REDIFINING PTSD TO FIT BIBICAL REALITY Part 2

The Biblical Principle of Common Mercy

Ligonier Ministries defines Common grace or mercy as “the biblical teaching about God's universal and undeserved goodness toward sinners. God restrains sin, evil, misery, and wrath in this fallen world by common grace while conferring general, nonredemptive blessings on all mankind. As distinguished from special (saving) grace, common grace is a necessary aspect of the continuance of life in this fallen world. It restrains evil and confers goodness on humankind, reflecting God’s goodness, mercy, and justice attributes. God confers common grace on mankind to encourage sinners to repent and trust in Christ. On judgment day, the common grace experienced by the unrepentant and their failure to thank God for it will factor into their punishment.”

Mt. 5:45 for God causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

The God who is there is a God of mercy, righteousness, and wrath. The prophet Ezekiel proclaimed of God twice, ‘I take no pleasure at all in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then should you die, house of Israel?’ (18:23; 33:11). Psalm 145:9 reminds us, “The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works.” James 5:11 underscores this divine truth, “We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of Job's endurance and seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and merciful.”

God protected you on the battlefield as He did me. Even if we were wounded, we deserved much worse as rebels and lawbreakers. You can chalk your survival up to your skill or blind luck, but the Bible declares those responses had nothing to do with your survival, nothing. 

No matter what you do, even the next breath you take is a gift of divine mercy. Notice what the Apostle says: 16 "For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1). 

A paycheck earned honestly or even dishonestly is God’s mercy shining on an individual, even though God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap (Gal. 6:7). Even the air we all breathe is a gift of God’s mercy. He is giving us time to repent. Good health, family, and pleasure—you name it—and so much more are all due to His mercy. 

Now, let’s move this providential understanding into the arena of combat. Why does one soldier, Marine, Navy Corpsman, Army medic, pilot, or mechanic experience severe traumatic stress while the man next to him in a fighting hole carries on with his life with little traumatic effect? You survived the war because He pleased you to do so. Why?

Some Scriptural Examples of  God's Common Mercy

a.    Cain (Gen. 4)

Adam's oldest son, Cain, refused to listen to his father's teaching about a promised coming Redeemer (Gen. 3:15). Abel, Cain's brother, exhorted Cain to submit to offering a blood sacrifice to atone for his sins. Instead, Cain introduced the first world religion, growing a garden and bringing the best of his produce to the Lord. Rather than heeding God's warning, Cain rose and killed Abel. Instead of judging Cain immediately, God put a mark on Adam's firstborn so that no one would kill him. Thus Cain became a vagrant, unable to till the ground he loved. God allowed Cain to marry, have children and grandchildren. Cain deserved justice, but God was merciful to him and became a lesson for Israel to heed. Without the shedding of blood, there would be no forgiveness (Heb. 9:22).

b.    Noah

We only learn about Noah centuries after the great Flood. Sometime between Israel leaving Egypt and arriving at the Plains of Moab (Num. 36:13; Josh. 1), God revealed to Moses the story of Noah and the ark he built to save him and his family from the floodwaters. After the waters receded and dry ground appeared, God maintained the Adamic covenant (Gen. 3:15) with the “second Adam,” Noah, telling him as He did Eden’s Adam.  In Genesis 9:1, God reminded Israel on their way to Canaan, His purposes in light of sin remained constant, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. . . 7 As for you, be fruitful and multiply; Populate the earth abundantly and multiply in it.” 

With Noah, God added,  8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying, 9 “Now behold, I Myself am establishing My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every animal of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, every animal of the earth. 11 I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be eliminated by the waters of a flood, nor shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.. . . 16 When the rainbow is in the cloud, then I will look at it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth” (Gen. 8:21-9:1, 7-11, 16; emphasis added). 

In effect, God established this common Covenant of mercy so that redemption would have a world stage, season after season, upon which to bring the Good News to all humanity. If you survived those firefights, this covenant had you in mind. If you are sitting at home after your tour/s, God has been faithful to His common Covenant to you personally, whether you know Him by faith or not. But, the reason you made it home and others didn’t is so that you would listen closely to God’s message of grace and believe it. Remember, God has written His law on each man’s heart, on yours as well, so that all men are moral beings. As moral and yet sinfully rebellious, all mankind is without excuse before God (See Romans. 1:18-23).

c.    Nimrod (Gen. 10) 

Nimrod was a mighty man and hunter before the Lord. Rather than performing deeds to glorify God, his Maker, Nimrod, promoted himself and looked after his welfare. T. D. Alexander understands verse 8 to mean, "He was a mighty hunter against the LORD." God did not punish the man immediately as he deserved but showed mercy on Nimrod by causing him to prosper. Whatever we do, we must do it for God's glory. And that applied in Nimrod's day as well.

d.    Babel (Gen. 11)

After Moses listed Noah's genealogy, he tells us all the nations that spoke one language headed east from Eden. They gathered at Shinar and dwelled there. But instead of obeying God by spreading His image throughout the world, all the people built a city, tower, and a name for their own glory. The tower would reach into the heavens. 

Instead of bringing justice to these disobedient people, God divided their language, dispersing them. The many languages spoken worldwide give verbal testimony to the Covenant curse. God should have destroyed them immediately, but He showed them mercy by forcing them to obey His Word to Adam, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and rule over it," and Noah (Gen. 1:28; 9:1, 7).

e.    Hagar (Genesis 16)

Abraham had an Egyptian slave girl, Hagar. Sarai was barren and unable to conceive. The ANE allowed servant girls to sleep with their master to raise children in his name. Barren Sarai, Abram's wife, suggested he have children through her handmaid (Gen. 16). Once Hagar gave birth to Ishmael, the woman mocked her mistress, Sarai. Sarai became jealous and sent Hagar and her son packing. Hagar ran out of water in the wilderness, so she put her son under a shade tree and waited to die with her son. But God showed great mercy on this pagan slave woman. God provided water and a lineage for Ishmael. 

f.    Judas Iscariot (Gospels)

Jesus chose twelve disciples, one of whom was Judas Iscariot. Judas carried the money bag and pilfered it. He complained that a harlot woman brought an expensive perfume to anoint Jesus's feet for burial. He suggested she might have sold the bottle and given the money to the poor instead. Judas also betrayed the Lord. Jesus knew Judas was a thief, yet He kept Judas among the twelve rather than bringing judgment on him for the years he followed Jesus. He deserved to die for betraying the Son of Man. 

g.    You, the reader

If you can honestly say that you are either indifferent or antagonistic toward the things of God, then every moment you breathe, every bite of food you take, every paycheck you cash, every embrace from your wife and children, you are a recipient of God's mercy. You live in the Christian world, the world that truly is, but you prefer to live and believe contrary to what God says, as I once did.

Isa. 45:7–9 I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things. “Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I the LORD have created it. Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

Where Does This Leave Us?

I think Moses had PTSD. I also believe that Jesus came very close, if not experienced brain changes, during the few hours He spent in the Garden of Gethsemane praying for the Father's cup to pass from Him. There, He wrested over His coming death and obedience to God to see the thing through, the thing being death on the cross.

Lk. 22:44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.

Isa. 53:3-4 He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried;

"It is not once recorded that he (Jesus) laughed; we do not ever hear even that he smiled; only once are we told that he was glad, and then it is rather sober gratification than exuberant delight which is spoken of in connection with him (Jn. xi. 15). But, then, we hear little also of his passing sorrows. The sight of Mary and her companions wailing at the tomb of Lazarus, agitated his soul and caused him tears (Jn. xi. 35); the stubborn unbelief of Jerusalem drew from him loud wailing (Lk. xix. 41). He sighed at the sight of human suffering (Mk. vii. 34) and “sighed deeply” over men’s hardened unbelief (viii. 12): man’s inhumanity to man smote his heart with pain (iii. 5). But it is only with reference to his supreme sacrifice that his mental sufferings are emphasized.

". . . Behind death, he saw him (the Father) who has the power of death, and that sin which constitutes the sting of death. His whole being revolted from that final and deepest humiliation, in which the powers of evil were to inflict upon him the precise penalty of human sin. To bow his head beneath this stroke was the last indignity, the hardest act of that obedience which it was his to render in his servant-form, and which we are told with significant emphasis, extended “up to death” (Phil. ii. 8). . . .

"In these supreme moments our Lord sounded the ultimate depths of human anguish, and vindicated on the score of the intensity of his mental sufferings the right to the title of Man of Sorrows. The scope of these sufferings was also very broad, embracing that whole series of painful emotions which runs from a consternation that is appalled dismay, through a despondency which is almost despair, to a sense of well-nigh complete desolation. In the presence of this mental anguish the physical tortures of the crucifixion retire into the background, and we may well believe that our Lord, though he died on the cross, yet died not of the cross, but, as we commonly say, of a broken heart, that is to say, of the strain of his mental suffering." (emphasis added; B.B. Warfield, "The Emotional Life of our Lord," 22-23. http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/emotionallife.html.) 

Context of Job's misery

Job 1:14-19 a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans attacked and took them. They also slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and made a raid on the camels and took them and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 and behold, a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people and they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” (emphasis added)

Job's response

Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. 21 He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. (emphasis added)

God's response to Satan

Job 2:3 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.

Satan's response to Job

Job 2:7 Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.

Job's wife's response to Job's calamity

Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!”

Job's initial response to his calamities

Job 2:10 But he said to her (his wife), “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips. (emphasis added)

In a certain sense, Job's charges against God and his grumbling agains his adversity is irrelevant. How can I say that? 

Job 1:8 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”

Job 2:3 The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. (emphasis added)

Job had at some point in his life trusted the Gospel preached through the patriarchs.

Gal. 3:8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.”

David's response to his afflictions

Ps. 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray, But now I keep Your word.

Ps. 119:71 It is good for me that I was afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.

2 Cor. 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Heb. 5:7-9 In the days of His (Jesus') flesh, save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, (cf. Jn. 6:28-29)

Phil. 3:7-11 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

What do these truths tell us about God, ourselves, and PTSD?

Many of us who have "seen the elephant" on the battlefield or the mean streets of any city have experienced a taste of what divine substitution means. For example, when Echo Co., 2/26, was at Khe Sanh during the siege in early 1968, we reached a point where resupply of chow was proving difficult. In effect, we were HUNGRY. When we finally started receiving C-Rations resupply, each man in the three .60mm mortar squads had to guard it 24/7. We would take turns sitting on the CP bunker at night to keep the platoons "honest." 

One night, I had the watch from 05:00 to 07:00. Rich from the first squad relieved me at 07:00. At about 07:10, I was walking back to my bunker and toward Rich, guarding the chow. I was 30 about feet away from him when a .82mm mortar round landed between his legs, exploding and leaving his body a bloody, mangled mess. It didn't kill him outright, however. 

Substitution. Rich took my place on watch. (This is not a perfect illustration) Rich received those terrible wounds that I should have received if somehow Rich was late for his watch. Now, we can see Christ's substitution for sinners like us. I certainly deserved to experience the brunt of that explosion. I knew I was a lawbreaker and rebel at heart. Both Rich and I had sinned against God's law. Neither of us was a greater sinner than the other, but we deserved God's justice. The Man Christ Jesus, on the other hand, deserved no divine justice because He never sinned. Jesus willingly set aside the glory of heaven to come and be our substitute, becoming sin and taking upon Himself our curse for breaking God's law all our lives.

Between the Savior's birth and death, Jesus suffered infinitely more than any of us struggling with PTSD. Thus, He can sympathize with our weaknesses and become a faithful high priest. Moreover, Jesus earned all the benefits necessary--grace, the Holy Spirit, adoption, justification, etc., for us to endure suffering to God's glory during our short stay on earth.