Words of Hope for Those Struggling With Mental Health

If everything that comes from man is “good” and “normal,” than sin is denied. This author accuses Christians of “overspiritualizing” mental illness, which means to approach it from a biblical and doctrinal point of view. But the therapeutic approach, at its root, is that people are ok and good, and should not feel bad about their problems—feeling guilt is considered the original sin, according to unbelieving therapists like Freud. It leaves no room for the comfort of Christ. Feeling bad is made to be the problem, not the guilt we have before God. Sadly, therapists have replaced pastors in leading souls among pagans.
That is not to say that problems cannot be both spiritual and physical, but worry is not like high blood pressure. One is a willing sin we participate in, and should repent of, while the other is a not—an effect of being a sinner in a sinful world. We may seem helpless against both, but guilt is more than a matter of feeling. Telling people they should feel good for sinning is simply atheism and making the sinner’s feelings the measure for all things.
Secular therapists (and many “Christian” ones) do not condemn or call to repentance, they merely affirm and assist in “healing.” There is no solution in sinners, however—man is not his own savior. “Therapuetic” means to heal, but there is no healing sin or removing the Old Adam in this lifetime. Sin cannot be made better or more wholesome. Instead, the Christian is called to live by the comforting promises of Christ, not his own power or thoughts, fighting what is opposed to God’s righteous will and dying to sin each day before the flesh is finally put away. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).—ed.