In this second post on suicide I want to review the first point I made from the Bible regarding suicide:
1) God is in charge of life and death
The Bible says - - -
1 Samuel 2:6
The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and he brings up.
Exodus 20:13
You shall not murder. (One of the BIG TEN)
If you want to read or reread the entire blog just go back to my post from January 14th.
The second point that I believe need to be addressed is:
2) Suicide is the most extreme act of UNBELIEF
Suicide is the most extreme expression of unbelief in the sense that the act betrays a lack of faith in God’s omniscience and omnipresence. God makes it clear to the believer that he is in control of everything that happens to us or around us. He expresses this in many areas of Scripture but a perfect example of this is Psalms 139. We find that God is everywhere and in charge of everything. He has been intimately involved in our lives since he knit each of us together in our mother’s womb. We learn that each and every day of our lives has been marked out for us before one of them came to be. He also reminds us that “…everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23b)
We are faced with the reality that the act of suicide (a fatal act of self-destruction undertaken with conscience intent) ignores God’s eternal and absolute authority over life and death and is arguably the most extreme act of unbelief available to man. This is, at least in part why the Roman Catholic Church categorically condemns suicide and further claims that the act of suicide rules out the possibility of repentance and therefore forgiveness.
Yet, the Catholic view of suicide as the unpardonable sin comes from an erroneous belief that a believer can somehow lose one’s salvation. Many times I will hear it explained this way, “If someone lies while driving a car and then dies in a car accident immediately after lying (sinning) then that person is condemned to Hell because they did not ask for forgiveness for lying. In the same way, the Catholic will argue, it is impossible for a person to commit suicide and then ask for forgiveness for the simple fact that they are dead and no longer able to repent. This line of reasoning is one of the most dangerous and faulty misrepresentations of biblical truth. This leads me to my third point:
3) Suicide is NOT the unpardonable sin
Our salvation rests not in our ability to repent for every sin throughout the day but solely on the finished work of Christ on the Cross. Jesus made clear that His work of redemption for all mankind was “finished” (John 19:30) and further that His “grace is sufficient” (2 Corinthians 12:9) to cover ALL of our sins. We also know that our very salvation is actually not possessed by us at all but in fact it is kept in heaven for us until Christ comes again. Read this beautiful passage in 1 Peter:
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
To everyone I ask – how can one loose something that is not in ones possession to begin with? I know there will be some who have great difficulty with the true extent of God’s grace through the atoning work of Christ on the Cross but their difficulty with this truth does not change its wonderful truthfulness.
So, here we are with a horrible and perplexing dilemma:
We have no biblical grounds for denying the grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ to a believer who commits suicide anymore than we can deny God’s grace to a believer who commits adultery. Yet, we clearly cannot condone or encourage suicide in principle. Where does this leave us?
Your thoughts over the past few days have been extremely insightful to me and other readers and many of you have decided to join in the discussion. I applaud your involvement. Some of you have chosen to email me privately about your views or questions as well. For those who have chosen to do so, please consider responding publicly via comments posted directly to the blog. Your private emails will be a valuable addition to the public discourse and we’ll all be the better for your involvement!
I’ll post my final blog on this topic in the next few days.
Until then…
Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)
Todd Phillips
www.toddphillips.net
www.frontline.to
www.frotnlinearlington.com
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8 comments:
Interesting. As a Christian I was always raised to think that if you committ suicide you go straight to hell/don't exist literally because you are denying your creation hence not in the book of life. This is one of those areas that may not be conclusive. Does the bible describe how God will deal with suicide specifically? Where is Judas Iscariot going; the bible says he is lost. Is it just a sin like any other or is there something in revelations that points to people who committ suicide get a second chance like jewish people do?
Interesting. As a Christian I was always raised to think that if you committ suicide you go straight to hell/don't exist literally because you are denying your creation hence not in the book of life. This is one of those areas that may not be conclusive. Does the bible describe how God will deal with suicide specifically? Where is Judas Iscariot going; the bible says he is lost. Is it just a sin like any other or is there something in revelations that points to people who committ suicide get a second chance like jewish people do?
Great Blog topic!
I would like to comment on the questions raised above though.
I think the issue with Judas and the question of where Judas ends up (heaven or hell) is not going to be based on him hanging himself. The issue will be (as it is for all of us) whether or not he accepted Jesus as the Christ. Based on the some of the inferences in the bible, I think it points to the likelihood that Judas did not accept Jesus as the Christ. That will be the sole basis of where he ends up, not the action he took as a result of the quilt he was feeling. Keep in mind that Peter also denied Christ. While he did not turn Jesus over to be killed, he did deny that he knew him. I think the difference with Peter was when he realized what he did, he turn to God for forgiveness. Judas took matters into his own hands, he didn’t turn to God. Judas didn’t repent or seek God for forgiveness; he tried to undue everything his own way. Granted, that is a little bit of a stretch as we all sin and we all lose site of God’s purpose for us, but I do think it indicates that his motives were “worldly” from the beginning and why I also think that Judas did not have a saving relationship with Christ. But that is just my opinion.
On the second point, I'm not sure what bible reference you are referring to when you talk about “getting a second chance". Once your life here is over (whether intentional or accidental) you have no other chances to accept Christ. I know there is a lot of discussions out there about "outer darkness" and/or "purgatory" (not going to get into that here) but the bible is clear that you must accept Christ because to die without him is to live an eternity without him. If you don’t want God in this life, you won’t have in the next. Everyone will know that God is Lord in the afterlife, there is no second chance.
Those are my thoughts.
The blog is great! Thank you for tackling this topic.
However, I do have a question......
"So, here we are with a horrible and perplexing dilemma:
We have no biblical grounds for denying the grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ to a believer who commits suicide anymore than we can deny God’s grace to a believer who commits adultery. Yet, we clearly cannot condone or encourage suicide in principle."
I'm a little confused about the last sentence here. Does this mean that you DO condone and encourage adultery or am I reading this wrong?
I would like to make a point regarding suicide being an ultimate lack of faith in Christ. I think for those who commit suicide because they are physically ill and do not want to deal with it, yes, that's a lack of faith. But for those who are mentally ill, who desperately need counseling and medication, it is unfair to label them as lacking faith. Both my siblings have struggled with suicidal thoughts and feelings and praise God, they have reached out to our parents for help each time, but there are many people who are just too ill to be that rational.
Re-posting this, had some typo's that confused things in the first one)
I would like to add another comment on Point #2 of Todd’s blog:
"2) Suicide is the most extreme act of UNBELIEF"
I’m not sure I agree with this, mostly because I do not think God lives in extremes. To say that suicide is the most extreme act of unbelief is to imply that there are lesser acts of unbelief, or even degrees of sin.
I think this is where many Christians fall into the trap of thinking that there are greater and lesser sins, when in fact there are not. I understand why we (Christians) try and apply degrees to sin (Lying < Adultery < Murder or Suicide) but in God’s eye there are no degrees, they are all sin and they are all wrong, none is worse then the other.
We make the distinction so we can minimize the sin we commit on a daily basis and still maintain a degree of Self Righteousness in spite of those sin. But I think it is important to note that God does not make that distinction, the 10 Commandments are not in order of importants.
So, I just do not accept the premise that suicide is the “most extreme” act of unbelief. No more then committing adultery denies God’s role in our marital life and no different then denying your faith in Christ in order to save your life from an extremist is a sin. They are all sins, they are all expressions of unbelief, but I don’t think either of them are more or less extreme.
I do think Suicide is a sin that cannot be "forgiven" though. Not because it is more of a sin or more of an expression of unbelief, but because once you commit it you are no longer alive to seek repentance. At least with adultery and murder you have means to seek forgiveness (although that does not mean you can escape accountability). I think this is probably where the term “unpardonable” got its roots and then somehow morphed into the false belief that it removed your salvation.
Those are my thoughts.
Also to the person who posted the following question: “I'm a little confused about the last sentence here. Does this mean that you DO condone and encourage adultery or am I reading this wrong?”
I do not think that is the point. If I read it right, I think he is saying that just because committing suicide does not negate salvation, does not me people should feel embolden to commit it in order to expedite their departure to heaven or to escape turmoil on earth.
At least that is how I read it.
2 points:
#1 - In addition to Eric's comments to the person who posted the following at 1148pm:
"I'm a little confused about the last sentence here. Does this mean that you DO condone and encourage adultery or am I reading this wrong?"
I think Todd makes it clear he does not condone any sin, and I think you knew that. Any act of the free will (thought, word, deed) that requires forgiveness and grace BY DEFINITION is a sin (or there would be no need for forgiveness and grace), and therefore is not to be condoned by any Christian.
Todd was focusing on the topic of suicide, saying that, just because it's forgiveable, doesn't mean it's condonable (by any Christian, anyway). The reference to adultery as a comparable sin was merely a supporting aside. While the word "yet" can be construed to refer to either clause of the previous sentence, ie, to suicide or to adultery, knowledge of Todd's position on sin as a whole demands that we see Todd as using it to refer to the first part of the sentence re suicide, not the latter part on adultery. I think the more reasonable implication, knowing Todd's stance on sin, is that we shouldn't condone suicide any more than we condone adultery (or any other sin) just because God can forgive and give grace in that area.
#2 - I believe the Bible uses the word "salvation" to mean both what we possess in this life and what we will obtain in the next (ie, as per your cite of 1 Pet 1:3-5). This is similar to the kingdom of God being at hand in this life (ie, spiritually) as well as physically present in the next. Also similar to how eternal life begins from the moment we believe in Christ vs from the moment we physically die, though it certainly continues after death. See word search on "salvation" at http://www.biblegateway.com/keyword/?search=salvation&version1=49&searchtype=all&wholewordsonly=yes&spanbegin=47&spanend=73 (NASB).
Examples are Rom 10:10 "for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation" and 2 Cor 6:2 "now is "THE DAY OF SALVATION." While we possess salvation as believers (Php 2:12 etc), I agree that God is the one who preserves it for us (John 6:37, 10:28-29, Mat 28:20, Eph 1:13-14, 1 Pet 1:5, etc). Similar to possessing our own life, but having a bodyguard to ensure nothing adverse happens to it. God is, of course, the perfect Bodyguard of our eternal life.
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