On Suicide, pt. 3/3

Read: part one and part two
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When dealing with the subject of suicide the question invariably arises, “what about professing Christians?” “Do they loose their salvation, or where they really saved?”

Two of the most famous suicides in the Bible are Saul and Judas. Saul looked like a believer—he was the King of God’s Old Covenant people Israel! Judas likewise was one of Jesus’ own 12 Disciples. It would seem you cannot get any more ‘Christian’ than this! Yet, when you look at the span and trajectory of Saul’s life one sees how faithless he was. He wasn’t a king after God’s heart but the worlds. Likewise, Judas was a thief, and one interested in worldly glory. Saul’s life ended the way it had been lived, not trusting God in battle (as David did) but fearing that the enemy was greater than the God of Israel. Judas too, in contrast to Peter, failed to see the forgiving character of God and so took matters into his own hands rather than turning to the Lord for mercy. The two most famous suicides in the Bible involved professing believers.

For at least a millennium (if not earlier) the normative belief of Christians has been that suicide either separates you from the grace of God (Catholic) or reveals that someone was not the elect (Protestant). For example, Catholics believe that certain sins, unrepented of, are so serious that they cut someone off from the grace of God (they in effect ‘loose’ their salvation unless they repent, similar to Arminian Protestant views). Among the list of mortal sins is suicide.[1]

John Bunyan represents the classic Protestant view (remembering that until in the 1900s his book, Pilgrim’s Progress, was the second most read book next to the Bible). In his book, the pilgrims come to Doubting Castle. Here Christian despairs of his life in the dungeon. He asks, “I know not whether is best, to live thus, or to die our of hand.” Hopeful then comforts him, with truth and grace. He acknowledges their plight but says, “but let us consider, the Lord of the Country to which we are going, hath said, Thous shalt do no murther, no not to another man’s person; much more then are we forbidden to take his counsel to kill ourselves. Besides, he that kills another, can but commit murder upon his body; but for one to kill himself, is to kill body and soul at once. Moreover, my Brother, thou talkest ease in the Grave; but hast thou forgotten the Hell whither, for certain, the murderers go? for no murder hath eternal life.”[2] For Bunyan it was the seriousness of the sin and the doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints that led him to hold his view.

For many today, such views seem harsh and archaic. Influenced by a cultural shift in responsibility, the elevation of love through liberalism and likewise a tipping toward grace and away from truth, modern [sometimes unbiblical or not holistic] understandings of psychology, together with popular doctrines such as Once Saved Always Saved, many Christians today don’t hold the view of Bunyan or the Catholic Church.  One such evangelical voice is Chris Copolone. In his book Down Not Out (2018), which generally looks at the issue of depression and Christians, he says:

It is a sin to end the life he has given you by your own hands. Yet, as with all sins, the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to cover it. Suicide is not an unforgiveable sin, nor a sign someone is not a Christian. But if you are a follower of Christ, please see that taking your life isn’t what God would want. He has created you and made you to worship him with every breath of life he gives you.
 
If you are reading this, and have experienced the heart-wrenching loss of the death of a [Christian] loved one to suicide, please know that there is grace for them if they were in Christ.[3]
 
While it is true that God is merciful, not only does this view take away the moral counter-weight (see On Suicide pt. 2/3), but it does not take serious the grace and glory of an able God to keep His children completely (Jude 24). The clincher for me remains, as it was for Bunyan, the glorious doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints. Finishing the race is the last and greatest of all the tests of assurance (especially see bottom of blog). Consider several verses in light of suicide:

• Phil 1:6- He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion…
• Jn 15:16a- You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…
• 2 Cor 13:5- Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
• 1 Cor 9:24-Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
• Phil 2:16- holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labour in vain.
• Mt 24:13- But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Mt 10:22; Mk 13:13)
• 2 Ti 2:5- An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
• Ja 1:12a- Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life

Throughout history I can think of three compelling testimonies of how the Lord preserved those He had called to persevere. Jane Hall, a minister’s wife, developed a severe spiritual melancholy, which probably physiologically led to a mental depression. She so despaired that she was not saved that she threw herself in a nearby pond when her husband was in the chapel preaching. Thankfully some congregants heard this and came to her rescue. She had to be under house arrest. Yet before she died, she recovered, regained her assurance and lived her final years of sound mind and peace of heart. Kristen Jane Anderson despairing of life as a teenager laid down on the local railroad track. As the train came, though it severed her legs, she felt the hand of God hold her down so she was not caught up in the vacuum of the train and killed. Now a bilateral amputee she testifies to young women about depression and the hope of Christ. Another late middle-aged woman, usually so bubbly and full of life, became despondent. One day on her walk near the sea she went out into the danger zone just before the tide came roaring in. A couple walking nearby, both police officers, saw her and were able to coax her back and rescue her. What wonderful stories of deliverance!
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When a professing Christian, however long they were so, commits suicide, what should we do?

• We should lament. We should cry out to God saying, “Lord, I don’t understand, I thought…” We should express our loss and pain and confusion. The longer this person professed to walk with Christ and the closer they were to us will only deepen the pain.
• Rather than reaching for possible false assurance to comfort us in our grief, we ought to go to the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1).
• Rather than speculating on who is saved, we should focus on whether we are saved and persevere in the faith.
• In our sea of grief we ought to remain anchored in the truths that we know the Bible teaches; again not speculate over one’s salvation because God is just and knows those who are truly His (2 Ti 2:19).
• Lastly, our focus ought not to be on the dead but the living. How can we comfort or support those who remain? How can we help fellow believers (and all people) avoid suicide? How can we do prevention well? How can we be advocates?

I love how the episode of Doubting Castle ends. Christian remembers a potent gift that the King had given him. “Now a little before it was day, good Christian, as one half amazed, brake out in this passionate speech, ‘What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking Dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty? I have a Key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, (I am persuaded) open any Lock in Doubting-Castle.”[4] With this Christian and Hopeful escaped the castle and returned to the King’s way. May we all remember and share this key—the promise of hope in Jesus Christ— and so rescue many from the sin of suicide.


[1] Roman Catholic Catechism, 1855–57; 2268–2283

[2] Pilgrim’s Progress. (Oxford, 2008), 112.

[3] Chris Cipollone, Down Not Out (2018), 80.

[4] Pilgrim’s Progress, 114.