I know that the issue of suicide is quite controversial, but I am basing this question on personal experience. When I was a teenager, I had suicidal thoughts. I got saved later that years and since then, I haven't had a suicidal thought in over twenty years. I was wondering since the Lord saved me from suicidal thoughts, does that mean that suicide a sin? Is it really unforgivable?
Jesus said that all manner of sin can be forgiven except blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Does that mean that a Christian who was mentally ill commits suicide will he end up in Heaven or no? I am bipolar and I even thought about harming myself, maybe suicide.
So how unforgivable is suicide? Didn't Samson commit suicide somewhat? In the book of Judges or Samuel, Samson brought down the pillars that killed the Philistines and even himself. Is that a form of suicide too?
Dear Lik3,
There have been Three suicides in my family; my sister's husband, and my husband's two brothers, and this is what I KNOW: My brother in Law Jim was a Christian. He loved Jesus and knew the Lord; yet he also suffered from a terrible form of mental illness. I watched this sweet man spiral down into a dark torment over a period of 15 years. During that time though, he would try again and again to be Christ-like toward others... once he even brought a homeless man home and gave him a hot meal, a hot shower, and his own bed. He tried so hard. He worked with others in downtown Atlanta giving food out to the homeless from the back of a church van. But no matter what he did; how many psychiatrists he saw; how many pastors and prophets prayed for him and laid hands on him; how much medication he took; nothing could stop his torment. He just wanted to die; yet, he was so afraid that if he killed himself, he would go to hell. In all, we took five different guns from him on five different occasions where we were able to find him and stop him. He also survived an overdose although he was on life support for two days. Jim was special in that he was innocent in his heart. I never knew a more innocent man. And I KNOW that Jim is in heaven and that the second he pulled that trigger he was with the Lord. No one can ever convince me different.
The brain is like any other organ; it can be diseased, and Jim's poor brain was diseased with hundreds of very tiny - almost microscopic tumor seeds. They pressed against the receptors in his brain and prevented his brain from receiving the necessary proteins and hormones that would have made him able to think clearly. Instead, he heard sounds and voices constantly. It eventually got to the point that he could not understand a simple conversation, though he tried. I know Jim is in heaven.
From the moment we truly believe in Christ, we are guaranteed eternal life (
John 3:16), and we can know beyond any doubt that we possess eternal life (
1 John 5:13). Nothing can separate a Christian from God’s love (
Romans 8:38–39). Not even suicide can separate a Christian from God’s love.
Suicide is not what determines whether a person gains entrance into heaven. No one truly knows what was happening in a person’s heart the moment he or she died. Some people who don't know the Lord have “deathbed conversions” and accept Christ in the moments before death. It is even possible that a suicide could have a last-second change of heart and cry out for God’s mercy.
The suicide of a believer is evidence that anyone can struggle with despair and that our enemy, Satan, is “a murderer from the beginning” (
John 8:44).
I hope this helps. Much love!
