We believe that after we are truly saved we face temptation.
We also believe if we give in it doesn't remove our salvation.
What if a man gives in, is in the very act of adultery with his cute little secretary, and Christ returns? Heavenbound?
Of course, his ticket to heaven was not based on HIS works anyway but the works on the cross. Same with the suicidal.
I must say I am surprised by the lack of mercy (or ignorance) toward those who kill themselves. The basic will to survive is VERY strong in people. It shows you the deep suffering they endure before committing suicide and you don't know how long/deep the pain they have endured. I've worked with the depressed, the bipolar, the dissociative that would trade physical pain for the pain in their minds ANYDAY.
And So What they don't have an opportunity to consciously repent. Does that mean if you somehow sin, plan to repent at prayer-time later on, then get in a car wreck and die you'll go to hell??!!
The only suicides that go to hell are those who have not been given the grace to be saved to become one of His children.
Absolutely this.
Speaking specifically in the case of Christians -of course suicide is a sin. Of course it breaks God's heart - but I'd bet my last penny (Yikes! Gambling now- I'm doomed!) that it grieves God not because He's frowning and saying 'How DARE you decide to play Me and think you have the right to decide that you can take your life!' but because He knows how much pain his child was in and what inner despair they must have suffered that they felt this was the only solution.
My in-laws had a very good friend. They were very close to her and her husband. The woman suffered depression for most of her life. A couple of years after I'd married into the family, they received the news that she had committed suicide. They were devastated, of course and the funeral was a very hard one for them to attend. She was a true born again Christian and she loved God with all her heart.
Neither they, nor I have any doubt that she was saved- and that her eternity is going to be spent with the Lord.
Her suicide note, I'm told, was full of apologies- full of regret that she was going to do this- full of admitting that it wasn't good- but saying that she couldn't bear waking up another day feeling like this.
Insensitive people who are, as Iambren says, ignorant- as in lacking understanding not as in stupid- would no doubt call her a coward. They would say she didn't really love God (she sure as heck loved her hubby- but still couldn't face life, even with him there every day). They would say she wasn't 'really' saved. Total, utter Bull, by the way- that woman was saved with bells on!
They may say that others manage to come out of it, so she must have been weak. I've been so depressed in the past that, yes, at one in my life- my early 20s- despite being 100% born again, I seriously contemplated suicide. Obviously- I'm still here. I coped, found a way, threw myself completely onto God, whatever and however one wants to explain it. Does that make me a better person than her? No. It makes me different.
It also made me understand how some people are driven to that point- how it feels to wake up under that black cloud and feeling that you can't-
just can't endure it any longer.
My own mother has also suffered depression- and, about a year after my own struggles with suicidal thoughts, attempted it herself with an overdose.
Had she succeeded, do I think she'd have gone to heaven? No- I don't. She wasn't a Christian. It's not the act that sends one to hell- it's whether or not your name is in the Lamb's book of life- whether or not you've been born again.
In a similar vein, I was at a church group once when a lady gave her testimony. She'd been a born again Christian for many years and, to cut a long story short, ended up with massive financial struggles. The whys and wherefores aren't relevant. She had the chance to take some money- a very large amount of money. It was theft, pure and simple. As a Christian, she knew it was wrong. But she was in such need and despair that she took it. Yes, of course she should have trusted God. Yes, of course there were a ton of other actions she could- and should -have taken. But she let despair get the better of her and gave in to temptation.
She said how she felt 'dirty' taking the money. She felt guilty. She said 'sorry' to God- AS she was taking it. She actually cried as she took it home.
But she still took it.
What if she'd been hit by a bus on the way home- and been killed? She hadn't repented of stealing the money. Would she have gone to hell, despite being born again. Ok- she was saying sorry as she stole it- but one could argue that if she was really sorry, she wouldn't have gone through with it.
Of course she'd still be saved. Of course she wouldn't go to hell- because she was a born again, saved child of God.
How many suicides die with 'sorry' on their lips, I wonder.
Of course suicide is wrong. So is stealing. So is adultery. So is telling lies and so on. And sin is sin...and not one is 'better' than another. I fail to see how dying before repenting of any of those makes a Christian more heaven-bound than a Christian who felt reduced to the tragedy of suicide. I fail to see how a blood- bought believer gets the cover of salvation whipped off them for committing the 'wrong' sin.
I'm pretty sure that the Bible never states anywhere that suicide is the Unforgiveable Sin.