The idea for this thread came up a few years ago. I have ever since thought of my best friend's grandma, who was then struggling with the advanced Alzheimer's. There are some things that my friend observed and we discussed regarding her spiritual life, as her disease was progressing. I've been sitting on these thoughts for a few years now, yet it's still so difficult to word what I have on my mind. So, in advance, forgive me.
Last few years of the grandma's life were difficult and taxing on my friend's mom, who was taking care of her. As she was mentally deteriorating, her spiritual distress increased. Her grandma was seeing demons, in other words, and they seemed to pester her daily. She would talk to the air sometimes, tell "something" to go away angrily "you little, disgusting ones" and grab a cross or a icon of Jesus or some saints from the house and threaten "it" and then calm down. This was a daily occurrence, and it was difficult for my friend and her mom to witness.
There were all kinds of questions that I asked myself. First was, was her grandma saved? My friend was worrying if her grandma would go to heaven. Which made me wonder further, what is the exact relationship between salvation and the mind? The Bible speaks about the renewal of mind, which takes place as we're walking with God and purifying our thoughts and hearts with His truth. But then again, you have the thief on the cross and the 11th hour guy, so there's that. So many Christians, especially on the West, believe that Christianity is a belief system. Which would require full on intelligence and a functioning, sufficiently adult brain to adhere to. But we know that God is not so limited, and that Jesus praised small children who did not have the brain capacity for complex theology, or sufficient cognition to grasp bread and butter concepts of our faith, like sin or repentance. While there are some beliefs and facts about God's person that will be naturally recognized as true by the person who has the Holy Spirit, I really think that the Spirit supersedes all these things.
What happens when the brain gets stuck on a loop? Are we our brains? Does our brain equal our identity? Is this person's spirit still able to repent or have relationship with God? Her mind was stuck on a loop: no one could not instruct her any more. Yet, while her mind was being eroded through the illness, she would keep calling on God more and more as she was losing strength, and calling upon God is - I believe - a strength that arose from her spirit. Her brain was dissolving, but the reaction to call upon God and fight evil presence off through the name of Christ came from her spirit. Her reaction, even in a terrible state of mind, witnessed of her true nature. It seemed that she put her trust in Him, although there were some thorns in the flesh to harass her. Since there was no way to have a reasonable discussion with the grandma in her deteriorated state of mind at that point, and no way for my friend to help her or get assured of her salvation, I would comfort her with these words.
I wondered about similar mental illnesses after that, like amnesia. How does such person repent? They might not remember their past. They may not be capable to repent of something they can't even remember! But one's spirit is one's real nature. If the spirit in this person is regenerated, they will be repenting of things that they do know presently and believe are bad, and if they knew of their past sins they would utterly reject such life - so one can say they have effectively repented still because repentance Biblically means "change of mind" or "turning away". Or, take a person like that man with the 7 second memory (there is a documentary on YouTube) who had an accident. He recalls his identity and his loved ones from before the accident, but only can recall any new event for 7 seconds and then it vanishes from his mind. You can't even testify about Jesus to someone like this, because they won't know what you said 7 seconds ago. I don't know if he's a Christian, but in case he isn't, is he now frozen in time and just living to face condemnation in hell and there are no more chances for him? Why not kill him right away if he's headed for hell anyway? I believe illness might make things harder, but I am convinced that nothing is impossible for God. Like my friend's grandma, in spite of all her troubles, I do believe God is capable of finding ways to affect people and work through their spirit, in spite of one's cognitive state. What about the people with really low IQ? They are not banned from the kingdom of God.
I'd like to hear if any of you know someone personally with an illness that interferes with their memory and cognitive process, and what have your observations and thoughts been regarding their spiritual life, related to these illnesses?
Last few years of the grandma's life were difficult and taxing on my friend's mom, who was taking care of her. As she was mentally deteriorating, her spiritual distress increased. Her grandma was seeing demons, in other words, and they seemed to pester her daily. She would talk to the air sometimes, tell "something" to go away angrily "you little, disgusting ones" and grab a cross or a icon of Jesus or some saints from the house and threaten "it" and then calm down. This was a daily occurrence, and it was difficult for my friend and her mom to witness.
There were all kinds of questions that I asked myself. First was, was her grandma saved? My friend was worrying if her grandma would go to heaven. Which made me wonder further, what is the exact relationship between salvation and the mind? The Bible speaks about the renewal of mind, which takes place as we're walking with God and purifying our thoughts and hearts with His truth. But then again, you have the thief on the cross and the 11th hour guy, so there's that. So many Christians, especially on the West, believe that Christianity is a belief system. Which would require full on intelligence and a functioning, sufficiently adult brain to adhere to. But we know that God is not so limited, and that Jesus praised small children who did not have the brain capacity for complex theology, or sufficient cognition to grasp bread and butter concepts of our faith, like sin or repentance. While there are some beliefs and facts about God's person that will be naturally recognized as true by the person who has the Holy Spirit, I really think that the Spirit supersedes all these things.
What happens when the brain gets stuck on a loop? Are we our brains? Does our brain equal our identity? Is this person's spirit still able to repent or have relationship with God? Her mind was stuck on a loop: no one could not instruct her any more. Yet, while her mind was being eroded through the illness, she would keep calling on God more and more as she was losing strength, and calling upon God is - I believe - a strength that arose from her spirit. Her brain was dissolving, but the reaction to call upon God and fight evil presence off through the name of Christ came from her spirit. Her reaction, even in a terrible state of mind, witnessed of her true nature. It seemed that she put her trust in Him, although there were some thorns in the flesh to harass her. Since there was no way to have a reasonable discussion with the grandma in her deteriorated state of mind at that point, and no way for my friend to help her or get assured of her salvation, I would comfort her with these words.
I wondered about similar mental illnesses after that, like amnesia. How does such person repent? They might not remember their past. They may not be capable to repent of something they can't even remember! But one's spirit is one's real nature. If the spirit in this person is regenerated, they will be repenting of things that they do know presently and believe are bad, and if they knew of their past sins they would utterly reject such life - so one can say they have effectively repented still because repentance Biblically means "change of mind" or "turning away". Or, take a person like that man with the 7 second memory (there is a documentary on YouTube) who had an accident. He recalls his identity and his loved ones from before the accident, but only can recall any new event for 7 seconds and then it vanishes from his mind. You can't even testify about Jesus to someone like this, because they won't know what you said 7 seconds ago. I don't know if he's a Christian, but in case he isn't, is he now frozen in time and just living to face condemnation in hell and there are no more chances for him? Why not kill him right away if he's headed for hell anyway? I believe illness might make things harder, but I am convinced that nothing is impossible for God. Like my friend's grandma, in spite of all her troubles, I do believe God is capable of finding ways to affect people and work through their spirit, in spite of one's cognitive state. What about the people with really low IQ? They are not banned from the kingdom of God.
I'd like to hear if any of you know someone personally with an illness that interferes with their memory and cognitive process, and what have your observations and thoughts been regarding their spiritual life, related to these illnesses?
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