Regeneration, Deliverance, and Therapy?
In their counseling, pastors have to decide which comes first.
Archibald D. Hart
July 1, 1991
Pastor Jones was perplexed. For the fourth time this month Cynthia, a 24-year-old single woman, had come to see him, each visit more puzzling than the last. Cynthia had grown up in his church, where her parents were long-standing members. Cynthia had professed faith at a youth meeting when she was 14 and had been a leader in the youth group before going away to college. Now she was home again, looking for a job. At her first session with Pastor Jones, Cynthia explained that two years earlier she had started dating a young man. They became serious but fought often and frequently broke up. "A year ago, I discovered I was pregnant," she finally said. "And against my better judgment, I had an abortion." Troubled by both the relationship and the abortion, she felt "locked in," unable to extricate herself from either the relationship or her past behavior. "What can I do?" she wailed. "Where can I go to get away from all of this? What's wrong with me that I can't break off this sick relationship?" Pastor Jones listened with deep sympathy to Cynthia. He reasoned with her and then prayed for her. She felt better. But a few days later she was back again. He listened to her repeat her anxieties and guilt. She seems worse, maybe even depressed, Pastor Jones thought. Why isn't she experiencing forgiveness and freedom? Has she really experienced conversion? Is perhaps some demonic power at work in her? Not that he had had much experience in spiritual warfare, but so many groups were talking about it he couldn't help but consider it. Still, he repeated his standard counseling format: he helped her confess her sins and pray for forgiveness. Then he hoped God would work a miracle. Twice more she came back, even more troubled still. Pastor Jones was ...
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