Many years ago I watched a movie titled "Masada," Christians (I believe) were trapped on a hilltop & the Romans were about to take them. The people agreed to commit suicide to ensure they would go with God & not be touched by their enemy.
This would put a twist in the theory that suicide is a sin.
2006-08-27 06:09:10 · 6 answers · asked by Ivyvine 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
the suicide element is hotly debated in terms of its propriety, but there is only the historical record, not a biblical account. and it wqs jews in herod's fortress...not christians.
2006-08-27 06:13:02 · answer #1 · answered by rosends 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I used to be in a church choir with a woman who had worked on the archaeological dig at Masada.
As the players were Jews and Romans, and the events took place a few decades after the crucifixion of Christ, there was no reason for the authors of the New Testament to comment on the Siege of Masada, though I couldn't swear they never did.
The second link below takes a critical link at contemporary accounts and the archaological evidence. It suggests that the situation was more complicated than the accounts that you have heard.
2006-08-27 13:25:25 · answer #2 · answered by Beckee 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes the Masada siege really happened and suicide isn't a sin in gods eyes suicide was only sin after Judas there are many that commented suicide in the bible and they are not dammed take Sampson as one
2006-08-27 13:14:27 · answer #3 · answered by ryan s 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Dear Cathy N: I confirm what the others have told you in the basic facts: They were Jews - Zealots and the Romans cornered them. They did what they felt in their hearts had to be done. Each one killed another until the last one plunged a knife into his own chest. Husbands killed their wives and children, neighbors, dearest friends, etc. It was the courage and backbone of strength Jews have carried inside themselves since being made the "Chosen people," and then having to endure the scorn of the pagan societies who surrounded them with their multiple gods and made of them, "the Chosen," outcasts.
Masada is written of in many historical books about biblical times by scholars. It is well-known, this event, and a travesty upon Rome - who took a large group of Jewish Zealots who were zealous to have their homeland for themselves and be rid of Roman oppression - found where they were hiding and managed to get themselves up onto one of the highest precipices in Judea to slay whoever they found there.
God has allowed us our Free Will in physical life. He Knows what He Created - in His Own Likeness - Spirit-Mind. He Knows His Children are Eternal - as Himself. Physical life is a temporary condition - not a permanent one. Think of the Resurrection. There is no death. Intellectually speaking - did Jesus commit suicide in ordaining His Crucifixion? In a manner of speaking , yes. That would mean the Holy Spirit was a partner in His suicide with Him. The Holy Spirit partnered with the Will of Jesus to raise Him as demonstration of our Eternal-ness.
Suicide is a horrendous experience for humans. At times, it may contain nobility, as when one removes himself to spare another.
Heroes often take on seemingly suicidal missions to reach a brother in trouble.
In my readings and study of 26 years in Spirituality I have never found anything that indicated the Father felt that on noble grounds, suicide was a sin - an "error."
For those who take their lives in rage and anger at their own life and at their brothers, the Sin or "error" that exists in that TYPE of suicide is that they do not value the life the Father Created, Himself. They believe they can kill It. They have no relationship with Him, Jesus, nor the Holy Spirit. They exist in a mental state of error - wrong perceptions, wrong choices, wrong direction. This entails, in the minds of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, teaching that soul, and bringing its thinking process to a higher level of love, trust and insight - in its relationship with its Father and brothers. The soul is simply out of alignment with Truth. Jesus and the Holy Spirit may, in fact, work with that soul after the appearance of death, in the physical, has occurred.
2006-08-27 14:04:46 · answer #4 · answered by Lana S (1) 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
A biblical reference does not equate to verification of what actually took place.
2006-08-27 13:16:19 · answer #5 · answered by Gallivanting Galactic Gadfly 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
that was the jews and apparently it did.
2006-08-27 13:14:17 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋