For 2011: Renewing our minds!

Beginning in January, we would like to begin discussing what the scriptures have to say about the topic of the mind, heart and brain. Here are a few ways this is relevant to us as women seeking faithfulness to the instruction in Titus 2. To what authority do I turn....

• when I am feeling overwhelmed and inadequate.
• when I am depressed.
  
• when I am convicted that my behavior or reactions are not measuring up to scripture, but am told by well meaning friends to not be so hard on myself.
• when I am dealing with child training issues and feel I have tried everything and am getting nowhere.
• when a friend is really struggling emotionally and her family is suffering as a result?

Can you, off the top of your head, think of scriptures that apply to these situations?

Remember, our purpose for these meetings is to build one another up in the LORD and his Word! We all need encouragement to rely on the Bible's wisdom. We all need to learn the Lord's secret of being a strong christian:

"And he said unto me,
'My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.'
Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
2 Corinthians 12:9

We discovered the following article (excerpted) years ago, and it has made quite a difference in our perspective. We hope you will find it encouraging too! Following the excerpt, there is a little "assignment" for January!

David exulted, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" (Ps 139:14)! Materialism has trivialized man. Materialistic science has denied the nonphysical spirit and soul of man and turned him into a stimulus-response mechanism. It alleges that man's thoughts, ambitions, likes, dislikes, even his sense of right and wrong and the experience of love and compassion, can all be explained in terms of electrical and chemical impulses in his brain and nervous system. Such folly was the basis for Sigmund Freud's theories and is still behind the treatment of mental disorders with drugs.

Yes, the brain may be like a computer, but no computer can think on its own. Someone must tell it what to do. What folly to imagine that thoughts originate in the brain! If so, we would be prisoners of our brains, helplessly dragged along as its chemical/electrical processes determined our thoughts and even our morals and emotions. In fact, thought is initiated by the soul and spirit, which use the brain to operate the body and to interface with this physical world of sensual experience in which our bodies function.

There are more cells in the brain than stars in the universe, and these cells make up hundreds of billions of neurons and trillions of synapses in perfect balance. Moreover, the mysterious link between the spirit of man, made in God's image, and his brain and body is forever beyond the grasp of science. Yet that connection is being tampered with by drugs in order to adjust man's behavior - behavior which was meant to reflect God's perfect purity, but instead reflects man's rebellion and sin as a child of Satan: "ye are of your father, the devil" (Jn 8:44). There are no chemical solutions to spiritual problems. Yet millions take drugs such as Prozac, Effexor, Valium, Ritalin, Zoloft, Paxil, etc. to deal with spiritual problems.

The Bible declares that man's inner turmoil, insecurity, lust, anger, his conflict with himself and others and any other "emotional problems" which beset him are spiritual at their root (2 Cor 7:1; Gal 5: 16; Col 1:21). They result from man's rebellion against God and the wrenching separation from God which that rebellion effected in the depths of his being. Therefore, the solution to man's emotional and spiritual problems is reconciliation to God. Tragically, that solution is being set aside in favor of correcting a "chemical imbalance" in the brain with drugs.

There is no doubt that much can go wrong with the brain as a physical instrument. However, even secular psychiatrists admit that the brain is far too complex to be precisely "adjusted" with drugs. Although we don't endorse all of his views, Peter R. Breggin, M.D., is one of the world's leading experts on psychoactive drugs. He reminds us, "the biochemical activities that run the brain remain almost wholly shrouded in mystery. If depression... has a biological or genetic basis, it has not been demonstrated scientifically.... Biopsychiatric theory remains pure speculation and runs counter to a great deal of research and clinical experience, as well as common sense...."1 Breggin continues,

"The biochemical imbalance theory is merely the latest biopsychiatric speculation, presented to the public as a scientific truth. [T]he ironic truth is this: The only known biochemical imbalances in the brains of nearly all psychiatric patients are those caused by the treatments.... Curiously, in light of so much psychiatric concern about the dangers of biochemical imbalances, all known psychiatric drugs produce widespread chemical imbalances in the brain.... (Emphasis added) It seems foolhardy to imagine that blocking one of the brain's biochemical functions [which all psychiatric drugs are designed to do] would somehow improve the brain and mind. At the root lies a dangerous assumption that it is safe and effective to tamper with the most complex organ in the universe!"2

The awesome implications of tampering with the brain are not generally recognized by those relying upon chemical solutions. Nor are Christian psychologists acknowledging the even more serious consequences of tampering with the brain's response to the soul and spirit of man, so "fearfully and wonderfully" made in the image of God!

A word of caution: We are not advocating that anyone now taking medication should stop abruptly. Psychiatric drugs can be addictive, and to stop suddenly could have serious consequences. Any change in medication should be only under the supervision of a physician. We are simply pointing out that no one really knows how drugs work or the full range of their effects. Many drugs prescribed by physicians for years have only later been found to have such devastating effects that they have been removed from the market.

The connection between the spirit and the brain and body is known only to God. The moral and spiritual consequences of tampering with the brain and nervous system through drugs could be far worse than the physical dangers. Consider depression, for example. Drugs too often mask the real need and hinder one from turning to Christ for the spiritual solution that can only be found in Him. In pursuing a chemical solution, science ignores (because it cannot deal with it) what ought to be the first priority: getting right with God through the redemption which is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. His incarnation united God and man in His own person; and He brings that reconciliation and union within the human spirit when He is received as Savior and invited to dwell there. Christianity (unlike Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, etc.) is not a set of rules for one to follow in one's own strength. Only Christ can live the Christian life, and He will live it in and through those who believe in Him. Note the wonder of what Paul said: "[I]t pleased God... to reveal his Son in me" (Gal 1:15-16). He wants to reveal His Son in us as well. That's what Christianity is!

The indwelling of Christ within the human spirit is as great a mystery as the incarnation itself. To those who trust Him and obey His Word, He becomes their very life: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal 2:20); "ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col 3:3). Obviously, the Spirit of Christ within needs no help from psychotherapy or drugs. What we need above all is to trust, obey and rejoice in Him. Nor does Christ promise an easy path. The Christian life is beset by trials and temptations and conflicts between the flesh and the Spirit, allowed by God to test us to see whether or not we will really trust and obey Him. As He told Israel,

"And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger,... that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live" (Dt 8:2-3).

Without the Incarnation, mankind was doomed eternally. "[A]ll have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23); and "[T]he wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 6:23). We believe in Christ as our Savior from the penalty of sin. Let us also trust Him fully as the One who indwells us and will overcome sin in our lives. May we rejoice in "the riches of the glory of this mystery... Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col 1:27)! TBC

Endnotes =======================

1 Peter R. Breggin, M.D., Talking Back to Prozac: What Doctors Aren't Telling You About Today's Most Controversial Drug (St. Martin's Paper-backs, 1994), 34, 39.

2 Ibid, 34, 37, 38-40.

-- Dave Hunt, The Berean Call, February, 1997

Assignment:

In preparation for January, there is no special reading assignment! However, we ask that, in your normal Bible reading, keep a paper where you can compile a list of scriptures from your normal Bible reading that seem to address the topic of mind, heart and brain, emotions, behavior, etc.

• causes of behavior, feelings
• standards of behavior, thoughts
• correction and commands regarding these areas
  
• etc.
  

We are looking forward to a big blessing in God's Word!