As is the case with many of my blog posts this one was born out of a close encounter and this was a disturbing event. Recently a friend lost a few close relatives. One was lost to illness and another to suicide. This raised the question in my heart. What does the Bible say about suicide? As a chaplain and a caring individual, I reached out to the family and spent some time with them helping them find some perspective after the loss of their loved ones.
From experience, I know that the loss of a loved one is a grievous experience on its own. That’s why losing someone to suicide is not just grief over the loss but also a trauma because the loss was caused by the person who was lost. This kind of trauma and grief is unusually difficult to navigate because it is a compound hurt.
Following this devastating news, my friend and his family attended service in their local church, as was their custom. It turned out in this particular morning service the topic of suicide got some attention. The message from the pulpit was clear.
What does the “church” say bout suicide?
Without apology, the speaker spoke out against suicide and mentioned that it was the kind of sin that would leave the sinner condemned by God. What is being suggested here has far-reaching implications before we even start to discuss the doctrine behind this teaching. There is a definite problem with the soundness of such a message. I will revisit this later in my post.
Sadly, most churches are so large that personal relationships are difficult, rare, and often problematic, and in most cases physically impossible. In this case, the preacher was not even aware of the family’s distress. Even if the teaching was sound or based on a clear biblical perspective the way it came across was hurtful, and therefore harmful. I know that many of our modern-day pastors are not necessarily seminary graduates. I believe that seminary has positives but also includes some severe potential drawbacks. Even so at some point sound teaching comes from God. Compassion for my fellow believer stems from my relationship with my heavenly Father. John 13:35
What I can’t comment on
In the defense of the preacher, I must confess that I was not in that service. What I can speak to is the hurt that I saw in my friend’s eyes as a result of the remarks during that service. The social and emotional challenges that a less-than-ideal church structure brings are very troubling. The absence of a sound relationship between the preacher or pastor and his congregation should be seen as a failure on the part of the global body of Christ.
The church is emulating commercial business. We can see this trend highlighted in Matthew 15 and even see this in the old testament. In many instances, the success of a ministry is measured in revenue and not in the strength of their relationships. This particular cancer of commercial churching has only recently started getting noticed by the global bride of Christ. It is my view that the additional hurt to this grieving family should NOT have been added to their burden.
Finding the roots of the error in Church thinking
The perspective of this church’s leadership on the issue of suicide felt wrong to me. So I decided to dig into it a bit more. I needed to get a sound biblical perspective on how we as a church are meant to think about this topic. I was not looking for the seminary motivation but the Biblical proof thereof. So, I did what we all do. I grabbed my smart phone and went online. My search engine did not disappoint. I found a few commentaries and even a few blogs on the topic.
In the Bible
All the search results had points of relevance but no one was saying what needed to be said. The topic needed a sound voice built firmly on God’s Word. I even consulted with a trauma counselor and committed Christian. My dad had a strong position on the biblical perspective of suicide. As my research continued, I discovered these facts.
There are six occasions where the Bible mentions people successfully taking their own lives.
1 Samuel 31:2-5 (King Saul)
Matthew 27:3-5 (Judas)
Judges 16:30 (Samson)
Judges 9:54 (Abimelech)
2 Samuel 17:23 (Ahithopel)
1 Kings 16:18 (Zimri)
In none of these accounts is there any mention that it was seen as a sin or offensive in God’s eyes. This troubled me a lot. I wanted to know where this belief came from. if it is not expressly mentioned in Scripture I wanted to know where it came from. So, I knocked on Wikipedia’s door.
From Wikipedia
Wikipedia said that THE CITY OF GOD written by Augustine in the fifth century condemned the act of suicide. This was based on a non-contextual and stretched interpretation of the ten commandments from Exodus twenty that says thou shalt not kill. As of 1533, the act of suicide became illegal under the law. These laws later saw suicide victims being denied so-called “Christian burial”. Suicide survivors were even excommunicated from the church. In some instances, the property that belonged to suicide victims was confiscated by officials and forfeited to the government.
The origin of the modern-day church’s view on suicide can be traced back to the mid-sixteenth century. However, this view has no root in scripture. I checked and, simply could not find any sound basis for this perspective. This event underlined the need for relational Biblical teaching that has been vetted in God’s word and is spoken through His love.
The intended purpose of the ecclesiastical meeting
The whole purpose of an ecclesiastic meeting is to edify, exhort and uplift the body of Christ as we see in I Cor 14. When it fails to do this we have lost the basic understanding of the passion of the greatest single Commandment that says we should act in love. Leaders MUST know that any hurt caused by them in the hearts of fellow believers is added to their account. Paul says this in several places like Heb 13v17.
Perhaps the body of Christ does not understand the absolute necessity to vet Bible teaching to see if it is Biblical. It could be a good thing to have large churches, but if that comes at the expense of a loss of righteousness we are on that slippery slope that leads to our Demise.
I guess my take-home message here is to say we should be sincere toward God’s word. We should not just read it but strive to understand it. We will be evaluated by the words that come from our mouths and the fruit that is Bourne by our spirit. Those are the outcomes that can not be faked.