is a subjective experience that reinterprets
a memory; it is not the objective teaching of the Bible).
If you are a
kind and caring person who is polite to others no matter what personal
difficulties you have, according to Smith, you are likely “pretending.” Smith
writes, “Everywhere I go, I find the church is basically the same: a building
filled with deeply wounded people trying hard to pretend that everything is
well” (Smith 95). In his thinking, we are so hypocritical that we even sing, “It
is well with my soul,” when our minds are in pain (Smith 95, 96). How shameful!
Since, “All of us need emotional healing” (translate – Theophostics), we are
performance-based persons for doing well, praying, smiling, being kind, singing
hymns, and doing any other normal Christian activity. Smith writes, “Every
person in every church everywhere (in pews and especially behind the pulpit)
carries emotional pain at some level.” In Smith’s therapeutic world, “having
emotional pain” is evidence of a lack of freedom. So we either submit to Smith’s
unbiblical, subjective, mystical experiences so we can be healed, or we go on
“pretending.”
In the
“sermon” my wife and I listened to, Smith had the whole congregation raise their
hands. He then declared that all those with raised hands needed healing. From
his books and preaching, it is clear that Smith declares all people everywhere
to need the sort of healing he is prescribing. For example, “Every person on the
face of this earth is carrying some level of pain. We have all been infested
with lie-based thinking” (Smith: 29). Keep in mind that lie-based thinking is
from first memories of events that invoked the pain (according to Theophostic
theory). Smith declares this a universal human condition. For example, he
writes, “We are all lie-infested and in need of release” (Smith: 98). The
release in Theophostics comes through a subjective experience that reinterprets
first memory experiences.
So the release
in this theory is not through the gospel, it comes through Theophostic ministry.
He writes, “We are told to nail it to the cross and claim our victory. The sad
truth is that it does not work, never has, and never will. This teaching has
simply left many wounded hurting people in bondage to their lie-based pain and
in a perpetual cycle of defeat” (Smith: 64). How can he say this? He explains:
“The cross of Jesus was sufficient for all our sins and emotional wounds, but
sins and wounds must be dealt with differently” (Smith: 65). He teaches that
“lie-based” thinking keeps us from freedom and causes additional sin. Again, the
solution for “lie-based” thinking is Theophostics. So we cannot look to the
cross which dealt with our sin or even have victory over sin until we get free
from the universal human condition of having lie-based thinking caused by
childhood memories. “Until we find freedom from these lie-based wounds, we will
struggle with the consequential sins these wounds manifest” (Smith: 65). Smith
makes sins the result of our wounds, not result of our lusts and our actions. We
should not expect victory through the cross unless we have gone back and had a
subjective revelation about first incident memories and replaced our false
interpretations of the memories with God’s revelation about what they really
mean. According to the claims of the founder of Theophostics, the need for this
is universal.
Let us
consider the ramifications of the claim that everyone needs release from a
condition that only Theophostics defines and cures. If indeed this condition is
universal, then Smith has diagnosed nothing but “humanness.” He has not
distinguished a particular category of people from others, just humans in
general. Now if he is speaking of “humans in general,” then either he is
describing the sin nature, or something innately human and not sinful. If not
sinful we do not need a “cure” for it. If he is describing the sin nature and
claiming that his particular process is the “cure for it,” he is preaching a
different gospel. Theophostics cannot “cure” the sin nature. The only plan God
has for sin is the gospel and the only plan He has for Christians to live out
their lives is through the Biblical means of grace.4 So Theophostics
either is a false gospel, a false “means of grace,” or it is useless because it
obviously cannot cure us from being “human.” I believe it is a replacement for
what the Bible provides for us. Smith has defined the entire population of the
world as “clients” that need his product.
Theophostics and Subjectivism
A major claim
that underlies Theophostic ministry is as follows, “Yet what we feel reveals the
truth about what we truly believe. Our emotions expose our core beliefs” (Smith:
52). This means that if one believes that he or she is secure in Christ based on
the cross, the blood atonement, and what God has done for him by grace through
faith, yet has feelings of insecurity for whatever reason, then that person does
not really believe the gospel. One’s cognitive belief is proven invalid by his
own feelings. Thus no Christian can be secure without the appropriate feelings.
Smith says:
We can choose to embrace logical truth in times of crisis, but
generally we will submit to that which we “feel” is true rather that we “know”
to be true. This is why people who administer Theophostic Ministry ask the
person undergoing ministry what “feels” true, as opposed to what is true. What
we feel is an indication of what we truly believe” (Smith: 82).
He teaches
that feelings are the ultimate test of reality and that they trump any of our
beliefs that are based on the objective teachings of Scripture. Smith states,
“We feel what we believe” (Smith: 112). He makes some amazing statements:
“Christians today have more truth than any generation in the history of the
church, yet many do not walk in peace. A lack of peace indicates that there is a
lie held in experiential memory” (Smith 107).
He defines
peace differently than the Bible does. He is speaking of a lack of emotional
pain as he makes clear throughout his book. The Bible defines peace more in
terms of being right with God than a lack of emotional pain. He puts little
stock in a “logical database of truth” (i.e. what a person learns from the Bible
and believes). Writes Smith, “Again, the truth has to be experientially provided
by the Holy Spirit to bring about genuine release of lie-based thinking” (Smith:
107). Keep in mind that “release of lie-based thinking” is what one gets through
Theophostics and that “lie-based thinking” as defined by Smith is not a Biblical
category but a modern psychological one.
If this is the
case, that feelings are a true indication of our beliefs, then what about those
who “feel” they are right with God when they are not? Those in Matthew 7 who
said “Lord, Lord” had no self-doubts and felt that they were secure in Christ.
But He said, “I never knew you” (Matthew 7:21-23). Conversely
there are those who had no idea they had pleased Christ who are commended at the
judgment. They say, “When did we ever feed You”? (Matthew 25:37).
Our feelings can delude us every day. If we were to believe what Smith says how
could we ever know what we truly believe? Our feelings would be upsetting our
hope and confidence daily.
Does the Bible
ever teach that we have to feel forgiven to be forgiven, or feel loved to be
loved, or feel secure to be secure? No it does not! Conversely does the Bible
teach that we can have security outside of our feelings? Yes:
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in
deed and truth. We shall know by this that we are of the truth, and shall assure
our heart before Him, in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than
our heart, and knows all things. (1John 3:18-20)
John teaches
the opposite of Theophostic principles. He does not ask his readers if they
“feel loving” and tell others so. He tells them to love objectively, “in deed
and truth.” He gives an objective test that will give his readers assurance. In
John’s teaching the objective takes priority over the subjective — “in
whatever our heart condemns us.” We may wonder if we are as loving as God
wants us to be and even feel unloving at times. However, if we love in deed and
truth, we have assurance. If we are still lacking inner (subjective) assurance,
John assures us that God is greater than our hearts and knows the truth. We can
find assurance in spite of our feelings. Smith teaches the opposite of
Scripture: that if our heart condemns us (i.e. we feel insecure) but we believe
the truth objectively, our true condition is revealed by our feelings not the
objective truth. This is a direct denial of the teachings of the Bible.
When people
asked Jesus about their neighbor who ought to be loved (one of the two key
commands of the Law), He answered by giving the parable of the Good Samaritan
(Luke 10). He gave objective evidence of what loving one’s neighbor looks
like. He never asked them if they felt loving.
The
subjectivism of Theophostics would put Christ and the Biblical writers in need
of Theophostic ministry. For example, when Jesus said, “My God, My God, why
have you forsaken me” (Mark 15:34), according to Theophostics Jesus
feeling the wrath of the Father against sin was revealing His true belief, i.e.
that He was indeed forsaken by the Father. Jesus did not ask why the Father
rejected the sins of the world (which the Son was bearing), he asked “why have
you forsaken Me.” In His humanity Jesus felt forsaken and cited the first verse
of Psalm 22. In quoting that verse He identified with human sufferers through
history who felt forsaken by God though they believed in Him. David trusted God
yet felt forsaken.
However, Smith
claims, “As much as we would like to believe otherwise, our emotions will always
expose what we truly believe” (Smith: 52). This is contrary to Biblical fact.
Job had many negative emotions, but still believed that God would vindicate Him.
Consider this lament Psalm: “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, Having
sorrow in my heart all the day? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”
(Psalm 13:2). The Psalmist was filled with anxiety and negative emotions.
However, consider how the Psalm ends: “But I have trusted in Thy
lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation. I will sing to the
Lord, Because He has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:5, 6).
David’s faith gave him hope despite his feelings.
Smith
repeatedly denies that this is appropriate and chides those who do so. He
rebukes those who trust God’s promises in the midst of sorrows, saying, “We
stand and proclaim ‘Victory in Jesus’ and ‘Standing on the Promises,’ while we
live in secret defeat and emotional bondage. We call abstinence from sinning
victory, when it is not” (Smith: 96). So, if we are in emotional pain (which
Smith treats as if it were sin itself), yet stand on God’s promises and even
abstain from sinning while doing so, we are nevertheless defeated! What a horrid
disservice to all the righteous sufferers throughout history, including the
Biblical ones. Paul said, “I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my
heart” (Romans 9:2). He fails Smith’s test miserably. Does the Bible
promise to take away all emotional pain now, before the return of Christ?
No!
Smith teaches
that if we feel emotional pain we cannot forgive: “If we try to forgive while we
are still feeling the pain of the offense, forgiveness will be impossible”
(Smith: 126). This means that we have to be cured of all emotional pain first
before we can obey God and forgive. The subjective (our feelings) trumps the
objective (the command to obey). This is the case with nearly everything in
Theophostic ministry. We have to get Theophostic ministry first before we can do
what is pleasing to God. When Jesus was in the midst of the pain (both physical
and emotional) of Calvary, He said “Father forgive them for they know not
what they do” (Luke 23:34). He forgave while feeling the pain of
rejection and hatred. Stephen did the same (Acts 7:60).
Bad Theology Wed to Pop Psychology
Dr. Smith’s
Theophostic training manual is entitled, “Beyond Tolerable
Recovery.”5 I have always wondered how Christians could be involved
in the “recovery” movement given its presuppositions. The idea of “recovery” is
that people come into the world in a pristine state, as their true “self.” This
“self” is eventually despoiled by abuses, hurts, lies, learned behaviors, and
survival mechanisms that cause a false “self” to be put forth, hiding the true
“inner self or higher self” depending on the particular theory or terminology.
Some use the terminology “inner child.” Recovery in most cases is about
reclaiming the true pristine “self” that was who we were before all the hurts
and abuses. John Bradshaw, a New Age teacher, is a popular proponent of this
theory.
Though Smith
uses the term “recovery,” he does not teach that we come into the world
pristine, but affirms that we are born with a “fallen nature” (Smith: 9). This
confused me until I read his book through for the third time. I had to read it
several times because it is such a confusing mixture of Biblical ideas and
psychological terminology, but these are often given definitions that are not in
the same category as the ideas of the Bible.
For example
consider the word “truth.” In the Bible believing “the truth” so as to be saved
means to respond to the gospel in repentance and faith. Those who reject “the
truth” (the word truth with a definite article points to the objective content
of the faith as taught by Christ and His apostles) are deluded and believe “the
lie.”
Smith on the
other hand relegates objective truth (the meaning of “the truth”) to “data and
logical information” (Smith: 108) that is of little value. His “truth” is
subjective: “All I am saying is that it is the Holy Spirit who ‘leads us into
all truth’” (Smith: 108). He misquotes the Scripture. It says this: “But when
He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for
He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak;
and He will disclose to you what is to come” (John 16:13). The
promise was given to Christ’s apostles that the Holy Spirit would guide them
into all “the truth.” Here it does not mean “everything that is factual”
but everything that is in accordance with the doctrine of Christ. The passage
that Smith cites has nothing to do with getting personal, subjective revelations
about the meaning of one’s first memory experience and how one interprets it.
But that is exactly what Theophostics is all about. He uses Scripture about “the
truth” to justify getting subjective revelations supposedly from the Holy Spirit
that may or may not be true. He writes, “Theophostic Ministry is a systematic
means of helping people to position themselves at the feet of Jesus so He might
do He has promised” (i.e. lead them into “all truth”), (Smith: 108). This does
not mean searching the Scriptures for what Jesus and His apostles objectively
taught, but gaining personal revelations. John 16:13 does not justify
this practice. It says, “He will disclose to you what is to come.” This
He did and the apostles wrote this down in the New Testament. In Theophostics
the Holy Spirit does not reveal “what is to come,” but the supposedly true
meaning and interpretation of past memories. Smith continually confuses his
readers by category shifts like this.
Confusion
results when we try to grasp Smith’s meanings because he moves back and forth
between Biblical terms that mean one thing in their context and his
psychological use of the terms that mean something else entirely. However, I
think I understand what he means by “recovery.” It is found in his defective
theology about the Christian life. Smith believes that Christians are so
completely new that they no longer have a sin nature. He teaches that we are
already “holy and blameless” (Smith: 162), making no distinction between what we
are legally and what we are practically (as the Bible does).
Therefore, in
his view, now that we are Christians we are no longer sinners struggling with a
sin nature. We already have a divine nature states Smith (misusing 1Peter 1:4)
and we must be righteous or God would not live in our heart (Smith: 162). Thus
being righteous should flow effortlessly out of our new nature, since sin has no
power over us (Smith: 116, 117). So why do Christians still sin? Theophostic
theory says, “However, when our pain is stirred, we will look for a means of
dealing with what is stirred up which often means sinful choices and behavior”
(Smith: 116).
Smith explains
further that we do not have sin within that is stirred up, just pain from
lie-based thinking:
Some would suggest that sin is rooted in the heart of the true
Christian just as in the lost person. It is then from the sinful heart that the
thought emerges which results in behavior. If this is true then there is no hope
of present victory. If my heart is evil and sin-filled then the cross did not
make me new (Smith: 162).
This is
confused theology. If Smith is right, what was Paul talking about in Galatians
5, Romans 6 and many other passages about the Christian’s struggle against
sin?
Smith goes so
far as to cite James 1:14-15 which directly contradicts what he teaches as
support for his unbiblical theory:
[A]ccording to James 1:14-15 the sin process flows in a predictable
fashion. First the enemy provides a temptation or life situation, which is
tailored to trigger an original thought or experiential lie. The experiential
lie is a belief, which was received during the life experience. We may or may
not consciously think the original lie/thought in our current situation, but
nevertheless it is aroused (Smith: 163).
James says we
are drawn aside by our own “lusts.” Smith says we do not have sinful hearts, but
“experiential lies.” What are these? He illustrates: “For example, if we are
raised in an alcoholic home, we might learn a belief such as, ‘Life is out of
control and I am responsible to do something to remove the chaos’” (Smith: 163).
Smith has done another category switch to make James speak in 21st century
psychological categories rather than in 1st century Biblical ones. James was not
speaking about interpreting memories and forming beliefs from memories. He was
speaking of “lust” which leads us to sin.
What does this
all have to do with “recovery”? I will explain what appears to be the case based
on the evidence in his book. Rather than recovering the pristine inner child
like other versions of recovery, Smith posits a perfect, sinless new creation in
Christ. This new creation still sins because of lie-based pain. Rather than
having a sin nature that lusts against the Spirit (Galatians 5), he says we have
a perfectly new heart but we just do not know it. As one works through his or
her memories and has the Holy Spirit reinterpret the meaning of each memory with
personal revelations, the lie-based pain is removed and, consequently, the
motivation to sin. As this happens “memory by memory” (Smith: 44), the emotional
pain leaves and the person “recovers” the perfect new creature they are in
Christ (but do not know it experientially). This is a clever twist on the
recovery movement that is laced with Biblical sounding ideas. It sounds
wonderful since there will be no more “struggle” against sin and healing will be
“maintenance-free” (Smith: 114, 115). If one does have emotional pain or react
with a negative emotion, that is merely proof that there is another lie-based
memory to be uncovered and reinterpreted by special revelation.
Smith says,
“True victory is the absence of battle and struggle” (Smith: 43). That is what
he offers us through Theophostics. Unfortunately the Biblical writers did not
know about this marvelous struggle free life: “For consider Him who has
endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow
weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood
in your striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:3, 4).
Since Smith
does assert faith in the cross and the gospel, what he is providing is a
substitute for the Biblical means of grace. We start the Christian life through
faith in the finished work of Christ and are perfected through Theophostics. The
first pages of his book deny the efficacy of what God has provided for living
the Christian life as revealed in Acts 2:42: “And they were
continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to
the breaking of bread and to prayer.” Smith begins his book telling of
“Shari” who had anxiety and tried prayer, Bible study, and Christian fellowship,
none of which worked. But lucky for her, her pastor had Theophostic training. He
used this training to discover “early childhood experiences” and help her feel
the terror and pain of a particular memory. She ended up having personal
revelation from Jesus. Jesus told her that she was not “bad or shameful.” This
removed her pain, something that God’s ordained means (prayer, Bible teaching,
and fellowship – along with baptism and the Lord’s supper) failed to do (Smith:
11-13). So the book begins by using a story to discredit the Biblical means of
grace and replace them with personal revelations invoked by the Theophostic
process.
What is
“recovered” through Theophostic ministry is the holy, perfect person that we are
as Christians. We do not enjoy the feelings and experience of being this
pristine new creation because of “lie-based pain,” not because of a sin nature.
Removing the pain memory by memory uncovers the holy new creation person. This
is what “recovery” apparently means.
Examining the Premise
I said earlier
that we would return to the key premise of Theophostics. I cited it from page 31
of his book. He restates it many times. For example, “In like manner, when
emotionally charged events occurred in our childhood, we interpreted them from
the emotions we felt. These interpretations became our basic and guiding source
of information for any future situation that was even remotely similar” (Smith:
81). I lost count of how many times Dr. Smith asserts this premise. Here is
another one: “Whenever something painful happens to a child, the child will
interpret that event and store the interpretation in the memory of the event.
Even when the child becomes an adult, his or her interpretation of the painful
event becomes the source of his or her present pain every time something or
someone triggers the memory” (Smith: 50). He also includes “repressed memories”
(Smith: 50). So if a person is having emotional pain and has no memory of an
event that was the first cause, it is still there to be discovered through
Theophostics.
This premise
is reinforced through anecdotal evidence of the success of Theophostics — case
after case where people who were healed of “lie-based pain” that was caused by a
wrong interpretation of a childhood memory. Since he first published his
counselor’s manual in 1996, Smith has come under criticism. His 2002 book that I
am citing in this article, is a “cleaned up” version that has removed some of
the controversial claims and includes replies to critics. However, the basic
premise has never changed: that our present pain has its roots in childhood
memories and their interpretation. Theophostics corrects these by offering a
mystical experience where the person receives a revelation supposedly from the
Holy Spirit about the memory and the correct interpretation of it.
Theophostics
is utterly dependent on this premise. If it is not true that one’s
interpretation of a childhood memory causes “lie-based” pain, then Theophostics
has no point. Here then is a key question, how do we know that the premise is
true? We have two possibilities; either it is known through specific revelation
or general revelation. Specific revelation is found only in the Bible. God has
spoken in full and final revelation in the Bible (Hebrews 1:1, 2).
According to Martin and Deidre Bobgan, Dr. Smith once claimed that he got
Theophostics by special revelation from God.6 Smith now denies that
Theophostics is a revelation from God (Smith: 145). Since claims of special
revelations beyond the Scripture are occultic and forbidden, he is right to give
up such a claim if he ever made it.
The other
possible category of knowledge is general revelation. This is the realm of what
can be legitimately learned through the senses and human reason. We often call
this “scientific” knowledge. The way we prove something to be known through
specific revelation is through Biblical exegesis. The way we prove something to
be known through general revelation is through controlled experimentation and
valid scientific inquiry. This inquiry is subject to verification and requires
scrutiny by experts in the field before it is accepted as “fact” and endorsed as
a valid. Thus those making scientific claims are expected to cite their sources
and leave a paper trail of evidence for their claims.
Smith’s
premise about “first memories” and their interpretation being the present cause
of emotional pain is asserted throughout his book. Yet not once is a Scripture
given to support the idea nor a scientific journal, study, or scholarly source
cited to support the idea as science. The only evidence offered is
anecdotal. This is not valid evidence. Anecdotal “evidence” can be found to
“prove” everything from rosary beads to crystals, to grapefruit pills that will
make you skinny no matter how much you eat. Someone will claim that nearly
anything “worked for me.” Infomercials continually exploit gullible, afflicted
people citing anecdotal evidence for validation.
When
challenged to prove that Theophostics is found in the Bible, Dr. Smith
references the story of Peter’s denial of Christ. He claims that, “Jesus exposed
Peter’s lie-based thinking” (Smith: 142). Take note once again, “lie-based”
thinking is Smith’s psychological terminology that finds its meaning in a
childhood memory and its interpretation. He made that clear early in his book.
Now he claims Jesus was using “Theophostic principles” (Smith: 142). The proof
is Jesus’ “exposing” Peter through what happened that revealed
“performance-based spirituality.” As I said earlier, do not make the mistake of
thinking that terms like “exposing,” “lie-based thinking,” “performance-based
spirituality,” or “memory-based pain,” etc. are Biblical categories; they are
not. But Smith uses these to “shoe-horn” the story of Peter’s denial into modern
pop psychology. Here is how Smith characterizes Jesus’ interactions with Peter:
“He was triggering and stirring up Peter’s memory-based pain by way of
association” (Smith: 143). So Jesus was a Theophostic counselor it seems.
There is a
huge flaw in this reasoning besides the fact that it is horrible Biblical
exegesis. The key premise of Theophostic ministry is that a first, childhood
memory that was interpreted a certain way is the key to adult emotional
responses and “lie-based” pain. If Jesus confronting Peter was a case of
Theophostic principles at work in the Bible, where is the revelation of the
childhood memory event that made Peter react the way he did? There is none. So
the supposed Biblical proof lacks the key component that makes Theophostics what
it is. Therefore, it is no proof at all. In fact there is no incident or
teaching in the Bible that promotes the underlying premise of Theophostics. The
premise is merely asserted over and over by Smith but never proven. We are just
supposed to accept it on Smith’s word that it is true. If the premise is false
Theophostics is false.
Conclusion
Since
neither Biblical nor scientific evidence is offered for the key premise of
Theophostics, there is no reason to take it seriously. In my many years of
writing articles about various teachings that come through the church, rarely
have I come across a teaching as convoluted and unbiblical as this one. Frankly,
there is good reason to doubt that the experiences that people are having in
Theophostics are from God. In these experiences they gain special revelations
supposedly from the Holy Spirit about the meaning of childhood memories. They
may be real experiences, but they are invoked under such unbiblical auspices
that they should be considered dangerous. Theophostics is a process for gaining
mystical experiences that promise freedom from sorrows now. The Bible does not
promise freedom from all emotional pain in this life. Theophostics does. The
Bible gives us the gospel as the only way for salvation and the
sanctifying process that occurs afterwards. Giving up the Biblical means of
grace and the command to struggle against sin for the empty promise of a
“struggle-free, maintenance free, pain free” life now is trading one’s eternal
hope through the gospel for a mystical experience that has nothing to do with
the gospel or true sanctification. Such a trade is a very bad deal indeed.
Dr. Ed Smith, “The Performance Driven Church”; audio tape, Crystal
Evangelical Free Church; New Hope MN; preached 11/09/2003.
Dr. Edward Smith, Healing Life’s Deepest Hurts, (Vine Books: Ann Arbor,
2002) Smith writes, “The healing will be permanent and will require no
maintenance to sustain it.” 117. Through out the rest of this article I will use
bracketed citations from this book in this manner (Smith: 117) within the text.
That will make it easier for the reader to reference the book than would dozens
of “ibid” endnotes.
The Greek New Testament mentions “the lie” four times: John 8:44; Romans 1:25;
Ephesians 4:25; 2Thessalonians 2:11. John 8:44 directly links it to Satan’s
teaching. “The lie” is not just anything that is untrue, but a particular lie.
It is directly apposed to “the truth,” which is the gospel. The lie teaches us
to trust man and seek forbidden knowledge, the truth teaches us to trust God and
believe only what His Word teaches.
Besides the traditional “means of grace’ as taught in Reformed Theology (Word
and Sacrament), I would include the basics of the Christian life mentioned at
the very birth of the church on Pentecost: “And they were continually
devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking
of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42).
Ed M. Smith, “Beyond Tolerable Recovery”; (Family Care Publishing:
Campbellsville, Ky, 1996).
Martin and Deidre Bobgan, “TheoPhostic Counseling – Divine Revelation or
PsychoHeresey”; (Eastgate Publishers: Santa Barbara, 1999). The Bobgans
document Smith’s previous claims and statements about TheoPhostic Counseling on
pages 6, 7.
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