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Tony,
I've only been here a short period of time as you know but I am impressed with the knowledge of scripture I see presented here. My question is what is this spiritual insanity that you and others have referenced from time to time. I've never heard it mentioned anywhere but here so if you could enlighten me, I would be most grateful. Thanks.
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Spiritual Insanity is a type of impairment or madness of the spirit where our thinking becomes peculiar, unsound and delusional. It is actually a term "gleaned" from the Scriptures, where someone has the spirit of Satan wherein they are
not in their right mind, and thus by implication insane. In Scripture God uses insanity as a portrait of the unsound behavior of the unsaved who are in bondage to the Devil. You've heard people who are struggling with some sin or personal issues of anger, hatred, addictions, etc., as those who are struggling with their Demons. Well, they're not entirely an unbiblical idiom. Because in Scripture insanity was used as a symbol of one being in bondage to Satan. God uses physical and mental maladies as fools and insanity in Scripture to paint a portrait of those who are in bondage to Satan and do not think or act with sound reasoning. Spiritually their mind is "not right," confused, in unrest or turmoil. And from this is where we get the term
Spiritual Insanity from. It is the spiritual disorder of the mind that causes one to act delusionally as a type of spiritual psychosis. The truth seems like a lie, what is sound seems unsound, what is right seems wrong, completely unsound spiritually.
2nd Timothy 1:7- "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
The opposite of a sound or sober mind of Christians is spiritual insanity. It is when the spirit is not right and one's thinking is unsound. For example, Christ miraculously healed a man that was insane, which (
like all of the miracles Christ did) painted this portrait of God's miraculous power to bring healing to the
Spiritually Insane through the efficacy of His death and resurrection. i.e., the physical healing was a
sign or token of a Spiritual healing of our spiritual insanity. e.g.:
Mark 5:1-8- "And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
- And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
- Who had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains:
- Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.
- And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
- But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
- And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
- For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit."
The man who was "not in his right mind" was an insane man divinely used of Christ as a picture of all those in bondage to the Devil and who dwell in the presence of death (
n the tombs) and who are as a wild and raging beast that cannot be tamed. Christ's healing of this man is illustrative of the power of God to bring peace and a sound mind to the
Spiritually Insane. This man was miraculously healed as a sign to illustrate Christ's miraculous power in salvation.
Mark 5:15- "And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid."
When we are saved we are Spiritually clothed in the righteousness of Christ and Spiritually in our right mind
because the Devil has been cast out of us. In its pragmatic sense, spiritual insanity is an unsound aversion to reconciliation with God, a mindless rejection of receiving the truth and righteousness because we remain in bondage to the Devil and sin. We could just as easily call it a spiritual foolishness or a spiritual delusion. It's all pointing to the same unsound spiritual condition or disorder.
2nd Thessalonians 2:9-13
- "Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
- And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
- And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
- That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
- But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:"
The moral of this story, not all in the church will receive the truth in love, because they don't love the truth. They love self-justification over truth. This strong delusion is a spirit of fraudulence where one has an unsound mind that llows them to believe lies and deceptions. In practical terms, it is a spirit of straying from orthodoxy or sound Christian principles because of this rejection of the truth. How many times have you seen this realized? You witness to someone the obvious and unadulterated truth of Scripture (
word for word), and yet they reject God's word of truth for the interpretations of men? That's exactly what that passage says, they just won't receive the truth in love. They don't really know what love is, to them it appears loveless, judgmental and arrogant. These passages are divinely inspired of God to have us recognize the spiritual delusion in this bondage. In its truest form, delusion is nothing but man's own will that moves him to deceitfully work against the truth. Because they are spiritually made insane, their mind being spiritually unsound.
By contrast, that last verse says:
2nd Thessalonians 2:13
- "But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:"
Beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and
belief of the truth. Therein is the difference between the Elect of the church with sound minds that believe the truth when they hear it, and the false Christians with unsound minds in delusion there who trample the truth under foot in their zeal to justify themselves. Why? Because like the insane man God healed, God did not give them a sound mind. They took His name upon themselves, but never His Spirit.
2nd Timothy 1:7- "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Christians are to be sober minded, as opposed to having a mind of fearfulness and of confusion and unrest and turmoil, which is this type of spiritual disorder. Spiritual insanity is the secret persona of the Devil within man that provokes and causes fear and unrest where people are careful of many things, the least of which is service to God. Hope that helps a little.
"
nosce te ipsum"
Peace,
Tony Warren
"I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. -Psalms 32:5"
Topic: What is Spiritual Insanity? (Read 125 times)