I actually have kidded for many years in regards to the undeniable fact that in my ministerial years I actually have met no less than 23 of the Two Witnesses. One felt he was each of them, thus the odd number.
I remember going with a minister to a house in Idaho once where the lady heard the voice of God often in her head. She had a young baby so the minister asked me to are inclined to the infant while he talked to her about her visions and voices. The newborn had not had a diaper change in a reasonably very long time, so I took care of that within the kitchen while the minister tried to assist her. Seems she was killing chickens on the farm and attempting to resurrect them…without much luck. We never made any connection to the danger and I doubt either of us understood the symptoms of schizophrenia, but I do now. After that, I returned to Ambassador for my last 12 months and was reading the LA Times within the lounge before breakfast. My eye fell on a small article a few woman in a small town in Idaho who was found sitting in her automotive on a Mountain top waiting for Jesus to return. I knew the name. They found the infant dead on the farm. Or should I say, still dead.
From the Bible we discover a person once laid on his right side for 390 straight days after which flipped over for one more 40 since the voice in his head told him to. He built little models of Jerusalem within the sand and laid siege to a stone with a pot (Ez. 4). He even cooked his food with human waste (Ez. 4:9) and dug a hole in his own residence and squeezed himself through it together with his possessions on his back (Ez. 12). His name was Ezekiel. Perhaps he was traumatized by the captivity or the destruction of the symbol of all that was holy and stable to him, the temple. He died endlessly ago and a lot of the stuff he said was going to occur never really did far as we will tell. I hear a whole lot of minister types quoting him 2500 years later as when you can read the newspaper and immediately see what Ezekiel was talking about. I suppose in the event that they lay siege to a rock, lay on their sides for a 12 months or more and quit charcoal for human waste at cookouts, …well…ewwww. Time to search out one other church. I do know most will say that God told him to do these items….but take into consideration what you might be saying. Would you say that about Andrea Yates who God told to drown her kids or Mijailo Mijailovic who killed the Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lindh, saying when asked who told him to do it, “I feel it was Jesus. That he has chosen me”?
An Old Testament character, Moses, went up into the mountains a couple of times since the voice in his head that nobody else could hear, called him up for a gathering. He said it was God, but when he got here back down the mountain carrying , what he said were the principles from the voice in his head, he ordered the murder of 3000 more pretty nice people, men women and youngsters for not patiently waiting for him. And these people had already had a reasonably tough time getting out of Egypt doing what the voice on this guys head told him to do. He had friends killing friends and families. Bummer… that was a heck of a whole lot of drama and walking for nothing. From what I understand, hardly anyone who fled Dodge City, Egypt believing the voices on this man’s head ever made it to the Promise Land. I’m undecided the story really happened, which can be a relief. I simply can’t imagine this as a superb solution to begin their understanding of “Thou Shalt Not Kill.” This same fellow, was pretty sure that the voice spoke to him from bushes within the desert too. Not a superb sign on the planet of mental health types .
Yet again, an Old Testament figure called Abraham, decides to take his only son, up the mountain and kill him as a sacrifice. Perhaps a weird solution to say thanks for the son that he could never have before. But I’d think that was going a bit too far. Jogs my memory of cutting off the nose to spite the face. Anyway, the voice in his head said to after which decided it was only kidding. The kid, who probably refused ever again to go on any “only a campout” with dad , was replaced by an animal conveniently stuck in a close-by bush. What’s the prospect of that! I am unable to imagine Isaac every quite trusted ol’ dad again.
There was a man who married a prostitute since the voice told him to. We needed to drop the usual laws of marriage for this one, but its OK when you are doing it for God. Man was his wife mad about that! The guy even began to think he was a reincarnated type of the guy before him who talked to the bush. Tons of individuals obeyed this guy for a time, but often not for very long. Hosea I feel.
The more I give it some thought, the more I actually have to confess that voices within the heads of individuals I never met, and nobody at the moment could hear themselves, have played a extremely big role in who gets the ultimate say in religion. What if…Nah.
Paul within the Latest Testament fell off a donkey when he heard a voice in his head about giving Jesus a tough time in his old job. He even saw a flash of sunshine in his head, brighter than the sun and it was already noon when this happened! That is pretty darn vivid! When people within the Bible light up, it’s ALWAYS brighter than the sun. You’d think more people would notice. The others either heard the voice but didn’t see the sunshine, or saw the sunshine but not the voice, stood up, or all fell down depending on the story your read within the Bible. The voice in Paul’s head told him it was time to alter jobs and he’d get his vision back from a man on the town if he did what he was told. Today we’d say he had all of the symptoms of a sunstroke or possibly even temporal lobe epilepsy where voices and flashes are pretty darn common together with an intense sense of morality that others must get in tune with.
Paul went on to write down many of the Latest Testament and proceed to inform people nothing about any real Jesus he had ever met. No stories, no miracles, no teachings, nothing in regards to the 12 guys Jesus needed to follow him, and I might expect to have passed the teachings on to others. Perhaps even write something about Jesus, in any case there have been 12 of them! But alas, they didn’t much and we now have no clue what happened to that bunch. It’s all hearsay. Some say that they were merely a logo of the twelve signs of the zodiac surrounding the central sun/son, and never real people, but let’s not go there.
Paul spoke volumes in regards to the one who spoke to him in his head and he saw often in visions. When he gave the instructions for eating the body and blood of Jesus, he said very plainly Jesus himself told him about the main points of that. Paul never met the true Jesus so I’m pretty sure he meant in vision. When he said, “have I not seen the Lord?” he didn’t mean in person. He meant in his visions. He even took a visit to the third heaven, but said the stuff he saw was an excessive amount of to share at the moment…Hey!
At any rate, Paul leads to Rome for some unnamed offense and disappears. Sometimes I feel his death or execution should have been a humiliation to the church because the last we hear of him, he’s under house arrest having a reasonably good time. I’m sure they knew the way it ended for the guy and why, nevertheless it might need annoyed the early Christians to know the reality of all of it, in order that they left it out.
I even heard or read within the book of Mark that Jesus mom and brothers got here all the way down to Jerusalem to get him because THEY thought he was “mad.” I do not think they thought he was indignant, but fairly a bit daft. Jesus form of blew them off in a way that might have gotten me slapped by my dad for being so rude to mom. It was like he didn’t know them. Mary had evidently completely forgotten about his wonderful birth story and all those great things she kept and pondered in her heart. Besides he needed to do what the voice in his head said. Later, other guys who wrote about Jesus dropped this hot little tale and told a extremely cute story about how Jesus got here to be. God himself had visited her, well no, I suppose the Holy Spirit did. You realize the third thing within the Trinity and she or he was pregnant by a minimum of the Deity. She burst into song about this in Luke and appeared to know that Jesus was literally “fully God and fully man”, whatever meaning. I can understand one thing being fully something, but not two things being fully the identical thing but different and coequal but not. Oh never mind. Church talk. I suppose it’s certainly one of those mysteries we hear about when one story results in the subsequent and we tie ourselves in a knot, wrapped in a enigma, coated with cheese.
Matthew tells a fantastic story of Jesus birth, different from Luke’s, but no less than they cleaned up that embarrassing tale about Jesus being hauled away by his family for being nuts. Mark should have been mistaken in response to Matthew and Luke, but Mark was the embarrassing story and got here before the lovable story, I think it had a hoop of truth to it, no less than as Mary saw it.
Sometimes I ponder if Jesus was so anxiety ridden to not know who his real father was that he took mom literal when she got uninterested in him asking and said “God is your father.” Who knows?
I at all times found it interesting that the poor kid within the Latest Testament who threw himself in each the fireplace and water often, or possibly just fell in them when this hit him, cried out, foamed on the mouth after which recovered pretty quickly when the demon was put out, had all of the symptoms of infantile epilepsy. Each one!
Some say his cursing trees for having no fruit at a time of 12 months when there shouldn’t be speculated to be fruit, or attacking the legitimate money changers within the temple who really were simply changing pagan money into temple scrip for the acquisition of sacrifices, weren’t good signs of quality mental health. That last act probably got him killed by the Romans, though one way or the other it ended up being the Jews fault. I suppose it was easier and a bit wiser responsible the Jews who couldn’t hurt you, fairly than the Romans who could kill you. At any rate, this temper thing shouldn’t be a superb sign of excellent mental health.
So long as we’re on the subject… I at all times found it interesting that the poor kid within the Latest Testament who threw himself in each the fireplace and water often, or possibly just fell in them when this hit him, cried out, foamed on the mouth after which recovered pretty quickly when the demon was put out, had all of the symptoms of infantile epilepsy. Each one! I ponder how people back then would treat a child with epilepsy! It runs its course in about half-hour so it will sure appear that the old demon was banished. I also wondered as a child, what a child would need to do to get an actual demon lurking in his body. Should have been some weak minded kid to let that occur. I remember as a child hoping no demon would jump on me. I’d vote infantile epilepsy and never blame the parents of 2000 years ago for not knowing the symptoms or the way it manifested. Anyway, the demon was put out, but we do not know if it ever got here back.
Jesus had a tough time doing these items in his hometown because a prophet has no honor in his own town or together with his family. Well duh! They know you pretty darn well and got so concerned they got here all the way down to retrieve you for your personal good, when you consider Mark. In fact he blamed the weak faith of the group, but possibly that is because all of them know you so well and are not easily convinced. I mean, if Jesus was God, really, really, really GOD, would the force be thwarted simply because the neighbors who knew you as a child had a tough time accepting that? I feel not! Since when does being God within the flesh rely upon the acceptance of the individuals who know you best?
I once read a story about Jesus where, as a toddler he kills one other playmate for some offense towards him. Gosh, I hope that did not really occur but I can see why it never made the cut. I suppose Jesus could have heard about Moses knocking off the Egyptian for choosing on a buddy and God said it was OK to precise your anger that way if you could.
Jesus also got rid of a complete legion of demons in a person that lived in a cemetery, naked and was really an indignant guy that was so strong he broke the chains they tried to bind him in. I suppose that was sorta the lithium of the times…chains. Anyway, other than this man having every symptom of schizophrenia, all of the demons got thrown right into a herd of pigs they usually ran down into the ocean from a town no where near the ocean and drown. Sort of a marathon run and by the point they got there, they’d be skinny and pooped out pigs. But that is one other story. Boy, I bet that made the farmer mad at Jesus! In fact, this is able to not be a Jewish farmer so it’s okay. Within the OT, when you found some animal that was defective, you could not eat it yourself, but you possibly can sell it to the pagans, so hey, not your problemo.
Anyway….I suppose we could really wonder in regards to the book of Revelation… Whoa…that is a few good drugs! Whoever wrote that was one indignant human being… Death, destruction, fire, plagues, trombones, vials and all varieties of stuff pour out on everyone! This Jesus shouldn’t be such a pleasant guy. Sometimes I get to pondering the one within the Gospels cannot possibly be the identical one because the guy in Revelation, but that is what they are saying. The one in Revelation looks as if an end stage schizophrenic gone amuck. I’m undecided I could possibly be comfortable in heaven or the dominion with one who could possibly be so freaking mean to everyone except those special ones. I at all times felt a couple of seminars or possibly a refresher type program would send a kinder gentler message, as a substitute of all of the butt kicking, death and destruction. Perhaps a pleasant lunch between encouraging sessions and a Luau within the evening where we could all marvel at actually meeting the true God and Jesus. And hey…if the presenter is absolutely God or Jesus come down…I mean really really…I’d listen and be good. But alas, this Jesus in Revelation is a case…possibly literally. It’s only one big vision in someone’s head hearing voices again that others cannot hear and seeing things others don’t see. Makes me nervous. And other people today base their entire life perspective on a vindictive vision expressed almost as a “oh yeah, well that is what you get for not believing me.” Nuther symptom. Vengeance.
Someone once asked what is the difference between a Bible Prophet or Christian fundamentalist and a paranoid schizophrenic? Well, one hears voices of their head, has a heightened moral code, is judgmental yet could be very deceptive and manipulative, has delusions of being on a mission from God, sees things that nobody else present sees, hears things that one else hears, sees lights in his head, is the middle of the universe and has special knowledge that have to be kept secret until the suitable time an then can only be understood as explained by the one. The opposite, in fact, is a paranoid schizophrenic.
I had a detailed friend in highschool who in college got here down with the classic symptoms of schizophrenia. Very intelligent but unexpectedly was overcome with the chemistry of schizophrenia that comes mostly between 18 and 35. He simply couldn’t function on this world. His perceptions and his reality were far different than even he could understand. He died in his chair, alone in a dingy apartment last 12 months. I wish I had gone to see him. Nice kid.
What if most, some and even ONE of the characters of faith, are humans who suffered from certifiable mental illnesses? What if some get followings because they’re so darn fascinating and in combo with reading the Bible can seem so right? Perhaps we’re coping with traumatized human beings and their coping mechanisms. Schizophrenic and paraphrenic personalities could be good yet fragile. A narcissist can rise to amazing heights of success and productivity. They will have “beautiful minds” and be very very in poor health. They make great dictators and Televangelists.
We all know more now than we did 3000 years ago. And yet on the subject of the Bible and those that declare themselves the special men of God, we go as blind as Paul claimed to go on the road to Damascus. (Despite the fact that Paul himself never says this was the mechanism of his conversion. Even perhaps worse, like Jeremiah and Jesus, he was called before birth within the womb as he notes in Galatians.) Pretty darn special! And yet we will allow that form of perspective to be religious when today, we might get very uncomfortable with an actual person saying that about themselves. What seems OK so long as it’s within the distant past becomes freaky if in the current. Many who turned away from Paul or an Ezekiel can have had that gut level discomfort. I doubt anyone today would feel a spiritual zealot who cooked dinner together with his own dung can be anything but twelve wanting a dozen.
Why is that this a problem? Because a minister, possibly sincere, and possibly simply mentally unstable or delusional can hide within the ministry a lot better than he can hide at IBM. A minister that’s prolific, charismatic while also dictatorial and delusional looks spiritual and obedient. The quirkiness is mistaken for spirituality and obedience to God. They’ve the flexibility to be deceivingly compassionate one minute and intensely indignant at anything and everybody the subsequent. They don’t love to be contradicted, corrected nor have their mental processes questioned. They NEVER take personality tests! How is it that ordinary human beings, who’ve accurate perceptions in regards to the mental instability of some at work, then lose that instinct at church? The quirkiness at work becomes the spiritually desirable trait in church! Go figure!
When Alexander Haig declared himself in command of the federal government after the Reagan shooting, he was torn to shreds for his misstep and continues to be trying to clarify it. But when a pastor type declares himself a “Watcher” or an “Apostle” or a Prophet or incredibly more special than the common human, it gets swallowed hook, line and sinker?
What if the behaviors recorded 1000’s of years ago that has been the idea for thus much religious zealotry is solely higher understood within the context of mental illness? We at all times say if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and swims like a duck, there’s a superb probability we could also be coping with a duck. In relation to religion nonetheless we modify our perceptions. If it walks like a narcissist, if it talks like a Para or schizophrenic and if it has all of the symptoms of temporal lobe epilepsy, it have to be a person of God!
What if among the many heroes of religion, even among the biggies, were simply mentally in poor health as we understand it today? Wow…what a thought! Makes you think that doesn’t it?
