Because God has the prerogative to dispose of you as He pleases, He has the prerogative to dispose your mental capacity to what humans characterize as schizophrenia.[/caption]
My name is Thomas. I recently read your sermon entitled “God Sends Mental Illness: Fear Him” (http://www.godhatesfags.com/sermons/outlines/Sermon_20170604.pdf) and I had a few questions. I am schizophrenic. Does that mean I have some sort of sin and if I stop sinning will I be cured of my schizophrenia? Secondly, in the sermon it seemed to imply that use of psychotropic medication is a sin and even compared “active and extensive use of pharmacology” to sorcery in its quotation of Revelation 9:21. My question is, am I not supposed to take my schizophrenia medication?
–Thomas
Hello. Thomas. Thank you for taking the time to read the words, and for asking those questions that come naturally from being faced with the Word of God that is declared the exclusive power in heaven and earth to “discern[] the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). No human power can do this, and it is a most arrogant and blasphemous – to say nothing of destructive and hateful – thing that these self-declared “mental health professionals” do to this generation of the human race. What sayeth the scripture? “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.” (Jeremiah 17:10)
Your two questions, as they are framed, depict the error that drives nearly every human’s consideration of the Word of God. You ask if your schizophrenia diagnosis is evidence that you are in some sort of sin that if abandoned might bring an end to your mental illness. You ask if the use of psychotropic medications is a sin and if you are required by scripture to abandon the medication regimen. In both questions, you miss the whole point of the sermon you referenced and you bring the eternal Word of God – as well as His throne of sovereignty — down to the endlessly weak and pitiful bar of humanity. I am heartsick at the abysmal darkness this world’s population lives in. Please consider this response with sobriety and gravity; it may be that God has determined to open your eyes and ears and soften your presently-hardened heart. His will be done.
The historic and scriptural account of King Nebuchadnezzar’s vision and then the fulfillment of the vision – which was a beautiful exemplar of my sermon’s proposition – includes four specific expressions of the reason. Four times in the writings of Daniel you find the precise and majestic point of the matter explained. All of the events prophesied of and fulfilled with respect to Nebuchadnezzar’s mental illness were expressly for a specific purpose – again, four times articulated. Please, for the sake of your never-dying, eternally-culpable soul, pay attention to these four expressions:
“to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men”. (Daniel 4:17)
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“till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men”. (Daniel 4:25)
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“I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” (Daniel 4:34-35)
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“till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men”. (Daniel 5:21 – referencing back to the events of Daniel chapter 4)
God is in charge, Thomas! God is boss, applesauce! Nobody knows exactly the point in your God-denying existence you crossed a threshold in the estimation of your Creator – where your perpetual sins and blasphemies against His sovereignty brought this specific temporal recompense. You may have some idea of how severely you’ve denied His prerogative to dispose of His creation as He sees fit, but I certainly do not. From the words of your inquiry, you plainly still think it’s all about you. You plainly still think you can impose the catastrophically impotent mental capacities of the human being upon God’s perfection, as Christ in parable addressed: “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” (Matthew 20:15). Here’s the place for you to begin. You are a son of Adam, and therefore doomed at conception to be accountable for Adam’s death-dealing transgressions in the Garden of Eden: “For as in Adam all die”! (1 Corinthians 15:22). In addition, you individually have been sinning without remission from your earliest days, and (if you were to be honest with yourself) have done “evil with both hands earnestly” (Micah 7:3) for the whole of your life. Since you have likely been lied to, what you have been raised to believe to be harmless behaviors – idolatry, fornication, hatred, envying, strife, contention, pride, lasciviousness, concupiscence, etc. – are all grotesque sins that pile onto your eternal soul like firewood and kindling. Before you rise from your bed every morning, you’ve committed enough sin to justify an eternity of hellfire. That’s what scripture teaches is the natural state of every human being; no exceptions. So you should not play insipid word games when coming to the ambassadors of Christ, pretending that sinful conduct is a one-off that you may have accidentally strayed into. God did that. God is in charge, Thomas! God is boss, applesauce! Because God has the prerogative to dispose of you as He pleases, He has the prerogative to dispose your mental capacity to what humans characterize as schizophrenia. If you, as the great king Nebuchadnezzar (and millions of others throughout history) are presented with the plainest of evidence that God is the sovereign Governor of all the creation and all providence, and you reject that evidence and go about your life as though it’s all about you and your interests and will and prerogatives, one way for God to bring you to heel is to break your mental capacities. Render you incapable of maintaining thoughts – just like He may render you incapable of some physical function as He has done for other millions. Once in the mess you, as the great king Nebuchadnezzar (and millions of others throughout history) think you can turn to chemicals or other human creativity to fix it. You still imagine it is in your hands to dispose of the mess you’re in. What you should be doing is turning toward your Creator and acknowledging that He is the most high God and He rules in the kingdoms of men. If you are granted that mercy, then you should thank God for that mercy. If you’re not granted that mercy, then you will continue to rail against His prerogative and it will make zero difference. God determines that outcome. God is in charge, Thomas! God is boss, applesauce! Thank you for writing. — Westboro Baptist Church]]>