Matthew Statler

Some more thoughts on the category mistake of The Body Keeps The Score. 🔗

“May the arrogant be ashamed, for they wrong me with lying; But I shall muse on Your precepts.” (Psalm 119:78, LSB)

So excited for my mother, she was able to return to Senegal for the dedication of the Bible in Wolof! This is 63 years of meticulous work of her colleagues!

"Unrighteousness is fundamentally expressed in a refusal to acknowledge what God has revealed about himself." “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18, ESV) "Various manifestations of unrighteousness are highlighted in vv. 24–32, but vv. 18–20 focuses on the injustice of suppressing what can be known about God. The second use of ἀδικία in v. 18 (τῶν τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐν ἀδικία, “who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth”) suggests that unrighteousness is fundamentally expressed in a refusal to acknowledge what God has revealed about himself." --David G. Peterson, Romans, ed. T. Desmond Alexander, Thomas R. Schreiner, and Andreas J. Köstenberger, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021), 113.

Roy Porter offers a striking observation about our cultural moment: “Because of the proliferation of psychiatries, more people are said—and claim—to be suffering from a proliferation of psychiatric syndromes… as the idioms of the psychological and psychiatric replace Christianity and humanism as the ways of making sense of self. Yet public confidence in psychiatry is low… Is Folly jingling its bells once again?” —Madness: A Brief History, 217–18

Susannah, thanks for your thoughts and your kind framing of my intentions very rare on the internet. I have had this same extensive conversation in person with someone who is licensed in this field and had experienced these same struggles. He argued as you did about ego-dystonic thoughts. The problem I have is that when I pressed him, there is no real objective way to differentiate them from each other, whether biologically or substance, or biblically. So there is no clear way objectivly to say these are x and these are y thoughts. I like your distinction between evil/sinful thoughts and thoughts that are not overtly sinful, many years ago I would check the mail several times in the day, even while knowing that the mail had not come. The biblical model of repentance put off, renew, put on from Eph 4 was helpful for me and others. Not because I was sinning by checking a mailbox but because it began to control me. I believe many have (mis)read me, or haven’t read what I am saying. My goal is to bring all thoughts under submission to Christ, that doesn't mean we are to morbidly dwell on them, but rather to put-off, renew, put-on. Surprisingly CBT has borrowed the biblical model in many ways, so it's not surprise that it is moderately successful.

@StatlerMatthew I would be happy to talk more about this if you’d like. I think you’re doing your best to be as helpful and faithful as you can. I don’t think you’re operating in bad faith. But you’re partly mistaken in your analysis.

I appreciate Noble's engagement with my article, I agree with some of what he says, but I do think he misunderstands my application. Which is understandable since I was trying to do too much in a constrained place. It's hard explain first motions, concupiscence and the modern framework of OCD and application all at once. Overall I fundamentally disagree with Noble’s framework on thoughts and the innerman which is likely the key area of contention. I think of ego-dystonic thoughts as part of the first motions category.

Just talked to a friend in church who was diagnosed with PTSD after experiencing child abuse. He went to Christian psychologist for years, who used countless interventions, including EMDR (and was honest enough to call it hypnosis). Nothing helped. Eventually, he sat down with the Psalms, which taught him to grieve honestly to the Lord and to see God’s purpose for suffering. Changed his life.

Quite a lot of cases actually, usually after they have tried years in the system. I definitely have more to learn, yet God has been abundantly kind in helping sufferers. I also talked through my article with several practitioners in that field. We have many disagreements of course but they were more positive towards it than a few online responses.

@StatlerMatthew @ComposerDan90 Matthew, how much encouragement have you received from sufferers? For ex: those likely to be diagnosed w/ OCD / obsessive compulsive disorder [or scrupulosity] (w/o assuming you affirm the diagnoses)? Do you claim increased knowledge level now? Asked frankly but w/ respect. Thx.

Always an honor to contribute to ACBC's blog!

It's usually those who don't know or study the Word of God who find it lacking in its sufficiency.

John Owen’s Biblicism

“But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31, LSB) "Wisdom is not a human discovery but a divine revelation." --Thomas R. Schreiner, 1 Corinthians: An Introduction and Commentary, ed. Eckhard J. Schnabel, vol. 7, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (London: Inter-Varsity Press, 2018), 60.

For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:3–4) “The whole bundle of the Popish religion is made up of designs and contrivances to pacify conscience without Christ; all described by the apostle (Rom. 10:3).” -John Owen, Sin and Temptation. pg 128

It’s deeply troubling to hear some Christian counselors claim that using the means of grace to address sinful thoughts will not bring freedom—but will actually make things worse. The battle has always been, and will remain until Christ returns, for the sufficiency of Scripture.

“May Your compassion come to me that I may live, For Your law is my delight.” (Psalm 119:77, LSB)

I'm not here saying we deny the body’s shaping influence I'm saying we go back to having a real conversation as we hold to historic language not tainted by materialistic language. A few examples: From the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith 31.1: “The bodies of men after death return to dust, and see corruption; but their souls, which neither die nor sleep, having an immortal subsistence, immediately return to God who gave them.” That is straightforward dualist language. The confession distinguishes body from soul while maintaining the unity of the person. The Westminster Confession of Faith says essentially the same thing in 32.1. Likewise, Hercules Collins in the The Orthodox Catechism asks: “What is man?” “Man is composed of body and soul.” Historic Christianity has always affirmed some form of anthropological duality: * body and soul * outer man and inner man * visible and invisible aspects of human existence * material and immaterial dimensions

Some seem to be adopting some form of functional monism, rather than studying the scientific literature critically they are allowing VDK, Porges etc. filter it through their materialism for them, coming to wildly untrue conclusions that undermine basic Christian beliefs. We are seeing it first in the counseling departments, but it is filtering into theological studies and ecclesiology. Don't be surprised if you wake up one day and see something completely different than Christianity. I believe the current narratives on trauma are going to be seen as a Trojan horse in time.

The irony of regularly being called a gnostic or neo-gnostic. It is not gnostic to say humanity has an inner life/inner man, or some form of dualism; hylomorphism or substance. Christianity has always had some form of dualism. However, it is closer to neo-gnostic to treat the body as a hidden archive of secret knowledge that must be decoded by therapeutic initiates. It is closer to gnosticism to believe your body is bad and stores your trauma and your mind needs freedom and relief through special secret knowledge of somatic interventions and practitioners.

“But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.” (Matthew 15:18–19, ESV)