Why was the great preacher Lloyd Jones afraid to leave his home town in Wales?

Copy right 2016

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Lloyd Jones my mentor

One of my greatest mentors is a man I have never met. I feel like I know him because I have read his whole whole set of sermons on the book of Romans. I also read his volumes of sermons on Ephesians. I have read his classic two volume biography Ian Murray. And in fact I have read other volumes of sermons and his lectures on Puritan pastors in England during the Elizabethan period. His name is David Martyn Lloyd Jones.

Lloyd Jones M.D. turned pastor and preacher

Lloyd Jones was a famous doctor and his boss was Lord Horder, who was a doctor to the Queen of England.  He felt a call to the ministry and planted a church in Wales.  He then was called to a famous church in England were he preached in an expository manner for many years.

Answer to the question in the title of this blog.

The answer to the question found in the title of this post is that he had what today would be called separation anxiety and which in his case lasted all his life long. He is quoted in Broken Minds as saying this:

But, in addition to this, I must add that I suffered at the same time from far greater sickness, and a more painful one, which has remained with me all along life's path- and that was hiraeth (Welsh for "a longing for home or homesickness)....What is the reason for this? The psychologists cannot explain it. I believe that... that it is decided in part by the functioning of the ductless glands. Be that as it may hiraeth is an awful thing, as also is the feeling of loneliness, and of being destitute and unhappy which all stem from it. It is difficult to define hiraeth, but to me it means the consciousness of man being out of this home area and that which is dear to him. That is why it can be felt even among a host of people and amidst nature's beauty.

Bloem Steve and Robyn. Broken Minds, Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You're Losing It, page 141. The above quote is from D. Martyn Lloyd Jones and is found in Ian Murray’s biography of Lloyd Jones, The First Forty Years, Volume, 1899-1939.

Lloyd Jones and Nouthetic Counselors

There are some people who have read his fantastic book, Spiritual Depression Its Causes and Cures, which is published by Eerdmans Co.and have concluded that its author, Dr. Lloyd Jones did not believe that biological or what is called endogenous depression ever existed.

In fact there are many schools of thought that believe that major depression (also called endogenous) is not really a true classification of depression. They are the same people who might like to put Lloyd Jones in the same genre of Jay Adams.
This is simply not true! Lloyd Jones actually distanced himself from Adams saying that his non biological approach to mental illness was cruel. This can be seen his book which consisted of a series of lectures to Christian physicians in England. It is called Healing and Medicine ,Kingsway Publications.

Send your pastor this blog

If you are reading this and should I say that you live in the U.S.A. or Canada your pastor should be aware of this. This especially true if you belong to an evangelical Presbyterian church, Reformed church or many other fundamentalist churches and groups. You can send him this blog.  I pray that God would turn the hearts of  pastors toward the the hearts of the

He is a Savior and the Perfect God/Man who as our High Priest and  Champion  experienced depression in the garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). Please see Broken Minds, page 217,218.

An Irish pastor called me on the phone after he read our book, Broken Minds Hope for Healing When You Feel Like You're Losing It and he told me of the following quote that I was not aware of at the time.

Adams and Szacz

Referring to Thomas Szacz he says, ".....he (Szasz) goes too far in saying that there is no such thing as mental illness. Unfortunately, too, he now has a number of followers who are writing up his views in popular books. One of the best known is Jay Adams with his widely selling Competent to Counsel. But he is just a popularizer of Thomas Szasz and he is simply affirming, with Scasz, that there is no such entity as mental illness that the patients are really suffering from sin and need to be dealt with purely in a scriptural manner. These writers reprimand those sufferers and counsel them with great severity.

Lloyd Jones on seeing mental illness as a physical reality

It is necessary for us to work with those in this field who have to establish the reality of mental illness; otherwise we are going to be guilty of great cruelty to some of those who come to consult us. Why would I affirm the reality of such illness? I suggest that the familiar (heredity) element in case histories alone is sufficient to establish it. Another factor is the periodicity so characteristic of many cases - clear, lucid intervals, and then recurrence. Not only that, but there are many cases of mental illness which do not respond to all spiritual, scriptural treatment and, indeed, are even made worse by this.

If you would like to read more about Broken Minds which comes in paperback form, Kindle and Ebook, please go to http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Minds-Healing-Youre-Losing/dp/0825421187#_

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