MARSCAST

Episode 320: 320. Van Til's Fingerprints on Biblical Counseling

Every biblical counselor assumes their approach comes straight from Scripture alone, but what if the underlying architecture came from an apologist rather than a counselor? In this third episode of our MarsCast series on biblical counseling, Dr. Jared Poulton joins Jared and Dr. Alan Strange to reveal the hidden intellectual DNA of the biblical counseling movement: how Cornelius Van Til's presuppositional apologetics (covenantal knowledge, the antithesis, the rejection of "brute facts") became the theological scaffolding Jay Adams built his entire system on.

But it's not a simple story of inheritance. Dr. Strange raises a pointed challenge about what gets lost when the antithesis is applied to counseling without its necessary counterweight, common grace, right down to what that means for how Christians assess the insights of secular psychology. If you've ever wondered why biblical counselors are so skeptical of Freud, CBT, or trauma therapy, this episode traces that instinct straight back to its source.

Find Dr. Poulton's book here.