r/RadicalChristianity

I’ve been wrestling with something and wanted to hear from other Christians.

I have pretty bad ADHD. It affects my focus, motivation, impulse control, and honestly just basic daily life sometimes. So medication is something I’ve thought about, but I feel conflicted.

Part of me wonders if taking ADHD meds is just using medicine responsibly. But another part of me worries about the spiritual side of it. The Bible talks about sorcery, and I’ve heard people connect that word to “pharmakia.” I know that doesn’t automatically mean every medication is evil, but it still makes me think.

We live in a world where so much is built around dopamine, distraction, media, pills, quick fixes, and escaping discomfort. I don’t want to just numb myself or depend on something instead of depending on God.

Verses that come to mind are:

“Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.” 1 Corinthians 6:12

“Be sober-minded; be watchful.” 1 Peter 5:8

“Test everything; hold fast what is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21

At the same time, I know the Bible doesn’t seem to condemn all medicine. Paul told Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach, and Jesus said the sick need a physician. So I’m not trying to say all medication is bad.

I guess my question is: where is the line?

If ADHD meds help someone function, focus, work, and control impulses, is that just being responsible with the body and mind God gave them? Or can it become a spiritual problem if it turns into dependence, avoidance, or replacing God with a pill?

I’m not trying to judge anyone who takes medication. I’m genuinely trying to figure this out and think about it biblically. I want to be sober-minded, disciplined, and close to God, but I also don’t want to ignore a real problem if help exists.

Would appreciate thoughts, especially from Christians who have dealt with ADHD or meds themselves.

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Yeshua became Greek Iēsous which became Latin Iesus, until Middle Ages 1600s letter J became Jesus but Yeshua was the name Joshua who carried the people out of the desert after Moses led them from Egypt. Christians will tell you Jesus was Fully Man and Fully God they will tell you to pray in his name but his name was as generic as the name god. It was a holy name that most people prayed they’re own sons would live up to a blessing and a role model when you pray to Jesus you pray in the name of Joshua both were men on a holy journey blessed by God to deliver the people from evil as they had been promised if they followed his commandments (613 or 10). I don’t know if Jesus was God after all it would always be faith but I know his messaged was the same as the old like he once said Ive come not destroy the old covenant but to fulfill it (just like Joshua fulfilled the covenant given to the People) I believe he did miracles which only God could do like heal the sick and raise the dead but he wasn’t the first man to perform such miracles he never said he was God but often alluded that God was with him and apart of him like one may refer to their spouse being one and even implied that we all have God in us too i believe the generic of his name reflects that we should respect ourselves as God’s children a reflection of God we were created in his image but need to focus on empathy, creation, and community to end greed, destruction, and perversion. At the end of the day I don’t believe Jesus was God but a Man Blessed by God but even if he was God in a man body suit then I still believe in God and pray to God just like Jesus prayed to Abba I too pray my Heavenly Father but I fear and respect Him and I know he is a jealous God so I don’t pray to Jesus in fear of damnation for if Jesus is not God like I have grown to learn and believe then Jesus has not died for my sins but died as example of how to live in order to achieve heaven everyone thinks you get a free pass to heaven if your baptized but Jesus has multiple quotes on how faith is not enough but through acts especially about money (root of all evil, rich don’t go to heaven, serve God or money can’t do both). Don’t get me wrong i love Jesus he is one of my favorite prophets Jesus, Isaiah, Jesus Ben Sirach, and King Solomon are some of my favorite bible prophets but I don’t believe he was God and to bet it all on one horse and to totally disregard the old testament on your eternal soul seems very risky just my take from a newly retired Christian and born again Jew just like Jesus was…

I feel like drinking. My heart is broken. God knows that i have nothing to do. I am just waiting to die, and i want to drink for the pain because nothing helps.

Gnosticism was one of the earliest movements to pervert the teaching of Jesus. Perhaps its defining characteristic was its contempt for the material world. Gnostics looked to Jesus as the teacher of the way to cast off the body and return to the world of pure spirit.

St. Irenaeus, who wrote polemics against Gnostic beliefs, said this about them:

>For the heretics, despising the handiwork of God, and not admitting the salvation of their flesh, while they also treat the promise of God contemptuously, and pass beyond God altogether in the sentiments they form, affirm that immediately upon their death they shall pass above the heavens and the Demiurge, and go to the Mother (Achamoth) or to that Father whom they have feigned.

Any of this sound kind of familiar? It might be because mainstream Christianity has essentially become Gnostic in its beliefs about the afterlife. The body and bodily needs don't matter as much as getting your "soul" to "Heaven." What is Heaven? Where is it? What is a soul? Mainstream Christian authorities struggle to answer these questions, yet they nevertheless keep these concepts at the center of their hopes for the future.

Contrast their beliefs with those of Jesus, Irenaeus, and the earliest Christians, who awaited a universal bodily resurrection and believed that they would live forever, as fleshy people, in a perfect physical world of hyperabundance. Simple. Easily comprehensible. Exciting. Good. Where do I sign up?

Radical Christians have to de-Gnosticize the Church. We have to teach people that a lot of the "spiritualized" nonsense is not original to the message of Jesus. Our Lord's message was not about gaining access to a ghost realm where you spend eternity doing who knows what. His message was about total human salvation. Of course you'll have a body, and that body won't get sick. It won't starve. It won't die. You won't be drafted into war or have bombs fall in your neighborhood. Also, you won't be isolated or lonely or depressed. You'll be able to truly live, on Earth, and life will be good.

Totally my interpretation not sure if others agree. But I thought it was also a subtextual allegory that could be used to explain the dangerous path that the Christian church has followed in contemporary times.

Spoilers:

>!The symbolism of losing your shepherd and having to find the solution to the problem by thinking critically while avoiding the “wolves in sheeps clothing” like the Shepherd who raises their lambs for slaughter. And the plot device that the flock can force themselves to “forget” their issues and mistakes without properly understanding and changing course. Also, the use of the “winter lamb” or “black sheep”. The idea of excommunicating members of the church based on their falsely perceived “sins”. Reminds me of the issues in the white evangelical Southern church.!<

I cant help but view it through the lens of current pastors preaching hatred and division of communities, making political points from the pulpit.

What are your thoughts?

Empires rise and fall. The powerful exploit the weak. New ideologies replace old ones, but domination keeps finding new justifications. Every generation seems to have to relearn the same moral lessons, and every generation produces people willing to ignore them.

Is that simply the human condition?

Should Christians expect this struggle to continue until the consummation of history? Or is there a theological basis for believing humanity can genuinely become more just over time?

In other words:

Is God gradually healing human history itself?

Or is history always going to remain a mixture of grace and domination until its ultimate fulfillment?

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why do “some” christians fail to see they are the reason pride is even a thing and that rights being taken away, is due to homophobia and it isn’t jesus like?. They sin while supporting sinful men like trump, it feels as though they are justifying hate with religion. Why are they discriminating against people when jesus was discriminated and again they sin, while wanting to shame other peoples sins?. They claim people being themselves is forcing pride while being okay with christans preaching to people that aren’t Christian, they say jesus loves you while a lgbt person that can aslo be a christian minds their business. Do I think pride is a sin? Absolutely not! There shouldn’t even be a separate group of people. Everyone should be equal, nobody should be mad about others wanting equality. Conservative Christians intentionally fail to see how they are enabling violence against lgbt people with their hate. (Not very Christian like but love preaching while picking and choosing which sin is okay)