Is Mike Emlet a Secularist? Cross-Examining Omri Miles’s Public Accusation. rpmministries.org/2026/07/is… Omri Miles alleges that Mike Emlet’s counseling reflects a secular-materialist framework rather than a biblical one. Does that allegation withstand cross-examination?

Jay Adams: The Physical Is the Biblical Counselor’s Biblical Lane There are some biblical counseling leaders today who insist that biblical counselors stay in their lane by addressing the soul and eschewing matters of the body. Adams would have none of that! “These problems [of trying to divide body and soul] cannot be solved either by Skinnerian reductionism: man is only an animal (all is organic), or on the other hand by simplistic categorization: the nonorganic is the province of the pastor; the organic is the province of the physician” (The Christian Counselor’s Manual, 438, emphasis in the original). Clearly, for Adams, it is simplistic to say the pastor deals with the soul; the doctor deals with the body. Instead, for Adams, the pastor ministers to the whole person—to embodied souls. Or, as I say it frequently: We are soul physicians of embodied-souls. In The Christian Counselor’s Manual, Adams addresses the specific issue of what he called “the organic/nonorganic problem” (437). Using James 5, Adams writes, “James 5:14-16, for instance puts the organized church squarely in the business of dealing with organic illness” (438). Adams is adamant about the nature of comprehensive embodied-soul care: “Pastoral care is ongoing and total. It is to be seen as extending over the body” (438, emphasis in the original). Adams insists that the biblical counselor must be physiologically-informed. “He will strive always to work from this biblical presupposition in ways that are consistent with it. He should take the time and trouble, therefore, to study the fundamental functions of the human body” (438–439). Based upon his biblical understanding of embodied-souls, Adams declares that the biblical counselor’s work constantly involves the organic dimension. “That the body affects the soul and the soul the body in so many obvious, as well as subtle, ways is a fact that the Christian counselor must always remember. His work, therefore, constantly involves the organic dimension” (438–439). Though respecting the role of the physician of the body, Adams demands that biblical counselors fulfill their scriptural calling of being soul physicians of embodied-souls. Biblical counselors “can never shirk their responsibility for dealing with ethical matters of bodily use and abuse, nor can they allow physicians unhampered freedom to advise Christians in ways that tend to ignore or exclude this [embodied-soul] dimension” (438). Adams specifically rejects the simplistic notion that counselors care for the soul and physicians care for the body. The biblical truth of embodied-souls led Adams to a much more nuanced, robust, and complex approach.

Modern nouthetic biblical counselors either need to repudiate Jay Adams's views of neuroscience, the body, the nervous system, trauma, physiological interventions, and sanctification, or they need to learn from Adams on these issues. Tweet below has an article-length summary.