Mental illness and the Baptist Chuch

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by seekingthetruth, Apr 24, 2012.

  1. freeatlast New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2004
    Messages:
    10,295
    Likes Received:
    0
    Well we disagree on the idea of mental illness as I see it all coming from sin. In other word mental illness does not cause sin, sin causes what some term as mental illness. As to the question I asked in the context it was stated and what was meant by it yes I stand on it although I don't remember what the issue or substance was about.
     
  2. freeatlast New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2004
    Messages:
    10,295
    Likes Received:
    0
    You have no way to know what all that fasting and prayer was about my friend. Here are some people that also fast and prayed and dedicated themselves;
    Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
    One thing for sure the pills have not fixed him. I have prayed for him and I am sure others will also.
     
  3. Steadfast Fred Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,983
    Likes Received:
    1
    Are they truly gone out? or is the person's mind altered to where they are just not hearing them anymore?

    The brain's functioning can be funny. If I do not get enough sleep, I get a constant high-pitched buzzing in my head. Once I rest, they buzzing is gone. I am sure if I took sleeping pills, they would squelch the buzzing as well. But as soon as I deprive myself of proper sleep, the buzzing begins again.

    It is the same with people hearing voices telling them to cut themselves. Pills do not get rid of those voices, they only squelch them for a time. Take away the pills and the voices are speaking once again. The problem is not done away by medicating the person, it is only prolonged. That presence which the voices come from is still there in the dark recesses of the mind waiting to surface again.

    Pumping a person full of psychotropic drugs does not remedy the problem, it keeps the problem sedated, so to speak.
     
  4. nodak Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Feb 9, 2008
    Messages:
    1,269
    Likes Received:
    16
    Bipolar disorder is not the same as getting down once in a while.

    Truly, those that denigrate the mentally ill probably would never walk up to a diabetic and tell them to just go to God, think positive thoughts, eat right, and get on with life without insulin.

    Yet they expect those with brain disease to just get over it.

    Beats me.
     
  5. Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2010
    Messages:
    33,468
    Likes Received:
    1,575
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Fred, can you please tell me what qualifies you to make these statements....are you a MD, Psychiatrist or any medical professional with both extensive study & practice in the field of mental disorders?
     
  6. Steadfast Fred Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,983
    Likes Received:
    1
    Diabetes is a physical illness that can be medically proven. Mental illness is a fabricated fable that no medical profession has been able to prove as being factual.
     
  7. padredurand Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2004
    Messages:
    4,541
    Likes Received:
    102
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Not all psychotropics are sedatives. Maybe you need to educate yourself on the topic. I recommend this site NAMI.
     
  8. agedman Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Nov 4, 2011
    Messages:
    11,023
    Likes Received:
    1,108
    Faith:
    Baptist
    There are two specific (if I recall correctly) of one going insane and one with some form of epilepsy.

    I would like for FAL and Fred to point out what "sin" was involved, and how those two instances support their view.

    Daniel 7

    Mathew 17

    So you don't get to lost, in both these accounts the Scriptures indicate the condition was caused by direct decree from God!
     
  9. Arbo Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2010
    Messages:
    3,942
    Likes Received:
    1
    Answered as expected, on both counts.

    Now let me ask you what evidence you have, Biblically, that you are right on both of these. On your contention that mental illness' root cause is the sufferer's sin; and that because I disagree with you about this I must have forsaken the Bible for my own religion, as you say. Refer to posts 38, 40, and 42 to jog your memory regarding the latter.

    Or you can just to admit that you were hasty to judge.
     
  10. freeatlast New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2004
    Messages:
    10,295
    Likes Received:
    0

    Fred might be able to answer you but I am not sure of your question. The person in Mat 17 was demon possessed.
    Dan 7 is a prophesy. So I am not understanding the question.
     
  11. Steadfast Fred Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,983
    Likes Received:
    1
    Matthew 17:18 reveals that the epilepsy was caused by a demon that had to be cast out... not mental illness contrary to what many would claim this day and age.

    Matthew 17:18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

    You must have missed that, eh?
     
  12. Earth Wind and Fire Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 5, 2010
    Messages:
    33,468
    Likes Received:
    1,575
    Faith:
    Baptist
    Are you a pastor Fred?
     
  13. Steadfast Fred Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,983
    Likes Received:
    1
    No, I am not a pastor. But I do preach when called upon.
     
  14. freeatlast New Member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2004
    Messages:
    10,295
    Likes Received:
    0
    Your statement about not being able to go periods of time with no sin is clearly wrong according to scripture. Please show any scripture that puts a time limit on how long someone can go.

    You asked for biblical support for my belief on what is being called mental illness. Well I am not going to list every instance in the bible. You can do that research, but King Saul is a prime example. His sin drove him mentally ill in today's standards. Also Nebakanezer's sin brought him to eating grass. If you look into scripture in every single event where anyone is considered crazy, mentally ill or what ever you would call it is is because of sin first. Not they get ill and then start sinning.
     
  15. Steadfast Fred Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,983
    Likes Received:
    1

    So true. Yet in today's society, so many want to put the cart before the horse.
     
  16. Arbo Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2010
    Messages:
    3,942
    Likes Received:
    1
    The examples of Saul and Nebuchadnezzar do not a principle make.

    As to the former issue, that's a topic that would derail the thread; besides you will not listen to someone whom you consider an heretic.
     
  17. Steadfast Fred Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,983
    Likes Received:
    1
    The claim that voices in the head that cause one to cut ones self is caused by mental illness is ludicrous. Especially since the Word of God tells us where these voices originate from...

    Matthew 15:19-20 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

    Thoughts of self mutilation, suicide, etc., originate in the heart of man, not in the mind. It is not a result of mental illness, but rather of an evil heart.

    Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
     
  18. preacher4truth Active Member

    Joined:
    Nov 18, 2010
    Messages:
    8,121
    Likes Received:
    17
    Sure. It says it comes from our evil hearts, not demons.



    Oh, btw Dr. Willmington spelled his name with two 'L's. :)
     
  19. Iconoclast Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Mar 25, 2010
    Messages:
    21,242
    Likes Received:
    2,305
    Faith:
    Non Baptist Christian
    The fact that all men apart from Christ and bound in sin and are insane is one thing.....but to say that there is no legitimate mental illness is unscriptural.

    Living in a fallen world there are a full spectrum of disorders.
    Are there abuses...and all kinds of made -up syndromes to perpetuate the funding for mental health...yes...that kind of abuse is there.

    If you have no experience with mental disorders you have been fortunate....be careful what you desire.....I do not think Nebuchadnezzar was enjoying good mental health when eating grass....

     
  20. padredurand Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Oct 25, 2004
    Messages:
    4,541
    Likes Received:
    102
    Faith:
    Baptist
    But not out of the heart of a regenerated man.

    Hebrews 10:19-22 NAS77
    19 Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
    20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
    21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
    22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.


    It is apparent you do not understand even the elementary principles of brain function. Let me give you a simple example. Do you know anyone with Parkinson's disease? It's root cause is a deficiency in the neurotransmitter dopamine. Information passing between receptors is lost. Would you tell a Parkinson's patient that they are not ill just sinful?

    Schizophrenia is a related illness. It's cause? Too much dopamine. Receptors are flooded with information. Some stick completing a thought while other bits of information travel to unintended portions of the brain. That's why schizophrenics see or hear things that are not there. It's obvious you would not hesitate to tell the schizophrenic that they have a sin issue not a medical one.

    This is an over simplified description of the related illnesses. Do a little research. There is no excuse for ignorance.

    I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well.
    Psalms 139:14 NAS77