June 25, 2024 / Will someone go to hell if they commit suicide?

6.25.24

 Hey, Calvary Fremont –

 Will someone go to hell if they commit suicide? Here is another “Question for God.”

 Our world has been rocked by the news of several suicides amongst people we know: a father with young children, a middle-aged woman who was suffering from PTSD and a teenager with much of his life still in front of him. I found myself reverting to my Catholic upbringing as I mindlessly stated that they were going to hell. So here’s my Question for God: If someone is in so much pain that they commit the sin of suicide, are they condemned to eternal damnation?

 Online searches reveal that suicide rates have climbed to their highest point in more than 80 years. The last two decades have seen a 36% rise in suicides. The Mental Health Crisis leading to crippling Hopelessness has resulted in more and more people taking their own lives. Is suicide the Unforgiveable Sin? Will those who commit suicide find themselves in hell?

 The passage that is used to consign a person to hell for suicide is 1 Corinthians 3:16-17…

 “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.”

 Paul is speaking to the Church and not to an individual. The context has to do with building up or tearing down the Church – the Temple of God. This passage teaches that if someone does damage to the Church through what they do or what they teach, God will destroy them.

 Suicide is nowhere in view and the Bible nowhere states, teaches, declares, or implies that those who commit suicide go to hell. I can’t imagine the depth of despair which results in someone terminating their own life. Obviously, they are not in their right minds. Will God receive the believer who in utter emotional, rational, and spiritual collapse ends their own lives? I have no doubt of it. Suicide doesn’t negate justification or undo regeneration.

 Someone will say that the one who commits suicide doesn’t have the opportunity to repent of it and confess it as sin. The premise being that if you die with unconfessed sin, you will go to hell. Who made that up!? The Bible nowhere states, teaches, declares, or implies that if you die without having confessed known sin you will go to hell. YIKES! Here’s a Christian husband who has spoken angry words to his wife and dies in a car crash on the way to work that morning without repenting and asking forgiveness of God and wife. Does he go straight to hell? That would really mess with my theology! We serve a God whose grace extends further than the scorecard of our confession and whose mercy runs deeper than the deepest despair we can experience.

 This man and his wife are out of fellowship with one another – but they are not out of relationship. They are still married! A believer who commits suicide is out of fellowship with God – but they are not out of relationship. They are still saved! They still belong to Christ!

 Be blessed and stay healthy and follow Jesus – Pastor Tim