About IABC

2. We believe that there is one true God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each of these Persons possesses equally all the attributes of Deity and thus the characteristics of personality (Matthew 18:19; John 10:30; Acts 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 13:14).
3. We believe that God the Father, Creator of heaven and earth, is the functional head of the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) (Genesis 1:1, 26; Matthew 6:9; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 1 John 3:1).
4. We believe that Jesus Christ is God, the living Word, who became fully man without ceasing to be fully God, through His miraculous conception and virgin birth. He lived a sinless life and voluntarily atoned for the sins of men by dying on the cross as their substitute. He rose from the dead in the same body, though glorified, in which He had lived and died. He ascended bodily into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God the Father, as the Advocate of those who trust Him for salvation (Matthew 1:16, 20, 23; Luke 1:34; Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 15; 1 Peter 2:5-9; 1 John 2:1). We believe that Jesus Christ will come again to the earth, personally, visibly, and bodily to consummate history and the eternal plan of God.(Acts 1:10-11; John 14:3; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17; Revelation 22:20).
5. We believe that God the Holy Spirit has come into the world to reveal and glorify Christ and to apply the saving work of Christ to mankind. He convicts and draws sinners to Christ. From the moment of spiritual birth, He imparts new life to them, and seals them until the day of redemption. He is the source and power for all acceptable worship and imparts a diversity of enabling gifts for service. He enlightens us to understand the infallible Word and seeks to occupy us with Christ alone (Galatians 5:22-23; Ephesians 5:18; Titus 3:5).
6. We believe that man was originally created in the image of God and that man sinned by disobeying God and thus was alienated from his Father/Creator. Fallen man’s nature is corrupted and he is thus totally unable to please God. He is in need of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Man cannot see nor enter the Kingdom of God until He is born again (Genesis 1:26-27; John 3:3, 6-7; Romans 1:18, 3:20, 5:12, 7:21-25; Ephesians 2:1; Titus 3:5-6).
7. We believe that the salvation of man is wholly a work of God’s grace and is not the work, in whole or in part, of human works, effort, or religious ceremony. We believe that God imputes them in His sight. Nothing can be added to the finished work of Christ (John 3:16; Romans 3:24, 6:23; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).
8. We believe that the Church, the Body of Christ, is composed of all persons living and dead who have been joined to Christ through faith in His atonement. Every true believer is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:13) This relates believers to one another spiritually, regardless of church or denominational distinction. We believe the Scriptures affirm that the local church is a God-ordained instrument for worship, discipline, spiritual edification, and encouragement and the assembling together for these purposes should not be forsaken by Christians (Romans 12:4-5; Ephesians 2:15-16, 19-22, 4:1-3; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 10:25).
9. We believe that the believer, upon physical death, enters immediately into conscious fellowship with the Lord, and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting glory and blessing. (John 12:26; 1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:1-10; Philippians 1:23) We believe that the unbeliever, upon physical death, enters immediately into eternal, conscious separation from God and awaits the resurrection of his body to everlasting judgment and condemnation (Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 5:12; Ephesians 2:12; Revelation 20:11-15).
10. We believe that all believers are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim the gospel throughout the world and to disciple people from every nation (Matthew 28:19; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47-48).
11. We believe that the highest of the created angels, Lucifer, aspiring to displace God, fell from heaven, became Satan, and caused man’s fall into sin, thus introducing sin into the entire human race. His objective today is to thwart the plan of God, deceive, if possible, the whole world, and create confusion among believers. We believe that through the sacrifice of Christ, Satan is a defeated enemy who will be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire (Isaiah 14:12-17; Matthew 25:41; Ephesians 6:11-12; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:9-10, Revelation 12:19-20, 20:10, 21:8).

In that relationship, with Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we help counselees grow to be more like Christ. You may think that sounds like a vague and unattainable goal, but it has a starting point. There’s a concise description of Jesus recorded in John 1:14 – “full of grace and truth.” Grace and truth are the necessary guardrails that protect and guide every biblical counseling conversation.

IABC counselors agree that to ignore grace leads to inaccurate understanding of God and the deceptive counseling of perfectionism or behavior management – performance based counseling. We equally agree that to ignore truth also leads to inaccurate understanding of God and the deceptive counseling of humanism or liberalism – emotions based counseling.

Grace is not only for new birth (justification), but it is available for growth (sanctification). Grace is not forgiveness alone, but also provides God’s resources to grow in godliness.

As biblical counselors, we take time to be still before God. We soak in His grace as we confess our sin and walk in mercy towards others. We bask in His truth as we learn and grow in the study of His Word. The only standard we choose is God’s Word, as we seek to avoid performance standards for ourselves and our counselees. We check criticism and judgmentalism in our spirits. We counsel the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ, knowing that only therein is found the joyful freedom of forgiveness which our counselees lack and long for.

We at IABC stress the living relationship with Jesus Christ. We teach the spiritual disciplines of 1 Timothy 4:7 within the guardrails of grace and truth. We teach that the truths of Scripture can and do minister to every aspect of the human condition, but only under God’s grace. In this grace, our counselees are enabled and empowered to persevere in applying their lives to truth.

We endeavor to remember, and encourage our counselees to remember, that the saving grace of God is also the changing power of biblical counseling.

We resist counseling from a pragmatic, practically minded social gospel that slowly meanders off the narrow path of the Christ-followers. At the same time, we seek to incarnate the love of Jesus Christ in ministering biblical truths to the heart of the counselee. We remain mindful that radical adjustments or accountability measures necessary for our counselees’ success will only be an academic exercise apart from relationship with Jesus Christ. It is our goal never to offer a message of hope from any other position than clinging personally to the Cross of the Savior, and from any other promotion than relationship with the powerful Redeemer, who is the King of Grace and Truth.

Jesus Christ lined Himself up perfectly with truth (John 17:17-19).
Jesus came for the purpose of truth (John 18:37).
Jesus Christ is the embodiment of truth (John 14:6).
To see counselees walking in truth provides the greatest joy (3 John 1:4).
Because the Word of God is God revealing Himself to us; as we know the Word of God, so we know God. We are counselors whose highest priority is daily reorientation of ourselves to see the Savior, adore the Savior, and rejoice in the Savior through His Word.

It is in the personal soaking in of Truth Himself by which biblical counselors can and do follow through, graciously counseling the truth of the Savior.

We embrace Scripture’s proclamations of lavished grace that introduce functional obligations. We reveal the glorious, loving, sacrificial power of God before counseling towards adoring obedience. We keep at the forefront of our minds the fact that biblical counseling works because God transforms. Our goal is not that counselees become better at coping, functioning, or handling life – we want them to overcome; to live out Christ’s imputed righteousness; to shine abundant life.

Biblical counselors trained through IABC learn what God says about the human condition, and how the Bible shows them to think about life situations. We maintain that the overriding responsibility of a biblical counseling session is to make people aware of how God’s authoritative and super-sufficient Word makes His love real to them. We seek to help our counselees to become wise, we help them understand how relevant passages bear connectedness to their problems.

We are aware of the reality that in this sin-cursed fallen world, our counselees often innocently suffer horrific travesties. Equally, we recognize that in Christ there can and are responses that reflect the joy and peace possible only in God. Biblical counselors are sold out to the fact that by the Holy Spirit, every counselee can be delivered from sinful responses and from expectations that there will be no sin against them (Romans 8:1-4). As we walk together with our counselees through the dregs of conviction of sin; our goal is that they revel in the joy of being forgiven, and radiate the grace of Christ’s mercy. We appreciate that victory over sin is not just a potential battle; it is of absolute necessity a feverish all-out war; a war in which the enemy has been defeated.

2. I agree that all mankind is in need of personal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. If those I counsel do not possess this salvation, a primary objective of my counseling must be clear, Spirit-led communication of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (Romans 3:23, 6:23; Matthew 28:19-20).
3. I agree to counsel and teach the lordship of Jesus Christ in order to lead counselees away from a humanistic focus on self to a proper focus on Him (Luke 9:23; Romans 12:1-2).
4. I agree to honor the scriptural sanctity of life, marriage, and family and to do my utmost in counseling to reinforce these beliefs (Psalm 139:13-14; Genesis 2:24; Malachi 2:16; Proverbs 23:25; Colossians 3:20).
5. I agree that, as God empowers me, I will live my life and conduct my relationships in godliness and holiness before Him, with the goal of living out the truths that I am teaching (Philippians 2:12-13).
6. I agree with the spiritual authority of the Church. I will evidence this by my involvement in a local church and by instructing those whom I counsel to involve themselves in a church also, thus working in concert with it rather than in competition against it (Hebrews 10:25).