Hello Ted, don't want to be offensive here, especially if you don't recognise bibliolatry.
Yes, I know this man quite well...
He thinks that in reading the bible, digesting it, understanding it, he will be healed of his depression.
I know he's got this pre-disposition - I am not saying his bible-reading is excessive or is the main cause of the depression.
It may be that his understanding of the deeper, higher and wider purposes of God are much better than mine.
But it hasn't alleviated his depression.
And I think his theology of healing is mostly the cause of his continuing depression. "I just need to read/understand the scriptures more to be joyful"
I'm almost at the belief that spiritual sickness needs spiritual healing, emotional healing needs human love, support and acceptance, physical healing needs a doctor. You know - horses for courses, cause and effect.
He is a total contrast with his wife, who was very sociable, outgoing (and very orthodox as well). But now she's died he does seem to be becoming a bit of a recluse.
Hi salamacum,
Oh, I do recognize bibliolatry, I was just making sure I understood why you were using that word here. You said the man likes to read the Scriptures or that he felt he needed to read them more. I don't think any born again believer would ever think that they read the Scriptures too, much.
For me, bibliolatry is when someone has a special place adorned with gold and silver or fine woods polished to a gleaming shine on which they keep their copy of the Scriptures. It is when someone bows down to a book that contains a translation of the Scriptures as if the book itself were the God that could save them. People who might say, "Oh, I could never set my bible down on the floor", might be thought of as bibliolaters. I just never understood that as properly being defined as just someone who reads the Scriptures a lot.
Yes, if you know this man and he himself describes himself as depressed, then I would be inclined to ask the questions that might uncover what is causing him to be so. The Scriptures say that we should be joyful in all things. I know for myself, while I may be depressed for some short period about something that has happened in my life, I believe that lifelong depression is a sign of not having that joy, and by extension if one doesn't have that joy, then are they really practicing and believing what the Scriptures say.
I mean, anyone with a third grade education can read, but God doesn't want us to just read the Scriptures - He wants us to understand and believe them. I can read all of the Harry Potter series and know everything that there is to know about Harry Potter, but I don't believe for a minute that the events and accounts found within those writings are true.
So, this is why I asked more probing questions regarding your diagnosis of your acquaintances depression. Yes, there can be some good reasons for a temporary period of a depressive attitude. He lost his wife. Perhaps she was the one on whom he had set his hopes and now she's gone. Left him to live alone with no real companionship and that causes him to be depressed. If you find that to be the case, and you will really only know if you take the time to sit with him and get to know him and ask him point blank, "Bill, why are you depressed? What kinds of thoughts are running through your head that would make you feel depressed about your lot in life?", then I would encourage you, if you really love him, to take the time to follow my encouragement before.
Just stop by one day or call him up and say, "Bill, why don't you come and go to lunch with me over at McDonald's? I'm buying." To be honest, and maybe you have portrayed this situation wrongly, but you seem to think that just being around other people fixes depression. It doesn't usually. Usually depressives are caught in a thought pattern that is depressive. They think thoughts of how bad their life turned out and how there just isn't any hope for them. Being with other people just means that they put on a smile and laugh with others while they think these thoughts. Depression is usually a matter of what kinds of things we tend to think about more than what kinds of things we do.
Just like those who suffer anxiety disorders will get in an elevator and all their thoughts are just focused on what it's going to feel like when the elevator plummets to the basement. The rest of us get on elevators and take for granted that it's going to get us where we want to go and enjoy the ride.
Most depressives don't really need a crowd, but rather just one real friend. And I'll repeat that just because he seems to know the Scriptures and can recite them backwards doesn't mean he's born again. Nicodemus could do that.
God bless you.
In Christ, Ted