Are Christian suicides forgiven?

If a Christian dies by suicide, do they go to Heaven? Christian defenders give an answer

Two people who defend Christianity have talked about whether Christians who commit suicide go to Heaven or Hell when they die.

Jonathan Noyes, a former atheist who is now a Christian author and apologist, and Sean McDowell, a professor and apologist, talked live on YouTube on Tuesday about the question, “Is suicide seen as unforgivable in God’s eyes?”

Both apologists agreed that the Bible says Christians won’t go to hell if they commit suicide. They also agreed that “how someone dies has nothing to do with where they go after death”

The two of them talked a lot about God’s grace for a broken world, referring to Ephesians 2:8: “Because you were saved by God’s grace, through faith. This did not come from you; it was a gift from God.”

“If an atheist commits suicide, they will go to Hell, not because they killed themselves, but because they didn’t believe in Jesus. Christians are in the same situation, “Noyes, a speaker for Stand to Reason’s apologetics ministry, said this. “Because they are Christian, Christians who commit suicide go to Heaven.”

“The most important thing about being a Christian is putting your hope and faith in Jesus. You “confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that He rose from the dead.””

Noyes and McDowell say that God can forgive suicide by Christians in the same way that he can forgive other sins.

“I follow Christ. Jesus is a person I know. God and I have a great relationship. And if I cheat on my wife or do something else outside of my marriage, am I still saved? Yes, because I‘m not saved by what I do. This means that I can’t lose my salvation by what I do. So, it’s the same with suicide, “Noyes brought this up.

“I’m saved even if I die in the middle of having an affair. God gives us the ability to change our minds. We don’t have to do anything to be saved by God. It’s like believing. Repentance, like faith, is a gift.”

McDowell also talked about a similar point that is often used to say that Christians who commit suicide don’t go to Heaven because they didn’t have a chance to change their minds after they died.

“It’s clear that it’s the last act, and there’s no time to change your mind. Even if you say to God before you do something bad, “Hey, forgive me for what I’m about to do,” the apology is still made. And you might still wonder if the person knows what they are doing before they do it “McDowell said this about the argument’s main point.

But he disagreed with this idea and said that Christians who don’t repent for every sin they did before they die won’t go to hell because they are already saved by “faith through grace.”

McDowell also said that if a Christian’s salvation depended on how much they changed, it would be “paralyzing” to live that way.

“I’m not living in a constant back-and-forth with God, where if I tell a lie, I lose my salvation until I ask for repentance, or if I have a lustful thought, I lose my salvation until I ask for repentance. When Jesus says, “My burden is light,” that’s not what He really means.”

Noyes said that he would not be able to get into Heaven if God made repentance a requirement for all believers.

“I’m a loser…. If you told John, “Right now, confess every sin,” I could say a lot, but I’m going to leave some out. Because I do sinful things without even realizing it,” Noyes said, “the Christian’s hope for future glory should lie in an unwavering relationship with the Redeemer God, the Son of heaven.” “not by trying to earn their way to heaven.

Noyes did warn, though, that grace “is not an excuse to try to kill yourself.”

“Suicide is a grievous sin. … It’s killing oneself. It makes God sad. It never makes God happy. And part of being a Christian is that we never run toward our sin. We try to avoid it. We want to become more like Jesus, not less “Noyes said.

““Paul is telling people about the amazing grace we have because of Christ. He says, “Nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.” Then he says, “Nothing, neither heights nor depths, neither angels nor demons.” But just because God has given us so much amazing grace, that doesn’t mean we can ever give in to sin.”

Noyes and McDowell are not the only American Christians who think the way they do about suicide and salvation. Other well-known American Christians have said the same things.

Kay Warren, a best-selling author and co-founder of the popular Evangelical Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, lost her son Matthew to suicide in 2013. She told The Christian Post that the Church has always had mixed feelings about suicide and has even shamed people who kill themselves and wouldn’t let them be buried in church cemeteries.

“But when I look at the Bible, I can’t find a good reason for that,” she said.

“I see in John 10 that Jesus talks about His sheep. His sheep know His voice, and He knows theirs. Nothing can pull His sheep out of His hand,” she said. “Jesus gives me a clear answer to that: ‘When you believe in me, when your faith is in me as your Savior, you can’t even get out of my hands.'”

Warren said that God “promised us that Matthew’s salvation was safe and secure.”

“When Matthew was a little boy, he gave his life to Jesus. So, I’m 100 percent sure that Matthew is in Heaven because of what Jesus did “She spoke. “And that gives me hope.”

Greg Laurie, the pastor of the Harvest Christian Fellowship Church in California, said at the funeral of one of his associate pastors, Jarrid Wilson, in 2019 that it is a “misconception” for Christians to think that their last sin can send them to Hell.

“You won’t be judged by the last thing you did before you died when you stand before God. The last thing Jesus did before He died will be used to judge you. He died because of your sin “At the time, Laurie said.

Wilson, who was 30 years old, tweeted on the day he killed himself that loving Jesus doesn’t always make you feel better.

“Having suicidal thoughts doesn’t always go away when you love Jesus. Not always will loving Jesus make you feel better. Not always is PTSD cured by loving Jesus. Love for Jesus doesn’t always make you feel better, “Wilson sent a tweet. “But that doesn’t mean that Jesus can’t be our friend and comfort us. That’s what he ALWAYS does.”

Laurie said that Wilson made the right choice when he was alive by choosing to follow Jesus.

“He believed the promise in John 3:16: “Because God loved the world so much, He gave His only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not die but live forever.” I think Jarrid is in heaven right now because of this “Laurie wrote.

A Messianic Jewish author and radio host named Michael Brown wrote in an opinion piece about Wilson’s death that Christians are not “saved or lost based on a specific sin we commit or don’t commit.”

“We are saved by believing in Jesus’ death and resurrection,” he wrote. “Jesus then becomes our Lord and tells us to live a new life.”

“What if we don’t want Him to be our Lord after we’ve been saved? What if we refuse Him and turn away from Him? Then, can we lose our salvation? I think the Bible makes it clear that this is a real possibility. Don’t mess around with such a great way to be saved! (Of course, I’m aware that Christians have a lot of different ideas about this.) Is it possible, then, that someone who kills themselves does so as a way to show God they don’t respect Him and reject His authority?”

“This is also possible. But unless we have clear proof that this is the case, we should believe and hope for the best when we hear that a believer committed suicide, especially if they were very depressed.”