Hi, I'm Henry Reyenga, welcome you back to this class about sexual intimacy and how to  minister effectively in this area. Let's talk today about the social sciences. The sex therapy in  the general population is a social science, trained discipline, and practice. And we Christians,  as we're ministering or We're experienced in our lives, we need to figure out what we make of the social sciences, there are going to be many readings in this class that would come out of  a textbook, a general social sciences textbook, concerning sexual experience, sexual  deviation, topics, such as same sex attraction, topics, such as transgender issues, topics,  such as pedophilia, and other subjects that the social sciences department have really got  into. And Christianity hasn't really dealt with very much. But as we launch into the Study of  Social Sciences is probably good that we look at the Christian evaluation of these and  understand what can we glean? And what must we be very careful about. So in this  presentation, before you have all the readings to do that you'll be quizzed on, I thought it'd be  good to give a little bit of background, my take on social sciences. And when I say this, I come as a minister, an academic who's looking at this over a 40 year ministry, calling and where I've seen how social sciences intersect with ministry and how these two audiences interact. And  I'm not saying that this is the all in publishable evaluation of Social Sciences by a ministry guy. These are just some of my honest reflections on social sciences. And some of my cautions,  as we launch into your reading these different teachings about social sciences. So the first  thing is, I want everyone to be aware that in many ways, social science has has abandoned  belief in God. And it goes back to philosophy and science in the early 19th century, that  separated God from study and academic the Enlightenment we call it. I Timothy 4:1-2 says,  The Spirit clearly teaches that in the latter time, some will abandon the faith in following  deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teaching come through hypocritical liars,  whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. Now I bring that up, because we are warned that not every spirit that comes in that every teaching can be trusted. In the 19th  century, Immanuel Kant, a philosopher, and then we had Darwin and Marx and all of these big people in the world of philosophy, then that developed into the world of psychology. As the  turn of the century, Freud, and other people came into the scene, but they basically bought  this premise that God is unknowable if there is a God. So we must make a science apart from including God, and then social sciences, is dealing with people. And we must make this social science apart from God. And we cannot go to biblical sources. We cannot see the Bible's  description of humans as image bearers, but we must exclude God as to what that leads us is science. So it's the study of people by which we can figure out what to do for people. So that  is a huge religious belief of premise. So what happened is, the social sciences are religious  and they have a religious belief, but they believe that humans are the highest to be  worshipped. Now, we used to be worshipped in the sense of, of a faith statement, we believe  In science, we believe in what we can do, how we can articulate how we can research it. We  don't believe how the Bible describes humans and who we are. So then what occurs is that  social scientists or the sex therapist is to the class on sexually related issues on the sex  therapist becomes like the secular minister or pastor in this. So what happens then, is, we  have the therapist in this could be general for the social sciences, the therapist and the sex  therapist. And I asked this question, then are they social science, clergy, and that's a fine line.  But you'll notice they're similar trait. A Ministers get education and training, a therapist is  education and training. Ministers are driven by a philosophy of ethics, we're informed at our  core religious value by faith in God faith in the Bible as His revealed word for life and  everything. We have a credential process, we don't say to you follow me, but others  acknowledge that we have a calling that we have. And there's a process by which we are  trained. A therapist has that. And a therapist has a very extensive academic and  enlightenment understanding of, of where they got to be there in their credential reflects that. 

And in ministry, we have credentials for various roles going all the way up from just to  Commended Minister to a Minister of the Word that has four years, or a bachelor degree in  the whole world of ministry. Since you know, really the Middle Ages, the ministers had lots of  education in Latin and Greek, and then philosophy and ethics and all that and Bible, I went to  four years of college have a philosophy degree, then went on to Calvin seminary for  theological MDiv, in but what Christian leaders Institute in college and alliance is doing,  because we're focusing on not just the professional minister, but also the part time or even  the Volunteer Minister, giving them the training and the credentialing appropriate for their  specific calling. Whereas in the social sciences area, they wouldn't do stuff like that, they  would just like you are a therapist, you have this amount of training, you go through your  board exams, and all of that types of things. So, you know, but I am comparing the two, there  is a professional clergy there is a professional therapist. Organization, and that's the affiliation affiliated we see in the world of ministry, there's denominations, even here at Christian leaders alliances and affiliation. Now I bring up the parallel that in some ways, the social sciences are  sex therapists, you know, they want to address human problems. We want to address human  problems. They want to solve human problems, and make people more happy. We want to  solve human problems, and make people more connected to Jesus Christ, where happiness  and joy sprang out of that relationship. We want the Bible to direct people's lives. So in some  ways, this is the parallel, you know, as we read all about the social sciences, you know, we  will, you'll notice, many times that the social scientists will take on they'll talk almost as if  they're in the ministry. They're into, you know, solving problems. I want to go back to this  question, what are the religious beliefs of Social Sciences in this area? And what I've noticed  is that what essentially happens when it comes to faith with the belief in what they specifically  believe about Christianity, this area tends to eliminate compartmentalize, or lessen the role of  God in people's quest to solve their perceived problems, especially in the area of sexual  intimacy, belief in their scholarship based on their study and the study of others in the  hierarchy of the social sciences field, to use sort of plain language, they have their own  denominations, many times in the social sciences, these denominations fight against each  other. If I were to say, and I'll bring this up later, the main denominations of social sciences are the modernists. Those are the people who, you know, believe more in the modern philosophy  in the Freudian world. And then there's the postmodern. And that's the people who believe in  like queer theory, where everything is fluid, and everything is very post modern, where the  premises of reason and so forth are not going the same direction. Again, we have different  denominations, there's huge disagreements in the social sciences denominations. And I use  that in quotes on how to bring healing and wholeness to people. By the way, the word therapy is a word that comes out of the Greek healing or healer. So, so social sciences is trying to  construct the word construct as a postmodern word, by the way, like you construct your  identity, whereas in the modern world, things are more fixed. They're what you are in your  hard wired nature. Again, these are all big disagreements that are in these two worlds. Is  there such thing as a Christian therapist? Depends. One are they Christians who appreciate  in factor in the study of fallen humans, and the discovered techniques to help someone  become a whole child of God, to they see the role of God in the involvement in people's lives,  or to the eliminate or bifurcate the role of God, so they make social sciences, the new religion  of a modern and postmodern age. So we link in this class, to a Christian sex therapist who is  in that first category. And we'll see that the beauty of God's creation and techniques that have  been discovered through scientific inquiry, and I am all for that. And as a minister, let's  embrace every truth that God reveals in creation. And we'll talk about the criteria for seeing  that and a little bit here. But there are also many social science therapists who basically, if you have your personal belief, that's for you. But basically, they will come from the premise that 

God is not involved. They are the healers. They're the ones that have these techniques. And  they've studied long and hard to share these techniques with you. So I want to be very clear,  though, that ministry science and that's what we talk about here at Christian leaders Institute  and alliances in college, respect social sciences, that include a religious belief that welcomes  

God. And I love this passage from Proverbs 2:3-7. And if you call out for insight and cry aloud  for understanding, and if you look at it, as for silver in search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God for the Lord gives  wisdom and from his mouth comes understand knowledge and understanding. He holds  victory in store for the upright, he is a shield for those who walk in blameless. If I could  envision a social sciences, a Christian discipline of social sciences, this would be like one of  the verses that I would take, you know, dealing with how to be upright and how to get wisdom. But it's like that search that curious search for who God has made the image bearers to be,  and how his word connects to being an image bearer that glorifies God, and that in the area  of, of sexual intimacy, that it aligns with how we were created for intimacy and how we glorify  God with our sexual person. So that our sexual being glorifies the Creator, in that Passage in  Proverbs just has that sort of inquiry if you cry out for insight, it's not enlightenment without  God is insights that God gives through His Holy Spirit and God gives even in science, what a  beautiful thing. So, what are the cautions as we are about to go into a readings here of it  could be is a, it's a collective Commons reading of issues related to sex, in the social  sciences, in therapy, and so forth. So we're going to get into these subjects and social  sciences, makes many of their generalizations apart from the revelation of the Bible. And in  some ways, the point I make about that is that's understandable. You know, people who do  not know God, are not going to construct a world in their narrative that honors God. So part of us cannot be offended part of us with compassion, let's understand them less listen, and yet  hold to our values hold to who we are in Jesus Christ. So let's look at this. So I'm gonna go  back to the first slide. So what are the cautions? Well, assumption that you will be able to  discover yourself, in yourself solutions to the major life questions or problems without  sincerely involving God, or glorifying Him. That II Corinthians 4:4, the god of this age has  blinded the minds of unbelievers. So they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of  Christ, who is the image of God, the first assumption that social sciences make, since there is no God to factor in here in their methodology, there is they believe that you hold your treasure chest to unlock your destiny, and your destiny is all that matters. So it's like client centered,  and you are basically okay in good in yourself. In other words, there's no narrative where you  have fallen in sin. And you'll see that all the way through these classes are these readings  you are going to do you're gonna read through, and no matter what deviation you have  sexually, there's never quote, a judgement from the social sciences scientists, because  essentially, that's who you are in, you're deviating. And some of this stuff is okay to have  these deviations and other things you go to jail over. But who are we to actually solve a  problem? For instance, in the area of pedophilia, that's it comes off and the readings like, well, there's a lot of reasons you are this way, and that's who you are. But Christianity would say,  No, it's an image bearer of God, you know, that is a boundary, we do not cross for moral  reasons why the book of Leviticus is so strong in some of these subjects, is because it is for  the best interest of you in the best interest of society, that whatever Satan may do to tempt  you, that is a line you don't cross. But in the social scientists in the sex therapy, types of  things, these are deviations off of the number, here's where the big number is, this is where  the other number is, and you yourself unlock all these things. It is fascinating how, how, when  social sciences talks about this, they would basically assume the goodness of you, no matter  who you are, in their job is to help you deal with your own perceived problems. Number two,  why? What are the cautions, the assumption that you are safe if you are under the care of a 

therapist, who has studied all these things, and know how to help you make the best  decisions? And I Corinthians 2:13, this is what we speak. None of it was taught by human  wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit expressing spiritual truth in spiritual words. What I  find interesting about this is notice the comparison. The social scientists, therapist, you come  and and, in fact, there's even in movies, you know, you come see your therapist, or there's a  couch, you lay down your safe, you know, just breeze share with them, you know what you're  thinking and it's a safe environment to explore who you are. And you're safe in that  environment. And the therapist is that person who cares and and of course, they have studied all these things to help you make Make your best decisions. And they'll ask questions, and  they'll hold back on giving answers have you discover it? And again, you see a world that God is not invited, the therapist is not going to say. So what do you think God has to say about  this? That's off bounds. It's more like, what do you think about this? Why do you think that?  Instead of asking the question, you know, who are you? What are you called to be? What do  you know, in your heart? You know, one of the things that my wife and I have noticed over the  years of doing CLI, and CLC, and Christian leaders College, and we hear the stories, and if  people are focusing on themselves, apart from God, they have one answer, but when they  invite God into their life, every thing changes. And that's what the Apostle Paul is saying here  about spiritual truths and spiritual words. Number three, what are the cautions, assumption  that social sciences, or that the study of problems and solutions without God at the center will  truly solve things. And I find the words that they have have sort of similar rings, to Christian  words, spiritual words. They are the words of the social sciences are things like problems,  dysfunctions, dysfunction disorders. Well, we talked about sin that way. They would say there  is no sin, we'd say no, Adam and Eve fell into sin, and we are all broken. Happiness or  wholeness. We talk about salvation and sanctification. We talk about it from an internal  perspective. Therapists. Well, we have ministers, treating we have ministering therapy  sessions, small groups, and in our sessions, it's believers supporting one another. There  could even be therapy sessions with a minister or with a married clergy couple. They call  them to sessions. Credential, you know, in credentials are important. And you'll see a  credential and someone's, you know, office door, how much academics and all of the things  that they have accomplished. And again, I would have no problem with any of this. study is  good, like in the book of Proverbs there. That's why we have licensing and ordination. The  key thing is the assumption that there is an alternative church, so to speak, and you didn't find that church through the social sciences discipline, because we cannot include God in  anything. Number four, therapists or social sciences often do not stay in their lanes. And  there's a great article that I have in the reading here by Dr. Anderson, who's a PhD in  philosophy, and he critiques in quotes a guy named Cass he says, The this modern version of medicine and medical professionals gets it wrong, says Cass. professionals, ought to profess  their devotions of the purposes and ideas they serve. Teachers should be devoted to learning  lawyers to justice clergy, to things divine, and physicians to heal the sick, loosen up looking  up to health and wholeness. Healing is the central core of medicine Cass writes to heal to  make whole if a doctor is primary business. Now he's talking article about sexual realignment  surgery for gender dysphoria. So it his point is, is that each of us stay in our lanes. Our lane is to include God in everything. And so we are going to analyze things out there, but we see  things from the perspective of God, the church, your image bearers, what's happening in the  area social sciences, they now do the work of the church and often degrade ministers as like  the lesser thing. You know if that ministry thing works for you, Susan, I guess I can't argue  with that. But let's talk about what you want. And And again, a disregard of God, and thinking  of like issues of healing when we get into this whole session of in these readings. You'll see a  lot of talk about gender dysphoria. In other types of problems, and you'll see in the writings 

coming up with solutions that have nothing to do with how the Bible would read or suggest  solutions might actually occur. Another caution, there are serious contradictions, depending  on their philosophical fault lines. And you know, on this one too, this should really be five  missions four again, but this one is really five. There are serious contradictions depending on  there philosophic fault lines. You know, I quote this passage from II Corinthians 11:4 and no  wonder for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light, the philosophic faultlines. So  well, a lot of people have in the whole era of social sciences, debate all of these things, and  then they actually use people as their guinea pigs. There's a big debate among the  moderates, the post modernists is such things as conversion therapy, or gender realignment,  let me give you some examples. So in 1979, John Hopkins University of Baltimore, quit doing  gender realignment surgery, because the research showed them that it just doesn't help. It  makes people more at times more questioning, they can't reverse that and, and there's all of  these things. Well, they've stopped doing that until 2018, when the chair of that department  retired, and now they're doing it again, I judge largely political pressure from the LBGT  community. But there's no question in these debates. There is serious questioning on what to  do. And now we have even more debates, you know, now in women's sports. You're seeing  they call them cisgender. Women as a born as a female sex as a female, in the female sex,  gender, at birth, who are spin their life competing, and then a man who then because Social  Sciences has deemed that it's okay, for him to self identify as a female can now participate in  women's sports, even though their biological makeup is a male. And in, in somehow, the  social sciences discipline has that ability to shape somebody's understanding of male and  female, of course, disregarding completely what the Bible says, God created them male and  female, he made them. So again, these are all, you know, really issues. And the question  comes down to is, is this Satan masquerading as angel of light? You know, even in the  conversion therapy, now, it's clear, and you'll see that in the readings that, quote, conversion  therapy does not work to get someone who's same sex attracted to someone who would be  heterosexually attractive, and that's talked about there in these self proclaimed, it doesn't  work. Well, conversion therapy was their own take on helping someone who is same sex  become converted to heterosexual. Okay, so this isn't a Christian version of psychology here.  This is their own version of trying to fix that problem. When it was more considered problem  today, that's not considered a problem. Now, the Bible would say that, that there's male and  female, and that male and female are created God's image. And that man is attracted to  women. Now, the question will come up, you know, so is the Bible judgmental of people who  have same sex attraction and all of that is no the Bible acknowledges that things will be  broken. The Bible says, Here is the way God made it. The Bible acknowledges that there are  a lot of reasons why things go broke. And we would acknowledge to that people come to their  experience of things a certain way. But we would say God's in the mix, in your journey and in  your healing journey. And if someone is same sex and wants to explore that, we will pray that  they will make that step and look seriously at the Bible's revelation of who they were made to  be. And we believe that God can do instantly or over time, heal someone. It might be a  discipleship journey that takes a while or a long time. Or maybe they are with the Lord  someday, and they're healed in heaven. But to us, it's about inviting God in the whole  process. Christians, as ministers, we don't judge if someone comes to us, and they have  same sex attraction, the first thing we do is okay, we're gonna have to convert you away from  that. No, I think it's illicit our thing is to pray. Our thing is is is to invite them into the church, to  invite them to hear the gospel, God and then have a journey together. Now I've seen that in  ministry, I see it powerfully illustrated again, again, where God works with someone on his  schedule in his way. My goal is to minister My goal is to point them to Jesus Christ. Here's  another question influenced by group think, or politics. This is an interesting passage right 

here from II Timothy 4:1-5. In the presence of God in Christ Jesus, who will judge the living in  the dead in view of his appearing, and his kingdom, I give you this charge, preach the word  be prepared, season out of season, correct, rebuke encouraged, with great patience and  careful instruction, for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to  say what their itching ears want to hear, they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn  aside to myth. But keep your head in all certain situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist discharge all the duties of your office. The other thing that I wonder about in this  whole concept of social sciences in the social science discipline is, is so politically motivated,  like to say, you know, God made man and woman, the ideal is that every man born a man  would be a man, every female born, a female would be a female. And if you talk about this,  and even trumpet it too much it hits into this political headwinds that may even hurt your  ministry. So, you know, our goal is to draw people to Jesus Christ, He will do the work. But in  the social sciences, they don't have the same opinion. They're not drawn yet the UN, I  believe, often they come up with they're telling you the way it is, and you are wrong. In fact,  it's the arrogance in the 19th century by which they dismissed religion. You know, we all know  that God is dead. We all know that God is not in science, we all know that all we are is a  product of random selection. So why then, after I've said all this, do we even study social  sciences, and why are we going to read all of these things coming up next? Well, let me share what what I believe about that? Well, first of all, we serve people who have been influenced  by the social sciences, I mean, in the media, they've seen counselors and therapists and all of that, and many of them have received good things that have happened to them. Through that  process, two God created this world. And things can be discovered that glorify God. And I  believe that's so true. And I have enjoyed studying philosophy and all of the secular  philosophers. I've enjoyed studying psychology and all of the secular psychologists in and we  we learn and we learn and there's principles sometimes. The scientists see amazing insights  into what image bearing is all about and how to love your neighbor as yourself. I, for instance, in the area of disabilities and all abilities concerns, some social scientists have really paved  the way to love our brothers and sisters who are have disabilities that they struggle with and  how to include all abilities. And, and there's incredible things that we can learn from each  other in the social sciences. So they're important that we continue to study. The courts politics media, you You know, you may be asked to testify ad for something. Now, again, we have that whole confidentiality issues and all of those things, I don't want to get into it. But sometimes,  you may be called into a court of law in the attorneys and the judge, they're gonna be well  versed in the social sciences lingo. I also believe that if you follow news and politics, and all of that, all of these things, utilize the sociology and the social sciences. And when somebody  comes to talk with you, they are going to see the world number three, in the evaluation of  problems, often through the terms that the social sciences, the sex therapist, all of those  things would have seen the terms through. So it's good that you're aware of these things. And then these insights that you'll discover, can be awfully helpful in ministry. So you have some  way to talk about it in some way to serve. And when you pray for people to pray with how they would understand those terms, I believe there's a apologetic value in leading someone to  Jesus Christ. Often people come to the Lord through the experience of sexual dysfunction.  Again, I just use the term sexual dysfunction, because that's how they would think of it in  some ways, with using some of those terms is actually softer, you know, to say, Yeah, Susan,  you know, you have become obsessive about your masturbating sin is sort of judgmental. But  if someone says, you know, I see there's a little dysfunction in some of your masturbation  practices, this is a little softer. So in ministry, you can agree with somebody without becoming  so judgmental, because we're not called to judge he says, Do not judging lest you be judged, 

given it will be given to you. Our goal as ministers, is to help people find their way to God, His  Word, Revelation, to even understand where we would have a little element of truth with  discovering who you are, would be who you are as an image bearer, what you're called to do  in the be. So again, we're not opposed to learning what we can learn and they can be  insightful and apologetically, it's often when somebody comes to you, if you understand and  respect them, and can help them get there and see their narrative, in light of God's revelation  is the Holy Spirit speaking to you in your heart, those are powerful, apologetic places to be. I  also believe you study for improved discernment skills. What we're helping people do is  discern the truth back and put that Proverbs passage, to search intently on these things for  their own life, in fine, just plain humility, we want to humbly learn that doesn't mean we have  to agree. So as you read the next sections of their next readings. And many times these  things are really troubling to read through especially in this area of sexuality that is so fallen.  And you can just see that you know, the Garden of Eden with humans fall into sin how  complete that is. So, you can see that and when you read through is it's it's, it's treading, it's  like, you know, going through the swamp many times. That's one way to look at it. The other  way is to say, Wow, our world needs Jesus Christ. Our world needs the Holy Spirit. This has  given me insights to ground my faith in the biblical revelation and to share that with others. So go ahead and start reading these articles the are these chapters that deal with the how the  social sciences would understand sexuality and sexual identity and sexual intimacy.



Last modified: Tuesday, October 18, 2022, 8:03 AM