Good morning, Mike,

I’m not sure that this question bears any spiritual significance.  I don’t know.  I wanted to see what your thoughts were on “clinical” depression.  I did a search today and see that I have all the symptoms for it and have had them since I was about 16.  A doctor even remarked (I thought in jest) when I was nine that I was depressed, in his effort to explain that I was the opposite of having ADD.  I have always been the kind of person that didn’t believe things like that were curable by medicine…. sure we can do things in vain to curb feelings of pain…..  But to take it to the next level…… can “depression” simply be a by- product of our tribulation experience?  I guess I’m just wondering if depression is common among the called (though I know it wouldn’t have to be) and/or if it is a sin?  It’s one of those weird things I can’t get a handle on.  It’s something that must be conquered, right?  but at the same time it seems like it’s a by-product of the process in which we see our own nakedness.

Your brother in Christ,
X____

Hi X____,

Thank you for your question. You ask:

Can clinical depression simply be a by-product of our tribulation experience?  I guess I’m just wondering if depression is common among the called (though I know it wouldn’t have to be) and/or if it is a sin?”

I make no claims of being an expert in the field of psychiatry.  Just so I know we are on the same page, I looked up ‘clinical depression’ and found this.

Major depressive disorder (also known as clinical depression, , or unipolar disorder) is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. The term “major depressive disorder” was selected by the American Psychiatric Association to designate this symptom cluster as a mood disorder in the 1980 version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM- III) classification, and has become widely used since. The general term depression is often used to describe the disorder, but as it can also be used to describe other types of psychological depression, more precise terminology is preferred for the disorder in clinical and research use. Major depression is a disabling condition which adversely affects a person’s family, work or school life, sleeping and eating habits, and general health.

I was once depressed for months at a time before I was given dominion over sin in my life. Depression is common to all men, but just as diseases are common to all men, not every man is stricken with a major disease like multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease or cancer or clinical depression.

While science tries to understand the biological, psychological, chemical and electrical causes of all of the diseases, the scriptures makes it clear that just as surely as Ahab’s prophets were prophesying lies because a lying spirit had led them to do so, so too, are all of the diseases of mankind, in the final analysis, nothing more than evil spirits sent to afflict mankind.

First, let’s see how this is proven to be true for physical ailments, then we will see how it is also the cause of all mental ailments.

Here are a couple of examples of physical ailments which scripture attributes to evil spirits.

Luk 13:11 And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.

Mar 9:25  When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.

A crippled lady and a man who could neither speak nor hear are both said to be afflicted by an evil spirit.

Here now are a couple of mental ailments which the scriptures also attributes to evil spirits.

Act 16:16  And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying:

2Ti 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Neither soothsaying nor fear are physical ailments. Both take place in our minds, and yet the scriptures declare that both are actually spirits.

What does this all teach us? It tells us that God really is working all things after the counsel of His own will, and all we do and all that happens in our lives was indeed “predestinated” to occur.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Mankind has learned that they can take a laser and burn out the part of the brain which is causing a seizure to occur. We have also learned that many mental ailments can be treated with certain drugs. Does this prove that God is not therefore sovereign? Of course not! It is God who has given us the ability to make these discoveries and to learn how to treat certain ailments. The God-given ability to learn how to treat diseases is as much a part of the sovereignty of God as the disease itself. It is God who is “working all things after the counsel of His own will,” and mankind’s vanity over his great mental achievements is no exception to that sovereignty.

What does all of this say in answer to your question?

Can clinical depression simply be a by-product of our tribulation experience? I guess I’m just wondering if depression is common among the called (though I know it wouldn’t have to be) and/or if it is a sin?

You answer your own question when you say, “I know it wouldn’t have to be.” Times of depression certainly are “a byproduct of our tribulation experience” and are common to all men, just as diseases are common to all men. However, not all men are afflicted with a crippling affliction in which they are “bowed together” to the extent that they can “in no wise lift up” themselves, and not all men are stricken with fear and “major depression… which adversely affects a person’s family, work or school life, sleeping and eating habits, and general health.” The extent of any physical or mental disease is, according to the scriptures, a sovereign work of a sovereign God, and according to the scriptures, that work is always accomplished by means of the realm of the spirit. Here is how the scriptures put this:

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

“Things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” is just another way of telling us that the visible world is controlled by the invisible world of the realm of the spirit. Here is what the scriptures teach us concerning all suffering that is endured by any of God’s children, regardless of the degree of that suffering:

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

The Greek word translated ‘temptation’ is ‘pierasmos‘ and is the same word translated ‘try’ in this verse of  Peter’s epistle.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

The “way of escape” does not keep us from the trial. Noah escaped the flood by going through it. Israel escaped being pinned down at the Red Sea by going through the Red Sea. Daniel escaped the lion’s den by going into it, and the three Hebrew children escaped the fiery furnace by going into it. “The fiery trial… is to try you” and me, and we escape it only by enduring to the end of that fiery trial.

Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

There are many ministers who want to separate the trials we supposedly bring upon ourselves from the trials which others inflict upon us. We certainly are admonished that we ought not to suffer as evildoers, but nowhere in scripture are we ever told that our apparently self-inflicted sufferings are not part of the fiery trials which are to try us. We are all first hardened by God’s spirit, and we “do that we would not.” That is only for the purpose of chastening and scourging us to bring us to see ourselves for what we are, by God’s design. Even our sins, according to scripture, are His work in our lives.

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it [the law of God, verse 22] is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

Our sins are the result of “a law.” God is the great lawgiver who sustains both the “law of sin and death” and the “law of the spirit of life.” That is the very meaning of “the first and the last.”

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

The “second man” is also called “the last Adam” just two verses earlier:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Christ tells us that He is the first and the last:

Rev 1:17  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

While this is considered to be a blasphemous doctrine by those who feel the need to save God’s reputation, who do such people think created and sustains the law of sin and death? Who do they think creates evil? Who created the first man Adam as “corruptible flesh and blood?” Who created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?

Psa 51:5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Christ tells us that it is He who makes us wicked, and He tells us that He is “the first and the last.” In telling us this, He is saying that this is all a vital part of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Your trials and my trials, as painful and as long as they seem to last, are all a vital and necessary part of that revelation.

I hope this gives you some hope as you struggle with your depression. God loves you and has already decided that you and I will, in His time, “bear the image of the heavenly” when His work in our lives is finished.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike