See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. Col 2:8.
Today's dominant remedial gospel within modern culture offers a "therapeutic" cure for the human condition, and that this therapeutic gospel has made a significant inroads into professedly Bible-believing culture. The drama of human life in increasingly defined and treated as a medical-scientific problem, rather than as a religious-moral problem. The philosophy of our day - pop self-help psychologies, psychotherapies, and psychoactive medication - picks up the pieces for people who fail to find satisfaction in careers, relationships, material consumption, recreation, entertainment, or religion. Troubles previously defined as moral - breakdown in relationships, reactions to manifold suffering, confusion and despair about personal identity, the experience of meaninglessness, slavery to the vices, various dysphoric emotions - have come under the intellectual and professional authority of the modern mental professions. Such troubles are diagnosed without reference to sin and misery before the face of God, and they are purportedly cured without reference to Christ, repentance, faith, and obedience.
- David Powlison.
