iMonk Classic: Is There Mental Illness in the Bible?

Jeremiah, Michaelangelo

Classic iMonk Post
by Michael Spencer
Nov 25, 2005

Note from CM: As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on the Bible and depression, we present this classic Michael Spencer post on examples of mental illness in Scripture.

Is there mental illness in the Bible? This question seeks to move us toward the question of mental illness and the Gospel.

The focus of the Bible is Jesus Christ. When we talk about anything else as it is presented in the Bible, we must be aware that no matter important it might be to us, it is not the main concern of the Bible itself.

For example, I may desperately want to have the Biblical teaching on parenting, but I must start with the admission that the Bible is not a book on parenting. As it shows me parenting, and as I learn from that presentation, I am still on the road to Jesus Christ and the Gospel. So if we find mental illness in the Bible, we should expect that the portrayal of mental illness will not answer all of our questions, but will serve the purpose of the ultimate presentation of Jesus Christ as our salvation.

Mental illness is an aspect of a post-fall world. There was no mental illness in Eden. There is mental illness now. What has changed? Sin, that virus of self-centered blindness to the truth and glory of God, has twisted and broken every aspect of human nature, from the clarity of our mental processes to the bio-chemical make-up of our brains. Sin has multi-generational effects. It is embedded in every aspect of the social make-up of human communities and relationships. It has altered everything about the world.

Because of this close relationship between mental illness and sin, it is difficult to disentangle the two. Take a Biblical example: Jeremiah.

10 Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. 11 The LORD said, “Have I not set you free for their good? Have I not pleaded for you before the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress? 12 Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze? 13 “Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. 14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.” 15 O LORD, you know; remember me and visit me,, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance take me not away; know that for your sake I bear reproach. 16 Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts. 17 I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because your hand was upon me, for you had filled me with indignation. 18 Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?

• Jeremiah 15:10-18

Jeremiah’s complaints to God often have the character of the inner dialogue of the depressed person. Is it sinful to feel sorry for yourself? Is it sinful to say that God is deceitful in refusing the “heal” your troubles? These feelings are so much a part of our fallen condition, so involved in our fallen perspective, that we can’t fail to see both our true humanity and our fallen humanity at the same time.

Continue reading “iMonk Classic: Is There Mental Illness in the Bible?”

Lent II

Nicodemus Visiting Jesus by Night, Tanner

By Chaplain Mike
Today’s Gospel: John 3:1-17

a sonnet

a teacher who was learned and upright
came out to visit jesus late one night
immersed in scripture, ritual, and law
impressed by signs of heaven that he saw
and yet confused by words conveyed with love
of kingdom gained by new birth from above
and israel’s teacher could not comprehend
what moses and the prophets all had penned —
new heart, new spirit, water washing clean
from idols that disparage and demean
a son descending to be lifted high
a love that gives that loved ones may not die
i wonder if that teacher turned around
and felt the fresh’ning wind and heard its sound?

The Bible Does Not Speak to That

By Chaplain Mike

The other day I was reading a blog that will remain unnamed. I’m not interested in interacting personally with the author or “answering” his post. I simply want to use his take on a particular subject as an illustration to make a point here today.

That point is: The Bible simply does not speak to many aspects of our lives.

Even when we think it does. Even when we can take verses and passages and apply them to certain situations and conditions in our lives, the bottom line is that they were not written for that purpose. The fact that we think the Bible is God’s detailed instruction manual for life, containing information, counsel, and specific advice for every bit of need and mystery in life can lead us astray in many ways.

Today I want to talk about one of those ways—about how this view of God’s involvement in our lives and the nature of the Bible’s counsel can lead us to be way too hard on ourselves and to seek “spiritual” answers when in reality, all we may need is a bit of common sense and simple attention to earthly and human realities.

The subject is depression.

Continue reading “The Bible Does Not Speak to That”

My Quick Take on the Bell Blow-Up

By Chaplain Mike

Comments closed. The conversation is degenerating…

I promise not to take too much of your time with this one.

Subject: Rob Bell vs. Justin Taylor, John Piper, Kevin DeYoung, Al Mohler, et al.

You’re witnessing something big right now.
You’re witnessing a new split in Protestant Evangelicalism.

…This may be the future of Evangelicalism—and we may all be witnessing the tipping point.

But, I can see why he might have missed it; it’s not a split at all. It is more like an erosion. Those of us along the edges are simply sliding off the side into, well, all kinds of things. Some of us turn to Catholicism, others to mainline denominations. Some tumble into Episcopal or Anglican churches, others stay at their evangelical churches but choose not to identify as such. And, sadly, some slide off the edge into nothing at all.

I don’t think there will be any more of a marked change than this. A loosely gathered group of people who have never been able to agree on a name let alone the particulars of theology don’t split, they erode. And erosion doesn’t happen once and then it’s over, it’s an ongoing process.

We are in the midst of the erosion. Enjoy the slide.

And that leads to my take. I simply want to observe two things—

The power of the new media to manipulate.
Bell’s publisher, HarperOne, pulled off one of the greatest coups in the digital age with its advance release of blurbs and video teasers on the internet suggesting that the author may be advocating universalism in his new book. They knew exactly what they were doing, and it worked. The Christian blogosphere (especially in its new Reformed incarnation), known for its reactionary impulses toward anything that smells in the least like false doctrine, blew up in record fashion.

New media, same old marketing bull_____. And Christians fell for it (and in it) again.

Protestant evangelicalism’s fundamental authority problem.
When did Rob Bell become an apostle? Did I miss that? How is it that his voice is considered so important in the church? Where does he come off as a lone wolf author publishing a book on an essential doctrine of the church? What are his qualifications for teaching doctrine? To whom is he accountable?

And when did Justin Taylor and others who consider themselves gatekeepers of sound doctrine get appointed to the magisterium? What gives them any authority to speak to or about Rob Bell? What right do they have to set themselves up as teachers and guardians of the Truth? Why do they think that they have a platform to criticize a brother in public, in full view of an unbelieving world that will only find more cause to mock the faith because of our schisms?

Oh, St. Ignatius of Antioch, where is your wisdom today? How shall we ever survive without godly bishops and elders to guard us and lead us in the way of truth and love?

Saturday Ramblings 3.19.11

Today will be a bit of a different sort of Saturday Ramblings. For one, once I eliminated all of the Rob Bell Is A Universalist stories, there really wasn’t much to report on. But we have some bigger things to discuss this week. Are you ready to ramble?

I want to ask you to spend time this weekend in prayer for our First Lady Denise Spencer. We are coming up on the one year anniversary of the death of Michael Spencer, and this is not an easy time for Denise. So I would like to ask you to especially remember her this weekend and in the coming weeks. She is a wonderful friend and sister. She loves the iMonk community and asks about many of you by name when we talk. So, please pray for Denise.

Another prayer concern is for the nation of Japan. The destruction from the earthquake and tsunami is devastating. We don’t need to know why this happened, and we don’t need to make any kind of moral judgments concerning nuclear power at this time. We need to pray. Our friends at 24/7 Prayer have a calendar set up for worldwide, 24 hour prayer through this coming Wednesday for Japan. If you can take even one hour and pray, well, I have a feeling God will hear. And who knows what God will do when his people pray?

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Friday with the Fathers (2)

The Church Fathers, Kievan Miniature (11th c)

By Chaplain Mike

On Fridays during the Lenten season, we are meditating on brief introductions to the Apostolic Fathers. These are the first Christian writings we have outside the pages of the New Testament itself. Dates range from the second half of the first century to the first half of the second century. The traditional list of the Fathers includes:

  • Clement of Rome
  • Ignatius of Antioch
  • Polycarp of Smyrna
  • The Didache
  • The Epistle of Barnabas
  • The Shepherd of Hermas
  • Papias

Today, we meet Ignatius of Antioch (Syria). Though he was bishop of Antioch, the only writings we have of his come from a brief period at the end of his life, shortly before he died as a martyr in Rome early in the second century. As Ignatius was being escorted to Rome in the custody of soldiers, he wrote seven letters to churches along the way and to Rome, alerting them of his soon arrival. We do not have the account of his death, but it is likely that he suffered and died shortly thereafter as a martyr to the faith.

Thus, the Letters of Ignatius contain the words of a “dead man walking”—walking toward what in human eyes was a tragic loss, but for him eternal gain.

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Our Inadequate Grasp of “Culture”

By Chaplain Mike

I hope you will join the conversation as I continue to work through James Davison Hunter’s book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. In our first discussion, we talked through a question: If America has as many people with faith commitments as studies suggest, why has our culture become increasingly “secular” in so many of its manifestations? Today, we look at Hunter’s critique of a popular view of culture and the remedy for its flaws that many Christian leaders proclaim.

“Ideas matter.” This has been the slogan of many leading Christians who take a “worldview” perspective on culture and cultural change. Here, James Davison Hunter summarizes a common Christian message, heard in sermons, published in books, and mailed out to supporters of various “culture war” causes:

Bad ideas form the basis of destructive values and these, in turn, lead to bad choices. In the end, all cumulatively lead to an unhealthy and declining culture.

But the same ideas work in the reverse. If we want to change our culture for the better, we need more and more individuals possessing the right values and the right worldview and, therefore, making better choices. (p.8)

The message is—“We can change the world one life at a time.” As attractive and motivating as these words may be, Hunter finds them simplistic and unrealistic. While not denying the power of ideas and the importance of “changing hearts and minds,” he finds this perspective insufficient both in its diagnosis of the problem and in its formulation of solutions.

This view, he writes, is based on certain implications: (1) that real change must proceed individually, (2) that cultural change can be willed into being, and (3) that change is democratic, occurring from the bottom up as ordinary people think and act rightly. In other words, “If you have the courage and hold to the right values and if you think Christianly with an adequate Christian worldview, you too can change the world.” (p.17)

Though this sentiment is common, James Davison Hunter says it is an almost wholly mistaken perspective.

Continue reading “Our Inadequate Grasp of “Culture””

The Four Holy Gospels

There are Bibles that you carry to church with you. For me, that’s a Pitt Minion Cambridge NASB. Then there are Bibles for studying. I have shelves full, ranging from the NET to a Dake to, oh, everything.

And then there is the Bible as a work of art. As far as I know, there is only one such modern Bible in the English language, The Four Holy Gospels. Designed to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Version, The Four Holy Gospels is just as the name implies: The gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the English Standard Version. But what sets this apart is the artwork on most every page.

Makoto Fujimura is a world-class painter and artist who has gained a reputation for his art and for his faith. He is working with other Christian artists in the New York area to help them to use their art to proclaim the gospel. (This is the same desire I have.) And now he has undertaken an incredibly difficult task: To add artwork to Scripture. Not pictures of Jesus, but rather pictures from a heart of one who follows Jesus.

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Almost Like Being There

Editor’s Note: Happy St. Patrick’s Day! For some time now, Martha of Ireland has been contributing outstanding comments to many of our essays. Now we turn the pen (ok, keyboard) over to her for a look at St. Patrick’s Day as it is celebrated in Ireland, and at the real St. Patrick—or as real as we can find him. Let’s give Martha an iMonk welcome as our first European correspondant.

Jeff has very kindly asked me to give a few thoughts on St. Patrick, seeing as how today is the feast of our national saint, and so here goes.

I’ll spare you the rant on fake-Irishness, cod-Celticness, green beer and leprechauns.  Okay, I will rant this much: it’s either St. Patrick’s Day or Paddy’s Day in the vernacular.  It is most emphatically not St. Patty’s Day, and you have my imprimatur to shoot anyone who uses the term.  Well, maybe shooting is a bit much – a blunt instrument smartly applied to the back of the head is probably enough.  Although the festival as celebrated in recent times really owes more to the Americans who made it what it was, rather than the Irish (who basically have treated it as a break from Lenten fasting and, more importantly, an opportunity to get drunk – Drowning the Shamrock – as the licensing laws of yesteryear relaxed their iron vigor on the day, but only since 1960, as prior to that, the pubs had to close on the day), it really has fallen between two stools in recent years.

It used to be the day to go to Mass dressed in green, sporting a large bunch of shamrock on your lapel or the St. Patrick’s Day badges (usually a cardboard gilt harp with ribbons in green, white and orange, the colour of the Tricolour) – an uneasy mix of piety and nationalism.  Afterwards, you would stand on the streets or in the town square watching the parade (generally composed of tractors pulling floats sponsored by and heavily advertising local businesses, creamery lorries, a brass band or pipe band and some hardy souls in fancy dress that wasn’t very fancy) as a freezing wind, often accompanied by sheeting rain, reduced the onlookers to hypothermia – no wonder the pub was a welcome resort to stave off death from cold!

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Open Mic: Why So Little “Impact”?

By Chaplain Mike

I am catching up with some books that I have wanted to read for some time. One is James Davidson Hunter’s, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, a provocative look at how we understand and call Christians to participate in the church’s mission in the world.

This is a fascinating, thought-provoking, and controversial book, and I am eager to work my way through it.

For today, I’ll throw out a snippet from one of the book’s early chapters for discussion.

I begin with faith in America. Consider, first, the fact that communities of faith have been a dominating presence in American society for the length and breadth of its history. There is some evidence that suggests that there are even more Americans who are worshipping as part of a congregation today than in the past. As late as 1960, only 2 percent of the population claimed not to believe in God; even today, only 12 to 14 percent of the population would call themselves secularists. This means that in America today, 86 to 88 percent of the people adhere to some faith commitments. And yet our culture—business culture, law and government, the academic world, popular entertainment—is intensely materialistic and secular. Only occasionally do we hear references to religious transcendence in these realms, and even these are vague, generic, and void of particularity. If culture is the accumulation of values and the choices made by individuals on the basis of these values, then how is it that American public culture today is so profoundly secular in its character?

Hunter is challenging a popular Christian notion—that if individuals in a society hold to certain ideas and values, it will lead to a transforming effect on society from the ground up. This idealistic notion has been the foundation upon which most Christian calls to “change the world” have been based. But Hunter claims the notion is false. Building upon this foundation, we have not clearly grasped our mission in the world.

He gives other illustrations. Why, for example, have minority communities such as the Jewish and gay communities, had such an enormous influence on society through our cultural institutions? Groups like these have apparently been able to “change the world” while being marginalized and at times even persecuted by those in the mainstream.

And so, Hunter asks, “If culture is the accumulation of values and the choices made by individuals on the basis of these values, then how is it that American public culture today is so profoundly secular in its character?”

Let’s bat this around today as I make my way through the rest of Hunter’s book. Step up to the mic, please.