What the Bible says about psychology, psychiatry, madness, and insanity - 01-24-2013, 11:38 AM 01-24-2013, 11:38 AM The Bible is very clear. Only Christians are sane. Everyone else is crazy.



2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.



The Holy Spirit, who lives within True Christians, grants soundness of mind. But madness is the natural state of those who do not have the Holy Spirit, the unsaved.



Eccl 9:3b Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.



Psychiatry purports to study, diagnose, treat and prevent mental illness  what the Bible calls madness. The Bible tells us that trying to understand madness is a fruitless pursuit.



Eccl 1:17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.



Yet secular psychiatrists and psychologists have decided to ignore Gods Word and devote their lives to a lost cause. Life is indeed meaningless when one tries to live without God (Eccl 1:2).



Almost every facet of psychiatry is at odds with Gods Word. Psychiatry uses medicine and science to undermine and attack the Bible. It is not something the Christian should dabble with. Let's look at the foll owing examples.



Psychiatry: Man is a soulless entity, an animal, a chemical cocktail (influenced by evolutionary thinking) .

Bible: A mans soul controls his body . Eccl 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Mat 15:19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

1 Cor 9:27a But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.

Psychiatry: If you are mentally ill, you are sick; you are absolved of responsibility and guilt .

Bible: Everyone is accountable to God for their actions 2 Cor 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Psychiatry: Mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain .

Bible: Madness is caused chiefly by sin and guilt and in extreme cases exacerbated by demonic possession (more on this below) .



Psychiatry: Mental illness exists .

Bible: Madness is not an illness; it is not a sickness caused by your body. It comes from an evil, unbelieving heart. Eccl 9:3b Yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.



Psychiatry: Mental illness is genetic .

Bible: Madness is hereditary only in the sense that it is caused by sin and we are all born sinners because we are descended from Adam, the second sinner (Eve was the first) . Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.



Psychiatry: Alleviate the patient's guilt. Tell them what they are suffering is not their fault .

Bible: We are not to pity or coddle those guilty of sin . Deut 19:13 Thine eye shall not pity him, but thou shalt put away the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, that it may go well with thee.



Psychiatry: Drugs/ therapy cure mental illness .

Bible: The Holy Spirit cures madness . 2 Tim 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.



Psychiatry: The diagnosis of your problem comes from within you

Bible: God has diagnosed your problem for you . Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

Psychiatry: Only trained and certified psychiatrists/ psychologists are qualified to counsel people with mental problems. Pastors and lay persons may give harmful advice .

Bible: Despite all their years of university training, psychologists will never be able to counsel as well as Christians . Rom 15:14 And I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.



Psychiatry: Never give advice or moralize

Bible: Give advice and moralize 2 Tim 4:2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.

So what causes madness? Chemical imbalances in the brain? Stress? Trauma? Lets look at what the Bible says.



Deut 27:15, 28 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.

T he Lord shall smite thee with madness , and blindness, and astonishment of heart.



Zech 12:4 In that day, saith the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.



God drives people to madness as a punishment for sin. Or sometimes He sends a tormenting spirit to do the work on His behalf. In these cases music may provide temporary relief of symptoms.



1 Sam 16:14-16

14 But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.

15 And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee.

16 Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well.



Note that Saul went mad after Gods sanity-giving Spirit had left him. You cant be a Christian and suffer from mental illness.



Demonic possession, especially by a legion of fallen angels, can cause extreme madness, worse than the typical unbeliever would normally suffer. In these cases, the only cure is by the power of Jesus  not drugs  through the hands of a True Christian pastor or exorcist.



Mk 5:1-15

1 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.

2 And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,

3 Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:

4 Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.

5 And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.

6 But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,

7 And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.

8 For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

9 And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

10 And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

11 Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding.

12 And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them.

13 And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand ) and were choked in the sea.

14 And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.

15 And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid.



You might remember the story of how King David feigned madness in front of Achish. This story teaches us another important lesson about madness. If someone is acting crazy, they may just be putting it on. I know here in Australia its easy to get welfare if you pretend to have depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Yes, all unbelievers are mad anyway (Eccl 9:3b), but they may be pretending to be madder than they actually are.



1 Sam 21:10-15

10 And David arose and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.

11 And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

12 And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath.

13 And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.

14 Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad: wherefore then have ye brought him to me?

15 Have I need of mad men, that ye have brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow come into my house?



So the causes of madness are:

God

A tormenting spirit (sent by God)

Demonic possession

Sin

Not having the Holy Spirit living within you

Ulterior motives (they may just be faking it) Those who want to bring psychiatry into the church often use emotionally-charged arguments (because they dont have any Scriptural ones) against True Christians. They might say we are putting peoples lives in danger by advising them not to take medication. What if someone is suicidal? they might ask. Christians can learn how to deal with suicidal people by looking at how Jesus dealt with Judas Iscariot. Jesus knew Judas would betray Him and then kill himself. But what did Jesus do? Prescribe meds? Offer therapy? No. He was brutally honest. He told Judas the truth, that it would be better for him if he had never been born. Some people just cant handle the truth, I guess.



Mat 26:20-25

20 Now when the even was come, he sat down with the twelve.

21 And as they did eat, he said, Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.

22 And they were exceeding sorrowful, and began every one of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I?

23 And he answered and said, He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me.

24 The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It had been good for that man if he had not been born.

25 Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said.



Of course, it is against the sixth commandment to commit suicide. God put it in the Bible twice (Ex 20:13, Deut 5:17), so Jesus probably thought He didnt need to rehash it here. The penalty for breaking this commandment is the same as for breaking any other commandment: an eternity in the lake of fire. God demands that you keep living however much pain you may be in or however hopeless your situation may be (and for unbelievers its pretty hopeless), so that He can send you to hell when He deems it is time to end your earthly suffering and begin your eternal torment.



We often go on about how evolution is a theory in crisis and how more and more scientists are abandoning it. Well, the same is true of psychiatry: it is a science in crisis. Many key figures in the antipsychiatry movement  such as David Cooper, Thomas Szasz and Jeffrey Schaler  are former psychiatrists. We need to stand fast against psychiatry and stick with the Biblical view of madness. After all, not even scientologists, who are dumb enough to believe in aliens, are dumb enough to believe in psychiatry.

Mt 21:42, 44 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes . . . ? And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder .



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