If people are upset about what J Mac said, go listen to Voddie Baucham said about mental health. Strange concept perhaps read what people who actually work in that profession have said after realizing that they were living in an industry that is built upon profits not making people better.

If you listen to the whole video he really isn't saying these conditions don't exist.....he's speaking about the labels that are put on people so they can be told they can't get over these things and will have to be medicated. I've seen him speak before on mental health conditions and he's totally aware of how they affect people.

It's true. I was the poster-child for Adderall and things got worse as I became an adult, landing me on several different kinds of meds. I highly resent having a chemical dependency on big pharma.

In his book "The Vanishing Conscience" MacArthur makes his case against modern psychology by countering it with scripture. You can understand more of what he is explaining by reading it.

How to take a whole discussion out of context by just playing 2min of it...

First, grief is not part of the criteria for the diagnosis of PTSD. Second, although medication can be added to the treatment for a sufferer with PTSD, it is not the first line of treatment. The first line treatment is a talk therapy called cognitive behavior therapy. Moreover, the best child rearing practices in the world will not prevent some disorders like ADHD because it is a neuro-development disorder. Unfortunately, Dr. MacArthur is profoundly ignorant about mental heath disorders.

I don't know about denying the idea that these mental illnesses actually exist. However I do agree that the diagnosis of such illnesses and medication is a little ridiculous. There's way too many people I've met in my life who excuse their behavior because they have anxiety or depression or Asperberger's or bipolar disorder.

As someone who is almost 54 and was prescribed both Ritalin and Paregoric for years ( the equivalent of a speedball), starting at 8 years old, I know that it truly screwed my brain up even more and caused me to fall into addiction. I don't know whether everything he is saying is true or not. But I do know that giving these medications to children is abuse. Not only does it harm their developing brain( I know), but it also teaches them that they cannot be what society deems as "Normal" without drugs. I went from being diagnosed with hyperactivity as a child, to being ADHD as a young adult to recently finding out it was autism all along. I am certain in a couple more years my diagnosis will change yet again I dated a Nurse who worked in Behavioral Sciences and the book of diagnoses has to be updated almost every year as they keep expanding these " Diseases" that never existed 100 years ago. Clinical depression did not even exist until after Prozac was created. Quitting the antidepressant medication Effexor caused me to fall into such a horrible genuine depression ( that was 100 times worse than what it was prescribed for) I almost committed suicide. And come to find out, my "depression was caused by drug abuse, not "clinical depression"

Obviously john has never suffered with mental illness.

Amen. He speaks truth. Praise Jesus. The true healer John 3-16

I think Costi glitched for a good 150 seconds.

This is not truth. Stating that these mental health conditions don't exist is harmful to the families dealing with them.

I love John. Some of what he says here is true and other things are misguided or flat out wrong. PTSD for example is much more then simply grief. It is a form of trauma that "breaks the brain" and causes involuntary responses in the individual. It is the equivalent of a broken bone or a failing organ. His other concerns are valid. Medicating children, and a pharmaceutical industry that sees only biology and not holistically the body and soul, is a problem.

He later tried to walk back these comments about PTSD. I think his message really fell on deaf ears after he said that. His point is that putting people on drugs for every mental condition isn’t the solution, but he clearly lacks an understanding of psychiatric conditions like PTSD. Chalking it up to grief is bad practice for a man in his position. Children who grow up with extreme abuse have PTSD. It’s shown in brain scans. May God give John eyes to see and wisdom to make this one right.

Where did this clip come from?

Tell those soldiers who come back

I've been a licensed mental health provider for 38 years. Inpatient psychiatry and community mental health with some of the most severely disabled people on the planet. The message of this man does profound danger to people who believe the moronic things he says here. This is absolute gross negligence. Absolutely disgusting

1. Where can I find the whole audio? 2. I’m Christian and also have mental illness and on medication. I don’t agree on his take on this, but he is also only a man. No one gets everything right. However after listening to John MacArthur for a good while I don’t believe he is trying to do harm by saying these things. I think he just cares about not jumping to medication for a solution while neglecting spiritual issues and the sin in our lives, which we all have including myself. Because those cause us mental harm. But we are also physical creatures and our brains are incredibly complex and depend on certain brain chemicals to work properly, which I don’t expect him to just know about because he’s not a medical doctor. I go back to Job and Elijah and David in the Bible. Job and Elijah were suicidal at one point. You can read many psalms about when David was depressed. Even Jesus himself was deeply sorrowful onto death in the Garden of Gethsemane. Whether your on medication or not or it’s physical, spiritual, mental, or a combination God understands and will walk through it with you as He did with all these men in the Bible.

MacArthur is not backed by all of his peers on this issue. Watch him laugh in the face of Piper as he opens up about his depression: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/j7ypo8-Buamrlac.htmlsi=5xI9rKf0F_7I1LkH

Wow... what a way to throw hurting, struggling Christians under a bus saying they're all in sin because they have actual medical conditions. WTG John.

Those in agreement with what he says have never experienced chronic depression.

Man as a person diagnosed with autism ADHD and OCD I was ready to dislike this video and heat on John MacArthur thinking he was wrong. but someone else in the comment section said he's not saying that these things don't exist I was just talking about the danger of the philosophy of labels those are conclusions that I have come to you in my own mind as I've grown older. How it doesn't make sense that I'm not responsible for what I do because of label x attached to my name. Also that breeds the victim mentality in the hopeless mentality because you're stuck with this thing and unless some external sing like medication are involved in your life you are going to stay stuck not even God himself can help you how can God take something from you if you can't even own it and give it up to God. Also these labels did psychology loves to put on people on another way of segregating a certain population of people in making them feel like they're different version of humanity then other people who don't have the labels. John MacArthur is 100% right. Because psychology as it is now it's an awful system

I have PTSD medication is not wrong if taken for situation and not abuse so what is he saying?

Ugh

Saying you're sceptical of over-medication or labelling or whatever is totally different to saying a problem doesn’t exist. Hey, did you know, depression isnt real? It's just being sad for a really long time! Aging isn't real, you're just slowing down.

As a developmental pediatrician, and a Christian, I find his advice offensive

PTSD comment … I listened and I’ll give him some grace as I think he misspoke or speaks as he often does in black and white terms, which is where I think he goes wrong and people maybe miss a good point he may be trying to make about quickly turning to medication, especially for kids. But, he says something that got my attention more… That if you parent your kids right, they will make good choices. Another black and white statement that we know is not true, and what about Adam and Eve’s choice, were they not parented right? Hmmm?

John has been saying this for years. And it’s also the prevalent view of the biblical counseling movement. Robert D Smith MD, for example has had books out saying this same thing for over a decade. Here’s a video of Jmac saying this same thing nearly a decade ago: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/h615dadpy7a6h2g.htmlsi=8K9lLVtwEtM6WIUZ That aside, I still disagree with him on this, and I think it must only stem from his personal experience of not having any neurological issues. As he gets older he may soon realize that neurological disorders are real.

Look you need to add infinite love to what pastor John is saying the context is in infinite love then you will understand John s words … do t be so quick to judge him …

This is so uneducated. There are a lot of non-medicated ways of dealing with PTSD, but sometimes medicine is needed. It is real. Mental health is physical health.

Wow! He is incredibly prideful and ignorant about mental health. I have seen him spew SO many lies online and never once seem him humbly admit that he was wrong!

hes correct they are lies and arent real

I love Dr. MacArthur. I love his teaching of the Bible. But he is a human man. And humans can be wrong, as he is in these statements. I have bipolar disorder, and if I abandon my medication for a long time, I'll end up in a hospital. And we have a daughter, Doni, who has Autism. God allows for the medication we both take that enable us to function. I maintain that our medications are necessary, but the medications are not what restored our souls. That only is Jesus Christ.

I agree

Yeah, MacArthur is right. I was medicated heavily at 12 years old for OCD and it really took a toll on my body 13 years later. I realized the OCD I battle with is a result of my own sinfulness that I need the Lord for

I had severe depression but decided to avoid uneducated pastors and go to a Chinese doctor instead. She only asked me about my diet. After 15 minutes she gave me antibiotics and I was cured. I've never had depression since then. I knew that four foods were behind it so I avoided them. She was the one who traced it to bad gut bacteria. I can now eat those same foods without a problem. John Mac doesn't know a thing about how the human body works. The Bible is a lousy medical textbook, John. It doesn't mention viruses, bacteria, and parasites.

Never seen MacArthur Be So reckless and stupidly wrong about any subject this bad

This is insane

There are some aspects of this that are correct in some way...but for the most part this is absolutely wrong. For example, when a soldier whitnesses women being gang r****d, then tortured, then killed, and cant do anything about it, it effects you, then the soldier watches their friends die, and babies being impailed on stakes, and watches someone burned alive. All the while they are being trained for months and years to perform a service to their country, to take up the responsibility to defend freedom. Trained to perform duties in service of a greater mission than themselves. And when this soldier comes homes, yes the Soldier has grief, and in this particular instance, they have....post (after) traumatic (trauma) stress (stress) is this normal/orderly/ordinary? No, its abnormal/un-ordinary...dis-order. Also, a percentage of his theology is wrong, so theres that.

This is a great example of gaslighting everyone. He has just told so many hurting people that their reality is not real. Trust me as someone who has CPTSD and has chosen not to medicate as I had reactions it’s far far more then grief (I’ve experienced that to) it’s very physical and you can’t take your thoughts captive as sometimes you have no thoughts. I had suppressed memories and it was all physical responses to stimulus that I struggled with. Praise God He is helping me heal. But this is not helpful to anyone. It is not compassionate and it is a good way to scare people away from The church who are dealing with acute trauma and chronic trauma in an evil world. Would you tell someone with high blood pressure not to take their meds as it’s just their anxious thoughts causing it?

I think people need to do more research before attacking him.

He's completely unqualified to speak on such things. Why can't guys like this stay in their lane?

Drip by drip he is destroying his legacy.

Somebody needs to stop this man. He's causing damage!

People suffer MORE when you don’t validate their pain! John MacArthur lacks empathy. He’s causing incredible damage with these statements and they are ignorant.

I understand that what he said is almost like saying high blood pressure isn't real, it's actually just stress. But I wonder if anyone reading this who is offended could just let it go? He's human and if he said anything that needs correcting, he has plenty of people around him who will do it and keep him accountable. I'm noticing more and more people behaving as if they owe it to themselves to get offended. No, you don't have to.

This is a gross mischaracterization of what mental health issues are. God bless all those Christian’s who are in the trenches of spiritual warfare with their brothers and sisters who suffer from these ailments.

Myself and at least 2 other Christian friends of mine have been through this pill-pushing, labeling, crap and all three of us have come to fully realize that Jesus and the Bible are the best possible answers to all of this. My 19 year old grandson has been on various meds for about 4 years now and he recently spent three months in a local mental hospital on a "program" that was meant to analyze him and lower his prescriptions. Instead they quadrupled his "meds" and he is now worse off then ever. They are not trying to help my Grandson, they are destroying him. His mother and both his grandmothers also agree and they are not all Christians but they are not stupid either! If you look up the origin of the word "pharmacy" you will see descriptions like poisoning and sorcery. Cut the crap and read the bible! Wake up!

If john mcarthur were to experience severe depression, just for 24 hours, he would NEVER make statements like that again...ive been to his church, took a class there that i could not finish. Teacher reiterated the same thing he is saying in the interview. I saw students looking around at each other in seeming disbelief...As far as mental illness is concered what they believe about mental illness only gets worse!!!

Macarthur is an old mule staring at a new gate. He has the inability to understand two things can be true at once

He's right.

Well that’s what I see when I read the Bible. Thanks for truth. The world sadly has a different way. Not to undermine the seriousness, but truth is always met with blessings.

Do people not listen? This is the word of a Pharisee and a wolf this is not a man of God speaking I’m sorry but do not be deceived by this man.

This is ignorance at its highest level.

He is wrong about this and most of the other things he preaches 🙈🙄🙄🙄

I deeply respect Dr. MacArthur and understand and share concerns about the overprescribing of psychiatric meds and over-diagnosis and even false-diagnosis of certain mental health conditions, but I would never deny a condition like PTSD exists. It’s certainly more than grief. There are people who have suffered real and severe trauma in their lives. Someone near and dear to my heart for example was beaten savagely by his father until his teens years and watched his mother and siblings being abused by him as well. He was also then drafted in the Vietnam war where he has stories of the guns and bombs and shooting people and being shot at … these people included children who were trying to kill him … whom he likely had to killed. He suffers from nightmares, fights in his sleep, insomnia and depression. Medication actually hasn’t been helpful to him and he doesn’t like how it makes him feel. Does he need gospel hope? Absolutely! But he also needs compassion, patience, understanding, and time for the great physician to heal and give him comfort, encouragement and strength. It would be completely wrong and disheartening to call what he is experiencing merely grief. It is beyond grief. I admit I am highly suspicious of the fields of psychology and psychiatry, and I am deeply concerned about the church being unprepared to minister to people with conditions such as the one I have described. We need to come to better understand the depths of our fallen condition and how we can bring gospel hope to those in mental health crisis with the confidence that the Lord is the great physician and wonderful counselor. He knows and sees all and can heal these maladies of the mind by whatever means he chooses. But I don’t think it is helpful to make blanket denials.

He is so right. People have real problems, but labeling issues so they can be medicated is criminal.

I am going to go further with my comments. It was this type of advice from several Christian pastors that confused my husband and I so much when my husband I were trying to navigate care for my son with bipolar disorder. Because of this kind of direction, we were thrown way of course and didn't pursue proper care as a child. My son lived a tortured life and died at age 26. Working my last 8 years before retirement in a mental health clinic for severe and chronically mentally ill adults, I can tell you that these diseases are not choices. Yes, there are choices involved during care and treatment, but is not a choice that causes cancer or mental illness. As a family support specialist, I learned that much of the blame parents deal with come can come from the tongues of clergy who were uneducated about mental health. May is Mental Health Month...learn more...NAMI...or watch our family film, BEAUTIFUL BOY MORE THAN AN ADDICT

He just needs to retire- Just making things up and buying into conspiracy theories now.

Sorry guys your reaction says it all its true what he says

Agreed, sometimes its a scarlet letter to stick on someone as well encourage and lift one another up.

As someone who has suffered from mental illness most of my life, I am deeply saddened to hear this. I have repented. I have sought prayer. My only recourse is medication. The alternative is to get worse or die.

Wow he’s really losing it. It’s often a trend among aging celebrity preachers. This is something we saw with Billy Graham, Tim Keller, as well as Ravi Zacharias.

Who is John MacArthur to say this???? What competence does this man have to say any of this? I wonder how much medication John MacArthur takes for physical ailments. It is one thing to say that medication is not the answer to PTSD but to say that it does not exist is cluelessness.

When godly men talk out of their butt…

This vid needs to be taken down. The man has no training in the science of psychology or psychiatry. He believes that both professions are "sinful" and "wicked". His opinions are like those from the 1700s and 1800s. They are outdated, simplistic, and misguided. That's the best spin I can put on them. We do live in a fallen, imperfect world. A lot of the emotional disorders that people develop are due to improper messages children get as they are growing up. If a child is physically, emotionally, or sexually abused they often internalize the abuse. That means that as children they don't have the capacity to understand why Dad or Mom are behaving in an inappropriate manner. All they know is that Dad is an adult and because he is, he must know more and better than me, the child. So, his anger (abuse) must be justified and I (child) must be wrong. The child internalizes the abuse and believes that he/she is in the wrong, is bad, is unworthy of love. They leave the home at 18 or so to live their own lives and these distorted thoughts are within them causing havoc in their adult lives as they seek to make their own way. This distorted or unhealthy thinking often causes major depressive disorder or an anxiety or panic disorder. This has to be treated in counseling for the person to get better. Sometimes the adult child attempts suicide and sometimes they are successful all because they believe a lie, that they are bad and unworthy of love. And getting through to them that what they believe is a lie is sometimes difficult. Thinking creates emotions and they don't "feel" good or worthy because of what they "learned" to think as children. It takes work to change their thinking, which will change how they feel about themselves. MacArthur doesn't understand or believe any of this, but it's simple logic that we as humans have learned over the last 75 years or so. Calvinism, which is what MacArthur holds to, is not conducive with these sick people getting better, for the most part. It's an old, outdated doctrine, IMO, that needs to be buried. In regards to bi-polar disorder, there is strong evidence it is a medical illness caused by a defective gene(s). Dr. David D. Burns states that studies show that if an identical twin develops bi-polar illness there is a 50% to 75% chance the other twin will, also. They share identical genes. Whereas if a nonidentical twin develops the illness there is a 10% to 25% chance the other twin will develop the illness. Nonidentical twins share only half of the same genes. This holds up even if the identical twins are raised by different sets of parents. So, please don't lump bi-polar illness in with psychosomatic illnesses. It is a different type of disorder and one that is often inherited.

I agree with this 10000%

Toxic theology at its finest.

His understanding is SO deep, and legit. ALL sickness, illness, etc is, at it's root a sin problem. Therefore, ultimately, the solution is Jesus. That’s what he's getting at, but the short video limits the explanation. I struggled with a violence-related PTSD diagnosis, treating and "managing" it in the ways of the world. But, it wasn’t until i made the conscious decision to stop being a slave to my (once righteous, but now sinful) anger, anxiety, and fear, that i found victory. People wear their trauma and hurt as if it defines them; as if they are UNABLE to move on from it. I went from being consumed by what happened TO me in my past, to being focused on what was done FOR me on the cross.

He sounds like a word of faith preacher !! We’res justin peters with this one . If you just faith it away it won’t exist , lol .

Yet another false teacher bringing 'strange fire' in order to deny what is true.

Wow, this guy is so wrong

Willful ignorance. J Mac, please stick to the gospel.

Agree with John MacArthur 100%! The lies of psychiatric diagnosis need to be addressed!

Christian Science?

I agree with John MacArthur

I can tell you MacArthur is incorrect on this subject. He does not understand brain chemistry. Can people be over medicated or incorrectly, yes but medication often keeps people from being homeless. Its the people who refuse meds that end up ruining relationships and destroying their lives. What a sad commentary that is spoken here! So many Christians will listen to this poor advice and lose everything because of it. I work in Christian mental health and have been in practice over 30 years. The people we see make the most progress are the ones who know the Lord, do counseling and take meds as needed. Do not listen to this foolishness

This is what severely damages the religion business and Christianity in particular. The guy needs to stay in his lane and preach whatever he wants but stay out of the mental health business.

Go home John MacArthur.

It’s time for MacArthur to resign. Forfeit the pulpit so that a SHEPHERD can step up. I’m calling for his resignation

Mcarthur is right 👍

John Mac Athur is perfectly right! He just quote from a book about the "noble lies". Chill down. Psychology try to sanctify people unbiblically.John Mac Arthur is right.

This man has done more damage to the church than the world has ever thought of…. Sad

This is one of the reasons why this guy is a horrible pastor. What a terrible person. Repent John.

What really bothers me about this is how arrogant a pastor has to be to make such declarations against medical science. This has always troubled me with biblicism. How can a pastor speak intelligently about everything? Is there no limit to what a pastor knows? I mean a pastor or theologian can and should speak about how a psychiatrist should apply his science morally but to make huge, generalized claims about whole swaths of a science without expertise and training is to treat one’s own knowledge of the world as god-like and lacks all humility of a shepherd of the flock. And no one can chalk this up to old age for MacArthur. He’s been speaking like this his whole life and he should be ashamed of himself

I dare this 🤡 to say this to a Vietnam or Iraq vet.