THE SIN OF SUICIDE
<>From the start, let me say that suicide is not only a sin but it is an ULTIMATE SIN AGAINST GOD. For when you take you own life, you do not only declare that there is no hope and no God but at the same time you deprive yourself of an only chance to repent. As always, let us turn to the Bible for some answers…..
There are two classical cases of suicide in the Bible and both as you know illustrate the darker side of human nature. I am referring, of course, to Saul and Judas Iscariot.
In the case of Saul, his basic sin was pride.
1 Sam 15:12-13
12 Early the next
morning he went out to find Saul. Someone said that he had gone to
TLB
1 Sam 16:14
14 Now the Spirit of
the Lord had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord
tormented
him.
NIV
In the case of Judas Iscariot it was greed that caused him to fall…
<>6 He did not say this
because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper
of the
money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
NIV
1 Tim 6:10
0 For the love of
money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money,
have
wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
NIV
Finally, of course, the Devil himself took hold of Judas…
Luke 22:3
3 Then Satan entered
Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve.
NKJV
Their individual actions culminated in their respective suicides…
1 Chron 10:4-5
4 Saul said to his
armor-bearer, "Draw your sword and run me through, or these
uncircumcised
fellows will come and abuse me."
But his armor-bearer
was terrified and would not do it; so Saul took his own sword and fell
on it.
NIV
Matt 27:5
5 So Judas threw the
money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
NIV Notice that Judas threw the object of his own lust away i.e. money, in the final count.
The common denominator- The Devil ‘entered’ and controlled the lives of the two men Saul and Judas Iscariot and directed them to their own deaths. The final phase of a demon controlled life is the last stage of the journey to suicide.
Lastly, a strong word of Caution from the New Testament…..
1 Cor
If anyone destroys
God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you
are
that temple.
NIV
A Born Again Christian is God’s temple.
A Non Christian is
God’s Creation. We have a miracle working God who not only cares for us
(Matt
Mental illness can take the form of an organic disturbance or a non organic disturbance. The former being related to pathological structural abnormalities e.g. malformations of the nervous systems and the latter with no definite anatomical correlation (these may be related to hormonal or other chemical issues). The third medically undefined category could be termed “demon possession” or “demon oppression” as illustrated in the case below…
1They went
across the
lake to the region of the Gerasenes.[a] 2When Jesus
got out of
the boat, a man with an evil[b] spirit
came from the tombs to meet him. 3This man
lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him any more,
not even with a chain. 4For he had
often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the
chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough
to
subdue him. 5Night and
day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out
and cut himself with stones.
That the
demon possessed man in
Mark 5 was mentally deranged appears to be an undisputable fact, viz,
he lived
in the tombs, cries out and cut himself with stones and lives in a
state of
nakedness (ff Luke 8:35).
However, the
following passages
showed that in spite of his mental status he could beg the Lord for
mercy..
MARK 5
6When he
saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of
him. 7He shouted
at the top of his voice, "What do you want with
me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won't
torture
me!" 8For Jesus
had said to
him, "Come out of this man, you evil spirit!"
Here was a demon possessed man who though mentally deranged was still in control of his own will. As mentioned in the same episode, our Lord Jesus sent the legion of demons into the pigs and set the demon possessed man free.
LUKE 8
38The man
from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him,
but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39"Return
home and tell how much God has done for you." So
the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for
him.
In the parallel passage from Luke 8
above, you will notice
that the demon possessed man was not only delivered but became a
witness for
Christ. Mentally deranged, demon possessed people therefore are not
permanently
handicapped and are able to revert to their normal status following
spiritual
deliverance. Like anyone of us, they are capable of repenting and
coming to Christ
in faith. Although ‘suicidal’ evil spirits are mentioned in the New
Testament
(Luke
39A spirit seizes him and
he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at
the
mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him.
The Bible is silent about those who are structurally or biochemically mentally handicapped. Would God have more mercy on those mentally deranged with an IQ of a 4 year old child? We do not know as the Bible does not provide every answer for every situation. So the question of suicide in a mentally deranged but non demon possessed person has not been adequately addressed in the Scriptures and is best left in the hands of Deuteronomy 29:29 below…
29 The
secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed
belong to us
and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this
law.
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