Suicide in certain situations.

[Maxter50]

I started reading the bible a while ago and have not gotten to any part that addresses suicide but I would like it if someone who has read a part that does could help answer my question or give me the location of the reading.

I belive suicide is wrong and will start with that. Here are two situations that I have come up with that I cannot figure out the solution to. This is partly why I want someone who has read or knows of a part in the bible to respond instead of someone just assuming.

Lets pretend for some reason out of your control you have two choices. The first is to live, but in living you will undoutably be tourtured for an unkown period of time. The other choice is to kill your self and spair the pain.

The second situation I have come up with is killing your self so another can live. An example would be a grenade falls by you and your buddies while you are in a battle. You jump on the grenade knowing you will die, choosing tha you will die. By doing this you save your buddies but you yourself are killed.

I have just thought of a third situation. Someone is being held hotsage and the only way to save them for some reason is to physically kill your self, so that you are in complete control of yoru death. You do this and the person is saved from their death.

Thanks for any help on this topic, and especially for any readings about it!

 

[Trench777]

How about a 4th situation:

Killing yourself to take out a whole lot of enemies (argueably and/or revenge?).

Re: Judges 16:28-30.

Here we see God actually giving a man the power TO kill himself (along with a whole grip of enemies).

Interesting, if ya ask me, considering the very common doctrine of suicide being verboten.

T777

 

[onfire4Jesus]

The Bible doesn't directly say (to my knowledge) that suicide is wrong, but it does say not to murder. We are all God's creations and it's totally up to God when our lives should end.

1st situation: I still don't believe it's right to kill yourself. I know that would be an incredibly hard situation, but I still think that it would be wrong. Think of all the Christians being torured today because of their beliefs. "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:10

2nd situation: Sounds very similar to what Christ did for us, doesn't it? He could have saved himself from all that pain, but He chose to die that we might live.

3rd situation: Dunno. I guess that really depends on whether you feel that God is telling you to die for this person? My brain is fried right now. Maybe I'll come up with a better answer later.

 

[tqpix]

Lets pretend for some reason out of your control you have two choices. The first is to live, but in living you will undoutably be tourtured for an unkown period of time. The other choice is to kill your self and spair the pain.

Do NOT kill yourself just to make the pain stop.

The second situation I have come up with is killing your self so another can live. An example would be a grenade falls by you and your buddies while you are in a battle. You jump on the grenade knowing you will die, choosing tha you will die. By doing this you save your buddies but you yourself are killed.

I have just thought of a third situation. Someone is being held hotsage and the only way to save them for some reason is to physically kill your self, so that you are in complete control of yoru death. You do this and the person is saved from their death.

I think this verse may answer that question:

[bible]Matthew 16:25[/bible]

 

[Theophorus]

Any taking of one's life out of fear, or loss of hope, is not usually viewed as Christian. Taking ones life for others, is.

Basically your are contrasting personal euthanasia with personal sacrafice.

 

[Katydid]

For the first one, I would definately say that to actively kill yourself would be wrong, though I have no scriptural support, but that doesn't mean that you can't deny yourself any further lifesaving efforts. In essence, where cancer is concerned, you could stop all treatment and just let go. My father has emphysemia, now he doesn't have this, but if you wanted it to stop, just refuse any extreme measures, this to me would not be wrong.

As far as jumping onto a grenade, it is not garaunteed you will die, you may know that it is likely, but it isn't garaunteed. You aren't jumping on it for the purpose of being killed, but for the purpose of saving a life, that goes for your other examples as well. The idea that I hold to is that if you aren't doing something, just to die, then it isn't suicide, but a saving a life.

 

[alorents]

The bible for the most part is silent on suicide. Most likely because there are varying degrees of suicide. On the other hand we know murder is a sin and killing yourself is murder. On the other hand there are varying degrees of suicide, indirect and direct for example.

For instance, indirect suicide would be someone dying in fire trying to save someone else. They don't want to die but on the other hand they die as a result of their actions and they knew it was possibility. Direct suicide for example, is someone who simply no longer wants to live and purposely takes their own life. For instance a criminal commits murder and kills himself to escape justice.

No where in the bible does it say you are destined to hell if you commit suicide, just as you are not destined for hell if you commit adultery. However, that does not mean that their are not consequences for committing suicide, I guess it would depend why you did it. Consequences does not always mean hell, not every punishment from God means going to hell and whatever punishment any of us face for our sins will be tailored to who we are as individuals.

Surely a mother or father who dies trying to save their children from harm or a Police Officer who dies trying to protect innocent lives, will not be punished for such a noble act. It is difficult to say they are murdering themselves as that is not their intent. They wish to live but they also must try to save a life. On the hand, committing suicide because you don't want to face punishment for the crimes you have committed here on earth would get you punished, for this is out of self serving interests and cowardice.

The hard one is suicide because someone is in mental or physical pain and looses all hope to live on. When someone commits suicide it can have a profound effect on their loved ones. For instance someone may have suffered great emotional pain for years and decides to take their own life, but in the process they cause great pain to their family. On the other hand someone may be suffering from an awful disease that leaves them in great physical pain with no hope of survival as they slowly wither away so they decided to end their life and as a result their family is relieved by the ending such suffering and physical turmoil. Then there is the person who commits suicide for whatever reason and has no family to hurt or relieve, but yet by committing suicide they still have broken the natural order God has for our existence.

So what of them?

Suicide is a terrible thing and one that should not be considered as it is not Gods will, it is God that should be deciding when to take you with him to heaven for there is reason why we face the pain we do and for the most part those who commit suicide out of self interest will surely face consequences. But like all things there are gray areas, like the person who sufferers physical torment as there is no simple answer except what is known only to God.

It is important to remember that God judges us individually weighing all the factors of our lives: Such as our beliefs, our motives, the good we have done in our lives and the sins we have committed in our lives. We are all unique with our own intricate and complex details and only God can truly judge us in total truth, wisdom and without favoritism. The most important truth of all is we will all have to account for our lives when we stand before his throne.

 

[jbarcher]

Altruistic suicide is the psychological term rather than indirect suicide. But in that situation, you aren't doing it for self-centered purposes, as tqpix alluded.

In terms of pain, I've always found that rather funny, because one experiences pain in life to begin with. Also, the concept that there is a life not worth living, seems to leave the worth of life conditional, and not intrinsic. I haven't heard someone posit a standard to judge this, but anyway...

Your third situation sounds like the same principle as the first; altruistic suicide, since you are doing it for someone else's life.

 

[Nazarite]

No one has greater love than this, that someone would lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

 

[YahwehLove]

Do NOT kill yourself just to make the pain stop.

This is easier said than done.
Ive experience pain that was like I was on fire, burning from the inside out.
And like 1000 barbed bladed swords digging deep into my flesh and bones.
After a few weeks of that, I doubt anyone would be wanting to live. I know Id have prefered death.

 

[LynnMcG]

Pain is subjective. Ask any woman who's delivered a child. Where in the Word does it say we won't experience pain? That if it gets to be too much we can just take our own lives? Jesus experienced pain, even death so that we might live. Just watch The Passion for a mortal vision of some of what our Savior experienced for us. How can we then say that we can't take it?

Have you ever watched someone die? Have you ever seen someone suffer through cancer or emphesema? That's pain. What most of us experience is merely emotional.

WE as Christians, were NOT made for this place therefore, we will suffer. Jesus told us, in this world we will have trouble, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world!

The first example is as cop out. The other two are self-sacrificing and I wouldn't even call it suicide.

 

[butterfoot]

God tells us in the comandments that thou shall not kill. This I take to mean as to not kill others as well as to not kill oneself.

Even though I don't agree with suicide for a persons way out God will still love you.

"[God's] steadfast love endures forever." Psalm 118


"I am convinced that neither death, nor life, ... nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39).