Posted on 01/27/2012 2:37:35 PM PST by pinochet
The great British preacher John Newton had a friend, a poet by the name of William Cowper, who along with Newton wrote hymns which eventually were compiled in the Olney Hymnal. Cowper’s more noted contributions to this hymnal were “Oh, for a closer walk with God” and “There is a fountain filled with blood.”......Sadly, we find documented in Forbes Winslow’s Anatomy of Suicide (written in 1840) that Cowper has tried more than once to take his own life. As psychiatrist and Christian author John White puts it, “Here then we are presented with a gifted and Godly man, a man the Holy Spirit used to produce hymns to exalt the Lamb of God… yet (he is)… only one of many Christians who have struggled against the shame and horror of trying to take their own lives – some successfully, others unsuccessfully.” (White 146)
Anyone who professes Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord may find this statement shocking. After all, Jesus came that we may have a full life (John 10:10). The scriptures are overflowing with the hope and love that is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are taught that those who believe have been washed, made new and been forgiven. Our guilt and shame has been removed and we have been set free from the power of sin and death. Therefore, a deep religious faith (in God) should keep people from taking their own lives. And yet there are Christians who do take their own lives.[1] Although Christians have at their disposal the emotional supports needed they are just as susceptible to committing suicide as anyone else, and may in fact do commit suicide in similar numbers to non-believers. It seems as absurd for a Christian to commit suicide as it is for someone who instantly became a millionaire to take his own life. Yet both have done this.
White addresses the fable that Christians do not commit suicide. “Godly patients have looked at me in the eye and told me despairingly, ‘My faith has gone’ … so delicate is the balance between madness and sanity that the strongest Christians can become victims of suicidal despair” [emphasis mine] (White 167). Some do question though whether a true Christian would commit suicide.
My opinion and that's all it is, is that God gave us the gift of life and to end it prematurely is against His wishes.
If you are suffering pain from end stage cancer, I don't know what to think, would He want you to suffer or is it a bad idea to take things into your own hands playing God?
That makes no sense in the context of the passage.
Anakrino
examine or judge to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinise, sift, question specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an investigation to interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses to judge of, estimate, determine (the excellence or defects of any person or thing. [http://www.biblestudytools.com/search/?q=anakrino&s=References&rc=LEX&rc2=LEX+GRK]
Look at the verse again. Notice the “yet he himself is judged of no man”. That would indicate judging those around us. We must make a determination as to the motivations of others.
1 Corinthians 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
Claiming to never judge is naïve.
Guess you’ve never suffered extreme depression. It can lead to very quick, very bad decisions about life or death. Do you honestly think that people who throw themselves out of windows (as opposed to steathily planning their own demise by hanging or collecting pills) have thought that through? There are as many types of suicides as there are of people. Sad, sad, sad.
I’m so sorry for your loss! Suicide does tend to run in families as Mariel Hemingway has pointed out. She has taken up the cause of suicidal depression after the death of her sister, Margot.
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither DEATH, nor LIFE, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. 8:35-39).
Our life cannot separate us. Our death cannot separate us, if we are in Christ. And we are in Christ if we are saved.
So, what is it that a Christian loses if he takes his life? And what is it that Satan gains?
"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."2 Cor. 5:14-21.
Satan has two goals. To keep unbelievers from the Cross and the gospel of their salvation. And to keep believers from preaching the cross and the gospel of their salvation to unbelievers.
When a believer commits suicide, he has given up his God given commission to preach the finished work of Christ to unbelievers. And has effectually given Satan another chance to deceive unbelievers. Someone who may have been reached by the gospel of God's grace by that person who decided to end his life. That is why suicide is so bad. It cuts off another chance to hear/preach the gospel of the grace of God. That believer was and will always be in Christ. That is God's promise to us. But his work in Christ's stead, preaching the reconciliation of God and man has forever been cut off.
That was my point, “great depression” does not come on in 5 seconds.
“Claiming to never judge is naïve.”
I wasn’t questioning you wondering about someone’s lack of faith. Just that a weak faith (in my limited understanding conveyed by the “poor in spirit”) is understood by God.
As one who has contemplated suicide, you really do need to hang on to the promises in the Bible that God loves you, is there in ALL circumstances, and can turn ALL things to a good use.
Never said that we can not discern and judge. I do it all day long. But for you to act like you can know that mind and heart of a believer that may have committed suicide is ubsurd.
that is all
Never said that we can not discern and judge. I do it all day long. But for you to act like you can know that mind and heart of a believer that may have committed suicide is ubsurd.
that is all
Among people who suffer chronic sexual abuse as children, suicide is second only to overdose as a cause of death (and these two are followed in turn by eating disorders.) That isn’t just depression, its an escape from flashbacks and memories.
_____________________
Most overdoses are suicides.
I would no more condemn someone who in deepest depression does a very drastic and horrid act too themselves for being able to stop themselves than I would saying a paralyzed persons lack of faith keeps them in a wheelchair. They need qualified help and prayers. I would beg them too get help.
I have never understood how any church could automatically label someone who took their life as going too hell for betraying their faith or betraying GOD. Only one man walked the perfect walk. Through that one man our sins for those who call on His name and believed are saved.
Many churches from all walks have some legalistic zealots who possess religion but lack any true compassion and love our Lord asked us to show and showed us.
The souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God,
no torment shall ever touch them.
In the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die,
their going looked like a disaster,
their leaving us, like annihilation;
but they are in peace.
If they experienced punishment as men see it,
their hope was rich with immortality;
slight was their affliction, great will their blessings be.
God has put them to the test
and proved them worthy to be with Him;
he has tested them like gold in a furnace,
and accepted them as a holocaust.
When the trine comes for his visitation they will shine out;
as sparks run through the stubble, so will they.
They shall judge nations, rule over peoples,
and the Lord will be their king for ever.
They who trust in him will understand the truth,
those who are faithful will live with him in love;
for grace and mercy await those he has chosen.
The Book of Wisdom
chapter 3, verses l - 9
This was read at the funeral of someone I was close to who commited suicide. It was a great comfort.
Some people have impulsive suicides. Completeed or not.
Interesting topic, and the timing is perfect. This is something I have been contemplating for quite some time. I’ve not told anyone, and I won’t, but I don’t know any of you people so what the heck... The only reason I have not done this yet is because of my religious beliefs, I know that there would be hell to pay, but I’ll probably be going there anyway. I’ve found this thread to be very interesting, along with the comments. It’s strange that I came across this topic at this stage, could it be coincidence?
Thank you and God Bless!
I don’t think that many people have sudden suicide syndrome befall them, usually, it is a journey.
I believe suicide shows full faith. My g-friend is out to dinner tonight with her two children on the 5yr anniversary of her husbands suicide. Sand yes, I know what it feels like to be seratonine deficient. Its terrible..
Exactly!
Suicide is NOT an immoral death apart from God. It is death due to disease no different than death from cancer.
Depression is a GENETIC disease.
God welcomes those into heaven who have blown their brains out just as much as He welcomes those who die from pneumonia.
God also welcomes those who kill themselves because they feel they have no other choice, such as those who jumped from the Twin Towers because they felt they had NO other option.
It’s a fact.
My cousin committed suicide a year ago this January. He was a pastor for decades and one of the most beloved individuals in his community. We estimated nearly 1000 people came to his wake and funeral. He touched more lives than most of us could imagine.
He also had two of the world’s rarest diseases at the same time and was on a battery of medication. One of his offspring is bipolar so it runs in the family. I saw him a month before he died, at his mother’s funeral, and he seemed well considering the circumstances.
We don’t know why he did it but between the medications and the stress he just snapped. It happened so sudden that even his wife couldn’t see it compulsive. It was almost impulsive the way he did it, like he wasn’t in control of himself.
It happens to the best of us. The brain can only take so many knocks before it falls to pieces, and anything is possible, even to the best Christians among us.
I desire to depart and be with Christ
For some a daily struggle.
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