Don't Do It!
This past week I was asked “If a person commits suicide, do they go to hell?” That is a frequent question believe it or not. I want to give a few biblical facts first off before answering. We are all created in the image of God. Genesis 1:26 (NIV) “Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” God has a purpose, a design for each of us. None of us are an accident. Psalm 139:16 (NIV) “Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Acts 17:26-27 (NIV) “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” Because this is so God issued His command. Exodus 20:13 (NIV) "You shall not murder.” That includes yourself.
Having said that-- it is true that life is hard. This life is filled with confusion, hurt, pain, grief, stress and trouble. So much so that from time to time people despair of life. It just seems that death would be a welcomed relief from what is happening in our lives. At times hopelessness hemorrhages into our lives. The great prophet Elijah knew this 1 Kings 19:4 (ASV)”But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper-tree: and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough; now, O Jehovah, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” Paul, the great Apostle, knew this as well: 2 Corinthians 1:8 (NIV) “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” In spite of their despair, these two held out in trust in the Lord and He rescued them and restored them restored them and kept them on track.
When a believer in Christ takes their own life, it is a great tragedy. I believe their act grieves the heart of God. However, I believe the Scripture teaches that do not lose their salvation and go to hell. Psalms 103:10 (NIV) “ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” John 10:29 (NIV) “ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.” Genesis 18:25 (NIV) “Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)’ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
30,000 people a year take their own lives in the US. Certain groups, including teenagers, white males, and the elderly, are at higher statistical risk for suicide. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control rates suicide as the third-leading cause of death in the age bracket of 15 to 24. People younger than 25 accounted for 15 percent of all suicides in 1997.
White males accounted for 72 percent. In fact, males are actually four times as likely to die from suicide than females--but females are more likely to attempt suicide. In both males and females, suicide rates increase with age and are highest among Americans age 65 and older.
Nevertheless, suicide affects people of all races, ages, and walks of life. The factors leading to suicide are varied--undiagnosed depression, feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness and loneliness, alcohol or substance abuse. Suicide - A Preventable Tragedy? By Peri Stone-Palmquist
If you are reading this and considering suicide---DON’T! There is hope. Whatever you are experiencing, you can get through. Tell someone your thoughts and seek help. You must understand and believe that “the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear’. Matthew 19:25-26 (MSG) “The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?" 26 Jesus looked hard at them and said, "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it." God can and will help you through. Trust Him.
On one occasion a Pastor from Georgia called me and said he was in a park and about to take his life. I talked to him for a while and convinced him not to do it but to meet me and talk it out. We met at a restaurant and he was a mess. He was cynical about everything I said. He told how he no longer believed and prayer didn’t work and called me a fool for believing that there is hope. I talked and prayed with all my heart and finally covenanted with him that he would not take his life but would go to the Dr. and see what was going on physically. Another Pastor arranged everything and got him in to see a Dr.. The Dr. found that this Pastor was worn out and severely depressed. He was also dealing with a lot of false guilt. His depression was treated, he got some rest and he and his wife received help toward spiritual renewal. Years later, he is still going, his daughter is in college and he is still serving the Lord. He held out and God came through. He will for you too. There is help.
To the Church, we need to become a community of love, acceptance and support. We need to tell our stories of our own struggles and how God has and is working inus through those struggles. We need to be an encouraging body. Not just talking about Jesus and His love but demonstrating that love in and through our individual and corporate lives.
Father, for those who are despairing of life I pray your comfort and peace. Help them to get to know you through Your only begotten Son Jesus. Encourage them in this life through Your hope. Bring people into their lives who are living that hope and love and are willing to share. Help them to know that suicide is not the answer but life-life in You. I thank you for answering this prayer. In Christ’s name. Amen
Having said that-- it is true that life is hard. This life is filled with confusion, hurt, pain, grief, stress and trouble. So much so that from time to time people despair of life. It just seems that death would be a welcomed relief from what is happening in our lives. At times hopelessness hemorrhages into our lives. The great prophet Elijah knew this 1 Kings 19:4 (ASV)”But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper-tree: and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, It is enough; now, O Jehovah, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” Paul, the great Apostle, knew this as well: 2 Corinthians 1:8 (NIV) “We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.” In spite of their despair, these two held out in trust in the Lord and He rescued them and restored them restored them and kept them on track.
When a believer in Christ takes their own life, it is a great tragedy. I believe their act grieves the heart of God. However, I believe the Scripture teaches that do not lose their salvation and go to hell. Psalms 103:10 (NIV) “ he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.” John 10:29 (NIV) “ My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand.” Genesis 18:25 (NIV) “Far be it from you to do such a thing--to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?" Romans 8:38-39 (NIV)’ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
30,000 people a year take their own lives in the US. Certain groups, including teenagers, white males, and the elderly, are at higher statistical risk for suicide. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control rates suicide as the third-leading cause of death in the age bracket of 15 to 24. People younger than 25 accounted for 15 percent of all suicides in 1997.
White males accounted for 72 percent. In fact, males are actually four times as likely to die from suicide than females--but females are more likely to attempt suicide. In both males and females, suicide rates increase with age and are highest among Americans age 65 and older.
Nevertheless, suicide affects people of all races, ages, and walks of life. The factors leading to suicide are varied--undiagnosed depression, feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness and loneliness, alcohol or substance abuse. Suicide - A Preventable Tragedy? By Peri Stone-Palmquist
If you are reading this and considering suicide---DON’T! There is hope. Whatever you are experiencing, you can get through. Tell someone your thoughts and seek help. You must understand and believe that “the LORD is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear’. Matthew 19:25-26 (MSG) “The disciples were staggered. "Then who has any chance at all?" 26 Jesus looked hard at them and said, "No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it." God can and will help you through. Trust Him.
On one occasion a Pastor from Georgia called me and said he was in a park and about to take his life. I talked to him for a while and convinced him not to do it but to meet me and talk it out. We met at a restaurant and he was a mess. He was cynical about everything I said. He told how he no longer believed and prayer didn’t work and called me a fool for believing that there is hope. I talked and prayed with all my heart and finally covenanted with him that he would not take his life but would go to the Dr. and see what was going on physically. Another Pastor arranged everything and got him in to see a Dr.. The Dr. found that this Pastor was worn out and severely depressed. He was also dealing with a lot of false guilt. His depression was treated, he got some rest and he and his wife received help toward spiritual renewal. Years later, he is still going, his daughter is in college and he is still serving the Lord. He held out and God came through. He will for you too. There is help.
To the Church, we need to become a community of love, acceptance and support. We need to tell our stories of our own struggles and how God has and is working inus through those struggles. We need to be an encouraging body. Not just talking about Jesus and His love but demonstrating that love in and through our individual and corporate lives.
Father, for those who are despairing of life I pray your comfort and peace. Help them to get to know you through Your only begotten Son Jesus. Encourage them in this life through Your hope. Bring people into their lives who are living that hope and love and are willing to share. Help them to know that suicide is not the answer but life-life in You. I thank you for answering this prayer. In Christ’s name. Amen
posted by pastor raymond | 12:02 PM
3 Comments:
Bobby, thanks for the question. I had a friend who was a Christian take his life two and a half years ago. he was a great man and his wife had been my minister of youth in Durham. He had taken a promotion in his job and the pressure began to work on him. He and his wife drove down to CHBC to talk to me. He was very distraught about his job and he rambled on about different things. I shared with him that he needed to go ask for his old job back or quit and do something that brought him some pleasure like he once had. I also urged him to get some medical advice.He did not give up his job nor ask for his old job back things got worse. His wife talked him into going to the Dr. He did and was diagonosed as depressed. he was given medicine. But the medicine seemed to have a bad effect on him. He left his wife and began to act out in very angry ways. She kept working with him and finally he started coming off the medicine. He started acting more like his old self. Still he was under much pressure at his job.One Sunday he was on his way to a job and stopped at his mom and dads. His mother packed him a lunch and left for church. He took his lunch to the car and went back in the house saw a gun picked it up and in the garage he shot himself in the head. He was a believer but he reached a point where his thinking was clouded over and in a moment of not thinking he pulled the trigger. i believe that a person can get in such a state of confusion and dispair that in a moment they do something like suicide that had they just waited and talked to God or someone they would have chosen to try life.
I have been myself in such a state that death seemed to be viable option but I cried out to God in anger or fear or hopelessness and each time God gave me hope and or a desire to live.
Someone in their "right mind" in Christ I do not believe would choose suicide. But things happen in our complex minds that in a second we can believe something so strong we act without rational thought. Christianity Today has several great articles on this subject. Google suicide from a Christian perspective and you can find these.
I wish people who commit suicide could see, before they do it,the utter destruction and lasting pain and anger they leave in the lives of those that love love them. They would see that Suicide is one of the most selfish acts a person can commit toward another.
I preached my friends funeral with the assurance of seeing him in heaven. But his wife and daughter, though they have moved on, are still hurting from his death in way most don't in a death that was natural or accidental. I hope this helps some.
Bobby, thanks for responding. You know most of us are good actors and even when we may be depressed and feeling hopeless we will put on at least an "I'm okay" face. Thats why it is important for us to 1 Thessalonians 5:14 (MSG)
"14 Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs." I know early in my walk with the Lord I worked with a man one whole day two stories off the ground greasing cranes. He talked non stopped. I was so focused on what I was doing I didn't respond much. The next morning he didn't show up at work and we found out that he got up that morning and took his life. It blew me away. Could I have said something? Should I have stopped what I was doing and talked about Christ and the hope He had given me?
Now, when Jesus died for us on the cross His blood, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins (read Hebrews), flows backthrough history and forward through time. When you and I realize that we sinners and that sin pays us off in death, separation from God, and we repent, turn from our sin to Christ, the one and only Son of God, the way, the truth and the life, He forgives us all our sins past present and future. 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NIV)
"17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." he wants us to walk daily with Him in that new life and to cofess our sins when we fail. 1 John 1:9 (NIV) "9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." "Confess" is "homologeo" literally "say the same" Same what? What God already knows. It is taking reponsibility and ownership for what you have done. He forgives and if an accident happens and you are killed and you had just lied to your wife and you are one who has repented and believed in Christ as your savior. His forgiveness is sure and His blood cleanses. As a believer I know we should be living and walking in Christ daily but we still battle the flesh.Galatian is about this battle.
Thanks Ron!
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