If you commit suicide do you go to heaven?

[BlessedBeliever]

I have been asking friends and family this question and also trying to do some research on it and get mixed answers.

I ask this because a friend of Mine whom I was very close with in high school committed suicide on Easter Sunday.. If you know of any answers to this please let me know and thanks!

 

[aggie03]

As far as I know, there is no place in the Bible that deals with this directly. In other words, there isn't a verse that you can go to which talks explicitly about what happens when someone commits suicide.

Because of this, any answer that you are given will be based off of someone's understanding from other principles that are established in the Bible. Will it be all right to answer your question from those principles?

 

[SoulFly51]

Only God knows for sure who will go to heaven or hell. At the same time ... I don't know how anyone who really believes in Christ and His promises could take their own life ... but I am not the judge.

He is.

 

[Super Gnat]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

Yes, if your friend was saved, he went to heaven. Nothing can separate us from the love of God; not even suicide.

 

[Svt4Him]

Those who are adamant that a person who takes his life is committing a mortal sin, and will go to hell, are basing their belief on church doctrine rather than on the Bible. Scripture is silent on the subject. There are no verses that say "He who takes his own life shall be damned." According to Scripture, only one sin does not have forgiveness, and that is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit (see Mark 3:29 footnote). That means there is forgiveness for every other sin.
Some quote 1 Corinthians 3:17, which says that God will destroy someone who "defiles" the temple of the Holy Spirit. Yet, there is disagreement about what it means to defile the temple. Does this include suicide? Does it include illicit drug abuse (slow suicide), prescription drug abuse, cigarettes (deliberately breathing in poisons that will eventually kill), tattoos, over-eating (digging a grave with your spoon), or alcohol abuse?
God forbid that we add to the pain of someone who has lost a loved one through the tragedy of suicide, by making a judgment about their eternal destiny. God is the ultimate Judge, and we should therefore leave the issue in His hands. It would be wise to follow the biblical example and not come to any verdict in the case of suicide.

From Ray Comfort http://www.livingwaters.com/witnessingtool/doessomeonegotohellforsuicide.shtml

 

[Templedweller]

I apologize for Your loss. That MUST BE VERY HARD to BE without Your friend.

God is Just and Merciful......He Has knowledge of what was said to Him by Your friend......what your friend was going through......Being JUST and MERCIFUL GOD and GOD alone knows what hapened between Him and Your Friend that day.

In the past I would have gotten on here and said definantely anyone who commits suicide would not go to Heaven...BUT God is JUST and MERCIFUL.....Give it over to HIM.

Again I am Empathize with You at Your Loss!!!

Sincerely,
Templedweller

 

[BelovedWord]

BlessedBeliever,

I am very sorry for your loss, you, your friends and family are in my prayers. As far as going to heaven or not, I have to agree with the others; it is up to God to say who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. The Bible does mention suicide in the following verses in 1 Samuel:

1Sa 31:2 And the Philistines followed Saul and his sons. And the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchishua, Saul's sons.
1Sa 31:3 And the battle went hard against Saul. And the archers hit him, and he was sorely wounded by the archers.
1Sa 31:4 And Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised ones come and thrust me through, and abuse me. But his armor-bearer would not, for he was very much afraid. So Saul took a sword and fell on it.
1Sa 31:5 And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell on his sword and died with him.

Saul did this so he would not be captured and tortured by the Philistines. It does not say how this was looked upon by God.

I pray that your friend went to heaven and will be at peace with the Lord. If you ever need to talk, please let me know and I WILL make the time for you my friend.

God Bless, Brian

 

[Amisk]

My heart goes out to you and the family of the deceased.

As has been pointed out there are no scripture to come out clearly to condemn suicide. The only two places that I know of in scripture where suicide is mentioned is the death of King Saul and Judas who betrayed Christ. It doesn't say outright what happened to Saul after the taking of his life. Scripture does tell us that Judas went to Hell.

The other thing that makes me think that one sentences him or herself to Hell by committing suicide is that the Bible condemns the taking of a human life. In reality when one takes their own life they murder themselves.

Having said that one needs to keep in mind that God does not condemn those who are not capable of understanding what they are doing. In many cases those who commit suicide are in deep depression and often are not responsible for their actions. Only God is really capable of knowing whether the person having committed the act realizes the seriousness of what they are about to do.

Suicide leaves those left behind with a life time of guilt, and grief. Those who kill themselves could hardly do anything worse in leaving family members and friends in a mode of suffering for a life time.

 

[LALaurie]

I would think you would go to hell for that, God gives you life and he is the one who should take it in his time. Murder is a sin, so killing yourself would be murder wouldn't it?

 

[GK]

The truth is, we don't know and it isn't our decision. God is in charge and only God knows how this plays out.

As a pastor, people asking me this question are usually in one situation or another. Either, as you, they have just lost someone close to suicide. Or, they are thinking about suicide for themselves. In either case, my only option is to respond honestly, yet I will focus on one side of the issue more than another depending on which situation we're in.

To the person considering suicide, I remind them that by not knowing, none of us can make a guarantee that the suicide will end up "in a better place." I do not want to give this person comfort about such a severe and tragic decision.

But, to you, to the person who has lost a friend or family member to suicide, I remind you that our God is a gracious and loving God who sees through our hurt, who knows us intimately. If he loves me enough to restore me to his family in spite of my sins, then he can love your friend just as much. Repentance and confession are not magic pills we must take to get our ticket to heaven; they are the secrets to finding heaven on earth in the here and now. I wish your friend could have found these things while she was still here, but he didn't. And now, we entrust her to the arms of God.

 

[christianmomof3]

I am very sorry to hear about your friend. May our God, who is the Father of Compassions and God of all comfort be comfort and peace to you and to your friend's family.
May the Lord be your peace and calm you anxieties about your friend and may He give you the answers you seek.

 

[Hortysir]

I believe our Father is a merciful God that wouldn't judge our entire life of servitude to Him by the actions carried out in such a short moment of weakness....
Yes, it's killing and killing is a sin...but we don't go to hell just because we sin. Might as well give up right now, "for ALL have sinned".
GodBless

 

[HeyJupiter]

I believe that those who commit suicide are acting irrationally and will not go to hell

 

[Jody7818]

I'm sorry to hear about your friend.

On the subject of suicide, one must analyze the situation logically according to what the Bible states. I believe suicide is simply murder. I don't know the circumstances of everyone who commits suicide. But a majority of the times, it has to do with anger or depression. The Bible states that it's ok to be angry, but we are not suppose to sin. When we become depressed, we are to rely on Jesus to get us through the depression. We should not deal with our depression by becoming drunk, doing drugs, or even committing suicide. We have a choice in this world. I believe, if we choose to sin and die with this sin, then we must face the consequences.

God has give us brain to think with. Humans are the only living creature that can reason. Therefore, we should think about the consequences of something before we commit to it.

According to my dad, my great-grandmother used to live everyday like it was going to be her last day. I believe we should all do that. We don't know when our number is up. So we must be prepared.

 

[prophecystudent]

I do not have the definitive answer, either. But my belief is that our God is compassionate and understanding enough to know the heart of each of us, including the one who commits suicide.

Depression is a terrible thing to have and (in true cases of it) there are no easy answers. My son-in-law suffers from it and at times he has become completely debilitated, to the point of total helplessness.

Medication helps but does not always solve such problems.

Does one who commits suicide go to heaven? It is obviously a sin, but as the bible says God is gracious to forgive all our sins. He is also wise enough to know when we are suffering to the point that in our weakness we seek suicide as a relief. In those cases I strongly believe that those people will go to be with Christ.

Fred

 

[fifi]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

Yes, if your friend was saved, he went to heaven. Nothing can separate us from the love of God; not even suicide.

thats not true if her friend was saved their would be know reason for her to take her life.

 

[Jody7818]

if her friend was saved their would be know reason for her to take her life.

Amen.

 

[Svt4Him]

thats not true if her friend was saved their would be know reason for her to take her life.

How untrue, and how idealistic. I think if we asked people here if they've ever thought it would be easier to die, quite a few would nod, that doesn't make them less Christian. To be Christian is to know Jesus, what He did, how He took our sins, how He is God who came to earth lived a sinless life, then died for us. After three days He rose again and becomes our defense against sins. You are basically saying it's not what's in someone's heart that makes them Christian, it's what they do. IF she was saved Then SHE WOULD...Sorry, my Bible says otherwise.

So suicide is murder. Then smoking is murder, as smoking is slow suicide. Driving too fast can be murder, and if you're unlucky and get into a fatal accident you go to hell. (by the way, a salesman tried to pass a vehicle, clipped him, didn't go off the road and didn't lose control, but died when their airbag went off, check out www.worksafebc.com for more info) and passing is murder. Let's add lack of exercise to our list of murder, then we can add laws with how we should clean ourselves before we eat, because cleanliness is next to Godliness. Does this kind of sound like some people Jesus had a hard time with?

 

[Jody7818]

How untrue, and how idealistic. I think if we asked people here if they've ever thought it would be easier to die, quite a few would nod, that doesn't make them less Christian.

Just before I became a Christian, I was thinking how easy it would be to take my own life. I thought how all of my troubles would be over and the depression I was going through would be gone. But after I was saved, I no longer thought about suicide. I'm glad that Jesus took all of that away.

God has given us this life. We did not choose this life, but God gave us this precious gift. As Christians, we are not to live according to our own will, but to God's will. I don't believe that it is God's will for us to take our own life. If we do take our own life, then we are doing it out of our own will. This is one reason why suicide is a selfish sin.

I truly believe that if Jesus abides in you, then He will take things such as suicide out of your heart. Why in the world would He keep it in your heart? If it's in our hearts, then that's because we choose to keep it there. We choose to think about it rather than cast it away, or ask Jesus to cleanse our hearts. It's not Jesus' fault it's in our hearts...it's our own fault.

It's like a drug addict who is addicted to drugs. He decides to get saved. However, he is still addicted to the drugs and continues to use them after saying the salvation prayer. Nobody is making him take the drugs. He's addicted to them. He is choosing to continue to take them. I don't believe someone can serve two masters. It's either one or the other. Now replace the drug addict in the story above with the suicidal person. Now the suicidal person continues to think of suicide after becoming saved. He's addicted to thinking about suicide. How can this person serve two masters? Addictions are strongholds. They are not easy to get over. But with the help of Jesus, addictions can be broken.

If anybody in this world should have committed suicide, it should have been Job. We all know the story of Job's life. He lost everything he had. But what did he choose to do when problems came his way? Did he choose to think about these problems to the point of thinking about suicide?: No. He always prayed to God. And God took away his problems and blessed him.

Satan was allowed to bring these problems on Job. God was going to prove to satan that Job was His servant. Could you imagine if the story ended like this "and due to the problems that Job suffered, he took his own life." Do you think that Job would have been God's servant if he would have committed suicide? Or, do you think that Job would have been satan's servant if he would have have committed suicide? What do you think satan's reaction would have been to God if Job took his own life? Do you think satan would have been happy that Job took his own life? If Job went to heaven, then satan should not be happy.

You are basically saying it's not what's in someone's heart that makes them Christian, it's what they do.

If someone commits suicide, then it's clear what was in their heart. If suicide is not wrong and we will still go to heaven if we commit suicide, then wouldn't it make sense that all Christians should take their own lives so they can get to heaven quicker without having to worry about this life?

 

[rosiecotton]

If someone commits suicide, then it's clear what was in their heart. If suicide is not wrong and we will still go to heaven if we commit suicide, then wouldn't it make sense that all Christians should take their own lives so they can get to heaven quicker without having to worry about this life?

I don't think that anyone is saying suicide isn't wrong. It is. Many things are wrong, as svt4Him stated. But that doesn't necessarily mean those things are going to send us to hell.
Thankfully, I've never had to deal with depression and I've never had suicidal thoughts. It's so easy for us to sit here and say 'well if they are truly saved, then they wouldn't take their life.' Heck, if we're 'truly saved' then there are lots of things we shouldn't do, but we still do them. None of us are perfect.
Yes, God gave us life and He wants us to live it abundantly. It's extremely sad that someone would throw their own life away. But someone who takes their life isn't thinking rationally. All they are thinking is they want the pain to go away, and think death will do that.
And no it wouldn't make sense for every Christian to commit suicide to get to heaven quicker. I enjoy my life here on earth, even with all the problems and trials I go through. But again, I've never dealt with depression and pray I never do. I don't know what it's like to have those feelings and try to deal with that.