False teaching/false gospels/heresies and MENTAL ILLNESS - is there a connection?

At these open christian boards there tend to be people coming on from time to time with real bizarre and extremely lunatic views on certain matters.

Often are these contentions accompanied with (false) accusations and unrighteous judgments. Sometimes it's even bordering on curses.

Now, seeing this connection between obvious unsound minds, heresies and false accusations, would there not be a conclusion to draw here?

In Galatians Paul rebuked the believers who had gotten into straying paths by saying:

What to discuss:

Can a christian be mentally ill?

Are all mental illnesses the same, whether a person is a believer or not?

Can mental illness (in some cases) be a sign of demonic possession or even reprobation?

What say ye?

Yes I think a Christian can be mentally ill. I don't know if holding a false doctrine is a sure symptom of a mental illness, though, because even very mentally fit people can hold false doctrines.

Mental illnesses can skew perception of reality, making someone delusional, but that doesn't mean all mental illnesses produce delusions either. There are varying types of mental illnesses with different symptoms that do not effect cognitive reasoning skills. There can be extremely intelligent people who are mentally ill.

Other times I think that outward appearances of a mental illness could be misdiagnosed if the underlying causes are substance abuse, trauma, normal emotions, pride, ego, and maybe even sometimes demonic possession.

Can demons cause mental illness? Possibly.

Can demons lead others astray? Yes.

2 Corinthians 4:4
4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

1 Timothy 4:1
1Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

Can a Christian be demonically possessed? I don't know.

Can a Christian be led astray? Yes.

We have a lot of tools at our disposal to discern the spirits. The fruits of the Holy Spirit will probably show who is sincere and who isn't. "By their fruits you'll know them."

I would say the world is losing faith so something like a spiritual possession sounds Cooky to most . But if we believe the gospel we have to acknowledge evil
Sprits influence metal behavior I think of one violent and crazy man who nominee could approach

was possessed with many a legion of demons afterwards when Jesus drove them out , the man had returned to his right mind and wanted to go with Jesus

“And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 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.

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

But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 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. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.

And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country.

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.

And when he was come into the ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that he might be with him.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭5:2-10, 15, 18‬ ‭KJV‬‬

seems as if there is definitely a connection to behavior and spirit it seems wonderful that this man who everyone had given up on so as to chain him and keep Him away found Jesus even in his torment Jesus is really wonderful

How would you consider this scripture?

So this unsound mind, mind sickness, mental disease, mental illness, even if a christian may have such, does not come from God. Or does it?

While christians can be mislead by false teachings it can be debated whether or not that such christians through these teachings become mentally ill, however if they take in delusion and believe it as absolute truth it will definitely affect their minds health.

At the very least, these false teachers, who gave them false teachings, would be mentally ill. As Paul said in Galatians, false teachers are bewitching people, making them fools (in God's eyes). So, false ideas about God casts spells on the mind and eventually it will become sick.

This is now not to say that all christians who struggle with learning doctrine and understanding their Bible reading and end up with wrongs and errors are mentally sick. No! This is about deliberate heresies and "doctrines of devils" that really do lead people astray. We're primarily talking about strong delusions here.

Other than this, the Word of God does have a lot to say about fools before God and fools before men. The gospel is said to be foolishness to the unbelievers, the worldlings. As these scriptures shows us:

1Cor.1

Click to expand...

So this is foolishness for unbelieving men.

But Paul in Galatians is speaking about fools before God. Which also echoes what he said in Romans 1.

Why do you ask?

Is there a loved one you have concern for?

As a Spirit-Filled Born-Again Believer, ONLY Jesus Christ has ALL authority over me, He OWNS me, I am His possession.

Any questions about demons or mental illness will have to be answered by Him.

If He did allow any demonic oppression or mental illness it MUST be for my good...to teach me how to trust Him and love Him and overcome, amen.

One would need to have some in-depth knowledge about a person to make any kind of judgment. But it is hard to connect a genuine Christian with mental illness (craziness).
That is more than likely, especially when people are hearing strange voices. The problem is that the so-called mental health professional are self-deceived in thinking that (a) they are not involved with the spirit world and (b) that pharmaceuticals can do anything for those with mental and spiritual problems. Thus they never really cure anyone.

Christian boards are battlefields between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light. There is no doubt that Satan sends his minions onto these boards from time to time to sow seeds of spiritual confusion and to disrupt and cause division.

However, because we are all engaged in spiritual warfare to one degree or another, it behooves every Christian to know and hold to sound doctrine and also uncorrupted Bibles.

Satan has managed to use the so-called scholars and critics to cause huge divisions based upon bible versions, as we can see whenever there is a thread on this matter. It would seem that Satan has bewitched significant number of Christians to fight tooth and nail for corrupt bibles, and strongly oppose the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God as found in the King James Bible (Authorized Version of 1611).

I want to insert an underline that this thread in no way deals with mental illness as a stigmatized or shameful issue. This is an issue I believe we have not talked much about either among ourselves or to the public. We have talked a lot and written many books about spirit but not the mind. Although there has been, it seems to me, a growing interested in this field. The faculty of the mind is a huge matter.

There are a couple of scriptures that I want to show where I believe it shows that mental illness is not something "natural" to a christian:

So, there is not only a difference in spirit, there is a difference in mind and a change, a renewal, of the mind. Perhaps mind, if not healed, will catch the diseases of the world. Since God really gives His children a sound mind, then should we attach an unsound mind to the same principle? I believe not.

If God for some reason allows such a thing to happen is another discussion, as I see it. But if someone has an unsound mind that will teach heresies, falsely accuse, curse and behave totally irrational or even abominable, then do not think that such is a grace. Worst off it could be what is described in Romans 1:

You address many problems here, primarily that secular society and health care cannot really get into this problem sufficiently. Then there's a wide range of psychological problems where some clients get to join churches but are not fully recovered whereas other do find liberty. And, yes, all open boards are really spiritual battlefields, this is true.

Let's talk about the stigma you just reinforced in this OP.

No, mentally ill people are not demon possessed anymore than someone with a broken leg or cancer is.

Christians can be oppressed by the devil, but never possessed. Simply because we have the Holy Spirit within. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will not dwell where demons are.

I used to run a bipolar group. There were some very strong Christians and their theology was good. They weren't narcissists, or dangerous. They took their meds, and fit in very well. When meds work, it is a pretty good sign that a disease was being controlled, not that the meds were casting out demons, which is spiritual. Mental illness is a brain illness, and can be treated.

The Axis one people, with personality disorders, might be a different story, esp if they are not saved. I ran a Christian group in another site, long, long ago. It took me a while to discover that the trouble makers were the personality disorders. It was hard to believe some of these people were Christians. I saw no indication of repentance or growth in the fruits of the Spirit. That was how I met my bipolar friends. They joined my group, to fellowship. They were quite respectful and didn't attempt to turn the group in knots. They did show fruits of the Spirit.

I believe the Bible, and I believe there are demons. Read CSLewis' book, Screwtape Letters, if you want to learn some of the more insidious ways they work. As for mental illness, I am going with a disease! Or a personality disorder, in some cases!

Matthew chapter 4

[23] And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
[24] And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

"For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline." 2 Tim 1:6-7

This is the NIV. But other translations translate it as "self control" or "self discipline" such as ESV, NET, NASB. Of course, Greek is the ultimate standard, and it is called "ἀγάπης καὶ σωφρονισμοῦ." So this word, σωφρονισμοῦ, sophronisnou, according to Strong's concordance means:

self-control
Usage: self-control, self-discipline, prudence.

Therefore, another word wrongly translated by the KJV. Or, it might be that 400 years ago, the phrase, "Sound mind" meant self control or discipline.

Self control and discipline, according to the Oxford dictionary means:

"the ability to control oneself, in particular one's emotions and desires or the expression of them in one's behavior, especially in difficult situations.
"Lucy silently struggled for self-control"

This has nothing about a sound mind or mental illness. My advice is to go read a text book about mental illness. My daughter took abnormal psych for her psychology degree. She gave me the text book and I read it thoroughly. It's where I began to have insight into this disease. (Not that I am a qualified psychologist or psychiatrist!)

So far this thread has been guessing about things. Why not do some research about mental illness, so it makes sense and is more factually based. The Bible does say much about demon possession making people "Crazy" and Jesus healing them. The writers of the NT wrote about what they saw and understood. No one, except Jesus knew many of those people were mentally ill.
So, that is what was written almost 2000 years ago! Today, we understand more about the body and mind. Jesus dealt with the people at the level at which they understood. But today, we need to first understand mental illness, and see how it fits with the biblical narrative. The Bible is always going to be right of course, but only as we use good hermeneutics to interpret. Taking one word out of context is simply not the way to go.

I said in post #7 that this thread is not about stigmatizing. I don't know where you lost me or misunderstood me, but you did.

If you read my posts here closely you'd see that I'd make a difference also between people who are "fools" before God and how God's Word is seen by the world as "foolishness". There's a context there that is needed to see to get this thread correctly.

I am not into stigmatize anyone, however my conviction is that false teachers of grave sort indeed have a deluded and sick mind, at the very least spiritually, although they may be fully functional in social life and even sometimes praised as successful.

I also do not think that God gives an unsound mind to christians. Then there's a whole lot of different sort and kinds of mental diseases that we need to differ from one another.

I feel we are quite a bit at murky ground, we have not been taught much about this issue. Of course it falls under the folder of healing and yes, I believe mental diseases indeed can be healed. That's not the issue. I have also experiences with people of mental illness, in church and in the civil life. Some get better, some not. But there is little education about it when it comes to christians.

Again, you do get me wrong if you think I want to stigmatize anyone affected by mental disease. I am of the opposite opinion: I want a better attitude towards the problem and more openess and more understanding on our part. It's a terrible thing that people see mental diseases as something ugly and shameful.

For sure reading up on things is well. I have read books years ago on this issue, probably outdated today. However, the lack of medicine and academical framework to battle these diseases had already been addressed by another user in this thread. This is a bigger issue at hand. Taken self-control equal soundness and unrestrained run amok with control equals unsoundness we end up with the very same result. I mean to say that, yes, the world is "insane" in this sense. It's a spiritual matter and boils down to the sinful nature. Everybody needs a physician!

Repeatedly I can say that read up on things is well, however as for the spiritual roots and also the spiritual consequences of mental diseases we are well off with the timeless Bible who deal with the very same matter of man back then as today.

Yes a definate connection as some have pointed out.

Oter issues are the chemicals in our food.

Look at the way people sit down and eat 2 or more plates of fried chemical saturated food.
That cheeze at the burger place is a plastic like compound.

Those sodas and drinks from the store are accelerators for alzhiemers.

The beer we have now is synthetic with high fructose corn syrup. ( they will get diabetes...guaranteed)

Demons are one culprit. ...out of several

This is a good Scripture which shows the difference between the demon-possessed and those having seizures or epilepsy. They are differentiated in this verse.

"24 News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them." Matt. 4:24

This is my second post on words and how they are translated from Greek. In both cases, the 400 year old KJV translates for the understanding people had of mental illnesses those days, not the knowledge we have today.

Another good reason to be using a modern translation, which reflects the 21st century, not life 400 years ago,

You should see the aftermath of crack addict mothers.

Crack babies are mental nightmares.

Another thing is ptsd.
Does not have to come from war.

Any stressful/ horrific event can cause it

Yes, interesting to see a differentiation there between possession and mental disease. Let's just not make this thread a debate about "which Bible version is best?", we got one such already.

Add to this such as MSG, artificial sweeterners etc. WHO is running these businesses behind the scenes?

I deliberately posted that portion of scripture without any commentary of my own.

Now, I'll just add that whether it was demonic in nature or just an illness, Jesus delivered and/or healed them all.

P.S.

I always find it interesting when people claim that we're more knowledgeable today than people of old were.

Seems to me that they actually set people free...in contrast to those who are allegedly superior in knowledge today.

Just saying.

I have never disagreed the Bible is the best source for everything.

What I disagree with is the use of the archaic KJV translating to the medical level people had 400 years ago, rather than today. If I had lived in King James time, I would have died of a baby of pneumonia. I would have died in childbirth 3 times, and I would certainly be dead from asthma and Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Further, self control or discipline is something we develop with the Holy Spirit leading us. It is voluntary, and it is possible to change. God has made a huge difference in my life, teaching me self control. This is a real positive!

Having a sound mind, if it refers to the opposite which is mental illness, is not voluntary, biblical or good. It is a disease which attacks the mind. Jesus did cure many, and today in our society, Modern medicine really helps those suffering from this disease.

So no! "A sound mind" and "self control" are not the same. The second is a fruit of the Spirit, the first is the opposite of mental illness. "Self control" is part of our character, a "sound mind" is something that takes place within the physical body or the brain.