Does the Bible Support the Concept of Mental Illnesses and Conditions, or Is This a Secular Idea Originating With Psychiatry?
I know of a lot of 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?”
So 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?
This 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 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 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?
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 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 had clear mental issues caused directly by demons. And so any doctor (a high percentage of psychiatrists are atheist and don’t believe in God or demons which compounds the confusion) who seems to indicate that mental illness is the whole picture we feel is missing an important 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.
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:
1. 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.
2. 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 focus on mostly in this chapter, and I will leave point 1 for a future chapter.
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 must be somewhat responsible for their actions 100% of the time. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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 has 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.
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 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 question of the nature of man boils down to this: Is being immortal a divine trait that is intrinsic within the divine nature, or is it something God can create within the nature of a person? Can and does man have an immortal soul, or is immortality only something God Himself can possess? If it’s a divine trait then being immortal would make someone a god, and no created being could possess immortality in themselves as we are not gods. However, if it’s not an intrinsically divine trait, then God could create it into our design and even non-gods could possess it. If you really think about it, it’s incredibly important what we believe about the nature of man, because if we get this wrong and we’re giving divine properties to human beings, we’re making them into demigods in our minds and Christianity does not support human beings as being any kind of God. Does the concept of an immortal indestructible soul gives human beings divine properties? Does it make us into demigods rather than people?
God alone is God, so any belief that would challenge God’s divinity and attribute it to humanity is harmful and could potentially deprive God of the honor and worship that is due Him. “Thou shalt have no others gods before me” is the staple belief of Christianity. In breaking this commandment Satan became his own god and sinned, and tempted Adam and Eve to desire to be gods and brought sin and woe into the human race as well. Being your own god is the antithesis of Christianity and as Christians we want nothing to do with any doctrines that either outright or subtly support this false philosophy. We are to demolish all such arguments that set themselves up against the knowledge of God, by the truth found in the Word of God. (1 Corinthians 10:5)
Follow Bible Logic
a. All of God’s traits have to do with God being the source of all things and of all truth. The only One that has always existed. The standard of all truth. The Creator of all life. The only immortal, self-sustaining, self-existing One, who creates all things and brings all things into being. This is what “I Am” means – He self-sustains and looks to no other person or power to hold Him up and keep Him alive, and He has always been. Everything else then stems from Him – all truth finds its source in Him. Jesus is indeed “the truth” and there is no truth apart from Him.(John 14:6) He is also the “Life”. If a person can self-sustain, and self-exist, this makes them the “I Am”, this makes them “the Life”, this makes them divine. If God can create a soul or spirit that is immortal by its very nature and can self-sustain, this would mean He could create another god, and if you believe this, it’s not a Christian belief as Christianity supports only one God in three distinct Persons (the doctrine of the Trinity).
Therefore man cannot possess an immortal soul as man is not divine.
b. Man must also consist of completely created material – there can be nothing in man that is not created – or man would also be divine. Not only can man not be immortal, but no part of man can be immaterial, or anything other than finite, existing outside of space and time. All parts of man must be created parts – finite, physical, existing within space and time, or if there is another dimension or kind of created reality they must exist within that. To be immortal, infinite, or immaterial is to be above the laws of physics, and only a divine Being can be above and outside the laws of created reality. God is the only One who has not been created – the only Creator – and any other life form is 100% created and consists of material God brought into existence. Otherwise we’re gods.
The most well-known verse in the Bible, John 3:16, tells us the lost will perish. If there is any part of man that doesn’t perish – an immortal, immaterial soul incapable of destruction and death (invincible) – that would go against this text, and since Jesus never lies, if He says unrepentant human beings must perish, and uses that word specifically, then man perishes. If He meant man burns forever in hell, then it would be a lie to say man perishes. He would have had to select a word like “suffers” instead, rather than “perish”. (More on this in a later chapter.)
c. If people are 100% created matter, and completely finite, not possessing infinite attributes that our outside of our physicality, that are outside of created reality, this means our deep brain processes, our ability to commune with God and understand right from wrong, is an ability of our physical brain. But, not of our physical brain alone. Man’s consciousness comes about by a great mystery. God’s Holy Spirit infuses us with life. This is more than science – at least the definition atheist’s use and that has become so popular – the mystery of life and of consciousness is too deep for any human being to fully understand. How God’s Spirit gives consciousness to a group of atoms is known to God alone and no one will ever be able to do it or replicate it.
Since we have physical brains and processes, all of these processes has the potential to malfunction. Even the deepest desires of our heart and what it means to be a person can malfunction – and this is why dementia and psychosis 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.
d. Being 100% created matter does not mean that we are not spiritual beings. Indeed the purpose and function of our brain is to commune with God and understand the deep truths found in His Word – salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, freedom, justice, mercy, and truth. Our physical brain is capable of understanding all of this when healthy and was created for this purpose. We are spiritual beings by nature, unlike animals. What makes us different from the animals is not that we possess a soul or spirit, but rather that God’s Holy Spirit can dwell in us and fill us because we are made in His image and capable of understanding right from wrong, and repenting and having faith in Christ.
Notice that the Bible says “Let us make man in our image”. We aren’t in God’s image from having an immaterial eternal spirit, but our physical bodies which are made by God are made in His image. Everything about us is made, the very image of God that we’re made in, is made (sorry for the redundancy but this is an important point I don’t want you to miss).
In the Bible again and again our sinful nature apart from God is described as our flesh. Why is this? Because greed, malice, selfish ambition, jealousy, hatred, etc. are how a person acts when they are not filled with God’s spirit, when we are just our flesh without the Spirit. We were not created to exist alone independent of God and outside of his perfect will, abiding by His commandments. All of that happened as a result of the fall and is out of order for human beings. Our physical bodies were created to be temples of God’s Holy Spirit – not of our own souls or spirits. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) This is the purpose of being a physical being. It’s why we have physicality in the first place. The fact that we are physical and limited to space and time – which are created things – the fact that we need space and time in order to exist, and that our very attributes and essence comes about due to space and time – speaks to the fact that we’re created beings. God, being outside of space and time and creating both, is not a created being. If we possess a spirit that can exist outside of matter, and space, and time, again this would make us divine.
What does it mean to be in the image of God? It means we can’t possibly have his divine 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 are free agents as God is Himself a free agent, but without divine attributes. We therefore cannot be immortal as it is a divine attribute. 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.
It’s interesting, but the commonly held belief that we almost don’t even think to question, that animals and people give life to their offspring, is actually not true. Jesus being “the Life” doesn’t just mean that He brought Adam and Eve into existence with His life-giving power, it also means that anything that is alive is that way because God is breathing into those animals and people the breath of life, minute-by-minute, second-by-second:
“For in him we live and move and have our being.”
Acts 17:28
“In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.”
Job 12:10
“This is what God the LORD says–He who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk in it”
Isaiah 42:5
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. “
Acts 17: 24-25
Everything living is held up second-by-second by the life-giving breath of God. He is indeed, the only way that any of us possess life. He is “The Life” at all times and apart from Him there is no life. We cannot self-generate it and we do not possess it apart from Him.
It’s the Holy Spirit, infusing our brain with life, that gives us consciousness. We don’t have life in and of ourselves.
God Can Do Anything
I want to take the time now to revisit argument 1:
1. 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.
Let’s look at what omnipotent and almighty mean. They mean possessing limitless power, and being able to do anything. God can do anything. But He can’t create nonsensical, psychotic, things or do psychotic actions.
“Anything” excludes psychotic, self-contradictory ideas and concepts. For instance, God can’t be God and cease to be God. As someone who has been in psychosis, I can tell you that God didn’t do the psychotic things I asked Him to do when in psychosis for many years. What He did do and which I could finally appreciate when I came out of psychosis, is He did real things, the things that matter and are important.
I once prayed to Him to make me into a snow leopard when I was a kid, because they were my favorite animal, and held deep significance to me. He obviously didn’t do that for me. I didn’t understand at the time that the greatest thing to be is a person in His image, there’s nothing greater He could have designed me to be!
While God can break the laws of science, move outside of them and beyond them, because these are created things, and turning water into wine and breaking scientific law is a sign of His divinity, laws of logic work differently. They aren’t created things. They come from the nature of God Himself, and thus, like the moral law, they are eternal.
Before anyone or anything else was created, God existed eternally. He was good, and thus goodness and the moral law existed, and He had in His Person divine properties and attributes, thus beauty and logic, and symmetry existed eternally because they exist in God’s Person.
This is where the laws of logic come from, and they are eternal.
This is the reason why it’s not possible for something to both exist and not exist. It can either exist or not exist, but it can’t do both at the same time. It’s the reason our world is congruent.
These are concepts we take for granted, and don’t usually think about. If we see our sister is alive and well, we don’t even consider the possibility that maybe she’s also dead. We don’t need to go check the graveyard to make sure she didn’t die and was buried. We see her alive in one place, and we conclude she is alive, without having to check the world over to see if she’s dead somewhere else.
A person in psychosis can believe they are dead when their heart is beating. They can believe they are both dead and alive at the same time. Their brain breaks the laws of logic. But the world never will break the laws of logic. The world is always congruent even when our brain perception has malfunctioned. It’s a relief to know this!
And God does not change. He is always logical, and consistent, even when we’re suffering from a psychotic illness. God is outside of us, truth is a transcendent eternal reality. God will always be good and just and consistent and congruent, even if we’re suffering from a mental illness and can’t perceive Him to be those things. He will always do the right thing and operate in a benevolent way towards us, using His omniscient Fatherly wisdom to guide our lives in the perfect way. Knowing all things, and being able to chart the best possible course for us.
The statement that God can convict someone of right and wrong who’s brain has malfunctioned and lost the ability to discern right and wrong, breaks the laws of logic. This is a nonsensical statement.
And it wouldn’t make God more powerful to be able to do nonsense. Almighty is the most powerful that it’s possible to be, and the definition of almighty is being able to do anything. So not being able to do nonsensical things isn’t the opposite of almighty. It doesn’t make God weak. Rather those things aren’t things.
Asking God to do nonsense is looking at a picture of reality where there are no definitions, no things, and everything is everything else, and nothing at all. The minute you add a definition into the picture, definitions are by their very nature exclusionary. The minute you say a circle is a round shape without sides, this excludes the properties required to make a square.
So this idea that God can do anything, just paints a garbled picture of reality where there are no definitions anywhere; an impossible picture of nothingness.
You can’t have anything if there are no definitions, because definitions are what make something something.
This is magical thinking. Instead of praying and asking God to convict someone who has lost their moral perception, instead ask 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 moral perception. 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 moral perception make sense to someone who’s brain has lost moral perception – and this is magical thinking outside of the laws of logic – 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, or work on their own sometimes too to bring a person out of psychosis.