Suicide and the Bible
Is Suicide
Unforgivable? People who ask this question seek biblical grounds for giving hope to the kin of believers who take their own lives. The burden of proof, I should think, lies not with those who offer the solace of grace but with those who deny it. Will Jesus welcome home a believer who died at her own hands? I believe he will, tenderly and lovingly. My biblical basis? It is the
hope-giving promise of Romans
8:32
How can I trust in this promise and then deny its comfort to people who doubly grieve for brothers, sisters, fathers, and mothers who in horrible moments of despair decided to end their lives? I believe that Jesus died not only for the sins of us all but for all of our sins, including the forgotten ones, including suicide--if indeed he reckons it always as sin. The Bible does not seem to condemn suicide. There are, I think, six accounts of suicide in the Bible, the most notorious being those of King Saul (1 Samuel 31:2-5) and Judas (Matthew 27:3-5). Others are Abimelech (Judges 9:50-54), Samson (Judges 16:23-31), Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), and Zimri (1 Kings 16:15-20). As far as I can tell, none of the six is explicitly condemned for taking his life. Some say that suicide cannot be forgiven because the person who did it could not have repented of doing it. But all of us commit sins that we are too spiritually cloddish to recognize for the sins they are. And we all die with sins not named and repented of. When I was a child, I heard compassionate people comfort the loved ones of a suicide victim with the assurance that anyone who commits suicide is insane at that moment. So, being mad, a suicide victim would not be held accountable by God, despite the sin. But they were wrong of course. People of sound mind make rational decisions to end their lives. They choose to die rather than endure more pain than they think they can bear, or to spare their loved ones the pain of watching them die an ugly death. And rational people of good intentions sometimes help them do it. But people who take their own lives are not usually cool and rational about it. Nor do they mean to flout the will of God. Most of the 500,000 people who attempt suicide every year in America do not so much choose death as stumble down into it from a steep slope of despair. We are told that every 17 minutes someone in America commits suicide. In North America, suicide is the third-leading cause of death among people 15 to 25 years old, college students for the great part. And note this tragic feature of American life: among children between 5 and 14 years of age, suicide is the sixth most common cause of death. Suicide is also a significant threat to young people who have discovered that they have homosexual feelings. While there are no conclusive statistics on the phenomenon, some studies suggest a high rate of suicide attempts among young people with same-sex attractions. These are not people sticking their fists in the face of God. These are children who look in their own faces and hate what they see. The heart asks, Why? But the answer is blowing in the wind. Young people kill themselves mainly for one reason: they cannot believe their lives are precious enough to make them worth living. Despair, depression, hopelessness, self-loathing-- these are the killers. I believe that, as Christians, we should worry less about whether Christians who have killed themselves go to heaven, and worry more about how we can help people like them find hope and joy in living. Our most urgent problem is not the morality of suicide but the spiritual and mental despair that drags people down to it. Loved ones who have died at their own
hands we can safely trust to our gracious God. Loved ones
whose spirits are even now slipping so silently toward
death, these are our burden. What does the
Bible say about suicide? Suicide is not a new idea. The Bible records seven suicides.
But what does the Bible say about taking your own life? 1. God has a great plan for your life. God has created us in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). He created us for a purpose. God has a specific plan in mind for everyone. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). 2. God's plan is for life, not death. The Bible teaches that both physical and spiritual death are the result of our sin and disobedience to God, but eternal life is a gift to those who receive it. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). 3. Jesus taught that death and destruction are the work of “the thief” (Satan). He said, The thief comes only to steal and destroy (John 10:10). John 8:44 says that Satan is a “murderer” and the “father of lies.” The feelings of despair that lead to suicide are caused by some of his lies. 4. Jesus wants us to have life. He said: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10). 5. Life belongs to God. It is never our place to take our own life or someone else's life. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own, you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). If suicide isn’t the answer, what is? 1. The solution to despair and hopelessness is not suicide, but faith in God. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you (Psalms 33:20-22). 2. Christ promises that He will give us rest from our problems. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28). 3. Tell someone. Tell your parents, your brother or sister, your teacher or school counselor, your pastor or youth minister that you are thinking about suicide. If a friend tells you that he or she is serious about suicide, then you need to tell someone who is responsible and can help. 4. Accept Christ's free gift of eternal life and salvation, if you haven't already. Romans 10:13 says: For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 5. When we accept Christ, God gives us a brand-new life and sees us as completely holy and righteous. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17). 6. Because of God's salvation through the death of Jesus on the cross, we can have assurance of eternal life with God. I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. (John 5:24) Source: www.christiananswers.net/q-dml/dml-y038.html
If a Christian
dies by suicide, will they go to Heaven? Later, Thomas Aquinas, being Catholic and believing that confession of sin must be made prior to departure from the world to the next, taught that suicide was the most fatal of all sins because the victim could not repent of it. The problem with his view is that it represents a gross misunderstanding of eternal security, which Scripture clearly teaches. We are saved by the grace of God, not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9) and nothing can separate a Christian from the love of God (Romans 8:37-39). Other verses that clearly teach assurance of salvation for the believer are: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life." John 5:24 However, suicide is not what God wants
for anyone. We have a God who loves us and cares for us and
promises to meet all of our needs if we place our trust in
Him (Proverbs 3:5-6). More
Religious Leaders Challenge Silence, Isolation Surrounding
Suicide "You just didn't talk about those things back then. We didn't even talk about suicide when I was in the seminary," says Arnold, who leads the United Church of Santa Fe in New Mexico. Then, when the wife of one of her divinity school professors killed herself and no one muttered a word about it during the service, Arnold says she was appalled. "I was sitting there thinking, 'This was nuts. Why can't you name it?' " That was almost 40 years ago. In the United States alone, someone dies by suicide once every 13 minutes. For the longest time, there was a cloak of secrecy about the details of a death by suicide, but talking about suicide may be the best hope for stopping it, according to researchers. Until recently, many religious leaders were not well-prepared to talk about suicide with their congregants. Now some clergy have become an important part of suicide prevention. "Where there's faith, there's hope, and where there's hope, there's life," says David Litts, co-leader of the Faith Communities Task Force of the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention. Arnold also leads that task force. "If someone dies from heart disease, for instance, or in an accident, they may wonder where God is, but when someone dies by suicide, a whole lot of other questions get raised," she says. "When you can't talk about this in church, then it feels like God can't talk about it either." But in her church, she says, there isn't shame surrounding suicide. During the pastoral prayer, for instance, she says she lifts up congregants dealing with cancer, heart disease or mental health issues. "It's a way of signaling to people this is a safe place to talk about such things and be honest about them." In 2015, Barbara Bauer lost her 19-year-old son to suicide. She says her church, in Lake Forest, Calif., was a source of comfort. Her pastor's son had killed himself just two years earlier. "Anybody who loses a child by suicide has some kind of guilt," she says. "Our church is very open to people and not judgmental. I felt we could be very real. We could cry. We could lament what might have been and what we could have done differently." Looking beyond suicide as a sin Historically, in many faiths, suicide has been considered a sin. Parishioners were stranded from finding solace in their houses of worship after a loved one died by suicide. Many faith leaders across the country have changed their understanding of suicide and mental illness through extensive training and peer support. "Mental illnesses are not spiritual weaknesses or failure of faith," says Dr. Farha Abbasi, assistant professor of psychiatry at Michigan State University. She is also the director of the Muslim Mental Health Conference, which strives to dispel myths and cut through the fears that some Muslim Americans have around mental health. She has worked with more than 100 imams to educate them in basic mental health and suicide prevention and trauma-informed care. She says it can be easy for imams to get overwhelmed by the demands of their congregations, which can include large populations of immigrants and refugees. "In the past, we would jump to thinking of jinn, or spirit possession, as the only thing happening to a person in cases where they lost their ability to rationalize and make decisions. Now we understand that mental illness may be incapacitating that person," he says. In 2012, roughly 23 percent of the nation's houses of worship provided mental health programming. That is according to the most recent data provided by a regularly conducted survey of American congregations, the National Congregations Study. Those services may include mental health ministries, special youth and adult programs, sermons and planned series of expert speakers on mental health concerns. That percentage is up significantly from 2006, when only 8 percent of congregations reported sponsoring mental health programming. The unique position of faith leaders "Faith leaders have always been in a position to help whoever comes in their doors. One thing we found in our study was that certain congregational characteristics made a difference," says Eunice Wong, a behavioral scientist at the Rand Corp. and lead author of a recent study that analyzed data from the last wave of the NCS study. One of many takeaways from the research was that congregations in predominantly African-American neighborhoods are more likely to sponsor mental health programming because their congregants are less likely to seek mental health treatment. "It's definitely true that pastors have been challenged to become more qualified to address mental health issues," says Maurice Porter of Shiloh Baptist Church in Hartford, Conn., which is primarily African-American. "I'm sure there is more that can be done, but in my church, during weekly Bible studies, we always talk about specific issues we're going through emotionally and mentally." When he sees a congregant in emotional pain, he says he tries to craft sermons around whatever issues they're going through because that is the time when everyone is assembled and listening. And the same is true at Temple Aliyah in Woodland Hills, Calif., where Rabbi Ben Goldstein, who is also on Faith Communities Task Force, says he has experienced the toll of mental illness in his temple life and in his home life. "People talk about mental health in whispers. I think there's definitely a fear to say what's going on. Our job on the task force is to eliminate that," he says. In a recent High Holy Days sermon on
the topic, he told congregants, "To all of those who are
suffering from mental illness, know this: You are not alone.
You are never alone. All you need to do is ask for help.
Here, in this community, you will always have someone to
whom you can look, with whom you can talk." 
39:05
Religion Gives Us the World’s Largest Mental Disorder – ReligithexiaIn psychology, the term “Mental Retardation” was changed to “Learning Disabled”. Perhaps the term, “Religitard” might be too harsh for someone who hangs on to outdated beliefs, so maybe there will be a new diagnosis called Religithexia for those who are “Religiously Disabled”? Etymology: Religi (reverence for the gods) and thexia (longing for or desire) While Religithexia is not an acknowledged disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV), it could be. Were you aware that there is a disorder called Orthorexia Nervosa, which is a preoccupation for avoiding unhealthy foods? And with the right diagnosis by your psychiatrist along with the proper medication prescribed through Big Pharma, you can overcome your desire to eat healthily while enjoying all of the processed foods and genetically modified organisms that “normal” people eat. The true conspiracy behind Big Pharma involves such names as John D. Rockefeller and Adolph Hitler as well as businesses such as I. G. Farben, Bristol Meyers and Standard Oil. Astrology, Astrotheology, and the End Times The most interesting facet of the bible is how it was written in perfect, astrotheological order! When Moses brought back the commandments from god, his people were worshiping a golden calf, or in zodiac terms, the Age of Taurus. This was the transition point into the Age of Pisces, symbolized by the twin fish. As the story goes, Jesus fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. Both Jesus, the “sun/son” of God, and the fish represent the next 2,150 years in Christian theology. As the story continues, it was written, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him into the house which he enters.” This is the Age of Aquarius that is hidden in biblical metaphor. We’ve all seen the car decals and bumper stickers that have the fish symbol. As we near the end of the Age of Pisces, we will most certainly see an increase in the water symbolism that represents the Age of Aquarius. This is also why the bible ends in Revelations because the astrologers who were involved with writing the bible knew that, inevitably, religion (as we know it) would end at this current point in time. If you follow astrology, then you’d also know about Pluto in Capricorn. The last time Pluto was in Capricorn was in 1776, the year of the American Revolution. If you look around the world, there are many revolutions going on right now and this is not a coincidence! Pluto is known as the “Destroyer” and it breaks down everything that is bad so it can be replaced with that with that which is good. That included money (we’re seeing the collapse of the USDollar and other currencies right now), government (as evidenced by numerous revolutions around the world), and religion (the exposing of the Roman Catholic Church for pedophilia, money laundering, etc…). For more on Pluto in Capricorn, please read Expect HUGE Changes During This Rare Astrological Alignment! and HUGE Changes Are Upon Us With Pluto In Capricorn . The onset of Religithexia For many, the religious brainwashing begins at birth when we are baptized and subsequently attend Sunday school. This is when young, influential and impressionable minds are engrained with the need to be saved by Jesus Christ. Because of their early brainwashing, many children never question authority, including their Sunday school teachers. Everything they are told is being sold as the truth, just as much as in their beliefs of Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. As they grow older, the truth of Santa and the Easter Bunny are revealed, but for most people, they still cling on to the same fictitious religious archetypes without questioning the beliefs or its origins. For example, did you know that the 10 Commandments were stolen from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, which actually has 42 commandments? In Exodus, we are told that Moses went to Mount Sinai and received these commandments from God. Apparently, this supernatural event is one of the many lies in the bible. Perhaps Moses had a Narcissistic Personality Disorder comorbid with bipolar manic episodes? More likely, Moses experienced delusions of grandeur, if the event even occurred at all. Without completing a psychosocial evaluation with Moses, we will never know. It becomes blatantly obvious how naïve people can be when they believe everything they read in the bible without questioning anything. For example:
Heal Yourself When the richest people in the world die, they take with them the only thing they have ever truly owned: their soul. Because of a decree written by Pope Nicholas V in 1455, the RCC owns everything, Even what you think you might own such as your car, house or even the pair of shoes you are wearing belongs to the RCC (in their twisted minds). Healing begins with knowledge Baptism is forced upon a child without the child’s knowledge of what this ritual is all about. Christians will tell you that baptism is viewed as becoming part of the family, then growing into the belief that Jesus Christ has accepted you, so where did this ritual come from? Just like ALL Christian holidays, baptism has Pagan origins coming from the influences of Baal Worship. It is claimed that the word ‘obelisk’ literally means ‘Baal’s shaft’ or ‘Baal’s organ of reproduction’. (Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated, by Dr. Cathy Burns, pg. 341) In the bible, Jer 19:5, it states, “ They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire {for} burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake {it}, neither came {it} into my mind:”. So, in essence, baptism is a sacrifice to Baal, just like what is reportedly being done at the Bohemian Grove rituals in California each year. The origins of circumcision date back to the Egyptians over 5,000 years ago and while it is not clear why they did this ritual, it is believed that it was performed as a sacrificial rite. The ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1876) discussed circumcision as a religious rite among Jews, Moslems, ancient Egyptians and several tribal peoples:: Like other bodily mutilations … [it is] of the nature of a representative sacrifice. … The principle of substitution was familiar to all ancient nations, and not least to the Israelites. … On this principle circumcision was an economical recognition of the divine ownership of human life, a part of the body being sacrificed to preserve the remainder. By 1910, the eleventh edition of the entry was reversed: “This surgical operation, which is commonly prescribed for purely medical reasons, is also an initiation or religious ceremony among Jews and Mahommedans”: suddenly circumcision is primarily a medical procedure and only after that a religious rite. The entry explains that “in recent years the medical profession has been responsible for its considerable extension among other than Jewish children … for reasons of health”. These are just a couple examples of questions that many Christians never seem to ask while wallowing in the subservience, control, and conformity of the church. Truth is knowledge and knowledge is power. In 1455, the first Testamentary Trust was created by Pope Nicholas V which basically states that the Roman Catholic Church has laid claim to all of your real estate. You cannot own anything that has a title because the Roman Catholic Church has already claimed ownership to it. You can’t own it anyways (nor can the Roman Catholic Church) because everything can be eventually broken down into molecules and those molecules are owned by our Creator. Fact: The Crusades never ended. Virtually every war is a sacrifice to the evil entity known as the Roman Catholic Church in their quest for complete domination of the world. This is the church’s eugenics program that has been going on for thousands of years and continued today with numerous global wars coupled with fluoridated water, pharmaceuticals and genetically modified foods. The Roman Catholic Church knows exactly who the antichrist is when it looks at itself in the mirror. And those people who follow the RCC are in essence, following the antichrist. Steven Spielberg couldn’t have written such a twisted script for Hollywood. Mr. Spock once said, “The insane are sane in an insane society.” In other words, if you are not religious, then surely, you must be insane, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Denial The most difficult part of anyone’s treatment will be facing the truth and how they have been lied to for millennia. Pastors and priests will try to justify their positions as clergy by reiterating non-provable rhetoric that has absolutely no empirical data to back it up. If you ask them about a timeline, they will tell you that time was recorded differently back then. If you ask them about the existence of anything beyond the creation of the bible, which dates mankind’s existence to approximately 4,000 BC, they will tell you nonsense such as God is testing you with those dinosaur bones. Your Christian friends and family will also try to justify their beliefs, telling you that the church provides morals while doing good deeds for the community. Do you really need a church to be a good person? And why can’t people do good things for one another without the church? It is in this therapist’s opinion to heal yourself through knowledge. The truth is being exposed so take the time to do your own research. Gandhi once stated, “Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth.” Seek out that truth and stand by it no matter what anyone else thinks. If you have questions, ask them until you get an answer that is suitable, even if it contradicts what popular opinion might dictate. We have been brainwashed for thousands of years and now is the time to sort out the truth. What we’ve got here is failure to communicate… It’s painful to watch people being lied to and even more so when they justify their outdated beliefs. You can provide a plethora of empirical data that proves how religion is all about subservience, control, and conformity, but they will either listen with deaf ears or will justify their beliefs based on hearsay or “faith”. As evidenced by a multitude of Near Death Experiences, there are no pearly gates and no religious figures to greet you once you die. You judge yourself in a panoramic 360 degree view and then you judge yourself through the eyes of everyone you have encountered in your life. The same goes for other religions. After death or martyrdom, Muslims do not have sex with 72 virgins. How did I get here? Everyone is born with unique talents and gifts. One of my gifts is being able to successfully work with at-risk youth. Since I was a teen, children seem to gravitate to me for some unknown reason. As a father of a 20 year old daughter, I have noticed that my daughter has this gift as well. As a child and family therapist for at-risk youth, I have successfully worked with many children and parents in helping them to attain equilibrium within their relationship with one another. I wrote a patent pending program designed to help families who are at-risk of dissolution (breaking up), for children who are at-risk, for children who are going through the reunification process (e.g. being reunited with parents after being placed in a foster home) and for parents in need of parenting classes. The program works with every person, despite differences in race, ethnicity or religious background (or lack of). I have also written a book called 100+ Common Parenting Mistakes, which helps to prevent and address common problems that we have all experienced as parents. As a child, I was always repelled by religion. I was raised as a Christian (Methodist) and would constantly question my Sunday school teacher about our true origin of existence. Just walking into church felt innately wrong as if my higher self was kicking me in the ass while screaming, “Get out of here!” Coupled with my psychology background, I have also studied religion, philosophy and theology quite extensively, which has led me to being if anything, gnostic. I believe in an all-loving higher Source and I reject the biblical god who is all-loving one minute, then decides to kill everyone except Noah and his family the next minute. Addendum Try looking at religion from another perspective.
It seem like the origins of prejudice have come from religion. Here’s another example. Imagine if a UFO landed in your backyard. Do you honestly think the ET will be carrying a bible with him? Related: 10 Christ-Like Figures Who Pre-Date Jesus Here’s another example. Imagine if a UFO landed in your backyard. Do you honestly think the ET will be carrying a bible with him? Realizing that their fictitious fairy tale is about to be exposed, Pope Benedict XVI’s astronomer stated the Catholic Church welcomes aliens. Really? On what day did the Christian God create aliens? In an article written on September 17, 2010, senior Vatican astronomer, Brother Guy Consolmagno, said he would welcome aliens into his church and would be happy to baptize them. It’s pretty sad to see how the Vatican believes they can convert ET’s to Christianity. What is even scarier is that they have tried to convert the rest of the world through war and corruption. Ask yourself this: Why does the Vatican own many of the world’s most powerful telescopes, including one called L.U.C.I.F.E.R.? We have all heard about the false prophet line of crap. The bible conveniently mentions false prophets 17 times. Here is one of them: 2 Peter 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them. With such an evil plan for subservience, control and conformity, is it possible that the church realized they would eventually be exposed? The false prophet line of crap is the church’s way of delaying the inevitable of being exposed for trapping humanity into a demented belief system filled with contradictions such as:. How many stalls and horsemen? 1KI 4:26 And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. 2CH 9:25 And Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen; whom he bestowed in the chariot cities, and with the king at Jerusalem. Is God good to all, or just a few? PSA 145:9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works. JER 13:14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith the LORD: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them. War or Peace? EXO 15:3 The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name. ROM 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Is it good to be wise or not? PRO 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. ECC 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. 1CO 1:19: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.” There are many, many more contradictions in the bible, but you get the picture. Conclusion Because the medical industry works hand-in-hand with the pharmaceutical industry, the DSM IV will never recognize Religithexia as an official disorder because there is no “cure” provided by Big Pharma. Religion keeps us divided as a global civilization while continuing the unnecessary deaths of billions of people through inquisitions, crusades, eugenics and an outdated belief system. How much longer will we remain subservient to a system that promotes killing one another? To this therapist, “Religion” should be the DSM IV definition of insanity and ALL bibles should be four words long: Love everyone. Respect everything. One last thought to ponder: The letter
“J” wasn’t invented until the mid
1500’s. Do the math. If there was a savior-like
character in the bible, it was IMPOSSIBLE for his name to be
Jesus. While it may be possible for him to be named Yahweh
or Yeshua, then why didn’t the bible write it that way?
What else have they twisted around? If King James was a
freemason, then what were his motives behind altering the
bible? How many people were named “John” or
“Jacob” in the middle east where Jesus supposedly
originated? Faith, Hope,
& Life
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