I. Summary Catechism
Q.2: Elect believer, what do you believe about practical theology, namely, evangelism, apologetics, missions, biblical counseling, teaching, preaching, Christian education, marketplace ministry?
A. 2: That all practical theology is the ministry of the risen Christ[1] to Spirit-indwell and send[2] his linguistically and culturally adapted ambassadors[3] to exemplify,[4] respectfully proclaim[5] and skillfully administrate[6] the past,[7] present[8] and promised[9] dominion of the Righteous King by the lex Christi (law of Christ) in their realms (heavenly & earthly) and places (assembly, creation, diaspora)[10] to their subjects[11] using fourteen “R” methods (14Rs) of redemptive engagement: research- revealed- reality to accurately reckon, choosing appropriate ways to build up the subject (remind, reassure, redirect, restrain, reform, restore, reject and remove) in such a way that the engagement is received by the subjects with the intended results.
II. 14Rs in Scripture and Westminster Confession
The 14Rs methods of engagement correspond roughly to the Scripture’s self-described purposes (with some overlap in the purposes of the sacraments, prayer, communion of the saints and church censures) to research and reveal our hearts to discover and discern our purposes, thoughts and behavior patterns by a standard of righteousness, to “see if there be any grievous way in [us]” and to teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness,[12] even as the Lord “will judge the world in righteousness” (Heb. 4:12-13; Ps. 139:23-24; 2 Tim. 3:16; Acts 17:31).
The Westminster Confession 2:2 also uses similar principles to show God’s engagement with his people. What the Triune God does to reveal himself and his will to, on and in us by the Word becomes the pattern the Lord uses to reveal himself by us to others. WCF 19:6 could be categorized as using many of these methods to apply the moral law.[13] By the inward witness of the Spirit to deepen saving faith (WCF 14:2), receiving Christ and conforming to his righteousness, Scripture also comforts and reassures us that we belong to him (WCF 18:1-4).
III. 14R’s model: equipping for righteousness, every good work
1. Research-revealed-reality: seek the discover the revealed reality of the subject (yourself, a counselee, a marriage, a family, a business, a culture, an author of articles or books, the patterns of a theory or principle). Put yourself in a learning posture to know what reality exists, limited by available revealing resources, subject’s willingness to reveal, accuracy of perceptions & memory, stability of emotions and ability to communicate clearly and truthfully. The researcher must know as accurately as possible before speaking (Prov. 18:13). We seek to understand reality, meaning, what is truthful, the actual situation of things, relationships or individuals, and this requires discernment in cases of conflict, when there is often negative portrayal of facts, exaggeration, lying or deliberately hiding relevant parts of the truth. Ask appropriate questions.
a. Are there any RKD-lex Christi strengths, maturities and healthy habits already existing? Does the subject have conceptual awareness and functional application of the RKD-lex Christi vision? What are the methods, resources and life contexts that have made this growth possible?
b. What are the identified problems or patterns of human behavior and who are the people involved? WHAT? HOW? WHEN? WHERE? WHO? in both broad patterns and detailed examination of problem areas, seeking clarification.
c. What is the subject’s conceptual worldview, purposes for living and habitual-functional practice? Look at recurring phrases, principles for verifying data, human responsibility, and God-awareness.
d. What defines the subject’s moral self-righteousness, those principles or practices that get praised when performed, and judged when neglected? How is the subject’s conscience, thinking, words and behavior handling performance and neglect in self and in others?
e. What is the history of the subject’s moral self-righteousness? Is it socially/culturally assumed “righteousness”? When did it begin and why?
2. Reckon: discern the subject’s righteousness-unrighteousness in comparison with the RKD-lex-Christi (1 Kings 3:9; Ps. 19:2; Prov. 14:8; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 5:10).
a. How likely is it that the collected information is greatly hindered by the subject unwillingness to reveal, inaccuracy of perceptions & memory, instability of emotions and inability to communicate clearly and truthfully? Greater hindrance generally means researcher’s lowered ability to reckon fairly and accurately.
b. WHY? Analyze the subject’s blindness due to sin, any patterns learned with darkened understanding (Eph. 4:18)—develop an inductive theory of the subject’s heart based on phrases and implied worldviews. What wrong patterns have been learned in his fallen environment? What are the sinful responses to suffering?
c. Attempt a big-picture analysis of the subject in life context. What metaphors define the subject’s life? What is the meta-narrative?
d. Find key biblical phrases that define the subject’s suffering, sin, current weaknesses or needed areas of growth.
e. What aspect(s) of the RKD vision and lex Christi need to change the subject? Which of the subject’s loves and hates need to be more like Christ? What aspects of the Lord’s righteousness need to be better known and applied by the subject with the Gospel of grace? How does Christ work those changes in union with him by the power of the Spirit? What righteous wisdom needs to be developed?
f. Are there additional people and resources that need to be accessed to help? Who can access them? Is the subject willing to access these resources or utilize them if the researcher arranges them?
g. Respectfully proclaim and skillfully administrate the response priorities below (joined with biblical teachings/texts) to build up in RKD-lex Christi for the “hearing” subject (Eph. 4:29).
3. Remind: review what the subject already knows and seek better application to any significant situations (2 Tim. 2:14; Tit. 3:1; 2 Pet. 1:12).
4. Reassure: give appropriate salvation assurance where there are strengths in faith, love, repentance and hope, comfort in suffering with biblical promises, encourage to persevere in suffering (Rom. 5:1-5; 15:4).
5. Redirect: Redirect means helping the hearer make wise and good choices from among the available options, restraining their wrong choices.
6. Restrain: Restrain means to issue prohibitions and warnings about earthly and eternal consequences, to prevent sin (WCF 19:6 “[The moral law] is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin; and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law”).
7. Reform: Reform means to adapt the vocabulary of the hearer to a God-oriented purpose and meaning, transforming partially wrong data using more accurate concepts, providing filtered integration, transforming knowledge about body, soul or world so that it can cross over into our functional RKD vision and submission to lex Christi (Col. 2-3; Rom. 2:29; Phil. 3:3; Acts 17:22-31); especially for cultural adaptation and RKD witness to the psychologized community (1 Cor. 9:17-22), and for better stewardship of the physical body, such as medical research and discoveries (1 Cor. 6:19-20; 9:27), or for provoking us to better study of Scripture to see things we formerly ignored.
8. Restore: Develop biblical themes to restore, recreate and renew soul-body righteousness in areas of weakness in relation to knowing the Lord, union with Christ, living constructively in the fallen creation and with other people (Gal 6:1). In new believers this usually starts with the two Great Commandments to love God and love neighbor, then builds on the details of the lex Christi using the Westminster Catechisms. This includes peacemaking to restore relationships in conflict as well as comfort and encouragement to restore hope to the discouraged in trials.
9. Reject: Reject means identifying or diagnosing weakness, brokenness or disintegration, leading to repentance from all unrighteousness or false teaching in self and others, both behavior and witness, in both assembly and diaspora (Phil. 3:2, 18-19; 1 Tim. 4:1-16; 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 5). Such things will be given up to future judgment and are under the Lord’s curse and will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 1:6-9; 5:19-21; 1 Cor. 4:5; Jude 1:14-16; Rev. 21:8).[14] For example, some claim that certain behaviors Christians call sin have a physical or genetic “cause.” Christians can agree the physical and genetic factors have some influence but reject theories determine these factors are the primary cause (Rom. 1:26-32; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1; 2 John 1:10-11; 2 Thess. 3:6-18).
10. Remove: Remove means identifying and eliminating useless teachings or irrelevant things (1 Tim. 1:4; 6:20), for such practices have no value for righteousness or for daily functioning (Col. 2:20-23; Tit. 3:9).
Ambassadors respectfully proclaim and skillfully administrate the RKD-lex Christi by the Spirit in such a way that the engagement is received by the disciples with the intended results, meaning received in a way that advances the dominion of the RKD-lex Christi through saving faith (WCF14:2). There are many hindrances to the hearer receiving the ambassadors ministry with the intended effect, as understood in Christ’s parable of the seed and soils (Matt. 13:3-23).
Also note that these 14 new words don’t mean biblical counselors are sin-inspectors, or that we lack compassion for those in suffering or merely condemn those feeling helpless to change, or that we think change is simple. If that were the case, and we merely wanted to translate the secular manual of disorders into a Christianized form, our Christian manual might be called Diagnostic Standard of Moral Chaos (DSMC), only focused on mankind’s sinful failure to flourish. As most comprehensively developed in Romans or the virtuous wife (Prov. 31:10-31) in the context of Proverbs, we do not do diagnoses without a manual also defining mankind’s righteous flourishing. We are ambassadors of righteousness, testifying to God’s righteousness in Christ, the blessed ways the Spirit transforms his people in righteousness and his cursed ways he will give up the non-elect unrighteous to temporal judgments and patiently endures for final judgment. So we should properly call our “manual” the Diagnostic Standard of Moral Flourishing and Chaos (DSMFC).
Evaluation Worksheet for RKD-lex Christi by 14Rs
Use this worksheet to apply weekly lecture material to yourself, respond to teacher’s case study, evaluate articles and books and to evaluate classmate’s interview-teaching transcript. Consider evaluative connections to each of the themes and develop application connections the ones that seem most relevant.
ministry of the risen Christ
to Spirit-indwell
send his linguistically and culturally adapted ambassadors to
exemplify
respectfully proclaim
skillfully administrate
the past, present and promised dominion of the Righteous King by the lex Christi (law of Christ)
in their realms (heavenly & earthly) and places (assembly, creation, diaspora)
to their subjects
using fourteen “R” methods (14Rs) of redemptive engagement:
research- revealed- reality
to accurately reckon
choosing appropriate ways to build up the subject (remind, reassure, redirect, restrain, reform, restore, reject and remove)
in such a way that the engagement is received by the subject with the intended results
[1] What Jesus continues to do and teach through us (Acts 1:1; 2 Cor. 13:3).
[2] The Spirit teaches us the things of God that natural man cannot understand (1 Cor. 2:12) so his Spirit-taught ambassadors can be sent as his representatives (2 Cor. 5:20).
[3] Language and culture adaptation is a fundamental responsibility of the followers of Christ as they obey the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 2:1-11; 1 Cor. 9:17-21), and is part of the meaning of the sign of Jonah that the Gospel will go to the Gentiles in their languages and they will repent (Matt. 12:39-41).
[4] Our model of life among those we serve must conform to the RKD-lex Christi patterns (Acts 20:32-35; 1 Tim. 4:12).
[5] Though the Athenians’ excessive idolatry grieved Paul, he still was able to complement their general desire to worship a god, while pointing them to the true Lord God (Acts 17:22-30). Proclaiming includes the written text and all forms of media.
[6] Administration of all the following biblical themes and principles in our various realms and places requires mentoring by mature leaders who already do these things, as well as coherent theological and biblical knowledge combined with wisdom to apply that knowledge to people, delegation and reforming cultural influences against the lex Christi. Biblical examples would be like the administrative gifts of Joseph in Egypt (Gen. 37-50), Moses in Sinai (Exod. 18:1-27), Solomon in Israel (1 Kings 3-10), Ezra in the post captivity rebuilding of Jerusalem (Ezra 7:6-10:44), Nehemiah’s stewardship over post-captivity Jerusalem (Neh. 4:1-7:4; 12:44-13:31) the apostles’ appointment of deacons to care for the Hellenistic widows in Jerusalem (Acts 6:1-7) and Paul and Barnabas appointing elders and deacons in every city of their church planting ministry and training their disciples to do the same (Acts 14:23; Tit. 1:5).
[7] All the past redemptive history fulfilled in Christ and providentially applied by the Spirit in our own salvation history.
[8] We apply the righteous kingdom rule of Christ to our present realms, places and roles as professionals in the workplace, parents, church members, teachers, pastors, students, neighbors in the local community, and citizens of the nation.
[9] Like Paul did by rebuking the darkened worldview of the Athenian idolaters as commandment breakers, revealing the one true Lord and commanding their repentance (Acts 17:24-30), we reflect the promised dominion of the Lord in the present, when on the last day the Lord “will judge the world in righteousness,” (Acts 17:31).
[10] See Yates (2017, pp. 165-174).
[11] I use the term “subject” here in the widest sense, meaning a wide variety of people, including readers/viewers in literature and media, anyone who is willing to observe, listen to teaching/instruction or read, but also including eager students of a teacher, or sharing among those with equal authority, or one under authority to his leaders.
[12] Adams (2010) used the four verbs of 2 Tim. 3:16 to develop a biblical counseling method defining how to help people change as a four-step process.
[13] . . . [research-reveal, reckon, remind, reassure, redirect, receive, results] As a rule of life informing them of the will of God, and their duty, it directs, and binds them to walk accordingly; [reform, restore, reject, remove, receive, results] discovering also the sinful pollutions of their nature, hearts, and lives; so as, examining themselves thereby, they may come to further conviction of, humiliation for, and hatred against sin; [reform, restore, receive, results] together with a clearer sight of the need they have of Christ, and the perfection of His obedience. [restrain, receive, results] It is likewise of use to the regenerate, to restrain their corruptions, in that it forbids sin; and the threatenings of it serve to show what even their sins deserve; and what afflictions, in this life, they may expect for them, although freed from the curse thereof threatened in the law. [reassure, receive, results] The promises of it, in like manner, show them God's approbation of obedience, and what blessings they may expect upon the performance thereof . . . .
[14] This category would include Powlison’s illustrative uses of psychology, mostly in illustrating sinfulness in man, and that all he does apart from faith in Christ is still sin. Co-belligerent uses could also be seen within this category, meaning we adopt the criticisms of non-Christians and together criticize poorly done psychology.