This is very long as I think you’re struggling as I have.. As a disclaimer, I’m a very traditional, rather conservative Baptist by denomination. I have strong respect for the Bible. Yet few subjects trouble me more than the effect of brain damage/brain differences on salvation and Christian living. Certainly I think this subject is often just brushed aside without understanding the reality of brain differences.
We have an adopted daughter, now 16, and have heard many stories from within the adoption community of children who were so disabled/disturbed (due to prenatal brain damage in the front of the brain, not just abuse) that they seemed almost demonic. Some literally almost lived to "steal, kill, and destroy." (I mean no disrespect to scripture in using this verse.) Some of these children do not seem to have a conscience, and yes, some almost seemed demon-possessed from an early age, killing or attempting to kill animals and family members as soon as they were physically able to do so.
If I were a confirmed Calvinist (I'm struggling with that, too), I'd simply say that some people are predestined for salvation and others are not. A Calvinist would probably say that, in the case of a psychopath, God clearly created a "
vessel of His wrath, prepared for destruction," Romans 9:21. Easy answer, but who in his right mind would tell a grieving parent that their recently-institutionalized 3-year-old is damned to Hell?
I'm
not a confirmed Calvinist (yet), however. The Free Will view would suggest that at some point 1) God gives every rational person the CHANCE to either accept or deny Christ on some level OR 2) that person, EVEN IF VIOLENT, is too intellectually/emotionally/spiritually damaged to make a rational choice and he remains under the much-debated grace of the “age of accountability.” In other words, that person remains in the spiritual condition of an immature child, always under Christ’s grace. It can be hard to consider that a brain-damaged 40-year-old serial killer could still be under the grace of Christ because the killer lacks the mature ability to understand his choices, but perhaps it’s possible.
DO at least some adult psychopaths really have the ability (you can call it prevenient grace) to even HAVE the choice to accept Christ? Here’s where things get really sticky: brain development definitely helps or hinders our ability to understand parts of the Gospel and live the Christian life. As people with “normal” brains, it can be hard for us to comprehend that not everyone understands the world in the same way that we do.
God had to give me a daughter who is ADHD, has an IQ between 71-76, and other ill-defined issues to smack my type-A-self-righteous-self into reality. I had always judged her actions by my own abilities, and I was forced to confront the fact that pre-natal brain damage really affects a person at a very deep level. In short, if a person has anything near to a “normally developed” brain, he or she needs to thank God every night, because it’s a gift not given to everyone. Even my daughter’s relatively mild issues made her
*unable to understand danger
*unable to always relate cause and effect (In Christianity, you HAVE to be able to understand that there are consequences for accepting or rejecting Christ. Some developmentally delayed people cannot understand even the idea that bad = punishment, so they repeat the same actions over and over. Sometimes it just takes them a LONG time to learn the consequences.)
*unable to generalize abstract rules to specific situations (Developmentally delayed kids/adults might be able to “say” the 10 Commandments, but they might still take something from a local store OR they might understand that taking something from Store A is wrong, but to them Store B is different. They may be confused as to why they can take a piece of paper, a pen, or a snack from home, but not take the money from Mom’s purse or Dad’s wallet. These things, that seem so “easy” and intuitive to most of us, baffle them.)
*unable to project consequences (Sometimes kids with ADHD and other issues move too quickly to think about consequences. In other cases, they simply can’t envision the consequences because they’ve never had those consequences happen before.)
*lack of an internal clock (People without an internal clock may have the tendency to always be late, but even worse, they may tend to live “for the moment” with little thought for tomorrow.)
*lack of self-control (People with certain types of ADHD seem to have a nuclear reactor inside. Their energy level is through the ROOF. This is something that they often simply cannot control. They get desperately bored easily, and when let loose, they explode like a racehorse out of the box. Although not all ADHD people have these issues, it can be hard for some of them to say no to pleasures such as sex or to violence, because it can be hard for them to feel that “tomorrow” is real.)
Thankfully, our daughter has finally developed past some of these levels...but she is still about 3-5 years “behind” other children in some ways. In some cases, it took scary real-life events for her to comprehend (and it really WAS a epiphany moment) the rules that we'd tried so hard to teach her verbally. She actually came to understanding; some people NEVER develop an adult level of thinking. Is it surprising that many people in prison have developmental issues or borderline IQ? In fact, a man’s tendency toward violence in prison can be correlated with his IQ. On the other hand, high IQ students tend to remain virgins longer. (By contrast, however, some psychopaths are VERY intelligent, and also may be violent, so a high IQ is no guarantee of saintliness.)
Of course, with true psychopaths, the main driving force isn't the inability to comprehend abstractions, but the lack of natural conscience and the elevation of the Self to godhood. The psychopath does not see others as discrete individuals worthy of respect or even worthy of life. He or she feels no guilt when he or she "uses" another person. Instead, other people are simply tools to be used for promotion or entertainment.
Could responding to God's call (if we admit that a true psychopath could even hear God's call) and studying the Scriptures help “heal” a psychopath? Could the brain at least partially rewire itself? Science and experience suggest that it might be possible. We can't leave out that critical,
ineffable work of the Holy Spirit either. It is He who opens our eyes to the truth and makes the teachings of the Bible seem "real." Is the Holy Spirit bound to work in a certain portion of the brain, or can He rewire the brain?
In closing, I'm afraid that I've opened more questions than answers, and what I might say now may frighten you or encourage you. Many of us can “switch” back and forth from cold logic to loving emotion; I see it even on here where logical theological debates became heartlessly vicious. Even as a woman, I can shift to the coldly logical side, and I have to be VERY careful about it, because my thoughts can get pretty dark if I allow myself to go down certain paths. Sometimes I have to stop myself and mentally “shift” back to that place of balance between logic and emotion (I DO have a conscience!) I have often asked myself what my life would have been like if I'd let that "other" side of my personality hold sway. My husband and I both have superior IQs (and, by the way, a certain amount of birth-trauma) and both of us say that but for the Grace of God we might have gone down very different paths. I went to school with many high-IQ teens who espoused atheism, anarchy, violence, the occult, and eugenics (basically advocating that those they considered “inferior” should be euthanized). Yet from an early age I felt that God was calling me to follow Him; I really didn’t have a choice. (Maybe I’m a closet-Calvinist after all.) The darkness of the human heart unless lightened by the Grace of God, is terrifying and unfathomable. What many of us would have done or become if we had NOT heard or responded to His call, we can never know.
As it is, we rescue dogs, spoil our daughter, and raise mini goats.