Will suicide end in eternal damnation?
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Asked November 23 2013
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Grace Angel Osae
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For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Liz Heyman
When someone commits suicide that person doesn't loose their salvation, it is a wrong decision and a sin - just like any other sin. When it is an attempt that person has to repent and ask God for forgiveness. When Jesus died on the cross His blood was shed for ALL sin, not some sins.
Greg Lerdahl
I agree with you, Liz, about the forgiveness available to someone when they "attempt" suicide. In seeking forgiveness, one hopes they would also immediately seek help for their condition.
If they succeed, however, there is no forgiveness since they have already passed beyond the time to seek it. They have destroyed what God gave them.
Jim New
Almost everyone would agree that life is the most precious gift that human beings have been given. Just the chance to be alive on this earth and play a part in the grand scheme of God’s eternal plan is a privilege indeed. Yet, despite this, there are times when life becomes so difficult or unbearable that many have, at one time or another, wished they were dead or had never been born.
For some, these feelings linger–and if they linger long enough, suicide seems to be the only escape. In fact, in the United States (and stats are similar in countries around the world) the suicide rate has tripled among teen and young adults in the past 40 years.
Very few would argue with the fact that suicide is a direct breaking of the Sixth Commandment which is, “You shall not murder.” We are not to murder each other or ourselves. God created human beings in His image and each of us carries within us the potential to overcome the evil in this world, and to rule and reign with Christ in heavenly places. If we are Christians, we no longer belong to ourselves, but to God. We are overseers of our bodies and our lives (which belong to Him), and we are responsible to guard that which has been entrusted to us.
How God Views Suicide
Suicide is a grievous sin that seriously hurts both the heart of God, and those who loved the deceased. The pain of losing a loved one who took their own life is not easily healed, and often isn’t fully healed until Heaven. Whether you are contemplating suicide or know someone who killed themselves, God wants you to know there is hope and life for you. He is the great Healer and Restorer of what has been lost or stolen.
Many of the greatest saints and heroes of the Bible faced overwhelming depression and sometimes wrote that they wished they had never even been born. King David, (Psalm 13:2-4), the prophet Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 20:14-18), and Job, (Job 7:15-16) among others, all reached low points where they despaired of their very lives. Job says, “So that my soul chooseth strangling, and death rather than my life. I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity” (Job 7:15-16).
Yet, each one of these men were blessed of God, and persevered through their trials as an example to us. Though they faced great suffering and injustice, they kept their faith in God and His goodness, and in so doing, were sustained and led into abundant life.
Though we may get depressed from time to time, we believe that the act of suicide never takes place apart from demonic influences driving one to take their own life. Suicide is directly counter to the power of life that God has put so strongly into His creation. Everywhere we look we see life growing, even in the most hostile environments. This “survival instinct” is a gift from God. In fact, if He didn’t bestow this gift upon His creation there probably wouldn’t be any life on this planet at all!
Suicide, then, is directly contrary to the will of God, and originated in the realm of the demonic host, who come only to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy” (John 10:10). Though demons may try to tempt us to kill ourselves, as Christians we have power over the devil and he cannot push us to do this if we sincerely call on the name of the Lord!
Lisa Pitts
In fact, if He didn’t bestow this gift upon His creation there probably wouldn’t be any life on this planet at all!----Exactly, we would be dropping like flies cuz this life so miserable and difficult, especially more for some than others.
Why do so many believers refuse to be that this life is our punishment, we were KICKED OUT of the garden, for some believers the wait to be with our wonderful Lord feels like forever and I think for them, suicide just hastens the process of getting to the 'good stuff' so to speak.
Maddie Downs
Having known a very kind person who has taken their life, I cannot find it in my heart to believe that a kind and merciful God would prevent him from going to heaven. With that said, if we must suffer for our sins, we must suffer for this one. God wants us to to know that we are important and there is always a way out. God knows our suffering and cries with us when we are in pain. However, God implores us to know that death is not the way out. GOD is the only way we can be truly saved from pain. Trust that God will help. Pray for it. He is there.
Jim New
Maddie, I know this is a tough subject to handle, for most people it is. We all can have our opinions and most will have their opinions which is ok but they don't count when it comes to God's inerrant word.
As we grow in Christ, (read,study, obey and pray)we also begin to mature in Christ. Maturity in Christ is essential or we stagnate and come to a standstill.
All spirit filled Believers are at different levels of maturity therefore God will give more understanding to the more mature and less understanding to the immature. Hebrews 6
Sometimes we let our emotions play a part in this misunderstanding, sometimes we are spiritually blinded and don't know it. The devil is very cunning !
If God were a "kind and merciful God" as you say above then why did God allow the holocaust? Why did God allow the "super Typhoon" just weeks ago in the Phillipines, kill many thousands and the list goes on. This is not Godly thinking. We all must suffer, yes! And yes God knows our pain.
God is merciful and kind! But we all must make choices in our lives just as Adam and Eve did. Our choices bring consequences! We only have til our last dying breadth to get this right! If you murder someone then die, your chances of making it to heaven are 0! Its a sin! God hates sin. If we do not confess, truly confess our sin before God then we will not make it! How can we repent when we are in the grave? Psalm 6:5
Jim New
Lisa, the Apostle Paul tells us "we must persevere to the end" not give up hope "and win the race" to "obtain the crown." We won't obtain the crown or win the race if we don't finish it or cut it short by our own means. If we commit suicide then we have fallen away by your own choice, sadly.
The evil one has so many Believers blinded, so sad. Remember, we are the Laodocian Church of today!
You also say this life is our punishment which is not Biblical! Hebrews 12:6 says God disciplines us to keep us close to Him, so we don't fall away and go back to our sinful nature. Judgement day is our punishment if we don't follow Christ while alive. "Wages of sin is death!" Hellbound if we do not repent while still in these "tents!"
Maddie Downs
Jim N, I am still uncertain as to whether a child who takes their own life is to blame, as you mention "maturity." Would a child who makes a mistake, a terrible mistake but one nonetheless, be at fault as much as someone who knew better? Sometimes I feel that God takes these things into consideration, that it cannot be so "black and white." But I do not know. I have come to believe that faith is not the same thing as understanding, and that we cannot know the reason for terrible tragedies like the typhoon, or the holocaust. I often wonder why they happen.
Jim New
Hi Maddie, God hates sin! We cannot enter into the holy of Holies being sinful!
Christians on the other hand who are truly "born again" can enter only if we do not fall away back into sin. 2nd Peter 2:21-22 Salvation is a continual process not a one time decision! We must persevere to the end as Paul says! 1st Cor 10
So, if you say you are saved by the grace of God then the evil one comes and deceives you and your in a state of depression(which is of the evil one) to the point of suicide(murdering yourself) then you have just sinned and have been deceived just as Jesus and other Apostles warned us about.
Most American Christians(I'm talkin 95% of Believers) have no idea how deceitful and cunning satan is. He has wiggled his way not just into our hearts but into our Churches also with Church leaders teaching many lies and so on, I won't get into that right now but we ALL must be aware of how he lies to us. Why do you think God commands us to "put on the whole armor of God?
Maddie God loves us all very much but its our sinful nature that gets us into trouble! God allows all things to happen bc thats His plan, "His ways are not our ways." He is in control, not us. It all goes back again to the "choices" we make everyday. You decide to run from God or not believe anymore bc its takin to long for Jesus return then your are in trouble, big! You then decide to commit suicide then you just made an unwise "choice" and there will be consequences for those choices.
Liz Heyman
I don't believe that someone who is a believer and commits suicide will go to hell.
It's right that we need to bear the consequences of our sins - not the penalty, Jesus bore that for us on the cross. Example: if someone commits burglary, they most likely will go to jail. If someone commits suicide, they'll still go to heaven IF they're a sincere believer and only God can judge that! If they're not a true believer in the first place, I'm sorry to say that, but then they will go to hell.
I myself have dealt with this issue a lot (because of sexual abuse while growing up) and after wrestling with this topic, God gave me peace with the above.
A lot of people claim to be christians but in the end when standing before the throne they will be send to hell. God looks at the heart.
Jim New
Hello Liz, Im so sorry about your past but thats what satan loves to do is bring back your past memories so you dwell on them and get you into that state of depression then possibly suicide.
Just as I wrote above to Maddie we give the evil one an inch and he takes a mile when instead we should "put on the whole armor of God" Once his foot is in the door we're in trouble. You start believing the lies!
We all gotta read-study and obey the Word of God everyday! He's our "life boat" in a drowning world of evil.
Lisa Pitts
Romans 8:35 period.
How can anyone say that suicide has the power to separate us from God when NOTHING does. So your saying suicide has more power than God and remember He sees/knows our whole life before we are even born. He knows the ones who will take their lives ahead of time, but that doesn't keep Him from saving, how could it. Saying that suicide is more powerful than God makes no sense. Smh.......
Danny Hickman
Mr New, it sounds to me like your brand of salvation has nothing to do with Jesus dying in our place on the Cross. It's all about us not committing sin. It's all about us being mature Christians.
I agree with one thing you said: "we can all have our opinions." Besides that, I hope the truth of the gospel of the efficacy of the shed blood of the Savior will be believed by the people who visit this website.