What does the Bible say about suicide? Why not suicide? -GotQuestions.org Podcast Episode 29, Part 2

The Bible’s Teaching on Suicide as Self-Murder

The Got Questions podcast. This is episode two of discussing the issue of suicide. And please listen to part one if you've not already. I mean, in it we talk a little bit more about some of the personal struggles each of us have dealt with, and ultimately in Christ is the only sufficient hope to help someone overcome suicide.

And in part two, we wanna talk a little more directly about what the Bible says about suicide. So on today's episode, I have with me Jeff, the administrator of our Bible Ref Commentary site. Kevin, our managing editor.

Hello, good to be here.

Today's special guest is Beth, one of the associate editors of Got Questions Ministries. As I said in the beginning of part one, the Bible nowhere directly mentioned suicide in the sense of thou shalt not.

It mentioned several people who did commit suicide, some of them well-known, some of them not as well-known. And there are six specific people in the Bible who committed suicide. Abimelech and Judges, Saul, Saul's armor bearer, Ahithophel, Zimri, and probably the most famous suicide in the Bible is Judas.

Some will also point to Samson as an example of suicide when he pushed the pillars down, causing the whole temple to collapse on top of him. And we could debate whether that's suicide or not, but I think Samson's goal was more kill as many Philistines as possible.

I think he would have been satisfied if he had been able to walk away from that. So I don't know whether we consider that a suicide or not, but when you look at these individuals, of the six, five of them are described as ungodly people and their decisions to commit suicide are not viewed favorably.

Saul's armor bearer, other than the fact that he jumped on his sword, essentially nothing is said about him. So, and by this, I'm not saying that only evil people commit suicide, but the Bible, when it talks about this, it's not presenting it in a positive light.

And the first steps we talk about suicide is essentially self-murder. So in that sense, yes, the Bible does talk about it. So suicide is killing yourself. It is self-murder. It is taking a decision that ultimately the timing of our death is in God's hands and God's alone and taking that into our own hands.

And for a believer, suicide is basically saying, Christ can't deliver me from this, that Christ can't redeem what's left of my life. Christ can't rescue me from the situation I put myself in. So no matter what situation you're dealing with, and again, by no means are we minimizing the pain that people who are considering suicide are struggling with, but biblically speaking, there's absolutely no justification for committing suicide.

And for the more biblically focused episode, that's something we really want to emphasize here, that biblically speaking, suicide is a sin. It's not something a Christian should ever consider. It's ultimately taking into our hands something that should be left entirely in God's hands.

One of the distinctions that I think is important also for us to make is that there's a large difference between not going to extreme measures to preserve life as opposed to making a conscious decision to end life.

That's one of the things that sometimes gets caught up in the stigma of talking about this topic. And it's a topic that we need to be able to talk about. Just because people have these thoughts, just because they have these feelings, doesn't mean that there's something crazy or weak or immoral about them.

It's important to address these, talk to people, bring it up. And that gets people into confusion. If somebody decides to say, for example, I've been diagnosed with a aggressive disease and I don't want to go through the treatment, I don't want to experience the side effects of what happens with this, I'm going to choose not to treat this disease.

A lot of times they feel pressure that, well, I have to do whatever it takes to just cling to life for as long as I possibly can. Otherwise it's suicide. And again, this is not something that scripture actually says.

We're not obligated to just keep our hearts beating for as long as possible just to keep our hearts beating. Where we talk about suicide, and that's where Samson's example becomes a good contrast, is a person who's ending their life for the sake of ending their life.

For Samson, his death was a side effect. He was saying, I'm going to do this even though I'm going to die. People who choose to say, I'm not going to go through another round of chemotherapy. I would rather have six months where I can spend time with my family than three years of misery.

That's not a person choosing to end their life. That's a person who's accepting death as one of the consequences that's involved there. And it's something that makes it difficult when people are left behind after either of those decisions because there is that struggle of saying, my grandmother didn't want to fight the cancer or my father went to war and charged out there in the middle of the battlefield and he passed.

That's a difficult thing to speak to. Beth has very personal experience in what this means and how it goes. What's your thought on that, Beth?

Assisted Suicide, Self-Sacrifice, and the Example of Jesus

Yeah, I agree. And now you're getting into assisted suicide where someone may have a fatal disease but they choose to end their life prematurely. And that's a whole nother bucket of fish. Being from Oregon, it's been on my radar for a while.

But I also wanted to point out that self-sacrifice is not suicide. And that's where I think Samson comes in because he was a warrior and having been in the military, this is also on my radar. If you go in, if you jump on that grenade, that's not suicide, that's sacrificing yourself for the other people in your unit or the other people around you.

And we often get the question, did Jesus commit suicide? No, he did not commit suicide. He did not end his life prematurely. He followed God's plan for his life. He sacrificed himself for us. And that's not suicide.

One thing that I have heard a lot, the question has come up, not only through God questions, through our question and answer forum, but also just as a pastor, people ask me this personally about where does a person who commits suicide go?

Because there's this thought out there that I don't know where it came from, but it's been around for a long time. It used to be quite a common thought that when a person commits suicide, that means they automatically go to hell.

And I assume that there are certain churches or denominations that teach that. But Shay, I think you've probably dealt with this too in your question and answering for God questions. How do you answer that?

Does a person who commits suicide go to hell automatically?

Suicide, Confession, and the Security of Salvation

Yeah, that's probably the most common question we get about suicide. And if you look at it from the perspective of most people who are wondering this, think that I have to confess my sin or repent from my sin after I commit it in order for God to forgive me.

So using that logic, well, if you commit suicide, you don't have a chance to confess it and repent it, therefore God doesn't forgive it. Well, that's a tragic misunderstanding of the salvation that Christ has provided.

From like a Roman Catholic perspective, suicide is a mortal sin. And if you die with any mortal sin that's been unconfessed and undealt with, you automatically are unsaved. We'll spend eternity separated from God.

Some people will point to a verse like say 1 John 1, 9 that says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Well, obviously if you've committed suicide, you don't have the opportunity to confess that sin, so therefore they think, well, I'm not cleansed, therefore I'm not saved.

You look at the context of 1 John 1, 9, it's talking about believers in Christ, people who know Christ and have a relationship with him, and the forgiveness that passage is talking about is a relational forgiveness.

It is the day-to-day relationship between you and God that until you confess the sins you've committed, there is a barrier there. It's not talking about forgiveness in the sense of salvation, which was secured once and for all through Christ's sacrifice.

It's talking about the day-to-day sin, just like if you sinned against your parent or your spouse or another loved one, there's going to be some barrier in the relationship until that sin is dealt with.

So that's what 1 John 1, 9 is talking about. But no, when Christ died for our sins, he died for all of our sins. And when we receive Christ as Savior, all of our sins are forgiven. And if that suicide is one of those sins that we ultimately commit, that sin is something that the death of Christ is paid for as well.

I use it as an illustration sometimes, like in the book of Esther, where Esther comes before the king uninvited. And in that culture, that was a sin or a crime that was a capital offense. If you disappeared before the emperor without him inviting you, you could be put to death for that.

And but the king, the emperor extended his scepter indicating mercy towards Esther and inviting her to come forward. And in a sense, that's suicide is appearing before God without him inviting you. But through Christ, that sin is something that's also been forgiven.

God may not be pleased or will not be pleased with what caused us to arrive in his presence. That does not change the fact that as believers in Christ, that sin has been atoned for and we will in fact arrive in God's presence.

When people ask me that question, does this person who commits suicide go automatically to hell? I always go to Romans 8. That chapter starts off with this wonderful promise that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

The condemnation has been taken away. Christ was condemned on our behalf. There is no condemnation left for the child of God. And then that chapter ends. It's a beautiful chapter beginning from beginning to end, and the chapter ends with these famous words.

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 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.

And it's like Paul goes out of his way to cover all the bases. There is absolutely nothing that can separate a child of God from the love of God in Christ. And I would include suicide in that as well because the passage covers it all.

There is no sin that we can commit that will cause God to reject his children. We are accepted in the beloved. We are accepted in Christ. And this is eternal life that he gives. It's not a temporary life that's good until the next sin.

It is eternal life as we have no condemnation in Christ.

Why Suicide Is Not an Unforgivable Sin

Amen, Kevin. And that's, I think, one of the main points I wanted to share in this episode is that, yes, biblically speaking, suicide is a sin. It's not something that a Christian should do. It's not something anything should do, but a Christian especially should know that Christ can deliver from whatever, no matter how painful it is, whatever you're going through, Christ can deliver you through it.

But it is equally important to know that it is not an unforgivable sin. If you're a child of God, if your son or daughter, your loved one who committed suicide knew the Lord, it is not, suicide has not impacted his or her eternal destiny in the slightest.

He's still forgiven in the presence of God just as much as someone who dies through natural causes or whatever. And the devastation of suicide is often multiplied when someone who's grieving is being told by others, no, yeah, it's too bad you're, this person is now in hell for eternity, when often that is very much not the case.

So it's important to understand both perspectives. Like, yes, suicide is a sin, but no, it is not an unforgivable sin for the child of God. So we're kind of coming to the close of this episode, but I just wanna give each of us a quick opportunity to answer another very common question that we get.

I remember the first time we received the question, why should I not commit suicide? And I was like, what in the world? We're an internet ministry, why is someone asking us why not commit suicide? And the question went on, it's like, if you don't talk me out of this, I'm gonna commit suicide tonight.

So obviously I'm not gonna wait 48 hours before responding to that question. So I typed out the absolute best answer I could come up with really quickly, talked to a counselor friend of mine, what do I do here?

Sent the answer to the person, thankfully they did write back and said that they decided not to commit suicide. I followed up again after that and unfortunately never heard back, but yeah, what do you do when someone asks you, why should I not commit suicide?

And I imagine the four of us will each have, hopefully a lot of the same answer, but probably from slightly different perspective. And for me, most of the people that I've dealt with who are considering suicide are people who are making a permanent decision based on temporary circumstances.

My personal situation was I wanted to commit suicide after the girl that I was in love with rejected me for a date. And now I look back and it's like, oh my word, how could I have been so blind to how a temporary situation of not having a date on a Friday night, but at that time it was such a devastating thing.

So as difficult it is when you're going through a painful situation, you just need to remember that often what you're looking at a week from now, a month from now, a year from now, you won't even care about it anymore.

And especially from the Christian perspective, no matter how difficult or painful something is, God can bring you through it. God can use that to enable you to minister to others. God can bring you the healing that you need.

So I guess my initial counsel here is don't make a permanent decision as the wrong solution to a temporary situation. And so just to make it easier on the rest of us, how about let's go in reverse alphabetical order to first name.

So Kevin, you're up next. What do you say to someone when they say, why should I not commit suicide?

Reasons to Choose Life and Seek Help

If somebody comes to me and says that, I would say, this is not the end, even though it might look like it. God has a plan for you that is continuing. And God loves you. I love you. And I will walk with you through this situation every step of the way.

I'm not going to abandon you. God is not going to abandon you. Let's find a way that we can work through this together.

For me, the thing that I tend to think first of all is to remind people that the pain that you're feeling right now, that's making you think this and feel this is real. It exists. It doesn't matter why it's there.

It doesn't matter what's causing it. It doesn't matter what the source is. What you really feel right now is real. And it's okay for you to say, this is what I'm feeling. And this is what I'm experiencing.

That being said, suicide isn't actually going to resolve the issue that you're having. That's not to say it doesn't represent a change. That's not to say that it doesn't do anything, but ultimately it's a solution that's targeted at the wrong side of this pain.

And that's not, again, that's not meant to be some sort of glib response or to tell somebody, well, you just shouldn't feel that way. It's just a reminder that to some extent, when we choose to make those decisions, temporary circumstances, but we're making permanent decisions, decisions out of despair, we are doing things that we are going to likely regret in one sense.

Most people who attempt suicide, who are unsuccessful, regret the attempt. There are numerous times where that's been the experience that people have had. So it's worth telling somebody what you feel is real and there's validity behind that.

But the way to address that, the best way to address that without multiplying pain for the people in this world who love you and who are going to be left behind is to talk about it, to have conversations about it.

Nobody's saying you have to do something or don't have to do anything, but let's talk about it. Let's converse with that.

Those are all good thoughts. They can also be very overwhelming in the direct moment. I would say, find something, one thing that you enjoy, that you would miss, that brings you happiness. I have a friend who was driving through the two lane roads in Montana and thought she would just drive off a cliff and end it.

But she had just bought her truck and she loved her truck and she didn't wanna hurt her truck. And so she didn't. That was 30 years ago. And she's very happy that she didn't go through with it all because of her truck.

But find one thing, maybe distract yourself. Maybe you want some ice cream. Maybe you think about, you don't wanna put your mom through that. Think about tomorrow's going to be a beautiful day and you wanna see it.

Just one thing that you enjoy, one thing that you love, that one person you don't wanna hurt. And start there and then pick up the phone and ask for help and start the healing process. But start little.

That's excellent thoughts. And a good counselor friend of mine, similar to what Beth just said is, if you're trying to counsel someone who's considering suicide, even getting them to consider, how about you wait till tomorrow?

And to me, that sounds traumatic. Like, no, we're supposed to be talking them out of it. Even just something as simple as, really struggling today, how about wait till tomorrow? And often just the freshness of a new day can bring new perspective and so forth.

So, so many tools. And one thing we're going to do, both on podcast .gotquestions .org and also in the description field of YouTube, we will include some links to some ministries that focus on counseling people who are considering suicide and suicide hotlines and other resources, including resources for families who are struggling with a loved one who has committed suicide.

So obviously way more than we can cover in even two episodes of a podcast. So we'll include those resources for you. Please also, this is the end of episode two. Please also listen to episode one, where we touch on the more personal aspect of this a little bit more.

So it's been my pleasure to kind of facilitate the discussion with Jeff, Kevin and Beth. And three GotQuestions employees with varying degrees of experience and expertise on the issue of suicide. Hope this conversation has been beneficial and encouraging for you, because that's always our hope.

This is one of the top 20 questions that GotQuestions stuff we deal with all the time, take it very seriously. And praise God, we've had many opportunities to encourage people who are considering suicide to choose a different route and also counsel people who have lost loved ones to suicide.

Trust me, this is an issue we care about deeply and we strive to give both biblical counsel and loving counsel, speaking the truth in love. So this has been the GotQuestions podcast. GotQuestions, the Bible has answers,.

We'll be fine.