Does suicide automatically send the person to Hell?
Detailed Answer:
Over 700,000 people die by suicide each year, according to the World Health Organization (World Health Organization 2021, p. 1). More people die worldwide from suicide than to malaria, HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, natural disasters, wars, or homicide, making suicide one of the world’s leading causes of death (World Health Organization 2021, p. 1). Further, for each reported suicide, there are more than twenty suicide attempts (World Health Organization 2014, p. 26).
Suicide is such a serious issue, and deserves equally serious attention, both from those hurting, and from those around them.
My first question to anyone who believes suicide would negate someone’s saving relationship with Jesus: Why do you believe that?
Here is a definitive answer: what determines if a person goes to heaven or hell is whether they trust in Jesus as their Lord who saved them through his work on the cross. That is all. Suicide is not in the equation at all as far as being in heaven or hell. Suicide is a choice with some negative consequences because if not trusting God to care enough for you in this world, then you will miss on some plans for good he has for you, and for others around you, who will suffer from your loss.
The Bible openly discussed biblical characters who despaired of life or wanted to die (I Kings 19:42 Cor 1:8), wished they were never born (Job 3:1, 11; 10:18-19), Jonah even tried to end his life (Jonah 1:12; 4:8-9), but never does God tell a suicidal person they will go to hell. Judas committed suicide and went to hell, but that was because he turned away and forsook Jesus. There is nothing from the Bible to support the belief in losing your salvation because of suicide. Suicide and salvation are entirely separate issues. If you think there is, please send in as a question for us to consider.
Potter J. Is Suicide the Unforgivable Sin? Understanding Suicide, Stigma, and Salvation through Two Christian Perspectives. Religions. 2021; 12(11):987. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12110987
Christianity does view suicide as a sin, but absolutely nothing unpardonable or able to make a person lose salvation. The only group thinking differently, as far as I am aware, is the Roman Catholic Church, which used to call suicide a “mortal sin” that would keep a person from Heaven, but I have read even this view is changing in the Catholic Church. Many close to me, who were brought up in the Catholic church, said they were taught this, but it has no biblical support. If anyone in the Catholic Church believes this idea is from God and biblically accurate, please send in your reasons, and also realize, either you or I are wrong, and one of us will be held accountable by God if we cause a non-believer to stumble (fall in their relationship with God; Luke 17:1-3).