"The Bible clearly teaches that he is happy who has the Lord as his God. This promise remains true despite any 'clinical' condition. So why would a Christian be depressed? A depressed Christian is either someone who is not a Christian at all or someone who has sin in their life that they have not repented of. Their sin has opened them up to a spirit of possession of depression, and they need to repent and renounce all such involvement with the sin that has separated them from God and opened them up to denomic attack. All God's promises are true, and Jesus promised peace to His people. So a depressed Christian is either not a Christian at all or someone who has sinned and opened themselves up to Satan trying to mess up their life. The answer is not in medicine or counseling but in repentance and repentance alone."
Buddy, words like these have caused many Christians to lose hope. Thanks for being such a great tool for the kingdom of God.
5 comments:
Firstly, it took me a while to find the verse your friend referred to .... because, not all translations use the word "happy" to translate this word in Psalm 144:15. Other versions use words like "blessed" and "fortunate" ... which make more sense to me. You can be blessed and fortunate but not "feel" happy.
Secondly, your friend reminds me of one of Job's friends, who used a "happy" line on him.
Job 8
Bildad's First Response to Job
1 Then Bildad the Shuhite replied to Job:
2 "How long will you go on like this? You sound like a blustering wind. 3 Does God twist justice?
Does the Almighty twist what is right? 4 Your children must have sinned against him,so their punishment was well deserved.
5 But if you pray to God and seek the favor of the Almighty,
6 and if you are pure and live with integrity, he will surely rise up and restore your happy home. 7 And though you started with little, you will end with much.
Thirdly, your friend needs to read verses like these two:
Romans 12:15 Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.
James 5:13 Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.
Obviously God has given space for weeping, suffering, hardship ... and the way these to verses compare the two, it leads me to believe that one is not required to be happy during the difficult parts of life.
Pretty nearly everyone suffers in some way at some point in their lives, rarely do I meet someone who reaches 30 and for sure by 40, who hasn't had some big difficulty or time of suffering .... when your "friend's" time comes (and it will) what will he say? Will he assume he has sin in is life? Will his believe and faith in God be found wanting? Hopefully he'll be surrounded by people who are more compassionate then he has been to you.
If he talks smack like that again, just give me a call and I'll slap him for you!
obviously this guy has never really had to deal with true depression or he is in denial. it is this kind of attitude within Christendom that sickens me. he should thanks God every day that his life is perfect and that he has been so blessed. i guess passages about Jesus being so distressed that his sweat was like blood or the many references in the Psalms, in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations regarding sadness, tears, and being upset to the point of agony are all heretical. It is one thing to use one verse to build an entire belief system, it is another to subject others to it. if he wants to use the bible to support his claim, he should use the whole bible and not just a verse here or there.
for all we know, the apostle paul's thorn could have been depression
Wow? That hurts me.... I have repented many times of my sin's and I now know I even need to forgive myself.I have felt everyone has left me and I only have God now and family. I also know that the more I depend on God the better things are. We have to try not to go by our feelings. We have to remind ourselves that God is right there with us through the hard times and don't over think and have feelings of doubt.
God Bless you!
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