A major challenge we face in interpreting the Bible the radically different worldview than our current 21st century American worldview. One of the places where this is most pronounced is in the narratives where Jesus heals the blind, makes the lame walk, and expels demons.
The western worldview holds no place for these kinds of things. Miracles don’t happen and there are certainly no “spiritual forces” beyond our awareness. The western worldview has done away with spiritual answers to ultimate questions and replaced them with materialistic ones. Questions like where did we come from, what is our purpose, and why do we suffer, now have answers found in the natural world rather than in the spiritual. In some ways, our current understanding of mental health has taken the place of previous understandings of why people struggled.
On one hand, some people discredit the Bible as superstitious. The bible was written by ignorant ancient people who didn’t understand what we know about mental health so they replaced it with their less scientific understanding (i.e. demons, angels, God). On the other hand, Christians sometimes discredit the mental health because it’s not the language of the Bible so it must be completely untrue. Unfortunately, there can be an anti-scientific mindset for a lot of Christians. Neither of these are very critically thought through in my opinion.
As a follower of Jesus, I believe the Bible is the word of God and is true (although my interpretation of it is always in question). I also believe God gave us minds that could understand patterns in his creation. He gave us the ability to learn about the physical and psychological components of mental health, biology, and all kinds of other things.
The questions I end up struggling in practice are: What do I think is going on when I see my homeless neighbor talking to himself? Why do I struggle with anxiety? Are these due to spiritual forces and therefore need spiritual answers? Are they mental health problems that need biological or psychological answers?
Frankly, I don’t know completely. It’s either very difficult or actually impossible for us to know exactly what’s happening in each situation.
Here are 3 things I’m confident in though:
1. We’re amphibians.
C.S. Lewis famously compared us to amphibians in his book, the Screwtape Letters. Frogs live part of their lives in water and the other part in land. They were designed for both places. In a similar way, God designed us for the physical and the spiritual worlds. We are both physical and spiritual. Both are critical to our wellbeing and they interact in seemingly complex ways in our world. The problems and solutions we see and seek are going to be found in the combination of these worlds. Fasting is an easy example of how we can dynamically connect the physical with the spiritual.
2. There are real spiritual forces.
Whatever our understanding of them, the bible is clear that there are very real spiritual forces in the world. People are oppressed by forces outside of themselves that lead to all kinds of things we see in our world: drug addiction, anxiety, abuse, racism, and hate. These are products not only of biology and society, but of spiritual forces. This why Paul gives this encouragement to us:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
3. Jesus is more powerful.
In the book of Colossians, Paul reminds the church of the good news that God forgave our sins and has made us alive in Him again. He then ends the discussion with this statement:
[Jesus] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. Colossians 2:15
The rulers and authorities are referring to the evil spiritual forces in the world. The gospel message is not only that Jesus paved a way for us to return to God, but that in the process he also defeated evil. He disarmed the powers of evil by raising from the dead. He is more powerful than any physical or spiritual force in the world. Whether we face Serotonin or Satan, Jesus is powerful and willing to help and heal. Because of his resurrection, we have nothing to fear. Followers of Jesus can have confidence in his power to free us from all forms of bondage, even if we don’t always understand them.
I don’t know about you, but I’m incredibly thankful for that!
Join in the discussion in the comments, what do you think?
