Does God send people who've commited criminal acts due to mental illness to Hell?

Question

Here's a question I've had rolling around in my head. Obviously the Bible says we all have free will and go to heaven or hell accordingly. But here's my beef. If someone who is legally, mentally insane and cannot possible tell what they are doing is wrong or at the very least have the inability to separate fantasy from reality. If they commit a criminal act such as, say, murder or mass murder (like the guy who sniped people from the Texas bell tower who had a tumor growing in his brain effecting his judgment), does God still send them to hell? If that is so then it is obvious that mental diseases effect the soul. Any comments?

Answer 1

Good Question! My understanding is that we are held accountable for what we understand to be right and wrong. The Bible says "By your conscience shall ye be convicted". So if brain tumors cause someone to act in a way contrary to what he knew to be right, it would depend on how he was living before the tumor, right? Was this a good and moral person prior to the tumor? Did they have a jailhouse revelation of how wrong they were and repent truly? Only God knows that stuff, so we do what we are told to do and leave the judging of people to God. Even Jesus did not judge people - that's God's exclusive right. So while we might wonder about how God would do this or that, we can't know for sure. "Who knows the mind of God?" What we can do is make sure that we are correct and that we give a good example of what godly living is so that others are interested enough to ask. That's our job - "To give Glory to God." Let Him handle the rest.

Answer 2

No, if someone commits a mortal sin due to mental illness then that would either mitigate the sin or totally take away the guilt of the sin---and, of course, only God can judge that. Sadly, mental illness is such a complex thing that many people don't even realize they have it. Take clinical depression, a lot of people just think that it is a pretty bad phase that they are going through and that they will just get out of it with time. Although this does happen, a lot of times it actually gets worse to the point of people becoming suicidal (you also have to take into consideration that long periods of lack of sleep often accompany depression also). Also take schizophrenia, a lot of those who suffer from this literally hear voices in their heads telling them to do bad stuff and often have trouble differentiating between reality and these voices. God is indeed the most wise and fair Judge. I cannot see him letting anybody go to Hell who indeed did a big sin(s) because they were mentally ill. It would be like saying that someone who is bed-ridden in the hospital because they are physically ill would go to Hell because they didn't attend Sunday Mass.

Answer 3

The answer depends on whether you believe in free will or not, free will being the ability to look to God for salvation. If you believe that we can make that choice, then those below the age of reason and developmentally deficient adults (DDAs) by definition have to get a free pass since they are not held accountable for their sins.

Calvinism holds that no one at all can merit Heaven by themselves, original sin has seen to that. This means that every person who has ever lived stands guilty before the Lord and is deserving of the fires of hell. Calvinists therefore trust the Lord to make the right decision, but they also include baptism as having the same covenant meaning as circumcision did in the Old Testament. If you were God's property, you would know it through the marking of baptism.

The latter view puts salvation completely in the hands of God rather than man. You will find that Arminian theology thus makes the decision on infants/DDAs for God. Calvinism simply says that God knew who His sheep were before the foundations of the world were laid.

I think the important issue is that God will make the right decision, and he is glorified either way. That leans toward Calvinism, but I like that view. I'd rather not claim to have any decision authority on the salvation of man.

Answer 4

I am a Christian and I think that God will always send people to Hell, whether he or she has committed a crime or not. For it is in Christianity, when you do not... let's say ''recognize'' that God is really the one and only God, that you'll go to Hell anyway, whether you really did something bad or not. We are all full of sin, because of Adam and Eve. Whether you like it or not, if you don't believe or recognize or whatever that God is truly rhe one and only God, you just die, never to life the eternal life that Heaven has to offer.

The point is, whether a person has a mental illness or not, and this person killed someone, he or she will go straight to Hell, for it is not permitted to kill someone, whether seen by law or religion.

Of course I've read the Bible and God says that you can kill someone when he or she has not obeyed His rules, but let's make it realistic, because we don't kill everybody that we don't like or something, do we?

So, but the real answer is that God does send people to Hell with mental illness, whether he or she is awared of it or not. But you must know that not everybody is a Christian and that you may find people who are SO TOTALLY NOT OK with this, you know. Just decide for yourself.

Answer 5

You don't go to Hell for crime. You go to Hell for not accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. So if that person were an unbeliever, yes, s/he'd go to Hell. If a believer, s/he would not go to hell upon death.

However, if that person were a believer, that brings into question whether a believer could commit such a horrid crime, knowing it was also sin. I say generally no. But we can (getting back to your original question) be subject to mental illness like anyone else.

However, if for example I could save a child's life by killing someone trying to hurt him/her, I would probably kill that person. Would that mean I'm going to Hell? I don't think so for the reason stated above and also because God knows the heart. Man can only know what he sees... and I am a believer.

Answer 6

The question assumes that God exists, that hell exists
and that God sits in judgement of all humanity.

It also assumes the existence of free will - and presumably
those who are NOT mentally deranged have it and
therefore deserve their fate.

You could also argue that ALL crime is sociopathic
and therefore, all criminals are sick. Of course, this
also allows you to say "There is no such thing as evil."

You are trying to understand the mind of God ... If
you even admit to the problem, you must admit to
its futility.

Answer 7

No, because those people were not aware that their actions were evil and so they cannot be held responsible. Sin is a conscious decision to disobey God, and if they didn't know what they were doing was wrong, they can't be punished. The God that I love and know would never punish such people.

Answer 8

My Bible says nothing about free will. At the school I went to - a Christian one - they said that those who are not responsible for their actions ( i.e. those of mental illness) will go to heaven. Quite personally I believe that no book can dictate who is able to get through the 'gates' of the afterlife. That is a choice that the creator alone can make - and I believe he lets all in.

Answer 9

Only God can judge us. My answer is no, because I suffer from a mental illness, offset by medication. When not on my meds, I've sometimes just not ever remembered what I've done.

People that haven't been there will try to answer this, but they've never walked a mile in those shoes.

Answer 10

I think God over looks mental illness if someone is truley mentally ill and doesn't know what they are doing