I would hope that such a shout from someone listening to a speech would be frowned upon. The issue of mental health is viewed with greater openness and sympathy than ever before. Hopefully, some of the stigma has been removed and various forms of mental health challenge can be talked about, especially as local and national lockdowns bring the issue to prominence again.
The statement that forms the title of this blog was made by a man who had just taken over as ruler of a province of the Roman Empire. His name was Festus. He had just listened to a man, called Paul, presenting his belief in the Christian gospel – the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation from the penalty of disobedience towards God.[1] Festus had to admit that Paul was an educated man. How, then, could he believe that Jesus Christ had been raised from the dead and that He was alive today? To Festus, this was sheer madness!
Here is the challenge. Do you think Christians are mad for believing what Paul believed and preached? As there are Christians who are educated to doctorate level, we could hardly be accused of being ‘simpletons’, easily taken in by the Bible’s message.
Paul’s defence was ‘I am not mad . . . but speak the words of truth and reason’.[2] The evidence for that statement he had given earlier. How could the world’s chief persecutor of Christians be turned into the world’s foremost preacher of the Christian message? Because the Christian message, the gospel, had changed him. The Bible tells us that ‘the gospel of Christ . . . is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes’.[3] That gospel still changes lives. We are not presenting it as a solution to physical and mental health issues but as a message that can bring forgiveness of sins, relationship with God and an assured hope of heaven.
What is your response?