Two excerpts from a recent article by Dr. Michael Horton:
According to a 2013 survey by LifeWay Research, one-third of Americans agree that “prayer and Bible study alone can overcome serious mental illness.” Nearly half (48 percent) of evangelicals agree.
According to a 2008 Baylor study, 36 percent of church attendees with mental illness said that they were told by their leaders that it was the result of sin; 34 percent said they were told it was a demon; 41 percent were told they didn’t have a mental illness; and 28 percent were even told to stop taking medication.
Horton goes on to observe:
1. We are not souls incarcerated in bodies, but body-soul creatures.
2. Sin is a condition, not just actions.
3. God works through intermediaries or providence (i.e., what theologians call “common grace”), not just directly through miracle (or saving grace). Science is a gift of God when it recognizes its own limits.
4. Christ came to heal the sick, not those who are well (or who think they are).
5. Christ saves the whole person, but sanctification is a process that is never finished in this life.
6. Triumphalism sets us up for a fall; the theology of the cross and the resurrection give us faith, hope, and love.
Read the whole thing for an articulation of each point, or check out the recent episodes of The White Horse Inn which discuss this important and often neglected topic.