What do you think of people who claim that God talks to them?

Question

I read a story about someone who killed a woman and her baby because he said that God told him that she was leading others away from him and it was his will that she be "removed".
Do you believe someone like this goes to hell, even though they thought they were only obeying God? Also, how do you distinguish between people who are delusional, and other people who have claimed to have corresponded with God, like certain prophets in the bible?

Chukk: thanks I was just thinking of that movie the other night but couldn't remember the name of it.

Answer 1

People who imagine God speaks to them seriously scare me. My mother was a Pentecostal schizophrenic. She made my childhood a living Hell, with all her "visions" and "revelations." Just as my sister and I were ready to move out on our own, Mom's faith turned into self-inflicted torture. She had a series of recurring dreams of having sex with Jesus and her idiot preacher told her she'd committed an unpardonable sin. She spent the next forty years utterly convinced she was doomed to burn in Hell forever. All she did was cry, chain-smoke, and study her Bible -- for forty years! She was in unrelenting spiritual agony.

Whenever I visited Mom at any of several different state mental hospitals where she was an inmate, it was painfully obvious that almost all of the serious schizophrenics had issues with Christianity. Many were utterly convinced they were Christ Himself. Some prayed endlessly, unable to stop long enough to eat or manage their own bodily functions. I met quite a few pseudo Popes and even one man who imagined he was Tomas de Torquemada, the Head Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. "Torquemada" was considered extremely dangerous because he was known to capture staff members and torture them until they were eventually rescued. He had sharpened his front teeth to points and liked to bite people. He also had a fetish for razor sharp blades. (Decades later, I still get the creeps whenever I remember "Torquemada.")

None of Mom's many psychiatrists ever had anything good to say about religion and most were openly hostile to it. The only positive thing I ever heard a psychiatrist say was, "Thank God for religion; it made me rich."

Wanna become a genuine crazy person and waste a significant portion of your life in mental anguish? Get religion.

There is no difference between the religious prophets of the past and the delusional schizophrenics of the present. It's exactly the same disorder, only the name has been changed.

Answer 2

Wow. Yes, I believe because the Bible says that all murderers go to hell that person would indeed go to Hell. Because if you know God, God would NEVER tell anyone to kill someone. We can only correspond w/God through the Bible, anybody who claims anything else is delusional. Now, prophets in the Bible are different. God inspired the Bible, so the entire Bible is true and accurate. But, don't believe me. Read the Bible. By the way, the Bible was not written to prove anything, it is there to give you instruction for salvation. So, don't be crazy like some people and try to find errors or defaults, etc. Because that is futile. Read it to be saved and get into heaven, if that is what you want. Good luck.

Answer 3

People who have these delusions are mentally ill. They need treatment.

No, God will not condemn them. Maybe will have someone cast out an evil spirit in them, but not condemn.

Incidentally, my husband once got a direct answer to prayer from God. Not the same thing as a delusion.

It happened like this.... our son was so ill, in the hospital. Hospital pressuring us to take him home, and we just were not able to take care of him. He needed full care. We couldn't do it, couldn't afford to pay for a nurse.
My husband went outside to have a cigarette at break time at work. He was so worried, he couldn't concentrate on anything but our problem. And so, he spoke out loud, saying, "God, I just can't handle any more of this.".... And then, a voice came all around him. It said "Do not worry. I will take care of this." ... He looked up, and there was a face in the cloud.
He came home that night, and told me that everything was going to be alright. He was very calm, no longer worried. And, our son took a turn for the worse, and the hospital stopped telling us that he had to go. Clearly, he couldn't. In a couple weeks, he died.

A couple months later, same hospital began pressuring us to pay the whopping big bill, since it had cost more than the state would pay. We simply said no. He was over 21, we were not able to pay. The hospital then threatened to ruin our boy's credit. I told them, fine, go ahead. I did not see how he could need good credit any more.
Once we made it clear that we could not and would not pay, they stopped dunning us for it.

Answer 4

"how do you distinguish between people who are delusional, and other people who have claimed to have corresponded with God"

God has communicated with me upon occasion. He told me once that He wanted me to increase my prayer life. Another time He told me He wanted me to join the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy. Another time He told me to go by a place where I ended up witnessing to someone.

In all of those circumstances the things that I knew in my "knower" that God was telling me were all in accordance with what the Bible teaches. The person who killed a woman and her baby was committing murder. God doesn't tell people to sin.

If someone claims to be hearing from God and it doesn't match up with what the Scriptures teach, if it doesn't glorify God but feeds their fleshly desires, then the person is either lying or deceived by a demonic spirit or delusional.

Answer 5

The most common delusion for a mentally ill person to have is that God is talking to them. Because society accepts this, the affected person can accept it. If the toaster or Gumbi started talking to them, they themselves, along with everyone around them, would suspect something is amiss.
God delusions avoid this but are as severe or worse since the affected person believes they are real and surrounding people shrug it off. They are also more likely to act on the imaginary voices. After all it;s God telling them what to do {Or who to kill)

Answer 6

People will delude themselves into thinking God told them, only because their mind cannot deal with what they have done. It is very real to them. However, the Bible tells us to "test the spirits to see if they are of God". One of these tests is to check with the Word of God, and none of what you detailed is in the remote even near what the Bible confirms.

As to "going to hell", that is to be determined on that day. But it doesn't look good for this woman as it stands now.

Answer 7

I do believe that God speaks to people, but the devil and his demons also speak to people. If this person was a Christian then they should have known that it was not God speaking, because it clearly states in the ten commandments "Thou Shall Not Kill." As far as this person going to hell, I could not say, because the bible says that God will have mercy on who He will have mercy, but most likely this person was without Christ in his life. Personally I do not believe that a born again Christian who has Jesus in their heart can be possessed by a demon, {which is what causes mental illness} because any one with any knowledge can tell you that light over powers darkness in any given situation. Jesus is the Lord of light and Satan is the lord of darkness, therefore the two can not dwell within the same body. Just like light and darkness can not dwell in the same room, if you walk into a room and turn the light on, then there will be no more darkness.

Answer 8

Every Christian should communicate with God, and communication means listening as well as talking. If I ask God something, I expect a reply. I don't hear an actual voice with my ears, but I have become sensitive to His voice over the years, in the many ways He speaks, and many times I know He is speaking to me. This is nothing unusual. It is simply part of the typical relationship between God and one of His children.

Answer 9

God does not tell anyone to kill. God cannot entice men to commit sin, that is the devil. So that man had not talked to God. He was just crazy and delusional, and will have to try very hard to be forgiven for that.

You will know if they are actually representatives of God because they will have a different aura or presence. You can feel the Spirit radiating off of them when they talk. Again, God tells us what is right, so those that talk to Him will also tell us what is right.

Answer 10

Many people claim they hear from God.... just like many children say "my mother said...." some are telling the truth, some are lying, and some are mistaken.

Hearing from God is a real thing, but there are many checks to make sure it's real. Does it have evidence in real life? Is it in line with goodness and truth? Is it honest? Is it real? What do your pastors, friends think about what you heard?

I have an ongoing relationship with God, and have for years. Prayer is a two-way communication. :-)