Why can't a person who commits suicide go to heaven?

Question

Ok, I can understand if the person pointed a gun to their head and pulled the trigger. But what about someone who took pills or slit their wrists? They have time between the act that causes their death and the death itself to ask to be forgiven. Is this a loophole God tossed in?
I guess maybe they should just jump off a building. They have a few seconds to say Please forgive me and mean it. Right?

What about a person who is murdered. They probably sinned sometime throughout the day and haven't yet asked to be forgiven. That means they are on a one way ticket to hell, do not pass purgatory, right?

Answer 1

This is a complicated question.
First, suicide itself may have many reasons and grades of culpability. Generally speaking, suicide is just like murder because you are taking it upon yourself to take a life. In so doing, you make yourself like God. Life is His perogative, not ours. We mock Him by usurping for ourselves the determination over life and death. That said, there may be mental or physical reasons for taking your life. Only Christ can be the judge over whether our act was wilful or not. I have a nephew that killed himself but he was so messed up on prescription drugs that we don't believe that he was fully responsible for what he did. I think there is room for forgiveness in his case.
Second, deathbed repentance is a false notion. God looks on our hearts, not just our actions or words. When you declare your sorrow and ask for forgiveness, do you really mean it, our you trying to do something about changing your ways and correcting the mistakes you have made? Deathbed repentance may have some sincerity in the expression but there is no time to correct the mistakes or to live a new life away from the sin. God will look upon the miscreant according to the sincerity of his heart and what efforts were done to recompense the injured parties. Fortunately, we don't have to make that judgment. Christ will know whether the repentance was sincere or not. We take our clue from the two robbers that were crucified with Christ. The one acknowledged his guilt and admitted that his punishment was just. He asked for Christ to remember him when He, Christ, enters His kingdom. Christ then declared that he, the robber, would be with Him in paradise that day. Apparently the robber's heart was sincere in his remorse. Christ accepted it and apparently extended forgiveness. The other robber was mocking and unrepentant. No such forgiveness was extended to him.
So how close to death can you get and be forgiven? We don't know. We do know that our change of heart, our repentance, must be sincere. We should live righteously throughout our lives so that we don't have to worry about deathbed repentance.
Third. In the case of murder, if we are killed while in the act of doing good, and the murder is because we were doing good, meaning persecuted unto death, then our heavenly reward is assured. If, on the other hand, we are in the act of doing evil when we are killed, shootout during a felony, then it would be my guess that you are headed for spiritual prison to ponder on the wickedness of your days. Are there many gradations in between those two extremes? Of course there are. My understanding is that if you are the innocent victim of violence, then Christ will take that into account and probably forgive a lot of your sins because you weren't given a chance to correct them due to the untimely death that was thrust upon you. Again, not something we need to worry about. Christ is the judge. Live well, righteously, throughout your days and live with a calm and trouble free heart and mind.

Answer 2

This is an example of the Catholic church making it up as they go along. There is nothing in the bible that prohibits suicide, just as there is nothing about abortion and nothing really about homosexuality (the passages bigots are so fond of quoting are gross mistranslations.)

You can thank the "apostle" Paul, who never knew Jesus according to Christianity's own texts, for the idea that there's anything to be saved from, for the idea that Jesus' teachings have anything to do with Gentiles, for the misogyny, sexual repression, and the idea that the church can make things up as they go along.

That's assuming, of course, that any of these people ever existed and there is no physical or historical evidence, other than the scrolls themselves, that they ever did.

If you are feeling suicidal, please, get some help. Stop worrying about heaven and worry about yourself in the here and now. Your life is a gift - make the most of it before you try to return it.

Bright blessings. You can email me if you want.

Answer 3

The reason that the Church condemns suicide is that in the first few hundred years of the Church, Christians we're committing suicide at an alarmingly high rate. People were eager to leave the drudgery of their own life and go to heaven. There was a real danger of the Church dying out.

Fact: Almost all of the early Christian martyrs were volunteers.

Answer 4

Peresonally, i dont believe in purgatory as it was never mentioned in the bible.
I have asked my vicar and he does believe that a person in a completely desperate state who has no choice but to commit suicide will be forgiven by God.
I cant help you much, because your beliefs are different from mine. I dont think that deathbed confessions mean a thing, but that you are judged by what you truly regret and when given a choice, you would not do it again.

Answer 5

I believe that there is always a chance to go to heaven. But the bottom line is up to God. We might think that a person is going to heaven or hell but God has a Great sense of forgiveness. So none of us can really say for sure.

Answer 6

Yeah I really don't get that either because I was taught that you can be forgiven for your sins, so its like saying a murderer can get into heaven but a person that committed suicide can't? Somedays I wonder about these things.

Answer 7

We can't judge our brother. When I was 18, a Catholic girl I knew stepped in front of a truck, and it appeared very intentional, although she did have a health condition that could have contributed to the choice. Her priest said, "We don't know what was in her heart." I suppose I know some reasons why the Catholic church says you go to hell if you commit suicide, but I trust God to judge me and any loved ones who make such a tragic choice. Let's use the reality of people's desperation to show kindness and maybe help someone who feels desperate to find a better choice.

Answer 8

Here is the REAL answer. A religion which allows people who commit suicide to get into Heaven would DIE OUT very quickly. Think of cults where people all drank poisoned Kool-Aid because they all believed they would ascend to some higher plane or some other nonsense. Those cults die out, because everyone kills themselves.

If Christianity were like that, whenever a Christian's life got tough, they would off themselves. Or maybe if they were just bored with the Earth they would off themselves. You see what I mean?

Answer 9

First of all, you will not find it written anywhere in the bible that you will surely go to hell if you kill yourself. The only unforgivable sin is blasphemy.

As far as being murdered, that's the reason that you should live every single day as if it were your last. You never know when, where, or how we will perish.

Answer 10

God is not going to send someone to hell that has committed suicide if they are mentally ill. I think he would if they committed suicide out of revenge. What about children that are bullied that have committed suicide, no way are they going to hell. I don't think this is a black and white subject.