Thank you for your interest in the Veritas journal. We are very excited about this year’s theme, “Psychology & the Bible, The Doping of the Church.” In addressing such a personally and culturally relevant topic we are seeking to inform, encourage, and equip people with the truth of Jesus Christ.
Our belief is that the culture’s labels of mental illness (bipolar, depression, OCD) has been the understanding of many as to why they are struggling to live in this world. Sadly, we know that this type of thinking has infiltrated the church. Consequently, many Christians are living under the deception that managing their particular chemical imbalance is the only way of life for them.
Although the modern western culture has tried its best to label the struggles people commonly report, it has led many people into deep bondage. This bondage strips a person of their God-given freedom to do what is right, and instead leads them to believe the reason why they cannot do what is right is because they are suffering from some mental illness. What results is a life of hopelessness partly due to the deception that says, “I will never be a totally free and healthy person who is able to do what is right and feel good about it.”
One of the greatest joys of being a Christian is to know that you are right in God’s eyes. This knowledge cannot be grasped unless one comes face to face with the person of Jesus Christ, simultaneously seeing the sin that crucified Him and the freeing forgiveness that He now extends. Not knowing the forgiveness of the Lord, yet still desiring joy, people are left to ask the culture for an answer. The culture (drug companies) gladly provides, for a small fee (nearly $20 billion per year for drugs alone), a diagnosis of the life that does not know the joy of the Lord as a chemical imbalance.
Do you know of anyone who lacks the joy of the Lord and has sought relief from the culture? Are you one of those people? I want you to know that there is hope for everyone, especially those who have been led to believe there is something wrong with their brain.
This year Veritas will refute the lies of the culture, reveal the truth, reflect how the church has been affected by the cultural lies throughout history, relate the truth to men and women today, and rear the youth of a generation so they will not to not fall prey to deception.
May the truth change you!