One question that we receive quite frequently is whether or not a Christian who commits suicide will go straight to hell once they actually do it. If you google this question, you will see a wide variety of opinions on this issue.
Since we do receive this question so frequently, I thought I would do an article on this topic so we could lead people right to it when they do ask for our opinion on it.
If someone decides to take their own life for whatever their personal reasons may be at the time, there are three basic opinions as to what will happen to them once they die and cross over to the other side.
1. All Christians who commit suicide will go straight to hell
2. All Christians who commit suicide will go straight to heaven because they cannot lose their salvation with the Lord
3. God will judge each case individually
As you can see, you have two extreme positions, and then one position that is in the middle of the road.
Since the Bible is silent on this issue, then only one of the above three opinions is going to be the correct one. The Bible tells us that we will only “know in part “while we are down here upon this earth.
And I am afraid this is one of those questions that we will have to wait until we get to heaven to see who had the correct answer.
Once we get to heaven, Jesus Himself will be answering these types of tough questions for all of us, along with us finding out what happened to all of the people who did commit suicide in this life.
For the record, we believe in opinion #3 above – that God will judge each one of these cases individually – in the same way our criminal and civil court systems are set up to try and judge each case on an individual basis.
Now here is a breakdown on each one of the above opinions so you can see the arguments that are being made on each one.
1. All Christians Who Commit Suicide Will Go Straight to Hell
The first extreme position is that all Christians who commit suicide will go straight to hell, no questions asked.
Their reasoning is based off the following three verses:
1. And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me … You shall not murder … ” (Exodus 20:1-17)
2. “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, uncleanness, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19)
3. “He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall by My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, MURDERERS, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” (Revelation 21:7-8)
The first verse is from the Ten Commandments. The 6th commandment is the one that says we shall not murder. And if a person has taken their own life, then they are guilty of breaking this 6th commandment before the Lord. And if they have committed murder against their own selves by willfully taking their own lives, then they will not be entering into heaven based upon the wording of the next two verses above.
Both of these next two verses are saying, in no uncertain terms, that murderers will not be entering into heaven. But is this verse referring to Christians as well as unbelievers, or is it only referring to unbelievers? Again, we will find out on the other side once Jesus answers these kinds of tough questions for all of us.
But I would not want to tempt my eternal fate with the Lord and take my own life, and then hope I will not lose my salvation with Him. This is one gamble that is simply too extreme and too dangerous to take, especially with the way all three of the above verses are being worded by the Lord.
2. All Christians Who Commit Suicide Will Still Enter Into Heaven
This next belief is the other extreme position. This position is that any Christian who ends up taking their own life will still get to go straight to heaven. Their reasoning is based off the assumption that no Christian can ever lose their salvation with the Lord no matter what they may ever done in this life. In other words, once saved, always saved.
So this now brings us up to a very controversial topic in the Body of Christ – can a Christian lose their salvation with the Lord? We already have an article on this topic in the Current Issues section of our site. Here is the title and direct link to it:
“Can a Christian Lose their Salvation?”
After examining both sides of this argument, and looking very carefully at the Scripture verses on this topic, it is my own personal opinion that a Christian can lose their salvation if they really end up pushing the envelope with the Lord with some of the heavier types of sins they can commit against Him. If you would like to see our arguments and reasonings for this position, please click on the above link to this article.
I really hope I am wrong on this question, as I would not want to see any Christian ever lose their salvation with the Lord. But some of the verses on this topic, especially when you put all of them together like pieces to a jigsaw puzzle, might be pointing to the possibility that a Christian can lose their salvation if they have entered into some real dark side activity with no intentions on ever wanting to pull out of it with the Lord. And when a Christian decides to take their own life, they are entering into major dark side activity, as the sin of murder has to be one of the worse sins you can possibly commit against the Lord.
With God Himself stating in the above two verses that the sin of murder will be one of the sins that can keep someone from being able to enter into heaven, this is without question, the most intense and dire type of warning that He can give all of us on this particular sin.
Again, this is why I would never want to tempt my eternal fate with the Lord, thinking that the blood Jesus has personally shed for me on the cross will cover me if I decide I want to check out early because I could not stand the heat in the kitchen.
For the people who do believe in this extreme position – I only have one 50 million dollar question for all of them to seriously consider.
If every single Christian will get a free pass into heaven if they decide they want to check out of this life early because the going simply got too tough for them, then what would stop the rest of us from wanting to do this with the Lord?
Many Christians I have met have gone through some real tough adversity in this life. And many of them have admitted to me that they did have thoughts of suicide right in the middle of their trials due to the intensity and length of them.
When I asked what had prevented them from actually trying to take their own lives, every single one of them said, with no hesitation whatsoever, that what stopped them from actually doing it was they did not know for certain if they would end up in hell for doing it. They did not know if they would lose their salvation with the Lord, since this act is so extreme and so final.
They all had enough of a fear of the Lord in them that they simply could not take this kind of gamble, as the the risk was simply too great. And they thus all sucked it up and eventually got through their storm cloud with the help of the Lord. Now they all look back on it and cannot believe they were even thinking about doing this in the first place.
But at the time they were going through their tough trials, they were so distraught and so discouraged, they were looking for any way to get out of it. And suicide was a very tempting option for many of them, because they knew they would be immediately brought out of their storm cloud by doing it.
However, what they also realized, is that if they ended up in hell for doing this, that their situation would be a million times worse than what they were going through up here on this earth. And then finally their common sense took over, as they all realized they could never gamble that they would not end up in hell for all of eternity for doing this.
Most people have a very strong, natural, instinctive, survival mechanism in their makeups that will help prevent them from trying to take their own lives. The desire to want to live is a very strong primal desire within all of us, and we will do everything we can to fight off death until it is our time to be taken home by the Lord.
As such, most people will not seriously contemplate taking their own lives, as just the thought of actually doing it will send major shock waves of repulsion right through them.
However, this will now lead us right into the next caption, where some people do get so distraught and so beaten down, they they do get right to the point of actually wanting to take their own lives.
3. God Will Judge Each Case Individually
This will now take us into the third possible answer to this question. And this is where God will judge each one of these cases on an individual basis. For the record, this is the position that we believe in.
Though many people are in their right minds and will know exactly what they are doing if they decide they want to check out of this life early, you also have the other types of people who may not be in their right minds when they decide they are going to take their own lives.
You do have some people who are truly mentally ill, along with some people being under very heavy demonic influence. It is my own personal belief that many people who do end taking their own lives are operating under very heavy demonic influence. Demons will move in very quickly once they see someone is thinking about taking their own lives. They will waste no time in trying to get that person to jump off the edge of that cliff.
Again, demons cannot make you do anything in this life against your own free will. But what they can do is apply a lot of pressure on their end to try and get you to do it. They will whisper in your ear that you need to do it, as the going is just getting too tough and that you need to immediately bail out of this bad situation. They will also give you evil suggestions on how to do this, along with giving you an actual desire and compulsion to actually want to do it. But again, this person will have enough will power and self control not to let the demons possess them and actually make them do it.
I have seen first hand what kind of pressure demons can put on people to try and get them to take their own lives. In the Testimonies section of our site, we have 4 very intense and dramatic testimonies of demons trying to get 4 people to try and kill themselves. If you would like to see these very intense testimonies, here are the direct links to each one of them.
1. Suicide Attack #1
2. Suicide Attack #2
3. Suicide Attack #3
4. Suicide Attack on a 6 Year Old girl
In each case, we were able to stop the demons from getting these people to do it. We gave each person the correct spiritual warfare strategy to use against them, and every single person got the demons off them within a matter of minutes after they had directly engaged with these demons.
But looking at how these 4 cases had first started up with these demons, I have to wonder how many other people are being led into suicide by these demons. And this is all as a direct result of people not knowing it was demons in the first place, or if they did, they did not know how to get them to back off them.
In each one of our 4 cases, each person did not know how to get the demons off them. And in each case, each one of these people were Christians. The reason they did not know how to get the demons to back off them is because they were never taught how to do this by the churches they were raised up in.
Again, the verse where God is telling us that His people will perish and go into captivity for having lack of knowledge is a perfect example of this actually occurring.
With so many people not being in their right minds when they do take their own lives, I have to believe that God will judge each one of these cases on an individual basis.
How many times over the last year or so have we seen teenagers take their own lives because they could no longer take the bullying that was going on their schools?
You also have many people on heavy prescription drugs that have known side effects of suicidal thoughts and tendencies. I have seen some court cases where again, some of our teenagers have either killed others or killed themselves as a result of the possible side effects from some of these heavier types of drugs. God only knows what some of these chemicals are doing to our minds and our moods.
Again, when someone can bypass their normal, instinctive, primal instincts within their personalities to want to take their own lives, there is something seriously going wrong in their minds, in their thinking, and possibly in their bodies.
This is why God will be the only One who will be able to judge each one of these types of cases, all due to the complexities that are really going behind the scenes with all of these people and within their own individual minds and bodies.
If there are any of you out there who are really battling severe thoughts of suicide and you cannot seem to get a real grip on it, please go to this site:
www.suicidehotlines.com
They will have phone numbers for each state. Please call one of their counselors and let them try and help you. They are all trained in this area and they will be able to help you get a grip on all of this.
Conclusion
As we have said at the top of this article, the Bible does not give us a clear cut answer on this question. As such, we will have to wait until we get to heaven to see who had the right answer on this question.
But with the way some of the above verses are being worded by the Lord, I would not ever want to tempt my eternal fate with Him and try to check out of this life before it was my time to do so. You will be rolling the dice and taking a very big gamble that you will not lose your salvation over it if you decide to do it.
To those of you who are having any suicidal thoughts due to some type of adversity you may be going through, remember one, simple, little thing.
If you are going through any type of storm cloud right now, God can help you get through it if you will just fully surrender your entire life over to Him, and from there, be guided by His Holy Spirit as to exactly what He will want you to do on your end to get out of it.
1. If you are in the middle of a very painful and messy divorce because of the unfaithfulness of your spouse, God can help get you through it, and then give you a brand new fresh start if you will just fully surrender your entire life over to Him
2. If you have just lost your job, God can help lead you to the next new job He will want you to have, no matter how bad the economy is right now
3. If you are hooked on a very heavy drug and you cannot seem to break free from the addiction of it, God, through the power of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you, can totally break this addiction off you if you will just fully surrender everything over to Him and be guided by what He will want you to do on your end
4. If you are a teenager and you are being bullied by some other kids at school, God can give both you and your parents the knowledge and wisdom on how to handle this problem with the school authorities
All of these types of adverse situations are not end-of-the-world situations! If God is all-powerful and there is nothing that He cannot do or accomplish, then He will have no problems in being able to help you handle any type of storm cloud that could ever come your way in this life.
But if you decide you want to take your own life before you even give God half a chance to see what He can do for you, then you will miss out on the rest of your divine destiny for Him, not to mention taking a very big risk and gamble as to where you will end up at for all of eternity once you die and cross over.
Remember the story of the children of Israel in the story of Moses. Right after they had been delivered from the Egyptians, they sent in 12 spies to spy out the land that God wanted them to go in and possess. 10 of the 12 spies come back with a bad report saying the people were too large and their kingdoms too well fortified.
In other words, they were telling God straight to His face they had no faith in His supernatural power to take these evil people off the lands that He wanted them to possess. And that was right after God had just got done delivering them from an entire Egyptian nation several years earlier.
As a result of having no faith and belief in God, God pronounces a very severe judgment on them. He tells them that all of the people 20 years and older would not be able to enter into the Promised Land, all due to their lack of faith and belief in Him.
However, Joshua and Caleb, and the younger generation under 20 years of age would be allowed to go in there, all due to the fact that they did have enough faith and belief in God that He could take all of these evil people out for them once they went into the land to start to possess it. And God ended up proving this younger generation right. Joshua took over from Moses and led the Israelites into the Promised Land and they were able to eventually gain possession of the lands that God wanted them to have.
If you decide to take your own life, you are doing exactly what the older Israelites had done with God the Father in this story. You are telling God, straight to His face, that you have no faith and belief in His ability and power to see you through your present set of circumstances.
Again, ground on your knowledge of the Bible.
If God is real and He is all-powerful, then He will have more than enough supernatural power to fully deliver you from your present set of circumstances, no matter how bleak and hopeless things may look to you right now in the natural.
If God can create our entire world in 6 days, then He will have no problems in being able to fully deliver you from the pit you may fallen into – if only you will have enough faith and belief that He can do this for you.
One last thought – as a Christian, suicide is simply not an option, since we all have an all-powerful God at our side who is just waiting to help us out when we will really need His help. Reach out to the Lord – and He will take your hand and pull you out of any dark cloud you may have just fallen into.
Do not let Satan and his demons play you out of the precious life that has been given to you by God Almighty Himself. Do not let Satan and his demons play you out of your divine destiny for the Lord.
God has a perfect plan and destiny all set up for your life. Do not lose your one and only chance in the big picture, eternal scheme of things to fully accomplish all of your divine destiny for the Lord. You only have one chance, one short window to find out what you were really created for by the Lord Himself.
This life is very short, and we will all be leaving and crossing over to the other side very shortly. And once we cross over into heaven, it will be for all of eternity – with no more pain, sorrow, and heartache ever again!
But do not tempt your eternal fate with the Lord by trying to cross over before He is ready to call you over. God will set the date and time of your departure from this life, not you or anyone else in your life. Do not play God with your life, as your death and departure from this world is His territory, not yours.