Not long after a famous Christian leader’s son took his life, I was speaking at a church in Carlsbad, California, on “Crusades, Inquisitions, Witch-hunts, Slavery, and the Oppression of Women.” After my presentation, I took questions and the first question was from a slender, 40 something brunette. She asked, “Can a Christian commit suicide and go to heaven?” Talk about being off-topic! After I answered her and others who had more on-topic questions, she came up to me privately and asked again, “Can a Christian commit suicide and go to heaven?” She was obviously depressed (she looked something like the woman in the photo), and there was little doubt in my mind that she was asking if she could commit suicide and go to heaven. In other words, she was asking me for permission to kill herself.
By the way, I typed the title of this post into Google and there were 7,510,000 results so apparently many people are asking this question.
Often when people who call themselves Christians have committed suicide (I’m not saying whether they are Christians or not), many Christians affirm that the person who committed suicide is now in heaven. That’s a comforting thought to the loved ones of those who take their lives.
But can we declare this with confidence?
So here’s my short answer to Can a Christian commit suicide and go to heaven?: maybe, maybe not. I’ll examine the “maybe” part of my answer and then the “maybe not” part.
Maybe
Why I say “maybe” some could commit suicide and be saved is because there are many different reasons why someone might commit suicide. During the Roman persecution of Christians, what the Romans did to Christian women was beyond despicable. No one will be surprised that many were stripped naked and publicly raped, but often that was only the beginning of horrors about which I’m not going to tell.
Church historian Eusebius (c. 263–339/340 AD) tells of an “admirable” mother named Domnina (her husband was a pagan) and her daughters Bernice and Prosdoce “whose youthful beauty was in full bloom.” Guards took Domnina and her daughters to Antioch but on the way, Domnina alerted her daughters to the “dreadful things that awaited them” and that they needed to “flee to the Lord.” So at the midpoint in their journey they modestly asked the guards to excuse them for a moment and they threw themselves in the river and drowned.[i] Even though they took their own lives, the church has considered them martyrs. After all, they could have denied Christ and been left unmolested, or they could have submitted to the horrors and been killed. But, if they remained faithful to Christ, either way they were going to die. Whether this is true or not will be made evident at the Judgment. After all, as people have pointed out to me, what if Jesus took His life prior to his crucifixion so that He would avoid that pain. Again, we’ll see in Heaven.
Maybe Not
The reason I say that those who commit suicide may not be saved, even if they have made a commitment to Christ is that Christianity is more than praying the sinner’s prayer. As I’ve posted in the past, the sinner’s prayer never saved anyone. Also, as Jesus put it in Matthew 10:21-22, “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”
Hebrews 3:14 tells us: “For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.” In other words, it is the expectation of Scripture that Christians must continue to honor God until He takes them home. It’s not about whether suicide is unforgivable (the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only unforgivable sin and I’ve written an article about that), it’s about whether the person who commits suicide actually had a saving faith to the end. Also, suicide is self-murder and 1 John 3:15 says, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” These verses should scare any Christian contemplating suicide and that’s a good thing.
Partially this is an issue as to whether a person can lose their salvation or was never saved in the first place. I’ve also posted on this in “Can Christians Lose Their Salvation? Yes and No.” In short, both Calvin and Arminius agreed on one point. If at one time a person claimed to be a Christian but later stopped believing and died in that position, then both Calvin and Arminius agreed that the person isn’t saved.
Now some may be angry that I would dare suggest that this or that person who claimed to be a Christian but committed suicide might not be saved. Often Christians bring up the fact that the person who committed suicide was mentally ill. Some will say things like “only God knows the heart” and, “God can forgive anything.” But, I’m not pronouncing that Christians who commit suicide, whether mentally ill or not, are not saved. I’m saying that we shouldn’t pronounce either way whether self-identified Christians who commit suicide are saved. That will be revealed at the Judgment where, as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians 4:5, the Lord will “bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts.” The Lord is gracious and He will be fair.
We need to beware being so desperate to console ourselves over the dead that we don’t consider the damage we might do to the living. If Christians pronounce that Christians who commit suicide are saved, then they will embolden others in the Christian community to commit suicide. Such a pronouncement, such a judgment, is without scriptural support and hurts Christians tempted by suicide. Christians shouldn’t do anything to encourage those suffering mentally or physically to take their lives. We should love them and encourage them to live for Jesus.
[i] Paul L. Maier, Eusebius: The Church History (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 1999), 302.
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Gee, first reply to an important topic. I’d agree with the maybe; but would err on the side of generosity. If they are Christian, then yes, but I’m thinking of Christians in the despair of depression. I’ve one has not experienced this, the bleak, empty, blackness of it belies description. It is bad. Clearly I survived. Others have not…depression can be so bad, unbelievable bad. Its an illness, not a recreational choice.
Hi
Firstly, regarding this post, I totally agree with what you say. I understand why well meaning pastors say someone who has committed suicide is in heaven; it is a comfort to those who hear, perhaps particularly family. However, it is an unwarranted assumption without the support of Scripture.
It is a catastrophic failure of faith. Only God knows if the degree of mental disturbance excuses it.
As someone who has struggled with depression over many years it is not helpful for depressed people. The thought that it is a quick way to heaven out of our distress may tip the depressed person to take his life. On the other hand, the awareness that it is he who endures to the end who is saved and he who doesn’t has no such promise is itself a guard against suicide.
By the way, I’ve been reading some of your other posts and finding myself often silently ‘amening’. I trust a post will open for you soon where you can have liberty of conscience.
As someone who has a history of depression I thoroughly agree with this post. We do depressed people no favours, here or in the hereafter, if we create a theology that permits suicide.
Suicide is a catastrophic failure of faith. Only God knows if the state of mind was such that such failure was excusable.
A brave and balanced post.
Incidentally I’ve read a few of your other posts and enjoyed them… with the possible exception of your issues with determinism. I trust you are soon reemployed.