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Voddie Baucham - Mental Illness And The Bible · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We cannot walk through Daniel chapter 4 and avoid the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: topic of mental illness. We cannot look at a picture
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of a man who, had he walked into a hospital today,
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  Speaker 1: would have immediately been diagnosed with schizophrenia and medicated until
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: he was drooling.
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  Speaker 2: And left there.
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  Speaker 1: Without any hope. We cannot read this text that ends
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: far differently than that, that starts for reasons other than
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: those that would be supposed according to our contemporary psychological
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and psychiatric models without asking the question, what does this
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: mean for those of us who are born again, blood-washed
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  Speaker 1: followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet live in
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: this real world where people have real problems and real difficulties.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Do we just act like Daniel chapter 4 is not here?
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  Speaker 2: I mean, you can.
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  Speaker 1: You can act like Daniel chapter 4 is not here,
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  Speaker 1: and we cannot deal with the question of schizophrenia. But
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  Speaker 1: then you've got to read Job, and you've got to
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  Speaker 1: deal with clinical depression. Oh, well, we'll just act like
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: Job is not there. That's fine. We'll deal with the
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  Speaker 1: Apostle Paul and the murders that he oversaw, and then
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  Speaker 1: we can talk about post-traumatic stress disorder.
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  Speaker 2: Well, we don't really want to talk about that. Okay, fine.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: If you don't want to talk about that, let's talk
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  Speaker 1: about Jesus, shall we? In the Garden of Gethsemane, where
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  Speaker 1: he experiences a classic instance of anxiety. Or better yet,
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  Speaker 1: when he comes to the tomb of Lazarus, weeping there
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  Speaker 1: in depression, but then resuscitates Lazarus and they celebrate, now
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  Speaker 1: he's bipolar.
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  Speaker 2: Let's not even talk about.
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  Speaker 1: The Psalms, where you find every manner of what we
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  Speaker 1: would define as mental illness expressed by the psalmist himself.
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  Speaker 1: So even if you want to avoid the subject here
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  Speaker 1: in Daniel chapter four, which you absolutely positively cannot and
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  Speaker 1: must not, you have to face it somewhere. And you
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  Speaker 1: have to ask the question, what are we as Christians
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  Speaker 1: supposed to do? We've got a couple of possibilities. Possibility
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  Speaker 1: number one, is we can simply say that that is
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  Speaker 1: not a place where we belong. We don't understand it,
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  Speaker 1: but there are other professionals who do. So let's just
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: leave it alone. Well, that's an untenable position because it's
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  Speaker 1: right here in the Bible. So we can't leave it alone. Well,
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  Speaker 1: what's our other option? Well, the other option, there'd be
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  Speaker 1: a ditch on the other side of the road where
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  Speaker 1: we acted like we understood things completely just because of
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  Speaker 1: what we have here in the text as it relates
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  Speaker 1: to what's going.
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  Speaker 2: On in people's minds. Bible's not designed as a mental
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  Speaker 2: health textbook, so to speak. So what do we do?
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  Speaker 1: Well, we take this little excursus and we talk about
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  Speaker 1: the main issues involved here. Let me tell you what
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  Speaker 1: I'm not here to do this morning. I am not
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  Speaker 1: here to give you an exhaustive understanding of the way
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  Speaker 1: the Bible deals with the issue.
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  Speaker 2: Of mental illness.
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  Speaker 1: I am not here to give you an exhausting understanding
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  Speaker 1: of psychology and psychiatry. That's not my goal here. My
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  Speaker 1: goal here, however, is to give you a basic lay
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  Speaker 1: of the land so that we can at least talk
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  Speaker 1: about this in a way that honors our Lord Jesus Christ,
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  Speaker 1: recognizes what it means to be born again, to be saved,
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  Speaker 1: and that recognizes what it means to be a bipartite
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  Speaker 1: human being, having physical and spiritual life. abiding simultaneously together. Now,
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  Speaker 1: let me just say, full disclosure, it's a blessing in
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  Speaker 1: a church this size. I was able this week to
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  Speaker 1: pick up the phone and have conversations with, one, a
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  Speaker 1: family practice specialist, two, a psychiatrist, and three, an emergency
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  Speaker 1: room physician, all of whom are members right here in
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  Speaker 1: this church.
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  Speaker 2: Imagine that. And so I did that.
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  Speaker 1: Why?
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  Speaker 2: Because this is not my area of expertise.
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  Speaker 1: And yet, because this text is in the Bible, and
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  Speaker 1: because I shepherd real people with real problems, it is
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  Speaker 1: incumbent upon me to know something about this. It is
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  Speaker 1: not an option for a pastor to see no evil,
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  Speaker 1: hear no evil, speak no evil when it comes to
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  Speaker 1: this issue of mental illness. That is not allowed. That
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  Speaker 1: is dereliction of duty. We're responsible to walk with people
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  Speaker 1: who have real difficulties. So why is it so hard
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  Speaker 1: for us to talk about this issue? Several reasons. Number one,
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  Speaker 1: because of our psychologized culture. There are presuppositions with which
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  Speaker 1: we live that make it difficult for us to talk.
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  Speaker 1: about this passage or to even think about this passage
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  Speaker 1: in the right way.
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  Speaker 2: For example, the number one most.
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  Speaker 1: Completed class in college is Psychology 101. More people complete
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  Speaker 1: that course than any other course on the college level.
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  Speaker 1: Everybody takes psychology. Very few people. I've talked to a
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  Speaker 1: couple of engineers who said that they didn't take psychology.
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  Speaker 1: But I mean, some people, just a few people will
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  Speaker 1: get away with not taking psychology. But more likely than not,
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  Speaker 1: if you took any class in college, you took psychology 101.
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  Speaker 1: And it's terrible because you think you now know psychology.
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  Speaker 1: It's like people who take one class in philosophy and
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  Speaker 1: think that they can philosophize about everything in the world.
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  Speaker 1: But we take one class in psychology, we think we
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  Speaker 1: know psychology. Secondly, the acceptance of psychiatry into the medical
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  Speaker 1: community has changed the way we think about this issue
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  Speaker 1: of mental illness and has gone a long way towards
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  Speaker 1: psychologizing our culture.
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  Speaker 2: Thirdly, over-diagnosis.
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  Speaker 1: All of us know someone who has been diagnosed with something.
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  Speaker 1: I can give you a brief list and it would
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  Speaker 1: hit most of us in the room when it comes
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  Speaker 1: to the people whom we know. We start with the
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  Speaker 1: one that is most popular today, which is bipolar disorder.
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  Speaker 2: Secondly, depression.
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  Speaker 1: Thirdly, anxiety disorder or social anxiety disorder known as SAD.
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  Speaker 1: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADD or ADHD. Post-traumatic stress disorder.
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  Speaker 1: As long as we've been engaged in wars across the world,
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  Speaker 1: this one has become huge. It's on everybody's lips these days.
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  Speaker 1: And of course, the ubiquitous chemical imbalance. All of us
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  Speaker 1: know somebody with one of these diagnoses. Many of us don't.
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  Speaker 1: are somebody with one of these diagnoses. Another reason that
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  Speaker 1: we're psychologized, because of these drug commercials.
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  Speaker 2: Where does depression hurt? It hurts everywhere, okay? We see
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  Speaker 2: these commercials and they come at us.
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  Speaker 1: And folks, we believe that mental illness is actually the
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  Speaker 1: new norm. movies and television programs dramas police dramas where
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  Speaker 1: the psychologist is the one who knows everything about the
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  Speaker 1: person who's doing this crime why because if you're a
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  Speaker 1: psychologist you are all knowing this person is probably this
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  Speaker 1: age and he probably grew up like this and he
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  Speaker 1: probably has to all the while you over here are
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  Speaker 1: looking at the other part of the movie that these
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  Speaker 1: cops are not seeing and what are you being told
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  Speaker 1: the person with the psychology degree is god and destigmatization
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  Speaker 1: far from there being a stigma anymore with mental illness
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  Speaker 1: and I'm not saying that it's good or bad or
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  Speaker 1: whatever for stigma but there was stigma attached to mental
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  Speaker 1: illness now we're proud of our mental illnesses we wear
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  Speaker 1: them like a badge we won't tell people our phone
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  Speaker 1: number but we'll tell them our diagnosis we are living
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  Speaker 1: in a psychologized culture Not only that, but there has
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  Speaker 1: been a marginalization of the church in this regard.
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  Speaker 2: How so?
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  Speaker 1: The overwhelming majority of pastors who have any theological training
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  Speaker 1: have basically been given this kind of training when it
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  Speaker 1: comes to mental illness and mental disorders. If somebody has
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  Speaker 1: a small problem, you can help them. If they have
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  Speaker 1: a big problem, call a professional because God cannot handle
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  Speaker 1: mental illness. Pastors are taught that. Christians are taught that,
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  Speaker 1: and we believe that with every fiber of our being.
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  Speaker 1: And so we will run to a mental health professional,
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  Speaker 1: go get treatment, go get put on psychotropic drugs, and
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  Speaker 1: not even consult our pastor.
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  Speaker 2: Why? None of his business, not his area.
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  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about how dangerous that mentality is.
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  Speaker 2: Then, of course, there's the history of psychology itself.
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  Speaker 1: We could spend a lot of time talking about this journey,
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  Speaker 1: but let me just give you a picture because I
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  Speaker 1: want you to understand something. We believe that psychology and
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  Speaker 1: psychiatry are sciences like chemistry or physics. But we believe
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  Speaker 1: if somebody says you have a chemical disorder or a
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  Speaker 1: chemical imbalance, that actually what has happened is they've given
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  Speaker 1: you a test and And they have tested the level
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  Speaker 1: of chemicals in your body. And because of that scientific test,
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  Speaker 1: they now know that you're outside of range. We think
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  Speaker 1: about it. We think it's sort of like blood pressure.
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  Speaker 1: Your systolic ought to be between here and here. Your
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  Speaker 1: diastolic ought to be between here and here. And we
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  Speaker 1: can test you with a machine. You're not between here
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  Speaker 1: and here. Therefore, you have high blood pressure or you
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  Speaker 1: have a low blood pressure. We think about the term
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  Speaker 1: chemical imbalance in that exact same way. Because we assume
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  Speaker 1: that these people are doing science. And most Christians don't
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  Speaker 1: know that. that there is no such thing as chemical imbalance.
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  Speaker 1: There's no test for it. There never has been a
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  Speaker 1: test for it. Here's the other thing. Everybody's chemistry is different.
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  Speaker 1: It's not like blood pressure, where you can go, here's
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  Speaker 1: where these chemicals are supposed to be in your brain,
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  Speaker 1: and here's where they are.
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  Speaker 2: No, not like that.