Beth-El Baptist Church
10/15/06
Greg Tomlinson
Can mentally unstable people understand the gospel?
For various reasons, people often believe that these innocent individuals will get into heaven without the need for Jesus since God is a loving and merciful God and he knows that there is no way that people with mental illness could ever understand the gospel, learn to know Jesus and love him and enter into life by him.
1. Is there anything about men in general to help in understanding the mentally unstable?
Romans 3:10-23; 5:12-18; 9:10-11
1 Corinthians 2:14
Jeremiah 17:9
Psalm 51:5
By nature all men, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, intelligence, religion, and mental capacity are born with inherited sin. According to God’s commandments all have sinned and none measure up to his righteousness. When all is said and done, there is no such thing as an innocent, before God, human being. Humanly speaking, they may have limited capacity to understand certain things but that has no effect on the reality of their being a sinner. By nature all of mankind are sinners and will fall under judgment.
2. Don’t you have to be able to read, study, and comprehend the scriptures to be saved?
John 1:12-13
1 Corinthians 1:18-24
Ephesians 2:8-9
Titus 3:5
Hebrews 4:12
It needs to be understood that salvation, which is trusting Jesus, is not a function of the intellect. It does not matter how intelligent or how wise someone is in order for the Holy Spirit to work in their lives so that they can understand. It is not by our effort that salvation comes but it comes by the will of God.
3. How can someone possibly believe the message of the gospel if they cannot possibly think clearly enough to understand?
Matthew 16:15-17
John 6:29; 14:6
Romans 10:13-17
1 Corinthians 2:14
Salvation is the work of God in the life and in the heart of man. Without the intervention of the Holy Spirit, there is not a man that has ever lived that could ever be saved. It is only because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that anyone could be saved. It is only through Jesus, through faith, belief, complete and utter trust in the person, the work, the name of Jesus Christ that anyone throughout history can and has been saved.
4. If salvation is through Jesus, then what about Noah, Abraham, David and others?
Noah:
Genesis 6:5-8 cmp 2 Peter 2:5
Abraham:
Genesis 12:1-4; 15:1-7 cmp Romans 4:3; Galatians 3:6; James 2:23
Hebrews 11:8-10, 13-16, 17-19
David:
1 Samuel 16:7
Psalm 7:1; 51:1-4
Special Others:
1 Kings 14:1-2, 12-13
About God himself:
Malachi 3:6
Hebrews 13:8
The nature and character of God’s salvation plan has never changed, just as God has never changed. It always has been and it always will be an issue of faith. All of the fathers, Noah, Abraham, David and even the child of corrupt Jeroboam were saved not because they were good but because God was merciful and gracious. Noah was not a preacher of righteous before God showed him grace, but because God had showed him grace. Those who were saved before the cross had faith in God that the seed, the Messiah, Jesus, would come. They looked forward to the cross. We on the other hand can look back at the cross and forward to eternity by faith.
5. What about examples of those who are mentally unstable?
Matthew 8:28-34
Mark 5:1-20
Luke 8:26-39
Isaiah 20:2-3
Ezekiel 5:1-4; 12:1-7
There are several examples of people that society would consider to be crazy or otherwise mentally unstable. Some were behaving that way as the result of a command from God (Isaiah and Ezekiel) but others (demon possessed man) were that way. Especially in the case of the demon-possessed man, there was not a possible way for him to intellectually and mentally understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was God who opened his eyes and his heart that he might be saved.
Summary:
Whether the person is mentally stable or mentally incapacitated, salvation does not come by the efforts of a man but they come by the work of God. Only God can save anybody. What needs to be done for people to be saved is for them to get into or into the hearing of the Word of God. Only then will they be able to believe. Salvation is completely and utterly faith based. The faith is placed not in the writings nor in the assembly but in the person of Jesus Christ who saves according to his will.