Suicide And Hell (September 11, 2005)

Do people who commit suicide go to hell?

I was asked that twice last week, so I thought I'd use a Pastor's Page to respond. My short answer is "Not necessarily." My long answer is more complicated.

Suicide is sin because it is murder, a violation of the commandment "Thou shalt not kill." The Bible does not specifically condemn self-murder, but that should not surprise us because the Bible often connects its rules with penalties for their infractions. Suicide renders those responses moot. You can execute a man who has killed someone else, but there is not much you can do to penalize the corpse of a suicide.

There are several suicides in the Bible, and they tend to involve privileged men who went bad. Samson was the original suicide bomber (or rather, suicide building-collapser - Judges 16:28-31). King Saul fell on his own sword to keep from being slain by Philistines (1 Samuel 31:1-6). Ahithophel took his life when Absalom would not take his advice (probably assuming that Absalom’s rebellion against David was doomed to fail - 2 Samuel 17:23). Zimri burned his house down around him (1 Kings 16:18). Judas hung himself after betraying Christ (Matthew 27:3-10). In all these cases the Bible just tells what these men did without telling us whether it was wrong. Of course, they all did wrong things that led to their suicides.

Though suicide is a kind of murder, I think it is the least bad kind. In fact, I actually recommend it to hell-bent fiends who would otherwise kill the innocent - like mothers who smother, drown, or stab their kids (Marilyn Lemak, Susan Smith and Tonya Vasilev, respectively). In such cases I wonder, "Why couldn't you just kill yourself, you demon freak?" Think how many lives could be saved if sick murderers and murderesses would just direct all their lethal hostilities inward.

Does suicide damn the soul? Not by itself, I would say - though suicide is the kind of thing that damned souls do. We are saved by faith in Christ, and no sin but apostasy can take that away. Some believe that suicides go to hell because they die with unconfessed sin (unless, I suppose, they die slow and confess before losing consciousness), but that argument never convinced me. We all have unconfessed sin, all the time, and will die with a million of those on our record. I've already sinned today by not loving the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, and it's only 9 o'clock in morning.

I imagine there are good and faithful servants of Christ, who, in moments of weakness, or suffering from brain chemicals gone haywire, take their own lives. I see no reason why God, who knows the end from the beginning and who takes all things into account, might not have mercy on their souls and receive them into his presence. A friend of mine, a Korean War vet who suffers from tinnitus, told me that one time the ringing in his ears suddenly blasted louder than a freight train for several seconds before dissipating back to its normal level. He said that if that ever happened again, and the noise did not stop, he would definitely kill himself. I thanked him for telling me. If I ever have to conduct his tragic funeral I can tell people what probably transpired. But whatever happens, I know my friend is a believer whose name is written in the Book of Life.

I was once asked the suicide-and-hell question by someone who (I did not know at the time) was suicidal. That is where the question is really dangerous. The last thing I want to do is encourage a depressed person to think, "If I kill myself I get to go to heaven." Heaven forbid. Though it is true that even murderers and adulterers can get to heaven - King David did - we still don't want to encourage murder and adultery. I don't ever want to be guilty of tempting a depressed person with the promise of a happy hereafter. If you are suicidal, (A) Don't do it, and (B) Get help. Take that as an order from God.