My pastor told us at church last sunday that suicide is an unforgivable sin. Do you agree?
No, I don’t believe suicide is an “Unforgivable Sin”, far from it, I believe the decision of life or death for oneself is one of the most basic human rights that no person, governing body, or religious institution has the right to take away from you or condemn you for exercising one way or the other. I don’t believe that suicide could be called the “Best” option in any but the most abysmal cases of a life gone bad, but whether anyone else thinks it’s the “Best Option” or a “Sin” or not, if there was ever a personal, private decision, that’s it.
No disrespect to your pastor, but the Bible does not support this. It DOES condemn suicide, but no, it is not an unforgiveable sin. This belief comes from an interpretation of salvation that says each sin must be confessed before it is forgiven. Since, obviously, one cannot confess one’s sin after death, they reason, suicide cannot be forgiven. But you have to look at the Bible as a whole (“Let the Bible interpret the Bible,” as my pastor says), and you will realize that salvation is not a piecemeal thing. It isn’t a matter of “I confess this sin, and I’m saved until I commit another, and then I’m going to Hell until I confess it…” It doesn’t work that way. Salvation is a gift which, once given, God does not take away. I think that suicide is disrespectful to a God who promises peace to those who lay their burdens at His feet. It is basically saying that your problems are too big for God to solve, and that’s just wrong. But like any other sin except a total rejection of Christ, suici
In my Church, suicide is usually ranked up there with murder. As another person wrote, life is a gift from God. It is not our place to decide when we leave this existence world. That written, I still don’t think that we can make a blanket statement saying that suicide is an unforgivable sin. If someone has lost the ability to judge between right and wrong and then kills themselves, are they really responsible for their actions? I don’t think so. There may also be other extenuating circumstances that might justify such an act. One other example that comes to mind were the people trapped on the upper floors of the World Trade Center on that fateful day 6 years ago. Many chose to jump rather than wait for the flames and smoke to kill them. Given the same circumstances, I can’t say that I would have made a similar choice. So, while I generally don’t think that suicide is an acceptable option, I am not going to sit here and judge those that commit it. It is not my place to make such judgmen
