Is Suicide the Unforgivable Sin?
First, let’s define what suicide is. It is a person’s intentional ending of their own life either by themselves, someone else or with another’s assistance. A suicide is when a person acts out their desire to die.
Let’s look at a few examples of what suicide is not.
– a soldier charging the enemy, knowing that he will most likely die, is not acting out of a desire to die but rather is accepting a foreseen yet unwelcome consequence of a heroic act. He is not undertaking his mission for the express purpose of ending his life.
– a diabetic who, otherwise in good health, stops taking his insulin because he is depressed about something is committing suicide.
– a person, who is sick and dying and refuses medication to prolong his life, is not committing suicide. The medication will only prolong his death, not his life. He is simply acquiescing to an inevitable outcome not of his own making.
– a doctor who denies his patient food, water and air is culpable in the patient’s death whether or not the patient requested this. If you deny anybody food, water and air, they will die.
When people who have made serious suicide attempts but failed to take their life, are interviewed afterwards, the vast majority say they wouldn’t have attempted suicide if they had waited 24 more hours. Most suicides seem to be a surrendering to an overwhelming but momentary attack of acute depression.
In fact;
– there are 4 male suicides for every female one, but twice as many females attempt suicide.
– 500,000 Americans survive suicide attempts each year.
– of those who commit suicide, only 25% are mentally ill.
– of those who commit suicide, 80% warned someone that they were thin king of doing it.
– the highest suicide rates are for people 35-49 years old and 65 years and older.
– the suicide rate on American Indian reservations is 5 times the national rate.
While the bible doesn’t specifically address suicide, there are 5 incidences of it in the bible;
– Abimelech in Judges 9:50-57
– Saul and his armor-bearer in 1st Samuel 1:1-6 & 1st Chronicles 10:1-13
– Ahithophel in 2nd Samuel 17:23
– Zimri in 1st Kings 16:18,19
– Judas Iscariot in Matthew 27:5
in none of these is there an explicit judgement about suicide but it is interesting to note that in each of these cases, suicide is the end result to a life of moral and spiritual rebellion against God.
The bible does condemn murder (Exodus 20:13) and suicide is a form of murder. But is suicide the unpardonable sin? What is the unpardonable sin? What sin can we not be forgiven of?
John 15:26 & 16:8-15 say that the Holy Spirit will come and convict people of their sin and their need for Jesus as their Savior. So, the unpardonable sin is rejecting Jesus as your Savior. This is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that Mark 3:28,29 talks about. This is the only sin that cannot be forgiven. So, NO, suicide is NOT the unpardonable sin. Yes, if a Christian commits suicide, the blood of Jesus washes away this sin. While it is a tragedy that a believer commit suicide, what a wonderful forgiving God we have.
References:
“Tough Topics 2” by Sam Storms
“Matters of Life and Death” by Beckwith and Geisler
For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard
http://BSSSB-LLC.com