It has recently been asked for a discussion on suicide to be taken place on the blog. How morbid can you get? Fortunately, I am morbid, so here we go!
How serious is suicide as far as Christians are concerned? I do not believe it can make you lose salvation, because I believe, like all good baptists/ reforms do, that salvation is permanent once it happens. However, why did the Catholics say that is was so serious as to lose salvation? Why do some theologians say it is the ONLY theological question? I mean, come on, murder? Rape? No? Seriously? Why suicide? Why am I even asking all these parallel questions?
Let me begin with an interesting story. Once upon a time, there was a mean bully that hurt a little girl. There was another boy who saw the incident and tried to kill the bully, but was stopped by a teacher. If he had killed the boy, it would have been murder, because it was not the boy’s place to do so. It was the bully’s parents job. But let us not condemn the boy too harshly, for he was noble in his error. After all, the Bible has the Apostle Paul do the same thing when he was Saul… only to a greater degree. He saw a bunch of people he thought were against God called Christians. He killed as many as he could, murdering them, until God set him strait. Were the murders bad thing? Of course! It followed and haunted Paul for the rest of his life… but he was still Paul the Apostle.
Now, where and who in the Bible do we find suicides? Anything come to mind? Well, there’s the other Saul. You remember, the King of Israel? He decided at the end of his reign, in order to keep the Philistines from torturing him, to “fall upon his sword.” His head was then taken off and placed in the temple of Dagon for a spell. That worked well. Where else do we see men falling on their swords? What about the enemies of Gideon, who were so afraid of the trumpets and torches that they all killed themselves. That wasn’t very good either. Nope, not a good ending. So here’s my diagnosis, suicide, in Scripture, is for the enemies of God. Where else to you find suicide than someone who is hopeless in his sin… in Scripture?
Why would one commit suicide if they believe in an omnipotent God? I don’t mean the heathen, I am talking about saved believers. If you believe God is in control, and you commit suicide, you are telling God directly as you go to His presence, “I don’t care! Your way is not worth it. I’m doing my life my way, and if you won’t let me live my way, then, by You, I’ll die my way. My final act of WILL!” These deaths are NEVER funny. In fact, they are the saddest, most tragic, most morbid deaths of all. If a heathen thinks that their life has no control, and that they are holding onto life by the flapping tongue of a dragon, and if they said, “What the heck, this is too hard. I’ll just let go before I’m dragon food,” I don’t think it is near as tragic. In fact, many can be quite hilarious… Like this one time, I watched a movie… I forget the name. There was this business tycoon who got so fed up with it all that he jumped through a broken window and died. Wait, that’s not the punch line. Few weeks later, this other guy says he’s going to jump through the same window, now repaired. It shows this long scene of everyone but one man staring at him in horror as he runs for window. Won’t anyone stop him? He jumps! … and sticks to the glass as he slides down slowly cartoon style. The dazed man looks up in embarrassment at his failed attempt to see the one man not in horror say two words, “Reinforced glass.”
Let’s wrap this up. 1. Suicide is sin, as any other sin, but with one caveat. Suicide is always direct and embittered rebellion to the very nature of God as far as Christians are concerned. It is, as it were, a second fall, not that one loses salvation, but that they disregard their salvation so they can say, “I did it MY way.” I know Christians that I considered friends that have taken this route, and can not imagine what had made them do this. 2. amongst the heathen, suicide is an equal sin to murder, and… not to kick a dead horse… so I won’t, but you get it. Hoops! that was the name of the movie, I think. 3. To conclude, if you are not a Christian and believe that the earth is over populated and you tell Christians to not have babies and to “leave” the earth, please lead by example. That will give me a few more people to laugh at. If not, however, let me be very… very… clear. Life is worth it. Suicide isn’t. When you ask the question, “To be or not to be?” remember we serve a living, all powerful God who pulls the strings, and that “All things work together for the good of those that love Him, for all those according to His purpose.” I think I quoted that right, but don’t kill me if I messed up. That’s God’s job.
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Caleb, thank you for responding to my questions. I trust that you have read Augustine of Hippo’s thoughts and other relevant theologians and, with that in mind, I was a little surprised at your response. Carefully disregarding Sampson’s act against the Philistines (and the five other biblical examples I could find), I think of a man who killed himself saving a SEAL team from and IUD. There are certainly many, many accounts of others killing themselves (suicide) to save others. How many other scenarios might exist where one’s sacrifice of oneself for the life of others might exist? I do not condone the self pitying, selfish act of self-murder. Depression changes a person but does not justify self-murder. But how about self sacrifice? Is that not suicide? Or, is suicide a name given to the “sin” act of self-murder? This is really not that complicated but we try so hard to make it so. I appreciated your comment, Suicide is always direct and embittered rebellion to the very nature of God as far as Christians are concerned. It is, as it were, a second fall, not that one loses salvation, but that they disregard their salvation so they can say, “I did it MY way.”” I wonder about your use of the word “always” and think more definitions of terms are in order. Interested in your thoughts. BTW: not even thinking about it :-) Just dialoguing.
Dear friend,
I did not wish to reveal my vast quantity of knowledge by using Augustine, but, I guess you forced me. A lot of people back then praised others who committed suicide for spites sake, and Augustine explained suicide is the Antichrist, bar none. Now, self-sacrifice is completely different. Why? Because, in the U.S. of A. suicide is illegal, jumping on hand-grenades to save buddies is praised. Sampson was not a good person to bring up. Apart from the fact that he did suffer for his sin, being blinded and all that, he was not the greatest role model. But, yes, letting yourself die in order to kill the enemies of God or save the friends of God is a good thing. That is why their was so much war in Israel.
I think the best example to show the difference would be between Judas and Jesus. Judas decided to commit the Antichrist sin, while Jesus let Himself die for all our sakes, thus committing the ultimate good. In other words, suicide is the opposite of self-sacrifice. Greater love have no man, and all that. No man, meaning even martyrs take a back seat, and they’re pretty high up there.
To conclude, I’d like to apologize for being misunderstood. I must have been very unclear. Hoops was NOT the movie, I think it was Hudson … something or other. I still can’t quite remember.
For what it’s worth, John Frame (notable reformed theologian) opines that suicide is a sin, but forgivable, as is the nature of sin. He relates the story of a friend of his who struggled with that temptation and ultimately gave in, but he (Frame) believes his salvation through the blood of Christ was not somehow nullified by his sin, and expects to see him in glory.