Does the Bible Support the Concept of Mental Illness, or Is This a Secular Idea Originating With Psychiatry?

I know many Christians who have wondered: “Does mental illness even exist?” “Does the Bible support the concept, or does the concept of mental illness come from secular psychiatrists?”

Whenever there is a school shooting or a disturbing, violent crime, it is common to see in the comments of the news article people expressing sentiments like this: "He was diagnosed with schizophrenia, but mental illness is never an excuse to do what he did!" Then sometimes other people will chime in and say "I have bipolar disorder and even at my worst I would never do something like he did."

But is bipolar the same thing as schizophrenia? Or, are there mental conditions where the mind becomes so compromised that the person can no longer discern right from wrong or reality from fiction? This is the big question...whether conditions like this do exist or whether they really do not.

How To Read This Chapter
This chapter delves into deep subjects about the nature of God and the nature of man, subjects which are very rich, and which do not tend to come up in casual conversation and which many people do not have experience thinking about or discussing. This may be your first time contemplating some of these topics, and it may take you a while to get through this chapter, and that is ok. I really want my readers to take their time on this chapter, and read a little, then think and "digest" it, perhaps have some discussions about the topic in Bible study or church to solidify these truths in your mind, and explore the ins and outs and implications of these beliefs. Then resume reading the chapter, and kind of take it in chunks like this.

Questions That Arise After a Psychotic Break
It's common for someone who has experienced psychosis and cheated on her husband during her psychotic break due to a delusion that the neighbor was her husband, to grapple with her experience once anti-psychotics bring her into her right mind. She will ask questions like "How could I have done those things to the husband I love?" Sometimes she will blame herself, believing she should have known the right thing to do and not done something so hurtful. If she was a Christian she may wonder "Where was God; why didn't He stop me from cheating on my husband?" Questions about the soul and spirit are common with such grappling. "I'm a Christian, how could I not know the right thing to do in my spirit or soul? Isn't my soul always connected with God; how could I do such an immoral act?" Are they right that their spirit or soul could have steered them in the right direction if they were willing to respond to God? Or were they really fully in confusion due to psychosis, and unable to do the right thing?

Neurologists and psychiatrists say the frontal lobe - the part responsible for logical thought and moral judgment - is dialed down and inactivated in individuals in psychosis. Is this true? They say actions performed during psychosis can be purely a matter of mental confusion and not be connected at all with the character. Is this a secularist position, or does the Bible support these ideas?

What does the Bible say about the nature of our humanity: Are we spirit, or are we flesh, or are we both? When we think and have consciousness, is it our brain doing this, or is it our spirit, or is it both? Are we purely composed of created matter, or do we have an immaterial spirit that can live on after we die, and override our mental handicaps that we may develop while living?

Just what are we at our core, and what is our brain?

What is the Bible truth on this important subject?

And how do emotions, character, the soul, the spirit, and the body interact with one another and what part do they each play?

The Bible Our Source of Truth

"What does the Bible say?" is always the fundamental question to ask. The Bible is the source of truth, and science and nature are God’s secondary “book”; the Bible is our authority by which we evaluate and understand the scientific world, and if we displace the Word of God with human wisdom and ideas, we will find ourselves in a state of confusion without an accurate map or trustworthy guideposts, wandering in a never-ending maze.

Christians generally reject the humanistic philosophies of secular psychology and psychiatry, and this is a good thing. We’re supposed to do that, and to take the Bible as our only authority, measuring the professionals with the Word of God, rather than the other way around. But while Christians should reject evolution and philosophies about psychiatry and psychology that stem from an evolutionary and atheistic worldview, should we reject the science of the psychiatric and medical communities too?

When neuroscientists and psychiatrists conduct studies that show brain-signaling abnormalities on brain scans (such as MRIs) in people with psychotic disorders, how should a Christian view the science, and their analysis that people with psychotic disorders have brain malfunction? Do we take that as truth? Or, is a person more than their brain, also consisting of a soul, and possessing mental processes that occur beyond the physical, and which can’t be measured or evaluated?

Can We Measure and Study the Brain?

Can we measure mental processing, can we study it? Does the Bible recognize the fields of neuroscience and psychiatry? What does God’s Word say?

Also, can we treat the physical brain and reduce or recover from mental symptoms? Or is our brain part-spirit and medical treatments won’t fully help or are out of place or out of alignment with Christian doctrine?

What is the truth on this?

Christians know we live in a spiritual world with forces of good and evil all around us, so what about demons, can they cause what psychiatrists are terming 'mental illness'? One of the most common questions after a loved one displays symptoms of a psychotic break and gets diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is “Are the health professionals right that this is mental illness? It looks so much like demon oppression – or even demon possession. Could they be wrong in their diagnosis and I should take my kid to a pastor or a priest instead? Is the psychiatrist trying to medicate what is really a spiritual problem?”

People Have a Hunger to Know How the Three Facets of a Person Interact - Body, Soul, and Mind.

People have a strong hunger to know how all the facets of a person – physical, mental, and spiritual – interact. Christian people know that there is a spiritual realm and demons are very real. We trust God when he tells us this. We know the whole picture can’t be mental illness every time someone shows these symptoms because we’ve read the accounts of demon possession in the Bible, and some of the demoniacs clearly had mental issues caused directly by demons, such as the demoniacs who were out of their minds while demon-possessed, and came back into their right minds once the demons were cast out of them by Jesus. And so any doctor (a high percentage of psychiatrists are atheist and don’t believe in God or demons which compounds the confusion) who takes a purely naturalist position on the mental illness question Christians feel is missing a crucial part of the puzzle. We want to understand how it all intersects and fits together. This is a good and a right desire – the desire to study God’s creative works, especially our design as beings made in the image of God. In order to keep ourselves in a state of health it’s important we pay attention to all aspects of our health. Keeping our bodies in a state of health and studying how to do so is an act of worship to God. (Romans 12:1)

I believe God has much to reveal to us in His Word about this subject and that a correct understanding can be found. This doesn’t mean we’ll always be able to tell in every case whether a person is demon oppressed or mentally ill – we’re not Omniscient and we can get things wrong – but I believe the general guidelines of how the physical, mental, and spiritual intersect and react upon a person are given in the Word of God and they can be understood by all.

Majority of Christians Believe We Have an Immaterial Spirit or Soul

I’ve spent the last few years having many conversations with Christians of various denominations and backgrounds. The truth is that most Christians today believe we have a spirit and we aren’t just created matter – a physical brain and body systems – come to life by the power of God. From this belief stems the almost unconscious belief that on some level when a person enters psychosis in their physical brain, that they can still connect with God, that their spirit can commune with Him, and that a person is never fully mentally disconnected from the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and from understanding right and wrong. There are varying degrees to how much each Christian believes this, but few Christians actually believe that when our physical brain malfunctions severely that we can completely lose the ability to commune with God and understand right and wrong completely. Some do not believe the concept of psychosis exists at all, some believe it does and can compromise our brain, but that our spirit is never really unable to be convicted and that on some level they can still do so. The doctrine that we do not possess a spirit and are completely composed of created matter is rarely held in Christianity and it’s taken as a given that we have a spirit or soul by most.

The two beliefs that lead to this conclusion that people can always be convicted by God’s Spirit about right and wrong are based on the nature of God, and the nature of man.

The rationale goes like this:

Nature of God – God is Omnipotent and thus can do anything. This would include even the ability to communicate effectively with a delusional person or someone with advanced brain injury from stroke or dementia. He can find or create a way, even if it doesn’t make logical sense.

Nature of Man – Man isn’t composed solely of created matter and has an indestructible, immaterial spirit. Man thus not being completely physical has another consciousness that communes with God in the spirit realm and is not completely limited by brain handicaps and mental illness – or even physical death itself.

It’s point 2 that I want to start with first. And then I will go into point 1.

What your beliefs are on this topic actually make a huge difference in the real world. If a person diagnosed with a mental illness like schizophrenia assaults and kills someone or commits a school shooting, if you believe that person always has a spirit that can understand right and wrong and commune with God, then that person is responsible for their actions and could have chosen not to carry them out. It’s hard for people to imagine that that person’s brain could be so compromised that they lost the ability to have any moral agency over themselves – and the belief that we have a spirit separate from our physical brain contributes to this line of thinking in ways that are often very subtle and can go undetected. Because it's hard to imagine this, I often see the default mode in most people is to assume the person is guilty.

This topic is particularly troubling to caretakers of family members with advanced dementia, particularly if their family member was a Christian and an upstanding father and citizen, when he starts sexually assaulting nurses in the nursing home and acts completely out of character. This reality can really try the faith of family members who knew him for who he was before the illness. If they believe his spirit is always able to be convicted by God’s Holy Spirit and understand right from wrong, then that means their elderly father is falling to temptation later in life, and sealing his legacy with a departure from everything he once stood for. Leaving the faith, disappointing everyone who respected him and whom he raised in godly fear and love. Abusing a woman selfishly for personal gratification. What a horrible picture for his family to take with them for the rest of their lives as he’s dying and leaving this world!

If however, their elderly father’s brain is deteriorating (with dementia the brain atrophies and dies and that’s how death occurs), and he has no spirit to override the mental deterioration, and he’s literally lost function and no longer possesses the ability to control his most basic impulses (which can become heightened to a high level when dopamine surges as a result of brain injury), and he’s in a state of confusion and/or psychosis, and doesn’t know what he’s doing is sexual assault or that it’s wrong, then it’s no moral failure on his part. It’s merely a horrific symptom of the dying process (nothing about death is really natural since God didn’t create us to die and it’s a result of sin) and he’s a victim of dementia and is himself suffering greatly, deserving of empathy and compassion and not a criminal. Protocols still need to be implemented to protect nurses, and mentally handicapped people can be as dangerous as mentally healthy criminals, but the difference is the mentally ill person is not a criminal and that makes all the difference in the world. What a different picture this is from the previous one!

Indeed, if we do have a spirit separate from our brain that can always commune with and understand God and right and wrong, then it is always the fault of men in advanced dementia who sexually assault nurses, it is always the fault of school shooters in physical brain psychosis when they kill innocent people, it is always the fault of mothers with post-partum psychosis who drown their babies in the bathtub. These people are the horrific criminals the news likes to paint them to be. Indeed, the idea of not guilty by reason of insanity isn’t actually real, if our spirit can override our physical brain when it malfunctions. This of course changes completely how we view crimes done among the criminally insane.

But, if we are our physical brain – if all of our parts are created matter (dust as it says in Genesis) – and we do not possess a spirit that can commune with God despite losing function in our physical brain, then not guilty by reason of insanity does exist in extreme cases of loss of brain functioning. And people can do horrific things and not know what they are doing. And they aren’t all monsters. Yet, their actions are destructive and cause great harm, and we need solutions that take into account the reality of the situation and address the problem from the actual cause.

What We Believe About This Will Determine What Action We Take

Furthermore, how we go about addressing this problem in the church and in society will be completely different depending on which belief we hold. If we believe that no matter how compromised the physical brain can become, that all people can commune with God and understand right and wrong through their spirit on some level, then we’re going to see these school shootings and freak murders where mothers drown their kids in the bathtub and assaults of grown children on their parents when in a psychotic state, as chosen actions, and we’re going to address them with discipline, punishment and by preaching the gospel to them and showing them redemption through Christ. We aren’t going to be strong proponents of mental health education and resources; we’re always going to be holding back some and leaning towards disciplinary action as the real solution.

But, if these people are completely mad, they aren’t going to respond to punishment, discipline, or the gospel. It’s going to go over their heads and crime isn’t going to diminish, and those suffering from brain illnesses aren’t going to get the treatment they need; they will just be sent to prison in psychotic states where they will suffer terribly (full psychosis causes great mental distress), and may assault other prisoners and cause more harm. And whatever is causing cases of insanity to be on the rise is going to keep going strong, unless we find the underlying cause in the rise of insanity and diminish or remove it.

You don't want to try to reason with someone who is in full psychosis. It is unhelpful at that point. Trying to give them the gospel when they believe nonsensical ideas about morality will prove ineffective and will keep them from getting the help they need. And it actually may not be safe in certain circumstances, such as if the psychotic person has a delusion that you are an alien trying to kill them, or that you are a member of a secret organization who has been paid to take their life.

If we want psychotic people to get the help they need and if we want to protect our communities, this can only be done if we see psychosis for what it is and understand that a person's brain can become compromised to the point where they can no longer understand right and wrong or how reality works. As long as we continue to see them as capable of logical thought when they are incapable, we will be ineffective at dealing with these types of crises situations in our communities.

Whatever is true is what we want to embrace. It’s only in the truth that answers can be found, and that God and His will can be understood and followed. Untruths will not lead us to answers or to God. This is a subject many people know little about and it’s important we get educated on it. Knowledge rightly used is a force for good. God gave us the knowledge found in the Word of God for our good. He wants us to be informed and equipped to be lights in the world and to do actions of justice and mercy that glorify Him and draw others to Him.

Are these acts of extreme violence that we see in the news moral issues, or are they a health issue? The answer matters.

The Biblical Basis for Mental Illness

I believe that mental illness does exist. Let me tell you why. Let’s go all the way back to the creation of man. God in the beginning created man one being in three interconnected parts: physical, mental, and spiritual. He breathed into man and he became a living soul.

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul,” Genesis 2:7 .

This shows that what makes up a soul – or a person – is our physical body (which includes the brain) plus God’s life-giving power. It’s common in many Christian circles to believe that man has a soul, rather than man is a soul, but the Bible tells us plainly that the latter is true. Man is indeed a soul.

Let's look at some more verses about how the breath of God is what gives our physical body life. Yes, that's right, God does not create people and give us the initial spark of life and then we go on existing on our own from that point. People do not have life in and of themselves! The breath - or spirit of God is holding our body up every moment, and this is how it is that a person is alive.

"as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils..."
Job 27:3, NIV

This breath of God isn't something only given at the beginning of our lives that starts our lungs breathing and our heart beating; it is what sustains us and keeps us alive.

"Nor is He served by human hands, as if He needed anything, because He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else."
Acts 17:25

"For in Him we live and move and have our being."
Acts 17:28

We can never exist and have life without Him directly giving us life. Nothing lives of its own power. The Bible tells us Christ holds all things together - both animate and inanimate - stars, and systems, the laws of gravity and physics, and the life of every living thing.

“He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
Colossians 1:17

He holds these things together by His almighty Word.

“But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
Hebrews 1:2-3

Life Begins at First Breath?
Unfortunately our Jewish friends believe life begins at first breath, and I've even seen some people use the "first breath" belief to justify abortion. Is this what the Bible teaches, that someone does not have life or personhood until birth when they breath their first breath? No! Not at all.

Notice that it isn't Adam's breath being referenced in Genesis 2:7, it is the "breath of life." The "breath of life" comes from God and it's the same breath referenced in passages like Acts 17:25 He Himself gives life and breath" to all living things.

It is the "breath of God" that gives life, not our own breath. This breath that God breathes into all living things by His Spirit is not a literal breath. There are living anerobic organisms that do not breathe oxygen which God's "breath" has brought into life and keeps alive.

An embryo at conception is a living person, because while it has never taken a breath of oxygen, it has the "breath of life" in it from God's Holy Spirit. It is alive, and rapidly growing.

It is only at death - when the breath of life no longer exists in us and God is no longer sustaining our physical bodies - that a person is said to be dead and no longer a person. A non-living body, not kept alive by the breath of God, is not a person, but "dust" as the Bible calls it, and breaks down and biodegrades into the earth.

"By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:19

What Happens At Death?
Let's talk a little more about what happens at death. Death is basically the reverse of creation, and for that reason it can help us understand this truth more clearly that a living soul or person is a physical body plus the breath of God as we see at Adam's creation.

Describing death, King Solomon tells us "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." Ecclesiastes 12:7

At creation God formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life through His Spirit. At death the Holy Spirit leaves the person and returns to God who gave it, and the body biodegrades and disintegrates into the earth. This is a reversal of the creation process.

So we can see that both in creation and in its reversal - death - the two "ingredients" to make a living person are clearly described. That of a physical body plus the breath of God.

And of course we know that God can create people from absolutely nothing. Dust is not actually a necessary ingredient. We see this in the Resurrection at the end of time, when God raises the dead with nothing but His voice and His Word.

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.”

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Some think it is the voice of an angel that raises the dead. This cannot be. Only God has the power to raise the dead. It takes divine power to do that. It is God's voice - the Ruler over the angels (which is what archangel means in this passage) who raises the dead. Jesus is the "Resurrection and the Life."

John the Baptist tells the Jews: “And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
Matthew 3:9

He is not being symbolic here. He means it when he says God has the power to create people out of stones - or even out of nothing by His very Word. God's Word has creative power. It is how everything that is material and created came to be.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
Hebrews 11:3

So while God did initially create dust first before creating Adam, and then personally bent down and formed the dust into a body and created Adam's body, it is not necessary that dust be created first, and God can form people out of nothing as He does at the Resurrection.

However, when formed from nothing, a body is always formed. When the righteous dead are called into being from being dead and no longer existing - it is a body that is called into being and which is formed at the Lord's Word. Nowhere in the scriptures do we ever see God forming or calling into being a bodiless spirit or soul. When people are formed and created or called into being, it is a body and brain which are made.

Take Lazarus for example. Lazurus died and Jesus called him back to life. Jesus said "Lazarus come forth!" And what came forth? What constituted and "made up" the person of "Lazarus"? His body and brain.

"After Jesus had said this, He called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The man who had been dead came out with his hands and feet bound in strips of linen, and his face wrapped in a cloth. “Unwrap him and let him go,” Jesus told them."

John 11:43-44 Berean Standard Bible

God's Word has creative power. When Jesus spoke the Word "Lazarus" come forth! Who/what was Lazarus? A spirit wasn't created, an immaterial soul wasn't created, rather a body and brain come to life by God's power is what was created with that creative Word.

The Death and Creation Process in Psalms

There's a great verse in the book of Psalms that explains how life and death happen.

"When You hide Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath, they die and return to dust. When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth."

Psalm 104:29-30

Death happens when God takes away our breath or His Spirit who gives us breath...and life happens when He sends His Spirit.

We Were All Formed Directly by God in the Womb and Given the Breath of Life at That Time

All of us were formed by God in the womb, yes directly formed by Him. His Spirit directly knit us together in the womb and gave us the breath of life. Our creation was no less personal and "hands-on" than Adam's creation. It was done by God's Spirit on the opposite side of the veil, so He is invisible to us, but that doesn't mean He wasn't directly involved.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb."
Psalm 139:13

Notice in this verse in Psalms that it says the inmost part of his being was created and knit together in his mother's womb. An immaterial spirit is not "knit" together, only a physical body is formed in this way. Also notice how it says the deepest part of his being is connected with the knitting together of his physical body. There isn't a deeper immaterial part that isn't physical.

"Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb"
Isaiah 44:24

"Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me."
Job 10:8

How is Soul Used in the Bible?

I know you're probably thinking "But doesn't the Bible use the Word "soul" to mean an immaterial spirit? Many people think this and this idea has become a part of Christian tradition, but it's actually not in the Bible! Throughout the Bible you will see that living people are called souls. "Souls" is never used to refer to an immaterial consciousness that lives on after death, and this belief actually originated with paganism.

Notice how in this Bible verse in Genesis, the songs of Jacob are referred to as “souls.”

“And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.”

Genesis 46:27

There are many passages in the scriptures where “souls” means living persons. Here’s another one from the New Testament when Paul was taking a voyage in a ship with a group of people and he was counting up the number of the people who sailed with him.

“And we were in all in the ship two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.”

Acts 27:37

I’m sure we’ve all heard the term “souls” used to mean living persons. A few generations back it was very common to hear someone respond to situations of poverty or hardship with the exclamation “Those poor hungry souls; we need to do something to help them.”

We Are Our Brain

What this means is that our spirit, our self, is not disconnected from our physical brain. We don’t have a physical brain and a spirit brain; we have a physical brain that God’s spirit infuses with life (and of course God created the dust our body was formed from too). We our own brains.

When a kidney malfunctions, we need dialysis. We will experience pain from the toxins not being sifted out of our bodies like they should be. If our eyes malfunction we might experience double vision. But the brain is a much more complex organ, responsible for all of our thoughts and perceptions. For the brain to malfunction can result in many different kinds of symptoms – a wide, almost limitless range of symptomology can result.

Due to the Fall, every organ in our body can malfunction and the brain is no exception. If our brains do malfunction, we don’t have a spirit that is disconnected from our physical form and untouched by our physical malfunction; we are our brains. We will start to manifest the symptoms of brain dysfunction in our mannerisms, personality, behavior, sentence structure, logical reasoning and communication skills.

We see the brain malfunction all the time when someone is drunk, or takes a drug such as LSD. Great personality changes can occur from drug use because they are substances that alter the chemicals in the physical brain, and chemicals in the brain and how they react on neurons and form neural circuitry is a big part of what gives us our personality. Not only this but the person can actively hallucinate due to changes in neurochemistry. The same can be said of mental illnesses; they involve altered brain biochemistry, and can cause personality changes, and even hallucinations at times. If you see someone drunk staggering to their car late at night, or a rich socialite high on cocaine and acting wired and bizarre, you don’t think ‘demon-possession’. It’s easy to understand that a brain on a substance is altered and recognize the symptoms. It makes sense then that a chemically imbalanced brain could show similar symptoms.

Why Dementia and Psychosis and Personality Disorders are So Painful
If we are truly 100% physical, this means all of our perceptions, cognitive processes, emotions, and the deepest parts of our personality and "self" are physical in nature and made possible by physical processes. This means that absolutely we can study the human brain, and find scientific truth about what brain processes make up different aspects of our perception and our personality and learn how they operate, and what kinds of things can cause malfunction and injury, such as pathogens, and toxins, and nutrient deficiencies.

While God alone is the only One capable of fully understanding the processing and inner workings of the human brain, we can be continually learning more and more and growing in our knowledge.

And since we have physical brains and processes, all of these processes have the potential to malfunction. Even the deepest desires of our heart and what it means to be a person and to have a personality can malfunction – and this is why dementia, psychosis, and personality disorders are so painful. Having experienced severe psychosis I can tell you that it feels like the self is being split up into parts – like my very self is fragmented and I can’t get in touch with who I am or what I care about on the deepest levels, including how I feel about and perceive God. Instead of a bipolar 1 diagnosis, which is technically what I have been diagnosed with, (some of my psychiatrists say schizoaffective), I’ve often thought a better description would be Fragmented Mind Disorder or Fragmented Psyche Disorder. In Japan schizophrenia (which is an illness very similar to bipolar 1 and both involve psychotic symptoms) has been renamed Integration Disorder, and I think this name accurately fits the illness. The parts of the brain that make up the perception of the self and of the world and reality, feels dis-integrated and you feel like your self needs to be pieced back together with the pieces put in all the right places because they have become completely re-arranged and some of them feel like they are missing.. When I went through it I believe I got a taste of what Jesus may have felt like when He was on the cross and separated from God, and God used the experience (after I came out of psychosis with lithium) to give me a deep appreciation of what Christ endured for me, and to enter into his sufferings, also to appreciate in a much deeper way rationality and the ability to be a moral agent and choose benevolence and submission to God. I could not find meaning when I was in deep psychosis, and I learned how superior meaning is to comfort and feelings.

But What About Our Spirit?
Some may be thinking "But doesn't the Bible mentions us having a spirit? I'm pretty sure Psalms speaks of a spirit in many different places." Yes, this is actually correct. The Bible does speak of our spirits. It uses "spirits" to mean our emotions and the attitude with which we do something.

For instance, this verse in Proverbs that speaks of God weighing the attitudes and motives behind the things we do.

All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weigheth the spirits.
Proverbs 16:2

Or for instance, the time when the priest thought Hannah was drunk, and she told him no she was not drunk, she was was depressed in her spirit.

And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.

1 Samuel 1:15

Notice that she refers to both her 'spirit' and her 'soul' here. She mentions pouring her soul out before the Lord. If her soul were an immaterial part of herself, there's no way she could pour it out before the Lord. However, if her soul is her innermost thoughts and feelings and concerns - synonymous with 'spirit' here - then she definitely can pour out her soul to God.

Or when Job, terribly crushed and depressed from the loss of his children, said he would speak out in the anguish of his spirit.

"Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul."
Job 7:11

Notice again how both 'spirit' and 'soul' are used by Job, and they are used synonymously to describe his deepest pains, thoughts, emotions, and concerns.

And yes this term "spirit" comes up many times in the Psalms. Here is one such example.

"Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate."
Psalm 143:4

The Spirit in Which We Do Something Connected With Character, and Whether or Not We are Filled With God's Spirit

There's another aspect to this that is very important, that of the character. All people can think and have mental processing; we all have will and agency, both the converted and the unconverted. But for us to do something with the right spirit, with the right motives and attitude, requires more actually than just a working brain. We actually have to have a new heart, or new character, and be filled with God's Holy Spirit in order to do actions from the right motive and attitude and "spirit."

So while a person is their brain and body set to life by the breath of God (the Holy Spirit), our mental processes alone without God do not give us the power or the option of doing benevolent actions with the right motives. We need God's Holy Spirit living within us, and we need a new heart or character in order to do right actions from the right motives.

The Bible refers to a person having this new nature as being "spiritual" and a person before conversion as being "carnal."

The concept of someone being 'spiritual' is not about us having an immaterial spirit of our own, but rather it is about whether that person is filled with God's Holy Spirit or not and whether they have a new nature.

The Bible speaks of this when it talks about the natural man and the spiritual man.

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
1 Corinthians 2:14

If both the unconverted person and the converted person have the ability to use logic and reason, why is it that the unconverted person - or the natural man - cannot receive spiritual truth? It's because of his nature, which is not subject to God's law neither indeed can be.

"Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you."
Romans 8:7-9

These verses rather than speaking about human beings as though there is a deeper part of us that is our soul and that is deeper than our mind, actually connect our nature with our mind.

There is a carnal mind, and there is a spiritual mind.

"For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace."
Romans 8:6

This shows the brain is working and thinking in both cases, but the carnal mind is a person with an unconverted character, possessing selfish desires and motives, thinking and planning and carrying out their selfish will, whereas the spiritual mind is a converted person with a new heart, possessing holy motives, thinking and planning and carrying out the will of God.

The nature is the deciding factor in how our brain works in a moral sense. Our nature involves our brain and changes what we desire, what we are motivated by, and what we are able to do, through the Holy Spirit giving us a new heart that can love.

When our nature changes our brain works differently because we have a new character that is like Christ's, motivated by the same things He is, and which loves the same things He loves. Before conversion selfishness is the motivating factor.

While I do believe the Word makes a case that even unconverted people can be inspired by God's Spirit and respond to Him to a certain extent, to really have motives that align with God's heart and God's motives, one must be filled with His Spirit.

Notice that there is no immaterial or immortal soul in this equation. It is just the nature of the person, the Holy Spirit coming to live in that person at conversion and changing their nature, which gives them holy desires and motives and causes their brain to be able to operate with a new psychology and orientation.

The Flesh and The Spirit
All through the Bible is speaks of the flesh and the spirit and how they are at odds with one another. The flesh wants to sin, only a person filled with the Spirit can subdue the flesh and both desire and carry out loving actions. The Bible calls this evil attitude we possess without Him "the flesh" because it's describing a human person - a body - that is not filled with the Holy Spirit and is vacant without Him. This is what we become on our own without Him, selfish, desiring what is evil. But once we are filled with God's Holy Spirit at conversion, He lives in us and actuates us to do loving things that we could not do in our own power. He changes our heart - or character - and gives us different attitudes and desires.

So while we have a spirit in which we do different things, to do things with the right spirit requires more than just a change to our character (though God does this for us too) - it actually requires God's Holy Spirit living within us.

Mental Illness vs. Brain Illness

Since the brain is a physical organ, we know that if it malfunctions this can cause disorder to our thoughts, personality, perceptions, and cognition, bringing on mental symptoms. It's very clear that anything physical that disrupts the brain can bring on illness. Syphilis going to the brain has been known since at least the 1800s as causing psychosis in some people. In more recent years STREP infection has been connected with OCD symptoms and psychosis symptoms in kids. Brain injury has been linked with irresistible compulsions that are impossible for the injured person to resist. And there are many such examples, which I will not go into now, but will discuss in later chapters.

But what about purely mental causes of mental illness? When I say "purely mental causes", I mean causes that are not from physical sources like viruses or head injury. I mean mental disorders caused by the thinking of the brain itself, such as the death of a child and the overwhelming sadness the person experiences from the death bringing on psychosis in a person, or something like a person being a nihilist and really believing life has no meaning, and this belief affecting their brain to the point where they develop mental symptoms, or verbal abuse over a long period of time that breaks down the general health of the person and brings on mental symptoms?

The question is "Does the Bible support the concept of purely mental causes of brain symptoms?"

The Bible Supports The Concept of Purely Psychological Causes of Mental Symptoms, and Calls on Us to Engage in Right Thinking and Faith in God

There are laws of right-doing and right-thinking that react on our physical being. The knowledge of doing and even speaking right, truthful words, has a healing reaction on our physical body, including our mood and mind.

The Bible teaches this truth that how we use our physical brain – what might be called purely "mental health", or the closest thing to it, the thoughts we think, and whether we choose to cherish faith and hope in Christ or doubt and rebellion in our heart – influences our body and our physical brain. Hope and faith and truthfulness build up the physical brain and the physical body and create a balanced state of health. Doubt and guilt and sin and hate break us down both mentally and physically. How we use our physical brain with our agency and free will to think and to do, affects us physically. The truth that the mind reacts on the body is Biblical truth, not just one doctors are becoming aware of, and it did not originate with the scientific and medical professions, but with the law of cause and effect in our actual world. The scientific and medical worlds are merely discovering this same truth that God’s Word has taught His people for thousands of years.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones."

Proverbs 18:22

"A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones."

Proverbs 13:40

A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season, how good is it!

Proverbs 15:23

A truthful and good answer actually produces joy in the heart of the person who gave it. I’ve experienced this writing this book, which has been a positive influence on my health. Conversely lying words or hateful words have a negative impact on a person’s health. Not just the one being verbally abused by the words, but also the one saying the words.

“From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things, and the work of their hands brings them reward.”

Proverbs 12:14

“From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied.”

Proverbs 18:20

Both the work of our hands and the fruit of our lips bring reward and health to the body.

We also see from the scriptures that refusing to repent and remain in poor standing with God results in misery.

10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:

11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.

12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:

14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:

15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:

16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:

17 And the way of peace have they not known:

18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Romans 3:10-18

The immoral person who hasn’t repented and put their faith in Christ is not just immoral and selfish – this state of their heart and these choices they make result in misery and mental unhappiness. And then things often go even further and the state of their heart not only makes them feel mental depression but affects their physical body and their health often breaks down, or they develop fatigue issues, aches and pains and things like this. Sometimes even more severe symptoms like cancer or heart disease or autoimmune disease.

Recently I spent some time in a medical library and researched trauma, and it’s very well known in the medical community that not only does physical trauma bring on mental illness, but purely psychological trauma can bring on mental illness. I read about how men who had gone to war and experienced the trauma of war – it wasn’t necessary that they be physically injured for this to happen – would sometimes snap and start friendly firing at their fellow soldiers even when they’d gotten back from the battlefield and were safe. It reminded me of school shootings. Like the school shooters, this was a rare, but well-known phenomenon. It’s also known that grief can cause mental illness.

The Bible supports this concept as well.

So, while all mental illness has physical affects on the brain, this does not mean that the origin of the mental illness is physical. Purely psychological causes can be behind mental illness.

The good news is that we have some control over this. We can choose to repent and be saved and experience peace in Christ. We can choose to think hopeful thoughts that have their foundation in God’s goodness and His many promises to us. We can choose to be convicted and moved by His Holy Spirit to do justice and mercy in the world, to speak elevating truthful words, and the true and helpful words we speak will lift our mood and react on us in physically healthy ways.

There may be things outside of our control too. If we’re a child with an abusive parent, we may not be able to do anything about that. (Though society needs to crack down on abuse and develop better ways of determining that it is occurring – I think questionnaires at school and appointments with a school therapist would help abused kids open up about what is going on at home and then the school can get CPS involved). We can’t always control everything. The early church was persecuted and many of them were killed. In cases where we can’t control the situation and we’re suffering, we can know that God will bring good from bad. He will use the experience to grow our faith and help us understand more of His love and what he went through on Calvary for our salvation.

Why It's a Sin to Doubt God
It is a sin to doubt God. Why is this? Because God is good. He is perfect goodness, and our lives in this world testify to that fact. He causes the rain to fall and the sun to shine on both the just and the unjust, He has infinite and impartial love, dying for us while we were still enemies with God in order to forgive us and reconcile us to Himself. Hypothetically (because this scenario does not exist in real life) If God were not good, then it would not be a sin to doubt Him. It’s certainly not a sin to doubt people who have let us down such as abusers and selfish people in our lives. It’s not wrong to call people’s actions what they are, evil, if the person has done wrong and evil in their lives (but also to be aware of our own sins and not use their sin as a way to feel we are righteous on our own without Christ). So the reason these attitudes of doubt or hate or indifference towards God are wrong is because He is so just and merciful and good.

Responsible Mental Stewardship a Must
Our attitude towards God and our choices involving Him, such as not choosing to repent of sin and believe in Him and instead serving self, carrying the guilt of our past sins, can lead to mental depression, anxiety, mood swings, and even physical illnesses like cancer, heart disease, or autoimmune disorders and symptoms. How we use our mind, a concept known as mental stewardship, or management of our thought life, can bring on not only feelings of guilt and discontent and dissatisfaction, but even full mental illnesses like depression, or generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, etc. This is known in the medical world now. That the mind is very strong in its ability to affect the body.

Placebo Effect Shows the Power of the Mind on the Body
One condition that really highlights just how powerfully the mind can affect the body is something called placebo effect. Placebo affect is the reason scientific studies need to be double blind studies and have two groups of people – those who are given the medication and those who are given sugar pills- and no one is told which group they are in. The mind is so powerful that if someone thinks they have started a medication that is going to help them, their body can mimic the healing effects of the medication and make the symptoms of their illness or underlying condition lessen or disappear entirely, and this happens frequently enough that this effect has to be factored into all scientific studies or the data will be wrong and distorted if it isn’t taken into account.

There’s even a condition, pseudocyesis, where a woman perceives herself to be pregnant, and develops many or all of the signs of pregnancy, short of having an actual baby in her, but she actually isn’t pregnant. Her belief that she is pregnant causes her body to go through real physical changes that closely mimic the actual bodily changes of pregnancy. The power of the part of our brain that we can influence and control - our thoughts - upon our general brain and body health is very strong!

Growing Number of People Who Want 'Mental Illness' to be Categorized as 'Brain Illness'

There are a growing number of people who want severe mental illnesses (SMIs) like schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder to be taken out of the mental illness category and put in the category of neurological disorders, like epilepsy or encephalitis. They believe this is more accurate and will result in their loved one getting better care. They see schizophrenia as a brain illness, because it involves high levels of inflammation at the biochemical and physical level and this is what is disrupting the person's thinking and bringing on the symptom of insanity.

I don't personally like the term "Mental Illness" either as when I think of illness caused by purely mental causes, I think of that being an illness caused by wrong thinking, or by sadness or mental pain. For instance, a person developing schizophrenia after the death of their child, and the severe mental anguish they experience from his death imbalances their brain and brings on the symptoms of psychosis. This would be an illness brought about by purely mental causes. Or someone developing major depression or PTSD due to experiencing years of verbal abuse. No physical abuse takes place, but they are demeaned and disrespected verbally. This would also be an illness brought on by purely mental causes.

And with schizophrenia and other SMIs the medical literature shows that they can be brought on by either physical causes like viruses and pathogens, or by mental causes like the death of a family member, high amounts of stress, or verbal abuse.

So I think it's most accurate to think of these illnesses as physical brain conditions brought on by either physical causes, or mental causes. So you could say someone has schizophrenia from physical causes like Lyme disease or mercury toxicity, or they have schizophrenia from mental causes, like death of a family member, or verbal abuse.

Also I think it's most accurate to call them syndromes or conditions and not illnesses. For something to be an illness it needs to have a known pathology unique to that specific illness, but the medical literature shows there isn't one pathology for schizophrenia. High histamine is shown in the medical to cause schizophrenia (look into the work of Dr. Abram Hoffer for more information), but also high dopamine has been known to cause schizophrenia, and so has high glutamate. So there are many different biochemical profiles for schizophrenia, not just one single pathology. This is why I believe it's most accurate to call schizophrenia and the other mental illnesses in the DSM 5 (none of them have one single pathology) conditions or syndromes. 'Schizophrenia syndrome' makes a lot of sense. Similar to how Chronic Fatigue Syndrome can have many different causes from low b12 to Lyme disease, similarly schizophrenia is a cluster of symptoms that tend to manifest together which can be caused by a number of different imbalances and pathogens.

Conclusion: Yes, We Can Study the Brain, but a Word of Caution
Since the brain is what gives us our personality and cognition, and we do not have a soul separate from our body that gives us these things, the answer is a resounding "yes" we can study our brain in order to understand the deep processes involved in cognition and personality. We can "believe the science."

We cannot study how the Holy Spirit interacts with our brain to give us life though. That is a mystery no amount of scientific understanding can ever unravel.

I also want to give a word of caution here. While researchers and neuroscientists have in fact discovered many different wonderful truths about the human brain and its mental processes, and knowing their findings can help us understand our own mental symptoms better and get on the right kind of treatment for them, because most of these people are atheist, their findings tend to be presented in ways that are dishonest. So you do need to use discretion here.

It is not usually the end conclusions which are dishonest, but the way in which things are conceptualized and worded.

For instance, I read a study today about moral perception in those with autism, and the study was careful to lay out that they wanted us to see people with autism's views of morality as being equal to the view of the healthy controls, and just different. In the study those with autism had a higher tendency than normal controls to believe that breaking policies and rules - no matter what those rules were based on - was more of a serious wrong than breaking principles. The study said they have a rules-based morality rather than a principles-based reality.

This is not wording a Christian would use. A Christian understands that rules are not what constitutes morality. It is principles that are a moral concept. It is only when rules align with right principles that they are moral rules, otherwise if they align with immoral principles it is actually a sin to keep the rules. Like when the Pharisees created man-made traditions for the purpose of breaking and going against the principles of God's law.

So according to Christianity only the control group actually had a moral compass, and those with autism didn't in this area of perception perceive morality at all. (They did perceive other moral concepts though, they just had a serious blind spot in this area of perception). The study admitted that to many people with autism hitting someone is not seen as worse than breaking a rule, regardless of what the rule was based on. For instance if the rule was no speaking in class, and a student spoke to ask the teacher a question, for many of the autistic people this was seen as wrong, and a wrong that was on the same level as physically hitting someone.

The researchers in the study said they wanted to reduce the stigma that is against those with autism, and felt that by calling both the control group's perception of morality and the autistic group's perception of morality morally equal that they had benevolent motives, but what would be the result in believing in two different standards of morality? The result is the goal-post of right and wrong gets moved, and now we're accepting as a society and as individuals multiple different definitions and standards of morality.

But morality is not a personality quirk, it's written in stone and is eternal. It cannot be changed. To embrace something other than God's standard of morality is to call sin righteousness, a very serious thing indeed.

And imagine being one of these autistic people, and you're a Christian, and you have this huge blind spot in your moral perception, and your psychologist or doctor tells you your moral perception is fine when it's not fine. Such a lie is not benevolent at all, and will create problems for the Christian with autism as they endeavor to live out their faith with this huge blind spot in their moral understanding.

What does the Bible say about lying to someone with autism, who already has disadvantages in life and needs support and care, not for people to put a stumbling block in their way?

"Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord."
Leviticus 19:14

‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
Deuteronomy 27:18

These researchers are seeking humanistic answers to the problem of autistic people being mistreated, and they are using lying as a way to endeavor to change the scenery and create love for them. But you cannot love with lies, it only leads to harm and is disrespectful and cruel.

The loving thing to do would be to use this same information to point out to people with autism that they have a higher chance of having a moral perception deficit in this specific way, to test them for it, and then provide them therapy that can help them learn to think in the correct way, and strengthen the part of their cognition that is weak and train the brain to perceive morality more accurately.

My Experience At Medical Libraries
When I first started going to medical libraries I was amazed at the wealth of knowledge and praised the Lord for it. But as I really dug into the literature, unfortunately I found that their findings are written in ways tailored to glorify man and not God. The human brain is presented as being either a processing machine, or a highly evolved animal. It is hard to really love the findings when they are presented in a way that dehumanizes the human brain, and makes our world seem like a purely naturalistic world. For instance, hearing the prefrontal cortex described as giving us "executive function", and the ability to plan and execute, and celebrating this, and not really mentioning how the pre-frontal cortex gives us the ability to understand principles like freedom, truth, love, justice, and mercy, and to make moral decisions based on truth. The true wonder of the human brain is conveyed when we view people as moral beings made in God's image and when we see the brain as the handiwork of God, a physical organ that houses and processes the truth of God, all the concepts of the Word and creations in the universe and their interconnected relationships and dynamics.

The glory needs to go back to God, but by engaging in a system that glorifies human beings and leaves God out entirely from the medical research, and never mentions Him, and paints the human brain as being a processing machine or an evolved animal, the glory is stolen from God. I think this is the whole point.

And while the findings can be extremely beneficial for those of us suffering from mental symptoms, we need to exercise caution in reading them, and be careful not to become indoctrinated into their line of thinking. We also need to be careful in what we do with medical advice from doctors. We need to always consult the Lord for ourselves and not look to these people as our savior or healer, but to Christ Alone. Even in natural medicine there are perils to avoid. Many practices from New Age have seeped into natural medicine such as something called muscle testing, which uses the human body like a divination tool - a pendulum - and without even ingesting a supplement your arms are supposed to tell you whether the supplement is right for you or wrong for you. The amount of lies and false doctrines in this world are so prevalent and so insidious that there is no way we can navigate our lives and stay in the truth without God's help. We need a present, active Savior, and praise the Lord that is what Jesus pledges to be for us.

I do recommend everyone visit a medical library. You will find that there are so many known effective treatments that aren't yet being used in routine practice by doctors. Because of how the medical system is set up, treatments tend to be cookie-cutter and simplistic, and outdated. I can't tell you how many people I've come across who were told when several SSRIs did not lift their depression that there depression was "treatment-resistant" and that there was "nothing more" the psychiatrist could do for them. This is actually not true though! There is so much more that could have been tried. If you look in the medical literature you will see monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) used successfully with stubborn cases of depression, antihistamine medications used with success to resolve severe depression, IVIG therapy used to lift depression, peptides used to lift depression - none of which their psychiatrist recommended or tried with them. There are many different treatment options in the medical literature that you can print out and show to your doctor and ask to try. Ask God to help you find effective treatments, and be pro-active in your health. You are the steward of your body, according to the Bible, not your doctor.


It’s God’s Mind That Has Infinite Properties, Not Ours

Let’s talk a little about God’s mind…

God possesses a mind that is uncreated, indestructible, not designed or limited to the confines of a specific created design; not existing within space and time, infinite. His mind holds all information and all knowledge, and His judgment is perfect. Thus He can never err, His mind can never malfunction, or have any type of limitation.

Holding People With Handicaps to a Divine Standard
When we hold people with mental malfunction to this standard – that no matter what state their physical brain is in they ought to always be able to tell right from wrong and do the right thing, even if there’s visible brain damage to the areas of the brain responsible for moral judgment – we may not realize this, but we’re holding them to something only a divine being can be and do.

In The Bible it of course says to take every thought captive. Sometimes people with involuntary intrusive thoughts or hallucinations that are immoral or dark in nature feel guilt because they try but they can’t take these things captive. When people with mental illness feel guilt for brain processes outside of their control, they may not realize this, but they are holding themselves up to a standard of being possible only for God.

We are finite beings called to resist temptation, walk in holiness, and live moral lives.

God is an infinite holy Being.

Thus we are held responsible for things within our control, not for things outside of our control such as damage to our physical brain that causes malfunction and takes away perceptions.

Jesus Bridged the Gap
Jesus however became a man, one with a fallen nature born of Mary, a fallen women, and He was subject to mental fatigue, mental limitations, and malfunction in His humanity. Due to this He understands those of us with mental illnesses, and can care for us, sympathize with our mental handicaps and the fear and frustration they may bring, guide us to health treatments, and sustain us through every kind of mental illness and symptoms we may face, even ones the doctors don’t yet know about or know how to treat. As the Great Physician Jesus can give us wisdom and help in every health emergency.

The Word Became Flesh
As someone who has experienced psychosis and come out the other side with some cognitive distortions left over even after coming back to reality, I appreciate in a new way that Jesus is The Truth, meaning all truth stems from His nature and character and He is the Standard and Source of it...and that the Truth - or the Word - "became flesh". When you are working through the puzzle of trying to piece back your perception of reality and get all the pieces in their right places, and you are disturbed and unsettled by some of the more serious and important truths and the need for them to be right and be seen to be right - pressing questions like whether you are saved and how to be saved - it is a wonderful thing to know Jesus as the Word who became flesh. Not only does He contain in His Person and character all truth, and hold that truth up with His infinite nature and almighty power, but He also secured that truth through His perfect life on earth and His death on the cross, eternally protecting truth from Satan's attacks and desire to usurp it and change it...and not only did He protect that truth by becoming a man and dying to "magnify the law", but Jesus also understands my struggle for truth, because He was a man Himself. A man whose brain got tired every day. A man who may have forgotten pieces of information and had a limited capacity in his human mind (not in His divine mind). So He understands me as a person and my need for truth, and my struggle to piece it together and find it. Thus because of all of these factors that He has accomplished and all these things He is - He can bring the truth to me. He can cause me to arrive at truth, so that "seek and you shall find" can happen. He makes it happen. He is the perfect and only Person who can help me with my health struggles and provide the medical and Bible solutions I need. Doctors and health workers are just helpers, but it is Jesus who is my Healer.

If We Are Our Brain Then Where Did This Extremely Prevalent Idea of an Immaterial Soul Come From?
The truth is the doctrine of the immortal soul came about when Christian thinkers adopted Plato's ideas. Plato was a pagan Greek philosopher. He was very intelligent and had a profound and widespread influence on the whole world that carries over even today. Later gnosticism adopted many of Plato's beliefs about the soul, and the doctrine of the immortal soul became even more widespread among Christians. Gnostics taught that the flesh was bad and the spirit was good, and that our true form was spirit and our flesh was not the true "us." In heaven we would be spirit and not flesh.

Does it Really Matter What We Believe About the Soul?
You may be wondering "Does it really even matter if I view a person as having an eternal immaterial soul or not? What difference does it really make?" Let me ask you another question to answer this one...What would your reaction be if I told you that I believed that people who were paralyzed should be able to get up and walk because they are almighty, and I chided them for their refusal to walk? You'd probably have two very strong reactions...the first would probably be shock that I was believing what is basically a blasphemous belief that people are almighty. You'd be hurt and angry that I attributed something that was so essential to divinity to human beings. And after that initial shock died down somewhat, you'd probably experience more anger and hurt that I'd insinuated that disabled people had the power to will themselves to walk and simply weren't using it. The fact I'd blamed innocent, struggling people wasn't fair or right.

This is the same kind of damage that can happen from wrong beliefs about the soul. It can strip God of attributes that belong to Him alone, and confuse people about what it means to be a person, especially as our nature relates and is connected with mental illness and mental conditions.

I've seen it happen again and again. Wrong beliefs about the soul blur the lines between us and God, and assign blame to people that isn't theirs to carry.

And if you are someone with a mental illness you won't know how to relate to yourself and your own brain and your own handicaps and limitations in a Biblical way if you believe you have an immaterial soul that should have done the right thing even while psychotic, that should always do the right thing even after suffering a stroke, and you won't be able to find answers until the truth about human nature is found in the scriptures.

it is in the truth that satisfying answers are found. Answers that bring solutions and that provide closure. Answers that show God to be fair and just and merciful and good and paint the accurate picture we all need to see of Him after going through something traumatic like a psychotic break. Answers that show us how to relate to and treat people with mental conditions, and what policies are just, fair, and right. The truth alone can heal, and make sense of suffering.

God's Nature
Let's talk a little more about God's nature. Perhaps the biggest problem with believing a person has a soul is that it gives divine properties to human beings. As Christians, this is the last thing we want to do! This is a kind of idolatry. Most who have this belief do not know it's unbiblical, and thus God is not unjust to blame those who hold this belief in ignorance. But if this belief is consciously embraced and held after the truth is known, it does become idolatry.

Let's think about this for a minute, really think this through...Can God create something that is immortal by its very nature?

Intriguing Youtube Interaction
I once came across a very intriguing conversation on a Youtube video online. Someone who was an unbeliever was conversing with a Christian, and seemed deeply troubled by the fact that God didn't make human beings into gods. Recounting the story in Genesis with the snake at the tree, he couldn't see how the serpent could be in the wrong here, or how Eve could be guilty for simply wanting a better quality of life. He felt it was unjust and unfair that God sentenced her with death, and didn't give us the highest quality of life possible - which would be us being gods. He felt God was holding back this wonderful gift arbitrarily.

As he began to reason through things he actually ended up answering his own questions. He went from "The highest quality of life is being a god", to evaluating what it means to be divine...and looking at the attribute of being almighty...and wondered "Can God give someone omnipotence; is it something God can create into a person?" From there he then asked about being eternal and realized that for a being to be divine it must have always existed...and if God creates us then we have a starting point; we can't have always existed. From there he asked the question "What about the fact that being divine means that Being must be the Source of all other beings and life in the universe?" It was here that he realized God couldn't create into human beings the attribute of being the Source of all life. Because that person's Source of life was God, that created person could never themselves be a god.

It was a very interested conversation - well really monologue of a hungry person searching for answers - and he found his answers! He came to understand that God wasn't arbitrarily holding back divinity from us. None of the attributes of divinity are something that can be created. This is what makes God, God. He is uncreated, and all His attributes have to do with Him being the Source and Standard of everything in the universe, including truth and moral law. This is why He is worthy of being God and why He alone should be worshipped and worship should never go to a created being who derives everything that have from God and who is in God's image, not God Himself.

What is Divine Simplicity?
God has an attribute called Divine Simplicity. What this means is that God is not separate from His parts. He is all of them together. You can't take one of His parts and create that same part into a created being, because that part is God.

It is important to understand is that God's all-knowingness, or His almightiness, any of His attributes are a part of Him. They aren't just abilities; they are a part of His nature. God being able to do anything isn't a skill-set He has learned or acquired; He is almighty in His very Person and it is an attribute of Himself. This is why His intent or will can be carried out with merely a Word, and it's interesting that the Word of God is not really spoken with a voice like you and me have. God doesn't have created vocal chords that use sound waves - He is beyond and outside of all those concepts. His "speaking" isn't with vocal chords, as you can see by the fact His Word is written. He "sends forth" His Word, and His will is accomplished. This shows God's Word to be more than just a voice. It is a creative force and is connected with His very will and almighty power.

Jesus "upholds all things by the Word of His power."
Hebrews 1:3

The Question This Boils Down To
Since God cannot create divine attributes into a created being, or transfer them to a person in any way, the question of the nature of man boils down to this: Are being immortal and being immaterial divine traits that are intrinsic within the divine nature, or are these traits things God can create within the nature of a person? It's very clear and self-evident that a person cannot consist of any divine attributes. Every part of us must be by its very nature a created or derived attribute.

There are many who believe God creates a soul, and gives it its initial spark of life, and then its life is set in motion, and from there the soul self-sustains its own life. Few Christians believe a person can bring themselves into existence, and they can see how it would go against the Christian faith to believe a person came about by their own power or by natural causes, but many believe once brought into existence that a soul is immortal and can sustain its own life indefinitely. They aren't understanding that the truth about God that makes it impossible for a person to bring themselves into existence and to be a creator of oneself, also makes it impossible for a person to sustain their own life once created.

What does the Bible say? The Bible calls God alone the "I Am." "I Am" means God has always existed, and there has never been a time when He did not exist. In fact because time itself is a created thing, God is outside of time altogether, and exists independent of time. He has always been and will always be. But "I Am" also means something else that is very important. It means that God is self-sustaining. No other being in the universe can claim "I Am". For every other being in the universe, they can say "God gives me life", not "I exist of my own power and being" - what "I Am" means.

Thus if it were true that God could create a soul that He sets in motion and then that soul sustains its own life from that point forward, this would be God creating into a person a divine attribute; making a person have an attribute that only "I Am" can have. This would be impossible as none of the divine traits can be given or created; by their very nature none of them are transferable and all of them are incommunicable. The attribute of aseity, that of depending on no one else for one's existence - either one's initial existence of being brought into being, or one's sustained, ongoing existence - either one - is a divine attribute. Aseity is what it means to be God, just as much as 'almighty' is what it means to be God.

What About Those Who Believe God Sustains the Soul in Hell?
Some people do not believe that the soul self-sustains once created. Instead they believe that God creates our souls, but our souls aren't immortal on their own. In hellfire God will sustain the life of the wicked indefinitely; their soul will exist eternally, but not by its own power, by God sustaining it and giving it life. This concept actually does away with the concept of the soul entirely though! If God is solely responsible for the person's life being sustained in hellfire, then the experience of that person is just like the life we experience in this world already, with God giving us life and there is nothing different about the supposed immortal and immaterial "soul" as there is about having a body sustained by God in this life. What I'm saying is the afterlife existence is not categorically different from our lives now, and the nature of the soul is not categorically different from the bodies we have now in this view. The only difference - which is not a categorical one - is that God sustains the person's life indefinitely in hell in this other view, vs. sustaining us for a finite amount of time in this life we have now.

What About Immateriality?
Now let's ask the question "What about immateriality; is this something God could create as an attribute of a person?" The answer here is that no God couldn't create a soul that was immaterial. Here's why...People have to consist of something...and that something has to be something that isn't God. If the person is made of the same substance as God is, then they would be divine. I do believe the Bible depicts the Father and the Son as having an indestructible immaterial form or body of sorts. The prophets saw this form in vision. Moses saw God's back on Mount Sinai in Exodus 33. Isaiah saw the pre-incarnate Jesus in Isaiah chapter 6. Both the Father and the Son are also omnipresent too. It is only the Holy Spirit who does not have a physical body of any kind. But this body that the Father and Son are made of, is not made of created material or substance. And only Jesus is made of the same substance as the Father. No other being is made of that eternal, indestructible substance. The Bible actually says this directly.

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.”
Hebrews 1:3

This phrase "exact representation of His being" is saying that what the Father is in essence and in substance, the Son is that exact same essence and substance. And no one else is the "exact representation" of God's being except His Son. People are made in the "image" of God, and are not the exact representation of His being.

Because we are created beings, every part of us must be a created thing. And every created thing consists of a substance...and that substance has to be something different from God Himself. So...this means a soul cannot be immaterial because immaterial means there is no substance of any kind.

I hope you are following my logic here as it's really crucial to understand this core concept.

God could make angels from a different created substance from people. He could even create people of a different substance than the one we have now. The Bible seems to allude to this when it tells us our resurrected bodies will not be of the same type as the ones we have now (1 Corinthians 15:39-40). But every part of us must be made of created substance. If there is any part of us that is not made of a substance and is completely immaterial, then this would be a divine attribute. Only God is immaterial (and He also has a body, except for the Holy Spirit). A person cannot be immaterial as immaterial equals uncreated.

I've heard some people say God creates an immaterial soul. But this can't be. Created things always have some kind of substance. If the thing created has no substance and is beyond all created laws - beyond physics, beyond matter, beyond being finite - then it is divine; it's not a creation but the Creator.

The dividing line between the creation and the Creator is infinite attributes. God has infinite attributes; His creation has finite attributes. This is why created beings, or anything that is created must consist of a substance...because it's very essence must be a created essence, and not something that is uncreated and divine...and all created essences are what we might term "material". Only God's Holy Spirit can be purely immaterial and consist of no created substance.

What About Indestructibility?
Similarly, indestructibility is another infinite attribute that God alone has. Just as a person cannot be almighty, a person - or their soul - cannot be indestructible either. If they had an indestructible soul, they would possess a divine attribute.

The most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16, tells us God gave His Son that we might not 'perish.' If there is a part of the human being - any part of us - that is incapable of perishing and lives on eternally in its own power, that goes against this verse. When this verse says the lost perish and Jesus died to save us from perishing, it means the whole person perishes. For if their soul did not perish, then they haven't really perished at all.

Only God is indestructible and imperishable. This verse in John 3:16 shows us that the human nature is perishable by its very nature.

Greek mythology and pagan beliefs have heavily influenced our world. We've all grown up under this influence. Plato's views have painted a picture of human beings that makes them basically demi-gods, possessing some but not all of the divine attributes. In reality a person - or their soul - cannot possess any attributes that belong to divinity. It is impossible. God cannot create demigods, and such a thought is actually blasphemous to His wonderful Name. He alone is God in essence. No one can share His essence.

Adam's Mind and the World Before and After Sin
Destructibility has always been inherent within the nature of man and the created world. As explained earlier, it is Christ who upholds all things by the Word of His power. Who gives life and breath to His creation. The creation does not self-sustain. God told a perfect Adam in an unfallen perfect world that if he sinned he would "surely die". Once again 'perish' and 'die' mean to no longer exist. If any part of a person remains alive after death, then the person hasn't really perished or died. If we have a soul that survives the death of the body, then the body has died but the person has not in fact died. If the soul could live on after the death of the body, then the Bible's statements that the lost 'perish', and the sinner surely dies, would not be true statements.

Adam and the world before sin were held up by God's active power and kept in a perfect state of functioning and health. People and the world around us have never had life in ourselves or functioning in ourselves alone independent of God. After Adam's sin there was created a degree of separation from God. Adam could no longer live in the direct Presence of God or he would be consumed. God is holy.

"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God."
Deuteronomy 4:24

After his sin we see Adam in the garden attempting to hide from God, having the same experience the prophet Isaiah had when he saw God in vision and cried: "“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Isaiah 6:5

It was no longer a good experience for Adam to be in God's Presence. Instead it filled him with shame and a sense of his sin.

A degree of separation is the only way Adam and all of us could exist in God's cosmos without being consumed by being in the direct Presence of the Lord.

The world itself was cursed due to Adam's sin, and decay and malfunction showed up. Leaves died, animals died, people died.

"For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope

that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God."

Romans 8:20-21

How Mental Illness Came to Be
Notice the word "decay" in this verse. The whole created world could now decay. This is how mental illness came to be. In a perfect world, God kept Adam's brain functioning perfectly, but after sin, with a degree of separation from God, and with the natural world breaking down and decaying, malfunction of every type became possible, including malfunction of our physical brain and its processes.

And since people do not have an immaterial and immortal soul that can think outside of their physical brain and all thinking and cognitive processing happens in their brain, this means that people with mental handicaps are limited by those handicaps and can't see around them or process around them.

And because every part of a person's perception, emotions, and cognitive processing happens in their brain and body, this means that even processes as important as moral perception and judgment can malfunction if a person has a mental illness.

The Human Brain a Created Wonder
Every part of our brain and it's capabilities is a created, physical thing. The human brain is really a wonder of the universe. It is a physical organ that can understand spiritual and moral concepts, and commune with its Maker. Think about that for a minute, how fascinating that is! Neuroscientists have likened the brain to the universe that exists in our heads. In the brain are neuropathways to understand everything in the cosmos, and all the interconnected relationships between all these different things and ideas and concepts. Having experienced psychosis and a number of mental symptoms personally, it is both humbling and fascinating to come face-to-face with your own machinery and realize the reason you believed those impossible delusions like that I could open dimension portals using a gift of faith, or that I could talk with celebrities through the tv, was due to the fact that I am in a sense a living machine...I have physical "machinery" and a design, and I exist within that design, subject to its limitations. When those brain processes go haywire, my thinking and processing is contained within them. I can't see around them or escape them.

My mental processes are what give me my abilities. I'm not infinite like God, and don't exist outside of my brain, so my abilities to think and feel and act and do are made possible by my brain.

It is often the case that studying something when it has gone wrong helps us understand what it consists of and is composed of, and gives us a greater understanding of what that thing is meant to do when it goes right. I have certainly found this to be the case with psychosis and other mental symptoms. When we have a family member who believes they are John the Baptist and they can't reason their way out of it, despite being given good reasons for why it isn't true, we see that a person is a living machine, and it is their brain which gives them their perceptions and cognitive abilities. Then later after they get on medication and no longer believe they are John the Baptist and they can reason again, we see the "machine" in working order.

People are under the laws of physics, and subject to them. We are subject to our brain and it's capabilities. Our thinking is contained within a physical brain and made possible by a physical brain. But God is not subject to laws of physics. God is outside of anything finite and is infinite in all of His attributes. His Holy Spirit can think without a physical brain, holds infinite knowledge, and is not subject to anything in order to think.

Being Physical Doesn't Make Us Unspiritual
Being finite and physical and not having an immaterial spirit, does not make us not spiritual beings. We are not just physical like the animals, and incapable of spiritual communion with God. Rather our brain, unlike the animals is fully capable of processing spiritual concepts and communing with our Maker. We can think deeply about the subjects of justice, truth, mercy, forgiveness, freedom. It is through reason that we study the scriptures and commune with God. Emotions are also involved. These too exist in our body and brain and are not immaterial. Our whole psyche, and the deepest parts of what we might call the "self" are made possible by our physicality.

Animals are not made in God's image and they are not filled with God's Holy Spirit, but people are temples of the Holy Spirit, and ultimately this is what makes us spiritual.

Our bodies were not created to house our own immortal soul, but to house the Holy Spirit Himself!

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:19

This is the purpose of our physicality: to be a temple of the Holy Spirit and commune with God. And all of this can be accomplished with our brain. No soul is necessary.

And who can understand the spiritual mystery of the Holy Spirit infusing our physical body with life? This is a mystery that is beyond human comprehension, and very, very spiritual. It's not less spiritual than the concept of an immortal, immaterial soul. In fact it's more spiritual because the concept of an immortal, immaterial soul glorifies human beings rather than God. But the concept of God's Holy Spirit infusing us with life and giving us consciousness glorifies God alone as the Source and Sustainer of Life.


What It Means to be in The Image of God
What does it mean to be in the image of God? It means we can’t possibly have his divine and infinite attributes. We can’t be immortal, all-knowing, Creator of life, Omnipotent, invincible, the Standard of Truth, anymore than a picture or image of the Grand Canyon can be the Grand Canyon and possess its grand dimensions. We are like God, but without being divine. We have His attributes of free will, moral agency, the ability to be good and righteous and benevolent by choice (through the atonement of Christ after sin entered to picture) and to love. We have finite attributes only, and no infinite ones. We are free agents as God is Himself a free agent, but without divine attributes. We therefore cannot be immortal, immaterial, or invincible - part of of can be these things - as these things are divine attributes. The Bible says to “be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16), and to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). We were created to be morally perfect as God is morally perfect – to have His same character of love. And through Christ we can regain this character. The Bible doesn’t say “be omnipotent as your heavenly Father is omnipotent”, or “be immortal as your heavenly Father is immortal.” We are to be like Him in character, but we are not like Him in his divinity.

God Can Do Anything

I want to take the time now to revisit argument 1 and discuss one more attribute of God: That of Him being Almighty, or Omnipotent.

You might be wondering why all the attention on logic? This is because a proper understanding of logic is needed to understand God's nature and all of God's truth, and also because a crash course in logic is necessary to understand psychotic disorders like schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, which we will be talking about much more in the coming chapters of the book.

Here is the argument again, just to review:
Nature of God – God is Omnipotent and thus can do anything. This would include even the ability to communicate effectively with a delusional person or someone with advanced brain injury from stroke or dementia. He can find or create a way, even if it doesn’t make logical sense.

Zeus-like Omnipotence Not Similar to the Bible God
Let’s look at what 'omnipotent' and 'almighty' mean. Unfortunately, once again when people think of the concept of being "Almighty" we tend to think of a mythological version of the idea of omnipotence, like Zeus and some of the Greek gods and the paganistic beliefs behind such gods which we have picked up from popular culture. These gods possessing some, but not all of the qualities of the Bible God, and having many human aspects, as well as possessing many evil qualities that the God of the Bible would never be or do, like promiscuity, being hateful, and lacking self-control, give a warped view of what it really means to be Almighty.

Under a false view of what being Almighty means I've seen many people - especially atheists - ask bating questions like "Can God create a rock too heavy for Him to lift?", or "Can God make 3 + 3 equal something other than 6?" Many people believe God can do anything and everything, even answer these bating questions with a satisfying answer that makes it possible for Him to somehow do those things the bater is suggesting. After all, He is almighty right, and a belief that He couldn't do those things would be a denial of His omnipotence wouldn't it? People who embrace Calvinist theology even believe God can do both good and evil, and switch between them at will, and still be good and morally perfect in character even though He does evil at will. I know someone who believed God should have been able to structure reality in such a way that free will would be possible and yet it would be impossible for people to choose to sin and harm others. Explaining to her that free will means the person has the freedom to choose to do evil didn't satisfy her because she insisted God is almighty so He could have created reality in this way, He just chose not to. Because she saw God as capable of preventing evil but refusing to do it arbitrarily, she hated God.

My friend didn't realize it but she was using magical thinking when it comes to God. My friend is an atheist, but sadly I've even crossed paths with Christians who believe the same thing she did. I don't think they really thought through their belief though. They held it loosely and without much reflection. It's not a belief someone can love, that is for sure! If God were really like that we could not love Him.

The good news, though, is that God is not at all like that. And reality doesn't work that way either.

The Laws of Being
All truth comes from God and His nature. Jesus is "The Truth" and all truth is derived from Him and shares His properties. There is something called the 'Laws of Being', or some other words that seem even more accurate are Structures of Being or Attributes of Being. These are the truths behind what makes something what it is, and what distinguishes it from what it is not. The "laws of being" are the very fabric of reality. They are deeper than the created world, and have their origin in the Bible and in God Himself.

There are three laws of being.

🧠 1. Law of Identity

A thing is what it is.

Examples:

• A triangle is a shape with three sides. If it has four sides, it’s not a triangle.

• Water is H₂O. If it’s not H₂O, it’s not water.

• You are yourself. You are not simultaneously someone else in essence.
  

This law reveals essence is stable. Without it, nothing could be defined or known.

🚫 2. Law of Non-Contradiction

A thing cannot both be and not be in the same respect at the same time.

Examples:

• A door cannot be both open and closed at the same time in the same way.

• A person cannot be alive and dead simultaneously in the same respect.
  

This law reveals coherence. It’s why reality doesn’t collapse into absurdity.

⚖️ 3. Law of Excluded Middle

A thing either is or is not—no third option.

Examples:

• A light is either on or off. There’s no middle state unless we redefine the terms.

• A number either equals 6 or doesn’t. “Maybe” doesn’t apply to strict identity.
  

This law affirms clarity. It’s why we can make definitive judgments.

Laws of Being Are in God's Creative Word
In the command "Let there be light!", there is a definition of light. A specific thing is created, with specific components and attributes that make it unique and different from other ideas. 'Light' is different from 'air' or 'land' or 'birds.' A word is not merely letters or symbols. The letters and symbols of l-i-g-h-t are not the word. They are the symbols that cause our brain to reference the word, or concept of, light. A word is a meaning or a definition. Thus when it says Jesus is the Word, this is a reference to Jesus being the Source and Standard of all Truth, of all ideas and concepts and axioms.

So contained in God's creative Word are the laws of being.

A square circle is an impossibility. It isn't something hard to do and beyond human power, requiring divine power to accomplish. No, it is a command that is nonsensical. Making 3 plus 3 equal something other than 6 similarly is not something that is hard to do, but the very nature of the thing itself makes it impossible.

What 'Almighty' Means
So what does Almighty actually mean? It means "possessing limitless power", and "being able to do anything", having infinite capability. God can 100% definitely do anything; this is what makes Him God. To say that there are things He cannot do is a denial of His divinity. He has no limit to His power. Human beings have a limit to our power and our capabilities, and this is what makes us human. What does it mean to be able to "do anything"?

Here's where things get interesting, when we ask the question "What is the definition of “anything?”

Yes, that's right, "anything" actually has a clear definition. Nonsense for instance, isn't "anything." Nonsense is the antithesis of "anything."

“Anything” excludes nonsense. Nonsense is not a “thing” and thus does not fall into the category of “anything.” I want you to really think about this for a minute. Many of us have had a very strange idea indeed of what constitutes 'Almighty'. For many of us 'almighty' involved magical thinking that did allow for God to do nonsense, or move or break the laws of logic and go against truth.

Our brain created a magic world when it came to almighty, but it is a real idea, and it works in real ways. And the truth is God can do anything. But making 3 plus 3 something other than 6 is not a 'thing'; it's nonsense.

Don't Miracles Prove God Can Even Do Things That Don't Make Logical Sense?
One of the reasons I think people get so confused about what it means to be almighty and think God can do nonsensical things, is because we know He can do things outside of scientific law. If God can even do miracles that defy science, we start to believe He can defy logic too. But Logic and science are distinctly different, and I don't want you to miss the importance of this distinction.

Laws of being as explained earlier, are components of truth and reality itself. Scientific laws like the laws of physics are not truth itself. So Jesus can walk on water, or turn water into wine, or turn Moses' staff into a literal living snake, defying the laws of physics, and when He does so, this is a sign of His divinity because He is showing He is the Creator, the one who lives outside of and beyond all scientific law and who created these laws Himself. But Jesus cannot walk on water and fall under the water at the same time, or make water into both water and wine at the same time, or make Moses' staff a snake and a piece of wood at the same time. Do you see the difference? The things listed in the first example break scientific law, the things listed in the second example break laws of being and are thus impossible.

The Right Prayer to Pray

Far too often the reaction people have to a family member who is in psychosis is to try to reason with them, pray with them, convert them. Unfortunately sometimes it seems the sane members of the family can act as nonsensical as the family member who is insane.

If their family member believes they are John the Baptist they may try to show them from the scriptures that this is a lie, and pray for God to convict the person's heart to repent.

I think a lack of education about what psychosis is can play a huge role here. My own family didn't know what it was (though my mom knew something was terribly wrong with me, just didn't know what) until I was finally effectively treated, and pulled out of psychosis. I then put 2 and 2 together, did some research, and was able to inform them that I'd lost the use of logic and become psychotic, and that's why I was behaving so erratically.

This is not limited to family dynamics. I've seen this play out in high profile court cases too. The person makes no logical sense, and has signs of psychosis, and asks pointed, illogical questions. They are treated as though they are sane, and their questions are often attributed to logical motives such as they are trying to stall the progression of the case to cause stress to everyone. I watched such a case where the defendant barely said even a few sane coherent sentences during the entire court case, and most of his statements were completely nonsensical, and yet he was treated as though he was sane the entire time.

People who aren't educated about psychosis tend to assume everyone has a sane, coherent motive. They don't know that if the psychosis is severe enough even the deepest parts of a person like their psychology can malfunction, thus there is no coherent motive. Sometimes the motive might be something like they thought their family member was really an alien sent to kill them, who was impersonating their family member. This, while delusional, does still have some logical cohesion to it. But the deeper the psychosis and the more fragmented the psyche of the person becomes, the more disjointed the motive can get, until it can be completely incoherent. They could do a crime for completely nonsensical reasons like they saw someone wear the color green, or because it's 2:00 pm.

To treat someone in psychosis as though they are sane is itself magical thinking, and denies them the help they need. This kind of prayer is asking for the impossible, for God to break the laws of being, to ask God to convict someone of doing the wrong thing, when they can't understand right and wrong or reality anymore. This is like asking God to make a circle square or make 3 plus 3 equal something other than 6. Instead of praying and asking God to convict someone who has lost their mind, ask for something that is logically possible, like for God to lead and guide your loved one’s doctor so he chooses the right anti-psychotic to bring them out of psychosis, and to help them regain sanity. Then God can convict them again through His Holy Spirit once their brain is up and running again.

God can also directly heal your loved one’s brain. While God can’t do a nonsensical thing like make right and wrong make sense to someone who’s brain has lost moral perception – and this is magical thinking outside of the laws of being – God can do miracles that are outside and beyond scientific law and choose to miraculously heal your loved one.

He can also choose to bless the treatment your doctor gives your loved one and make it effective, or lead your family to natural health treatments that can make the medication more effective. These natural treatments can sometimes be strong enough to pull someone out of psychosis on their own too even without medication. (Particularly look into the work of Dr. Abram Hoffer who used high doses of niacin in an in-psychiatric hospital setting to pull psychotic people out of psychosis.)