On average, 121 people commit suicide per day in America. It is now the tenth leading cause of death in this country. In this episode we discuss this phenomenon and seek to understand what the bible can teach us about this subject. In addition, we wrestle with a number of hard questions about suicide such as:
- Is suicide a sin?
- Will suicide bar someone from eternal life?
- How do we explain God strengthening Samson to commit suicide at the end of his life?
- How can we show compassion and love to those with suicidal thoughts?
Lastly, we consider how the bible provides hope for when we go through the darkest of times.
—— Links ——
- Check out the other episodes in the series on Killing
- For more on Wendy Savage and her interlocutor, Hayood Robinson, check out this Unbelievable episode
- Intro music: “Protofunk” by Kevin MacLeod. Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
Many people commit suicide because there is no one to reach out to, or because they have reached out to the wrong people. Perhaps that situation is hard for many to understand who are surrounded by family and friends, which is not a luxury everyone has, and as Christians this is something we should consider.
It is true of course that for Christians, many times suicide has been prevented because of the Bible, though that has not always been the case as we know.
How can we think of ways to prevent us from falling into despair? When we wake up in the morning and wonder how we are going to get through the day, we can think about how Christ died for us so that we can live forever – Jesus suffered and died so that we can live, and so we have a Christian responsibility to live now and in the age to come.
The words of Jesus can make us strong (John 6:63). We must listen to him.
Sean,
I had suicidal thoughts growing up, and I’ve thought more lately about ending it. I will never, ever do it, however. One of the things that would prevent that is the love for those around me. Also, as one of you said in the podcast, it goes against that which God promised. I mean, if we believe “eternal life” really means that, then certainly this is what we hope for.
However, I think that a lot of people who want to commit suicide really do want life and want a better one, and some feel that they will go to the afterlife and will leave behind the troubles that are plaguing them now. Some of them just want suffering to end, and that’s understandable. It says of wisdom that all who hate it love death, and certainly these people who want death don’t know what they want for themselves!
There’s a temptation involved like with everything. Is it what the Spirit wants, for a man to die? No, of course not. So, this is what the man (the flesh) wants, and that is obvious. Just because someone wants to die doesn’t mean they are devoid of the Spirit, because Elijah, who had God’s Spirit with him, also wanted to die at a time. Then there was Jonah who, out of anger, wanted to die, because he felt like he had gone to Ninevah for no real reason. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
Dwelling on your temptation does focus you on it, and makes it difficult to ignore, and so it doesn’t surprise me that more people would commit suicide when it is sensationalized. It’s not just like people jumping on the bandwagon as posers, but they really want to. I think that if their heads were in the right place about this, they may not do it.
I think that the fear of eternal burnings helps some to not do it, while the fear of everlasting darkness helps others not to do it, while the hope for a better life in the future helps yet more; whereas others would suffer all their lives just to spare their friends and family.
I hope that’s not too grim, but those rank on my least-relatable to most-relatable reasons for not doing such things. In all of this of course is displeasure to God, and God is included in the “friends and family” in the last selection.
I appreciate looking at the Biblical perspective on this hard topic. I do want to say though that the view of suicide as a selfish act is an old view that does not account for the realities of mental illness. Serious mental health issues such as anerexia, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression and more have been linked with increased Suicide rates. I think some respect, empathy and understanding needs to be given for the seriousness of this rather than blaming the person with suicidal thoughts. If only for the reason that this type of attitude may make it less likely for someone to reach out for help.
Again, I appreciate the taking on of this hard topic but I feel this episode did a great disservice to how the church should view and talk about suicide.