In Christianity, if a person commits suicide can they still go to heaven?

Answer 1

I don't believe that the Bible actually straight out answers this question. I think some churches call suicide the unforgivable sin, but that isn't true, blaspheming the Holy Spirit is listed as the unforgivable sin.

IMO - a person who commits suicide doesn't have a personal relationship with God, which is the criteria for getting into heaven. If you truly know Jesus Christ and are walking with Him, you will not be so hopeless as to take your own life. Jesus provides us with a hope and a purpose for living. In him, there is no need for suicide. Even in the face of tragedy, there is joy and peace in knowing Jesus.
It's not that suicide itself will condemn you to hell, I just view it as an indicator that you didn't find the path during your lifetime.

Answer 2

Hi,
Basically to kill someone is grave matter. However grave matter is not enough initself to take one to hell. There must also be intent. What was the intent of the person at the time they commited suicide? If the person who commited suicide was mentally deranged this would of course mitigate that persons intent. Hence the Lord would show mercy in a case like this. However the rest of that persons life, actions, love of God etc. would all be taken into consideration in someones final judgement.

Another soul may be high on drugs and kill themselves on the belief they can fly for example. Again the state of ones mind, emotions can mitigate or condemn a soul so to speak.

A person may be suffering imense stress in there life and this may alter their normal human logic leading to make a decision not in their normal keeping. Again these factors are all mitigating factors that our Merciful Lord who knows the heart of every soul at the moment of death what is the just sentance.

However, if a soul kills themselves with a clear head and even with planned percision. Then the action would be one of grave matter and grave intent. The soul could indeed be in jeprody of losing eternal paridise. But again God knows the heart and mind of every soul and why they do or don't do things perfectly. Hence only what is just will happen to that soul for eternity.

Again it could get confusing hypothetically say in the age of the samurai when a warrior would take their own life because they have caused them selves or their society a dishonour. Now while it is both grave matter and a grave intent this act would be mitigated by the cultural knowledge of that soul. The samurai trully believed that what he was doing was a most noble act before God and man so according to his understanding this would mitigate the grave act of killing his self.

It was said that many aearly Roman christian women killed themselves rather then be raped by barbarian invaders. Again the intent why they killed themselves would mitigate the serverity of Gods justice.

Don't get me wrong, to kill one self or another person is a grave act and if someone kills for the wrong reason without repentance before God that soul could indeed lose eternal paridise. But above all God is loving and Merciful and only God at the end of the day knows what the just sentance should be as he knows the minutest detail of every soul.

I hope this answers your question

Totus Tuus Maria



The bottom line is that suicide is regarded

Answer 3

Only God knows. I believe that since God always knows your true heart then he knows exactly where a person is at during the instant of death. There are so many unanswered questions with suicide. Is a person really in their right min when they commit suicide? If not then how can God hold that against them. I believe he looks deep inside us and knows whether our motives are malice or otherwise
Yes, I believe you can go to Heaven- even if you commit suicide. I used to think otherwise but as I have study the Bible and gotten into a personal relationship with God, I have come to change my thoughts on that.

Answer 4

Why are you asking this question? If you are depressed, you need to seek counselling right away dear.

If this is a legitimate question:
In some religions, it is taught that your body is a gift and a temple for the Lord to dwell in. Taking your life away would be considered a sinful act that can't be confessed.

This is a fallacy however. Although it's true that your body is a gift to you from God (who knew you before you were born by the way) and for the Holy Spirit to dwell in if you ask Him to...
when a person becomes suicidal, it is obvious that the condition is not caused by a wilful act of selfishness, but by a mix of emotions so strong so that the person no longer has control of himself/herself. I believe that we need to help people who are in this sort of depression to the utmost of our ability.
I like to believe that, since suicide obviously happens, that the Lord steps in and holds His precious creation in His arms and weeps with all the love of a father for His child. The conversation that happens between the Lord and the person is something that we will never know, but I believe there is mercy.

Wilful suicide and assisted suicide are totally different topics, however, and I won't go there now.

Answer 5

Catholics believe suicide when committed in full knowledge and deliberate consent is a complete turning away from God (a mortal sin) and will send a person to hell.

There are 3 conditions of a mortal sin: grave matter, full knowledge, and deliberate consent.

While suicide (or any kind of murder) is always a grave matter, people who commit suicide may not always have full knowledge of what they're doing. Drugs can definitely impair one's thinking, as can other things, such as diseases, intense pain, or anguish.

Therefore, suicide is not automatically treated as a mortal sin.

We are commanded by Christ not to judge others so we leave final judgment to God who alone knows each person's heart.

With love in Christ.

Answer 6

Of course they can. Heaven and hell are not dependent on your behavior but on the sacrifice of Jesus. His is done and complete. NO further needed.

However, I would encourage anyone contemplating such a thing to remember that the bible also says "I can do all things through christ who strengthens me" and further what Romans says about peseverence, that it leads to hope, when right now things seem hopeless.

Answer 7

I think they go straight to hell (or at least thats what I understand of it).


I'm atheist and I'd never encourage people to commit suicide, but in some cases you can understand why they did it. If god is real I don't think he would condemn everyone who committed suicide to hell

Answer 8

No, they go to Detroit. Killing yourself is an act of aggression against yourself. And you think you're not hurting anyone, but you are. You're hurting your children to be and their children until infinity or the end of the world, whichever comes first. And you're hurting me because I'd never be able to rock that hot Asian body you have (you're a girl right?). Never say the "S" word or any synonym thereof. Go my child, and make thineself hotter.

Answer 9

a Christian can be forgiven of any sin, once they repent. But you can't repent if you're dead. As to whether they go to Heaven or not, I think it's possible....but I wouldn't chance it. Some people see it as taking your life (back from God), which is basically like a dog going back to his vomit.

so, unsure, but maybe, but I woouldn't try it if I were you...

Answer 10

The tragic news of a suicide does not close a chapter in the lives of relatives and friends; it opens one, a chapter of mixed feelings of pity and anger, sorrow and guilt. And it raises the question: May we entertain any hope for our friend who took his or her life?

Although self-inflicted death is never justified, never righteous, the apostle Paul did hold out a beautiful hope for even some unrighteous ones. As he told a Roman court of law: “I have hope toward God, that there is going to be a resurrection of both the righteous and the unrighteous.” Acts 24:15.
Many theologians have long dismissed any suggestion that the resurrection of the unrighteous might offer hope for those who commit suicide. Why?

Centuries ago, churchmen introduced a non-Biblical concept: immortal souls that leave the body at death and go straight to heaven, purgatory, Limbo, or hell. That concept clashed with the Bible’s clear teaching of a future resurrection. As Baptist minister Charles Andrews asked: “If the soul is already blissfully in heaven (or is already justifiably roasting in hell), what need is there for anything further?” He added: “This inner contradiction has remained to plague Christians throughout the centuries.”

One result of such errant theology was that “since Augustine’s time [354-430 C.E.], the church has condemned suicide as a sin,” says Arthur Droge in the Bible Review, “a sin beyond redemption, just like apostasy and adultery.”

Jesus told a criminal sentenced to death: “You will be with me in Paradise.” The man was unrighteous, a lawbreaker rather than a distraught suicide victim, guilty by his own frank admission. (Luke 23:39-43) He had no hope of going to heaven to rule with Jesus. So the Paradise in which this thief could hope to come back to life would be the beautiful earth under the rule of Jehovah God’s Kingdom. Matthew 6:9, 10; Revelation 21:1-4.

For what purpose will God awaken this criminal? So that He mercilessly can hold his past sins against him? Hardly, for Romans 6:7, 23 says: “He who has died has been acquitted from his sin,” and “the wages sin pays is death.” Although his past sins will not be accounted to him, he will still need the ransom to lift him to perfection.

Only God can fully understand the role of mental sickness, extreme stress, even genetic defects, in a “suicidal crisis,” which, the National Observer noted, “is not a lifetime characteristic [but] often a matter only of minutes or of hours.”
Granted, one who takes his own life deprives himself of the opportunity to repent of his self-murder. But who can say whether one driven to suicide might have had a change of heart had his fatal attempt failed? Some notorious murderers have, in fact, changed and earned God’s forgiveness during their lifetime.
Thus, Jehovah, having paid “a ransom in exchange for many,” His Son, is within his right to extend mercy, even to some self-murderers, by resurrecting them and giving them the precious opportunity to “repent and turn to God by doing works that befit repentance.”

The Scriptures encourage us to see ourselves, not as immortal souls, but as valuable creations of the God who loves us, who treasures our being alive, and who looks forward with joy to the time of the resurrection.

4000 years had passed from Adam & Eve, Jesus said to a Religious Leader that no one had gone to Heaven, and millions of people had passed away in death. This is a quote from the King James Bible:

John 3:13 " And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,"
it seems to me, this would eliminate the "immortal soul" belief, not only that, if you go to Heaven or Hell when you die, you completely do away with the resurrection that the Bible speaks about, because the resurrection is suppose to take place after Jesus comes the second time, and that has not happened.