SUICIDE: IS IT SIN?
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By: Dr. Jimmy Lowery
Disclaimer: Before you read the article below I want to make it clear that the issue being discussed is serious. If you are thinking about suicide or know someone who may be thinking about it, “Seek professional medical assistance immediately.” This article deals with the controversy whether Suicide is a sin or not and for information purposes. It is not intended to be used for therapy or medical advice.
Every year nearly 30,000 people, give or take a few, sink into a hopelessness that they fell the only solution to life’s problems is suicide. Over the years therapist have tried to narrow down exactly what is the cause of suicide. Most agree that it is due to two major mental disorders, bipolar disorders and depression disorders. Suicide is a symptom of these two disorders and not a disorder itself. I personally know of friends and family members who have these disorders and when talking to the spouses and children of these person it is very difficult to deal with and to cope with at times. The person that has the disorder will out of the blue go from being happy to depressed and sometimes even in bouts of rages for no particular reason. That is that a person looking from the outside can tell; however, to the person with the disorder there is much that is causing the depression and rage. Most of the time when the depression comes it is so severe that the suicidal tendency creeps up. But what is the underlying root of it all?
Several things can said to be the cause of depression such as traumatic events in ones life; for instance, loss of a loved one, family dysfunction, abuse, etc… . But when it all comes right down to it, it is the loss of hope in ones life. When it is all dissected down to the bare ingredients of why a person would take their own life or even think about doing such an act it is all about hope. They feel that they are at fault, that they could have done things different and now there is no way to make it all better again. So many will turn to drugs or alcohol, or both, to take the pain of hopelessness away. Only turning to these temporary relief’s make the situation worse. Majority of the time when you here about someone committing suicide you hear that there were drugs or alcohol involved. But had they only known that there is hope and that is through Jesus Christ. For the remainder of this article we will be focusing on types of suicide, why it is a sin to commit suicide and then finally that there is hope not matter what the situation.
During my studies in college for my Masters in Counseling I was faced with studying many previous cases of different mental disorders. As already mentioned before, in certain disorders, bipolar and depression, there is the high tendency for suicidal thoughts. Now there are two types of suicide contemplation 1. those that are seeking help, and 2. those that will do it. The later you will probably find out when it is to late. So what is the difference between the two?
A person that will lets say call a hotline and tell the counselor that they have just swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills because they can not take it anymore and want to end it all. This person is reaching out for help. Same goes for a person that will call a loved one or a friend is doing the same thing, reaching out for help. The reason is this. When someone is thinking of taking their life they are generally angry, hurt, and have a sense of hopelessness. If they call someone or maybe even go to a person and make the statement, “I can not take it anymore, I am just going to finish it all.” They are going to a person for help. Even in the situation of the phone call you can get them help, the suicidal person wants you to stop them cause they really deep down are scared and do not want to end it. This gives us a chance to talk to the person and find out what is bothering them, what has happened that is so traumatic that would make them want to take their own life.
The second instance of the person that does take their own life is different from our previous type. This person has reached out at some point but in an unobvious way. I have experienced personally the loss of a military co-worker back in the early 90’s that took all of us in the office by total shock. The man that took his life was very brilliant but was kind of stand offish to everyone. The week before he took his life he started giving away things and sometimes selling them for amounts that seemed to good to be true. However, no one really picked up on it. After we received the news we started thinking back to maybe some hints that he had said to us that would have given off a red flag. But their were not any that we could pick up on except that he had told one co-worker that he could not take it anymore and might as well just cut his own throat. But he said it in a jokingly way as to throw the person he was speaking to off guard of what he was about to do. See this person had a plan, that is what made him different from the person just seeking help outright. At this point the sense of hopelessness has overtaken the mental cognitive reasoning faculties. Note that normally a person that will commit suicide is one who has a plan and carries it out in full. This may include just giving away things or selling them for very cheap. These are normally items that may have significant ties to the person. Next they may start making sure that their loved ones are taken care of as a way to console themselves. They will make jokingly remarks of putting an end to it all or if they were to die no one would miss them or care, etc… Next they will carry the plan out in full and ultimate end their life on this earth.
Back in 1997 I was again faced with the loss of someone a little closer. I will call him Frank to protect his family. Frank was a ex-marine, had fought in Vietnam and served his country with great honor. Frank also had a way with people, there was not anything that this man could not sell. He was a fantastic car salesman. He had a very nice home, nice things, he was doing much better than I was at the time. But Frank had been through a lot in his 40 years, divorce, problems with his kids and the current relationship he was in was not working out. During the months prior to what would be his end, Frank quit his job to start his own business. I had also started my own adventure and was doing pretty well. We talked several times a week about business and what we could do to make it better. Although, unknowing to me he was not doing well at all and things with his grown kids were getting worse. But he sugar coated everything because he did not want me to know that he was not doing well in his business of family relations.
The week before Frank would make the disastrous decision, he started giving things away. He sold me some things that I could use for my office because He was going to get better stuff. However, it did not click at the time that one of the items he sold me for dirt cheap was an antique. It sold it all to me for around $20.00. He should have sold it to me for 3 time more. But he was preparing for something and I was not able to pick up on it. Finally I got a call from his girlfriend wanting to know if I had talked to him. I had not as he was to be on a trip to see his new grandchild. The plan would then all be revealed to me and I would then put it all together and know what was to be found out.
Frank had told people close to him different stories. First, he told his girlfriend that he was working with me, which he was not. Second, he had told me he was going to be out of town for a while to spend time with his new grandchild. His girlfriend revealed to me how bad his business was going and that he had lost all hope of it doing anything and was not making very well financially. He was about to lose everything he had worked for, his home, truck, furniture, etc… There relationship was also non-existent. She went on to tell me that he had told her that he was going out of town with me on a business trip. I was further told that he never made it to his daughters home, as she had called them, and that his family had not even known he was coming to visit. In fact they still were not talking. We both paused for a moment on the phone and thought and said at the same time, “You don’t think he would do something to hurt himself? Do you?” At that moment we knew, Frank had planned something. We contacted Frank’s brother and he went to Frank’s home. Their in the back yard hidden behind the fence was Frank’s truck. He knew then to call the police and gain entry into the house. When they did they found him on his couch with a revolver. He had shot himself two days prior. On the table in front of him were his bible and two identification cards and a list of family members. He had also shredded up all and any documents about himself with a shredder he had purchased only a few weeks prior. I had even asked him what he was doing and he had told me that he was being careful so that no one could get his identity, as they may try to get credit cards and such. This was nothing out of the ordinary to do, as I do that myself to protect myself from someone doing the same to me. However, there was an abundance of shredded paper because he had already set the plan into motion. And not once did he ever mention of taking his life nor did he make any jokingly remarks to me. However, other cues were there that I just did not pick up on. Mostly, that he was getting rid of things and he also had started talking to me about religion. Unfortunately at the time I was not in the position I am today but was able to answer his questions. And a lot of his questions was about death and life after death. We seemed to agree on a lot. But I will never know where his heart was, if he had accepted Christ as his Savior. I never witnessed to him like I should have to make sure. Had I done that, then Frank would probably never took his life because he would have known that there was hope and that to take your own life was a sin. And to commit sin and not be forgiven how can you go to heaven?
The Bible tells us that a murder will not enter into heaven along with several other types of sin. (Revelation 21:8, 22:14-15) In Exodus 20:13, it states “Thou shall not kill” (KJV) which was one of the ten commandments that God gave to Moses to set up as law. This one statement tells us that God is tell us not to kill or murder. What is murder? It is the taking of a life, any life. When a person takes the life of another the law categorizes it as “Homicide”, if someone takes their own life they call it “Suicide”. Webster defines the term murders as , “taking a human life unlawfully” and “to put an end to: destroy”. Right to the point is it not? So you really have two categories of murder Homicide and Suicide. No matter how you look at it they both deal with the taking of human life, putting an end to a life, and destroying a life. It is all murder and murder is a sin in the eyes of God and they the commit murder will not have part in the kingdom of God.
This may sound harsh but it is the truth and Gods Word is true because He can not lie. Satan is a liar and the father of it and he was a murder from the beginning. (Genesis 4:8-15, John 8:44) Satan wants people to think that suicide is not a sin for then when he gets you to the point of doing it you will not feel guilty about it. Why just the other day I heard a preacher aired on a Christian Radio Station state that suicide was not a sin and that if a person had accepted Christ then committed suicide that they would still go to heaven. That is a ball face lie planted by Satan himself. For that preacher I pray for and have this to say to him read James 3:1, “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” (NIV) We that are ministering and teaching others are going to be held accountable for every word we write and speak. And I pray that God will have mercy on you for the deception you placed into the minds of thousand of people that attend your convention and heard on the radio. To those of you reading this be not deceived, suicide is a sin, it is murder of one-self and there is no room to misinterpret what God says in the scriptures concerning murder.
Satan will try to plant thoughts into many of us to kill ourselves. See if he can get a person to submit to taking there own life then he has won the battle. Because that person has just committed a sin of murder. And a murderer that is not forgiven for that sin can not enter into the gates of Heaven. But there is a way to get the evil thoughts out of our head and that is resisting the temptation from Satan. The Bible states in James 4:7,
“7Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.” (KJV)
Anytime you are tempted to sin just resist the devil and pray to God to help you. You know what? Satan and the demons must leave because you are then under the care and protection of God and Satan is scared of God. For in James 2:19 it says that even Satan knows God and trembles. Why does he tremble? Because he knows the punishment that awaits him first of all and second he knows that God is all powerful and can speak him out of existence. There is hope for anyone that is contemplating suicide or that is depressed or whatever the problem may be.
Finally, to recap what we have learned. Suicide is common among those that get depressed in various degrees. The reason they are depressed and contemplate taking their own life is one word, hopelessness. This is the main key to either type of disorder and that is that they have lost all hope in their life. They do not feel they can turn to anyone to make it all better. They do not feel that they can do anything to make it better except to end it all. But they are so wrong. There is someone that they can go to and talk to anytime, that is Jesus Christ. All that we have to do is believe in Him and ask Him to forgive our sins and come into our life. He wants you to be with Him in eternity all you have to do is ask. Romans 10:13 states,
“ 13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.“ (KJV)
Then have faith and believe that the Lord can and will take all your problems and burdens away from you. Ask and you shall receive is what God tells us. You know without God there is no hope, life is a disaster waiting to happen. Satan puts the thought of hopelessness in our minds so that we will not turn to God. But God is there always waiting for you to come to him. Deuteronomy 31:8 states,
“The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." (NIV)
Seek out the Lord and you will find Him, as these passages of scriptures tell us:
I Chronicles16:8
“10Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. 11Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” (KVJ)
I Chronicles 22:19
19Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; (KVJ)
I Chronicles 28:9
“…know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”(KJV)
Psalms 105:3-5
“3Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. 4Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore. 5Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;”(KJV)
Matthew 6:33
“33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. [8]”(KJV) Psalms 46:1 “1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (NIV)
God is waiting for you now, please seek him out today. If you or you know of anyone that is thinking about suicide let them first know that there is hope and get them help. You can call a pastor, counselor, doctor that will help this person out. There are plenty of Christian Counselors and Psychiatrist that can help those that have the disorders that have depression associated with them. Keep in mind that these disorders mentioned in this article are serious issues and professional assistance is necessary. Sometime the chemicals in the brain just get out of balance and medical attention along with counseling is necessary. But most of all pray to God for help and he will hear you.