Hi there,

I was wondering what God thinks about suicide. Particularly as some would say that it is wrong to take your life and that you will be sent to hell for doing it. One friend of mine said to me that you would end up in purgatory (Roman Catholic teaching).

If we believe in a God who came into this world, who was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin then he knows how we feel sometimes, even to the extent of wanting to end our lives. Surely someone who does not see any future or who has a life of struggle and believes they can not live any longer as they are and chooses suicide god would condemn then to an eternal hell.

Surely in Christ Paul writes that not even death its self can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans ch8) If nothing can separate us from the love of God then that speaks of suicide as well.

I'm not condoning anything put wanted to pose the question. I must add that I have/had suicidal thoughts because of my GID but it has been my faith that has kept me from doing something about it.

Stardust 

Yeah exactly, and what if life sucks so hard that hell starts looking like a sweet ride?
It's all perception, I personally don't think there is a 'god' god in the sense that people think of it as or a hell for that matter. When you die that's it imo. If that's too much for someone to swallow then they'll just have to invent an afterlife for themselves to ease their minds.. lol! What ever floats your boat.

It's also funny how you can't ask anyone for permission or for their blessing to do it, and then they consider you selfish to even think about it. But wouldn't it be more selfish to make someone live through a life of hell just so they can have you around?? Can't please everyone huh!
You can look out for number one but not when it comes to suicide, oh I didn't see the asterisk... oh ok cool....?

It's a matter for yourself, of course, but I would have thought that suicide is a form of killing which has been forbidden.

I have to agree with Muffin on some points. I can't see why such a place as hell would exist. The point of it seems to be superficial, to say the least.

I have also come to the conclusion that portraying God as the man in the sky is simplistic in the extreme. It seems that God is infinitely more complicated than that, as is His will.

But, as Christians, we know that killing is wrong. There is no doubt. Does that include killing yourself?

I was bored one morning and was watching TV (what was I thinking) and there was some kids show on, during a song/dance they said...

"do as I say, not as I do, if there's a mistake we'll start anew".

I though (as I climbed back onto the sofa after falling off from shock), "well.......... that just about sums up this planet doesn't it".

I know that none of us have time to do a lot of reading, but "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis who wrote the Chroinicles Of Narnia has some insights on what I actually believe about the Heaven/Hell dichotomy.  Heaven was created by God, hell is somthing we create for ourselves.  Lewis gives a number of vignettes of those who find heaven, and those who don't. 

The one on a person who committed suicide shows a person who has never seen his own complicity in his unhappiness.  The person has frankly taken no responsibility for his own life and is pure "victim", his suicide by "throwing himself under a train" is still seen as the act of force by others.  Even though he has as much chance of "going further in and further up" (into heaven) as anyone else, its his being wrapped up in his self made hell that keeps him from going anywhere at all!!

Lewis was not in this case referring to people who have clinical depression or related sources for suicidal thoughts.  There are also some "unlikely" success stories in the vignettes that are even hopeful for us with gender issues!!  When our time has come we will have to be ready to give those up, since they will not matter after death, but if we use them to find the real person who will be happy to give them up at death, we will have a marvelous adventure ahead of us.

Its a story, but it fits in with my way of wanting to look at the subject.

Personally I don't think that god really gives a hoot what we do, or about our individual experiences. I don't know how any of us can, as we sit here being accidents of nature.

As far as suicide goes, I think the exploration of it in the film "What Dreams May Come" is prolly a fairly accurate representation karmically speaking, just without the permanence as we eventually move into the next incarnation. I remember seeing that, and thinking it just felt true. It's hard to say really, because the mind and body are so intimately intertwined that the state of a soul suddenly freed from a sick body might be a bit shocking, or vice versa.

Vicky

I've heard of that book but never got around to reading it.

I'll be checking it out soon.

I should say that, I've known a few people who have killed themselves, deliberately. My experience is limited, of course, but the impression I got each time was, they felt they were battling, had been defeated and resigned, letting their opponent, real or not, win.

But more importantly, in each case, with one exception, they did it in such a way as to harm others. Jumping in front of a train, the train driver never recovered. Another hanged himself in a wood where his body was found by some children walking past. Another hanged himself in his garage where his wife found him.

The numerous cases of overdose I've worked with, generally, the person ends up changing their mind during the wait.

Stardust,
  I see where you say that even though you had thoughts of suicide because of you GID your faith kept you from killing yourself. I am so happy to see that your faith was strong enough to stop you. I hope that nobody acts on such thoughts whether they are a Christian or not.
  There is an old saying that forever is too long to be wrong. Many don't believe and make light of it but the truth according to scripture is that our soul will live forever in one of two places whether we believe it or not.
  I personally believe that the reason suicide will send a person to hell is in that it is the self destruction of the temple of the Holy Ghost. Just as the Spirit of God is sacred and not to be blasphemed, the temple it dwells in should not be desecrated or destroyed either.
  Another issue is in the area of disbelief that the Lord can see you through the darkest hours of depression, fear, and such. Sort of the equivalent of unbelief in his being able to preserve you unto his heavenly kingdom.
  Another issue might be in that it is the one sin in which we cannot repent of. Once the act is committed there is no way to repent.
  I tend to think of our walk with the Lord like the marital vows. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, forsaking all others. The health, richer and better are the easy times where anyone can claim to love the Lord. But, when the worse and the poorer and the hard times hit us it is another story.
  I wish you well and am glad your faith can sustain you through the troubles of GID.
  May God bless,
  Frank

If you refuse to defend yourself against your assailants, knowing that they will kill you if they can, and then proceed to hand yourself over to them... That is suicide, as well. It is making the decision to die of one's own free will.

I believe it is a sin to take life away which God created. I don't think hell exists but in the next life, you'll just have more sins to repent. We are here on this earth, repenting for the sins we did in the previous life. Why commit suicide? Life is rare and precious. It should be cherished by everyone and animal thats still breathing. Think about the infants who never made it into this world cause something terribly wrong took them away but we are still here after years and years so make the most of it. It's hard and depressing but you got to know that there is alot more problems out there which are far worst.

I'm glad your faith has kept you here and keep holding onto it. When your time is up, God will take you away and when he does NOTHING in this world can stop that. For now, it's a test from God. To see your strength and courage. How far and deep can you suffer but in return he'll give you something greater, maybe in this lifetime or the next.

Samson killed his self and about 7 thousand philistines.
King Saul killed his self by falling on a sword after he was cornered by philistines and his servant followed and done the same. All of them new God and God spoke to them.

I am plaining to set up a youtube channel that will help answer questones like this.

and as far as hell goes I have had to do a big word search for years to better understand.
search words like: Hades, shoel, tortooro, gahaana these are the words that translated in to the word hell.
both hades and shoel translate grave and hell.
gahaana Greek for Vally of hainam. 12 verses in new testament translated hell from this. only 35 time is the word hell in new testament.
35-12=23
you said that your faith kept you from suicide that is something that could help us all. I became a universalist about 6 years ago through much study.
not many ways to heaven God will open everyones eyes to the true. many verses in the bible say that all will be save, even them who thought that death was the best way out.

suicide is high among transsexuals and that is wrong. I would have killed myself as well, but God reminded me that he feels the same way. His body (churches) does not reflect how he feels inside. sounds like God maybe transspiritual. what do you think?

search universalism all will be saved.

If I didn't belive that God would send me to hell if I took my own life, then I would, I am sure, attempted suicide. I definitly thought about it as well as planned it when I was younger. The plans were quite elaborate and just doing them gave me pause enough to see that what was bothering me was not worth dieing over.

I never attempted suicide.

Weird thing is, I have started thinking about it again, but only thinking, no planning, well actually, I was thinking the other day how I wanted to die, but I think that is different.

I will never commit suicide. I love God and I do not want to burn in Hell.

I always thought that when someone kills themself, they are obviously mentally ill and are not in the right mind to make decisions, so God would accept them just as he would for anybody else with a terminal physical illness.

I don't know where God draws the line. There is so much gray area. For example, people who smoke or overeat are contributing to their own deaths so does he send them to hell?

Quote from: laineyjain on June 28, 2010, 01:14:46 PM
sounds like God maybe transspiritual. what do you think?

search universalism all will be saved.

I am completely convinced of that.

My own research, on hell seems to have found similar results to yours. But I find the notion that God will have created a place for those that He disapproves of, where they will suffer everlasting torment, while He watches, to be rather disrespectful of God.

I imagine a parent, angry with their child. Just how angry would a parent need to be, and how twisted, to cause that child so much harm, they suffer permanently?

For me, when I have ever contemplated suicide, which use to be very frequent, but is, thankfully, a lot less in recent years, I realised that my biggest problem was that I felt completely detatched from God.