Listening, reading, and watching sermons on John MacArthur’s website, Grace to You, as well as teaching from R.C. Sproul’s Ligonier website, were instrumental in my becoming Reformed!
MacArthur and Sproul have both passed away. Sadly, I must speak out against willful ignorance on the part of MacArthur. In a few months before his death, he taught that all mental illnesses were “not real”. His reasoning was that since they aren’t specifically mentioned in Scripture, they are not real illnesses affecting the human body. This is a very unbiblical and dangerous position to take. I think of the teenage girl struggling with major depression and having thoughts of suicide. If she were in MacArthur’s church, she would be told her issues were merely sins that she needed to confess, and through the act of the will, she could, in effect, wish away her symptoms. I could not sit in MacArthur’s church and be silent as he dismisses my severe mental illnesses and insists they are not real. Thanks to this type of retrograde thinking, the stigma surrounding mental health is further reinforced.
MacArthur’s thinking on this topic is more in line with a Medieval mileu than our modern knowledge regarding mental illnesses.
Mental illness is a disease of the body. Would someone like MacArthur claim that diabetes didn’t exist, and that all people with this illness should throw away their insulin and seek a theological solution to their problem? We are to put on the mind of Christ, that is an ongoing process and transformation. We still sin and need sincere repentance. However, I must reject the affirmation that ongoing sin causes our mental health issues. Some issues that affect the mind, such as mild anxiety and episodic depression, can benefit from prayer, devotional reading, Bible study, and talking with a pastor or elders.
In my case, I am fighting schizophrenia, major depression, a severe anxiety disorder, and PTSD.
These are real mental illnesses. Approaches such as nouthetic counseling can have limited success, but in many cases, such as mine, they are not sufficient to deal with the myriad issues raised by severe mental illnesses. This type of counseling affirms that all mental maladies can be cured through Bible study, prayer, and talking with a pastor or elder. Modern science indicates that problems with neurotransmitters in the brain account for severe mental illnesses. I believe that framing the issue between secular treatment and biblical treatment is a false dichotomy.
We have greatly advanced in our understanding of mental illnesses since Scripture was written. Scripture, I believe, is sufficient for addressing sin. However, it is a false presupposition to say that every mental illness, no matter how severe, can be solved with biblical counseling.
Without my psychiatric medication, I wouldn’t be able to function and would be locked up in a mental institution.
MacArthur never said that cancer is not real, and that we can address symptoms purely through biblical knowledge. Yet when it comes to a physical disease of the brain, He asserts that this disease doesn’t exist.
This topic will sadly tarnish MacArthur’s legacy.
You can read more about this controversy here.
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