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Sermon:"Do We Go To Hell if We Commit Suicide?"Suicide is a desperate act against ourselves, not against God |
Judges 16: 23-31 |
| Last Sunday, I experienced another miracle! One of you came to me after worship
and wanted to hear another sermon. This is the third time in my thirty years as a pastor that I have
had someone eager to hear another sermon within a few minutes of hearing the last sermon. The other
two times were the Sunday before last and the Sunday before that. Then one of you had asked me to
preach on what the Bible says about "God being absent when we need Him," and What Happens When we Die?
Both of those were challenging assignments, but this last request is even harder to answer because the
Bible never gives us a direct answer to the question, "Do We Go to Hell if We Commit Suicide?"
The request came from someone who was obviously very concerned about either someone who had killed themselves or
someone who might kill themselves. Since suicide is the 3rd largest cause of death among young people from 15-24,
the 8th largest cause of death for the rest of us, taking the life of over 1 million people a year, almost all of
us know someone who has committed. suicide. http://www.suicidology.org/associations/1045/files/SurvivorsFactSheet.pdf
We need to know what happens to these folks. Are they cut off from God and us m forever? Will they spend eternity
suffering for what they did in that last hour of their lives. If you had asked me this question when I was a teenager in Catholic high school, I could have answered you very easily. The Catholic Church then taught that suicide was a serious crime and offense against God. Anyone who committed suicide was breaking the 6th commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Kill." Since they died before they had time to repent, they would automatically go to hell. The church refused to let them have a funeral or be buried in the Catholic grave yard. http://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Suicide#Religious. In fact, in the town where I grew up, a local Irish policeman had falsely claimed that he had killed his own son, who had committed suicide . The father could not bear the shame of having his son buried without a funeral or in a Protestant cemetery. So he was willing to go to prison for murder rather than admit that his son had killed himself. But that was then, this is now. The Catholic Church changed its teaching on suicide in 1965 with the Second Vatican Council . The Catechism of the Catholic Church now reads, "We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives. By ways known to Him alone, God can provide the opportunity for salutary repentance. The Church prays for persons who have taken their own lives" (No. 2283) "Consequently, the church offers funeral rites for those who die by suicide, and the American edition of the Catholic ritual includes prayers for this specific situation. At the funeral, we pray for the forgiveness of the deceased and the comfort of mourners. We ask that God will reward our faith on the day when all will be made new again." (No. 2282). (Copyright © 1998, Resource Publications, Inc. 160 E. Virginia St. #290, San Jose, CA 95112). Why did the Catholic Church change their mind about people going to hell for committing suicide? The reason is the Bible. The Catholic Church did what we Protestants have been doing for a long time, they turned to the Bible to find out what God's word says about suicide. The Bible often doesn't say what we think it says. The Bible often doesn't say what other people tell us it says. That is why I am always encouraging all of us, including myself, to read the Bible. There are six accounts of suicide in the Bible, the first is Abimelech (Judges 9:50-54), then Samson (Judges 16:23-31), King Saul (1 Samuel 31:2-5), Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), and Zimri (1 Kings 16:15-20) and finally Judas (Matthew 27:3-5). None of them is explicitly condemned for taking his life. No where in the Bible does it say that they went to Hell because they killed themselves. In fact, one of them, Samson, is praised for having killed himself! Please turn with me to the book of Judges and we will look at why Samson is definitely not in hell for killing himself. If we had three hour sermons, I could tell you all about the life of Samson, the first Superhero of the Bible so you could understand both why he ended his own life and why he was not condemned, but praised by the Bible. But you would die and so would I if I preached that long. So I will give you the very, very short version of Samson's life, with the help of a few pictures. Samson's mother could not have children, so she prayed to God and God gave her a very special son, who was supposed to begin to free Israel from their enemy, the Philistines. The Philistines were taking over the land of Israel and killing or enslaving all of the Jews. Samson, whose name means Little Sunshine, was very strong. He killed a lion with his bare hands. He burned thousands of acres of Philistine wheat. He killed 30 men who were trying to rob him. Then he slaughtered 1,000 soldiers with a donkey's jaw bone. He also ripped out the gate of the Philistine capitol, Gaza, when they tried to imprison him in the city. Samson was a real super hero! But like all super heroes, he had his weakness. His kryptonite was women. Samson was a fool for women, especially Philistine women. He told Delilah that his super human strength was in his long hair. So while he was asleep, she cut if off. God then let this fool be captured by his enemies. The Philistines blinded poor Samson and forced to be their King Kong, pushing the grinding wheel for their wheat like a blind beast, until he would drop dead from exhaustion. Then if things were not bad enough for Samson, we read in Chapter 16: 23-25 "Now the lords of the Philistines gathered to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon, and to rejoice; for they said, 'Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hand.' 24When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said, 'Our god has given our enemy into our hand, the ravager of our country, who has killed many of us.' 25And when their hearts were merry, they said, 'Call Samson, and let him entertain us.' Samson is betrayed by the woman he loves, abandoned by his own people, blinded, exhausted and now he is being asked to be the court jester for his enemies. His darkness must have been so deep, his despair so overwhelming. It is no wonder that he is so absolutely overwhelmed. He cannot even stand up. We read, verse 26 "So they called Samson out of the prison, and he performed for them. They made him stand between the pillars; 26and Samson said to the attendant who held him by the hand, 'Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, so that I may lean against them.' This is the proud and once strong Samson's worst nightmare. He is being mocked and ridiculed by all the people he used to terrify. He is utterly powerless. He cannot even protect himself against the Philistine hitting his blinded face. All he can do is obey them and act like a fool for them. 27Now the house was full of men and women; all the lords of the Philistines were there, and on the roof there were about three thousand men and women, who looked on while Samson performed. But in the midst of his despair, Samson does something he had not done in a very long time. He prayed. Listen to his prayer. It is the prayer of someone who had no hope for their life, but has not given up on God. It is the prayer of someone who wants to end their life, but does not want to end their relationship with their Lord God. Verse 28 "Then Samson called to the Lord and said, 'Lord God, remember me and strengthen me only this once, O God, so that with this one act of revenge I may pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.' God listens to Samson's prayer even though his heart's desire means his own death. For Samson does not pray for deliverance from his enemies, but simply that he may have enough strength to repay the Philistines for what they have done to him. 29And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30Then Samson said, 'Let me die with the Philistines.' Samson is willing to die, in fact he wants to die with his enemies, here and now. Samson can not imagine going on living as a blinded defeated man. All he wants to do is die with some kind of honor and God grants him that wish. We read, He strained with all his might; and the house fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed during his life. Samson willingly, deliberately committed suicide and the Bible does not condemn him. In fact he is praised. 31Then his brothers and all his family came down and took him and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years" Even the New Testament praises Samson. We read in Hebrews 11: 32-34 "And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets- who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight." Certainly the Bible, both Old and New Testament, would not be praising someone who is in hell! Samson did not kill himself because he hated God, but because he hated his own life and wanted to die with some form of dignity. Samson even prayed about his decision to end his life and God gave him the strength to die with dignity. Unfortunately, very few of the people who commit suicide nowadays, do so prayerfully. Most of the folk who attempt to kill themselves tell us that they felt so depressed that they could not pray. They are like Samson in that they do not hate God, but simply hate their lives. They feel that they are in an unbearable situation, just like Samson was. They want to end the pain and suffering and can see no other way but through their own death. Surely, God would not condemn someone to eternal suffering just because they could not bear the suffering that they experienced on earth. My very good friend, Pastor Marie Ford, who died last December from a heart attack, told me that she had once tried to kill herself. Marie was a wonderful Christian, who loved God with all her heart. But when she was 22, her world fell apart. She found out that she had a severe heart condition, that she could never have children, she lost her job and her husband left her for another woman. The walls of her life came tumbling down. Marie said that she still believed in God and trusted God, but she just didn't want to live anymore. She did pray, but was so depressed that she could not even feel God's presence. In deep despair, she took an overdose of her heart medicine. She hoped that she would wake up in heaven, or at least in a place other than this terrible earth. Marie said that she did wake up and she was not in heaven, but in her own bedroom, sick as could be. She was even more depressed than ever. She was such a failure that she could not even do a good job killing herself. As she lay on her bed trying to figure out what to do next, she felt God's love all around her. God was not condemning her for trying to kill herself. God was just loving her, holding her. She said that she knew that even if she had succeeded in ending her life, God would have still been there for her, loving her, holding her. God does not condemn us for wanting to end our lives. God loves us completely and wants us to live as long as we can, so we can share his love with everyone around us. But if our life becomes unlivable, God will not send us to hell. God may even rescue us, as he did with Marie, as God does with 80% of the people who attempt suicide. God loves us always, in life and in death. Let us now pray for those who hate their lives, that they may open their hearts to God's love and let God rescue them now and forever. |
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The New Beginnings Christian Community
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