Do People Who Commit Suicide Go to Hell?
Regular readers will know that the issue of suicide is something very close to my own heart and especially the [for want of a better phrase] theological implications this sort of tragedy throws up for the Christian community.
This previous post probably sets out clearest my own personal experiences and understanding on this difficult topic.
Anyway, Michael Patton of the Parchment and Pen blog of whom I have the utmost respect has just blogged on this topic in relation to an email he received, which I want to share with you here as this covers some very common questions asked following a tragedy of this nature:
With kind permission:
Do People Who Commit Suicide Go to Hell?
Here is an email question that I received with the response to follow:
Good Afternoon:
I am writing to you under emotional pangs, as I wrestle with the Scriptures, and what I hear from certain others who are Christian.The husband of a friend of mine committed suicide. My friend, I know well, and her love and defense of the Scriptures. But I only know of her husband’s belief by what she tell me, and his attendance to church. She said he prayed a lot and loved God, her and their children.
But he yielded to suicide. And from what I understand, this was a long term fight to avoid that. He subsequently said he was going for walk, and he was found in a park, after shooting himself.
Here is a man who “claimed” to love Jesus, but his actions to me, deny his having made Jesus Lord and Master over his life. Rather, he must have had Satan as master.
I used to believe in “free will” but after a long study of the Sovereignty of God, I changed my mind. That study took several years. So I can’t say this man had free will unless he remains outside of God’s Lordship, where he does what the flesh does…. denies the power, promises, and love that God has living within us.
The pastor at the services said what my friend said, he is in heaven, due to the Grace of God.
But how can a person be tempted to kill himself then actually follow through with it, if he has Life in him? And Hope. These reign over Death and Hell.
My Response
Thanks for the questions. These are very good questions, and necessary to struggle with.
You said: “But how can a person be tempted to kill himself then actually follow through with it, if he has Life in him?”
How could David have killed Uriah? How could Peter have denied Christ. How could John have fallen down and worshiped an angel? How could Paul struggle with sin the way he does in Roman 7? Why would Paul exhort Christians to “walk in the spirit and therefore not carry out the deeds of the flesh” if it was a foregone conclusion that Christians cannot walk in the flesh? How could the Galatians (whom Paul considers “brethren”) have turned back toward the law after knowing Christ? How could the Corinthians live as spiritual babes, living in strife, jealously, and envy?
The answer: we are all sinners.
My sister committed suicide. She had been with me at seminary and was one of my primary means of encouragement throughout my younger ministry years. She was a prayer warrior, an aspiring evangelist, and one of the most generous people I have ever known. She fell into depression—terrible depression. Depression is a powerful result of the fall that ends up taking a lot of people’s lives. What she did was sin. Yes, it was premeditated as well.
What sins, in actuality, are not premeditated? There are not many . . . They are mainly personality and spirituality characteristics such as outbursts of anger, jealousy, and faithlessness. But most other sins are premeditated. If God does not forgive premeditated sins—if somehow these are the sins that are not covered by the cross—we are all in trouble.
I don’t know whether the gentleman who went on a walk in the park was a Christian or not (my heart hurts just thinking of his walk), but I do know that the cross of Christ redeems us from all sin, no matter how severe, no matter how much premeditation. Were suicide less traumatic, were it just a push of the button, I doubt that there is any who would escape its fate (we probably would not make it through our teen years!). Have mercy on this man. What he did was sin. What he did will have terrible and lasting consequences (just like any murder), but to think that this necessarily means he was not a Christian is unbiblical and well beyond our ability to judge.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses (present tense; 1 John1:7) us from all sin, not just some sins.
Some may say that all sins have to be confessed before death. I disagree. To say that we cannot have unconfessed sin when we die is problematic both biblically and practically. Biblically, Paul is clear that once we have faith in Christ we have been saved. This salvation is primarily from the ultimate penalty of our sin—eternal death. If we cannot truly be saved until we die with all sins confessed, then we cannot ever say that we are saved as Paul does. The best we can do is say we might be saved (i.e. if I die without any unconfessed sin). Salvation would always have to be spoken of as a contingent possibility, not a present reality. Yet Paul says to the Ephesians “By grace you have been saved” (Eph. 2:8). Christ says in John 6:24 “Whoever believes in me has eternal life.”There is no contingency here. The question becomes, Do you really believe?
The practical problem is this: If you do have to die without any unconfessed sin, how are you to be spiritually aware enough to remember all your sins? What if you forget one? What about the time you sped through the school zone? What about the time you pridefully thought about your promotion at work? What about the time you envied your neighbor’s new sprinkler system? What about the time you said you were sick, to avoid something, and you really weren’t? From a practical stand point, everyone will die with unconfessed sin. Most of these will include serious sins such as greed, pride, and envy. Therefore, we are all bound for hell? This trivializes the cross, forgiveness, and sin.
Christ’s death is a once for all remedy to our damnation. Because of this grace and forgiveness we should live a life that is pleasing to him, but some of us won’t do so well. That is what makes grace so wonderful and radical—indeed, beyond belief.
Hope that is helpful.
Tags: Christian Life, Christianity, Theology Doctrine Philosophy
August 20th, 2010 at 12:12 pm
I know this is a very serious subject and I do not intend to trivialise it. But I genuinely don’t understand. Is the respondent saying that there is a Hell, but that thanks to Christ’s sacrifice, no-one will end up there, or is he saying that there is no Hell?
I find the idea of Hell one of the most difficult concepts in Christianity. It seems that many people get round the issue by declaring that the choices are either everlasting life; or death, which is an end to the existence of the spirit. If those are the alternatives then death sounds fine to me. If I am truly without being of any sort, what do I have to regret? Why would I want everlasting life? It holds no attraction for me whatsoever. I am me because of my physical body, and because of my physical environment. Without these I am no longer me.
I can just about accept that there may be a God, because I can’t empirically disprove this God’s existence; but I cannot understand the point of everlasting existence.
Maybe someone could point me in the right direction for a good article which discusses this.
Thank you.
August 20th, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Jim, I don’t believe in hell in the traditional sense, but many do and sadly many hold to a “theology” that informs them that suicide is a form of [self] murder that puts the perpetrator straight into that place.
I have to start somewhere with this flawed thinking and so in this instance it is not so much to challenge their view of hell, but to challenge the assumptiion that someone who commits suicide is destined for hell….
Hope that makes sense.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Yes, that makes absolute sense webmaster. But I still don’t understand why these people believe in this simplistic concept of Hell.
Whichever way I try to fit the concept into the rest of Christian doctine it just doesn’t work, unless one just accepts the lack of logic and assumes that we should not try to understand it rationally. To me that just heaps absurdity onto absurdity.
It really troubles me that suicide is regarded as a sin. There is an assumption that those who commit suicide are capable of rational thought at that moment. Most are not. The stigmatisation of suicide deeply hurts the loved ones left behind, as if they did not already have enough to cope with. That to me is despicable.
August 20th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
webmaster,
Thank you for sharing this sensitive experience in your life.
Like so many other issues and controversies in life, it is really those that are directly affected by it that must grapple most and most passionately with it and ultimately that gain the most insight into it.
The issue of suicide is virtually unique among sins, because it is a person’s last act, whereas most other sins are followed by the possibility of time for considered reflection and repentance. This makes it hard if not impossible to sum up for us, as people. The good thing is that we are not the judges of people or their actions or sins, as we don’t have the insight to judge a person’s life in the holistic manner, that God does – good job too, because many people, whether liberal, evangelical, devout or sincere, may quickly jump to the conclusion that such a person is hell bound or condemn them, on the basis of a limited understanding of the word of God.
There is a certain naivety in us as humans, that sometimes compels us to point the ‘finger of guilt’ at the sins of others exposed to the public. Sometimes this is accompanied by pride and self righteousness, that by comparison with the ‘exposed’ person, gives them a personal feeling of exhoneration from personal guilt and sin. Other times it is simply a far too simplistic assessment of the final act of the person and the Grace of God.
Then there is the apparent ‘reassessment’ of the person – where they ‘really’ a Christian or believer? Perhaps they just ‘pretended’ or were behind a ‘front’ in which they hadn’t really received Christ or the Life of God – in scriptural words..were not born of the Spirt of God. This again, is belittling the Grace of God. Remember that the word of God tells us that ‘whoever calls on the name of the Lord, will be saved’(Romans 10:13). This does not make a distinction between those whose lives are radically changed by the Spirit and exube holiness, from others who called on Him, yet who appear most feeble in the faith. We belittle God when we presume to think that His judgement of a person by the Word of God, must be the same as ours, on the basis that we are judging according to the same Word. This is inherently wrong in my opinion, not least because the Word of God must be applied to ALL of the person’s life, not simply their final act before death. Indeed, if you take a read through the book of Revelation, you will find that God cites examples of good deeds the individuals and churches did, and alongside their bad deeds. Therefore the Word of God itself takes into account the History of people and churches, not simply their end.
For the benefit only of those who find themselves in bereavement because their loved one has departed in suicide, my beloved wife Karen, ended her life 16 years ago now, after a long struggle with manic depression. It broke my heart. We had prayed many times for healing, but it didn’t happen. She loved the Lord and spent her last days praying and reciting Bible verses, but was the last person to be found hanging near a local hospital, one month before it closed.
It does rip your life apart and in my case, left me as a widowed dad with two children. At the funeral service, the vicar gave a sermon about Jesus meeting the person who was not in their right mind, and gave me a picture of my wife healed from her mental torments in heaven.
I treasure this picture and am confident that one day, I will see her again in that place. She loved the Lord and would help anyone, often stopping in the street to help the homeless. I am confident that I have a God who is just enough and merciful enough to see the ‘bigger’ picture of my wife’s life and not just her final moments.
August 20th, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Amen David, thanks for sharing that…