Lately, in the news, there have been an assistant pastor, a pastor’s son, and other Christians who have committed suicide. Some Christians say that they are in heaven, others that they are in hell. The question is, where are they and what exactly does the Bible say about suicide?
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Suicidal thoughts are not self-generated but comes from an outside source. A person’s mind is equipped with self-preservation. Jesus said that Satan only comes to kill and to destroy.
Suicide is murder and shows no faith but hopelessness while a person with Christ, has hope. Through Christ, we will overcome any satanic attack because our strength comes from the Lord. A “Christian” who commits suicide never had the Holy Spirit living inside of him in the first place and has been defeated by the enemy, convincing him to commit self-murder. The Scripture is very clear on the issue, a person who has committed suicide shows that they are still from the world and are dead in their sins but those who are born again have overcome the world.
— SpaniardVIII, Spiritual Minefield, Can A Christian Commit Suicide And Go To Heaven?, September 17, 2019
Didn’t an Old Testament hero, Sampson, commit suicide?
And didn’t Jesus?
Of all the damaging lies Christians tell, this one is the one that pisses me off most! I can’t even recall how many times my depression was written off as Satan’s influence or me turning away from god. In this day and age, it’s ridiculous. And, it does so much harm.
Tim Matter has a good point.
I am in a social media group for folks who attended the Christian school from which I graduated. Last week there was a post that a former student had died by suicide. One of my friends, a suicide survivor, jumped in immediately to tell people to be compassionate, and I jumped in to provide a suicide hotline and a reminder that mental illness requires professional treatment just as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes require professional treatment. Between the 2 of us, we headed off any sh!try comments True Christians might have about this poor man’s suicide. It’s telling that it’s necessary for a liberal Christian and an atheist to moderate the a$$hole judgmental comments of evangelicals.
I remember going into the break room for coffee at work one afternoon, and having to start a new pot. While I was waiting for it to brew, two other people came in, having a conversation. They were discussing a recent suicide that was in the news, and one of them was opining about how suicide is cowardice, plain and simple. The person who ended his own life was too cowardly to face his future. It was said with such derision, too; I imagined derision puddling on the floor around the speaker.
I probably should have said something, but I was not having a good day with depression myself. I’ve contemplated suicide at various times, though never attempted it. What I really wanted was to kick the speaker in the balls. I fixed my coffee and left.
The thing is, you don’t have to be an Evangelical Christian to be a jerk about suicide; the speaker in the above story happened to be Jewish (which says nothing about what other Jews believe about suicide, there are jerks in every religion). Evangelical Christians use the language about the Holy Spirit to dismiss suicide. I don’t know what most Catholics might say, but my Catholic mother was certain it was always wrong and came from not trusting God enough. It was also a very grave sin, and would get the sinner a long time in Purgatory at best, and maybe forever in Hell at worst.
But having been in enough mental pain to contemplate suicide, I must say that I can’t think of a single person on this planet I want to inflict that on, and there are quite a few that I truly despise.
“A “Christian” who commits suicide never had the Holy Spirit living inside of him in the first place…” Dang, another person who thought he or she was Christian, was probably baptized, but was never Christian at all! You just can’t tell who is really Christian, even if YOU know that you are, can you? You fall prey to depression or fall away from the faith, and retrospectively you weren’t actually Christian the whole time that you were praying or preaching in Christian faith. Unbelievable.
Why does Satan still exist? God could dispatch him with a mere thought, no? (Hint: God needs a fall guy for all the bad stuff that normally happens. So, talk about job security!)
According to Paul’s epistles, Jesus was a heavenly being (only) and was crucified (in Heaven!) as a ruse to get him in with the fallen angels who he was then to “destroy” and allow all of the souls trapped by the evil ones to be freed to ascend into Heaven. Hello? There was a task that Yahweh couldn’t do on his own? Or Jesus for that matter? That it took subterfuge?
Keep trying them to look at what they believe, but as “denial is not just a river in Egypt any more” means that progress will be slow.
Well this comes as quite a shock. My BIL’s wife died by her own hand. She went to a gun range, took the the 10 minute safety course, went to the firing range, shot at the target twice and then unloaded a round into her skull. The odd thing is, she self identified as a Christian. She went to the storefront church and everything. Even went to the “preacher” about her anxiety issues for counseling. Raised Catholic, she sure seemed like a true believer to me. The saddest part of a sad affair is that her mother, a devout Catholic, believed until her dying day that her daughter who she loved more than life itself was roasting in Hell. Religion does indeed poison everything.
This guy calling himself Spaniard is a Fundamentalist crackpot. He is so literal in his interpretation of the bible and thinks that only he, and those who agree with him, are “true” Christians. He’s so heartless and lacks compassion, sympathy and understanding and he doesn’t seem to care if he has empathy or not. So long as his book is upheld ( with his interpretation, which he assumes is the Word of God) is all he seems to care about. He is a Fundamentalist on steroids.
John Arthur-“He’s so heartless and lacks compassion, sympathy and understanding and he doesn’t seem to care if he has empathy or not.”
Hello John, good to see you.
If you knew the things that I have done for others, you wouldn’t have said what you said. But, those things are not to be boasted about. I love people and want them to come to Jesus so that their sins can be forgiven. I preach what the Bible says and it reveals our sinful state. Jesus loves us very much that He came for the purpose to die in our place. My message is a message of hope and forgiveness. John, you always leave me messages of hatred, but I won’t treat you the same because Jesus has changed my heart and I don’t hate anyone. You can continue to leave me hate comments but I will never hate you.
I hope that one day John, you may repent of your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ.
Well, you do hate atheists. Did you not say on your blog that atheists are sexually immoral, revilers, lovers of evil and haters of good? Goodness me! I have been married to my wife for decades and have been faithful to her. You are either very ignorant of atheists or you are telling lies for Jesus.
SpaniardVIII does indeed sound like a man who has spent too much time in the boxing ring. The steroids kept him going but the blows to the head took their toll. It is so incredibly dull to listen to this man. With an ocean of possibility freely offered in his life, he chooses to be a mud puddle. The Bible in hands like his becomes a wrecking ball, an agent of destruction.
Hello Brian, nice to meet you. I totally agree with you that I won’t give up, that was a good assessment.
Brian-“With an ocean of possibility freely offered in his life”
I have weighted out those possibilities that are available through the world which you have mentioned. Nothing can come close to Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross. Can the world and its pleasure make me whole inside? No. Only Jesus did that. I appreciate you taking the time to read my post and to comment.
@Bruce-I hope your wife is doing fine. May the Lord bless you and your wife with health in Jesus name.
No SpaniardVIII, many have given thier lives and many will continue to do so as our evolutionary progress demands it of us. We are interested in self and others, unlike your Christianity. We do not demand that you follow us, that you admit your worthlessness and fall at the feet of the one and true saviour. We only help ourselves and others as we are enabled by life and by lack of it. I am sorry you hate yourself and love only Jesus. I cannot imagine that he ever wished that for you but Christianity told you that embracing life is worthless and of no account and is only pleasure. Christianity is sorely mistaken. The ocean I am talking about is a more complete humanity and not a diminished one as you have chosen. My metaphor of the boxer taking too many blows stands and you do not see it because you have stepped into a ring to batter others with your belief, your fists of Jesus.
John Arthur- “He is a Fundamentalist on steroids.”
Thank you, John, for the compliment. And thank you, Bruce, for posting my post. You guys have a great day.
SpaniardV111, I consider the evidence that a person on whom we base the modern legend of Jesus to be extremely weak. It’s becoming increasingly acceptable to regard the person of Jesus as entirely mythical, possibly even being based on the writings of Paul. To regard ‘him’ as a living person, well existing anyhow, is just weird. It’s incredibly paradoxical that evangelical men fantasise about this character who, even if he did exist, has been dead for 2000 years, then jump around in apoplectic fits at the thought of gay men, calling them perverts!
But by all means enjoy your delusion, whilst the rest of us get on with our lives.
@Brian I don’t hate myself and don’t understand why would you say that which is bizarre. Jesus makes me a better person and He has transformed my heart so that I can love others. I express the love of Christ through the good news and tell people what the Bible has to say. If a person doesn’t want to hear I simply move on.
Evangelicalism is built on a foundation of self-hatred. Need I quote the requisite Bible verses to prove this fact? Or maybe we should just listen to Evangelical sermons, peruse Evangelical blogs, and read Evangelical books which are filled with self-hatred? Evangelicalism is fundamentally anti-human.
Wasn’t it you who tried to justify the murder of the Canaanite and Amalekite children? Didn’t you tell me on Victors Corner blog that it is the atheists who are baby killers. You assume that all atheists support abortion and you imply a denial of women to choose whether they have a baby or not. You don’t seem to realize that the God of the bible (if he exists) is the biggest abortionist of all because he killed all the pregnant women in the Flood who were not in the so-called Ark. Bible Fundamentalism makes you anti-human, as Bruce points out. It is your self loathing that approves the killing of little babies and children by your immoral god. Then you praise your immoral god for his so-called justice. You love the so-called god of wrath and anger who can’t seem to control his temper.
I spoke to Spaniard VIII at length about this subject today, in fact. He is convinced that every human that ever committed suicide throughout history is in hell even if they were devout Christians. He says it’s impossible for anyone who is a Christian to commit suicide and that suicide is proof that the person was a fake Christian from the start.
So then Sp8 is saying that a devout Christian can commit suicide then. They’re in hell yes but devout too.
Sp8: “But, those things are not to be boasted about”
Actually, you just boasted.
Just like an Evangelical to ruminate over ‘I told you so’ over a tragic story of someone driven to the tragic desperation of taking their own life. Oh what love is being shown.
It’s like this a lot right? Even when someone dies of natural causes if they are prominent atheists like Hawking it was all this ah well you’re in hell now, yeah who cares about the fact that they are people and their family and friends grieve over their loss.
I believe God exists, but I challenge whether this God is THE God of Evangelical Christianity. A God who created a universe 93 billion light years wide (and that’s just the part we’ve observed) with tens of billions of galaxies isn’t limited to what the Bible revealed about him. He is far, far greater and more complex than that. I believe humanity is just one of many sentient races that he created. It’s an incredible stretch for me to believe that of all the trillions of planets God made, he only created earth to be inhabited. I just don’t believe that all.
So there’s probably a Cybertron and Optimus Prime somewhere in the far reaches of the galaxy. There’s probably a planet with Xenomorphs from the Aliens trilogy. There’s probably a planet Krypton somewhere.