Can You Go To Heaven if You Commit Suicide?

If you are experiencing thoughts of self-harm tell someone...seek professional help ... dial 988 ...and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you

The Spirit, indeed, is willing but the flesh is weak. - Matthew 26:41b

By way of qualification to speak on this matter, my youngest daughter spent the better part of a year and a half trying to take her own life. We have always been very frank with one another and there were some starkly difficult conversations.

At one point, in the emergency room awaiting a bed in a mental facility, she looked directly at my wife and I and said, "Just so you'll know and not be taken by surprise, I am not going to stop."

Another time she demanded, "Are you going to tell me that, if I kill myself, I won't go to heaven?". Everything in my father's heart wanted to say anything that might get her to stop. My understanding of the eternal nature of the new life in Christ, however, forced me to say, "No. You will not be excluded from heaven if you take your own life." Then I added, "It's not exactly an act of faith, though.".

There are circumstances which befall individuals and deeply affect their mental and emotional faculties. Sometimes these are traumatic events (abuse). Sometimes they are physiological, biochemical events (bi-polar onset). These can occur before or after the new birth and create deep depressions and cycles of mental illness which may or may not be acute and long-lasting.

What an individual is allowed by a sovereign God to undergo in their flesh in no way indicates the state of their salvation. Although I have never found anyone inferring that the apostle Paul was suicidal, it is clear that he, at times, despaired of life:

For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: - 2 Corinthians 1:5-9

Elijah also found Himself in the throes of despair:

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers. - 1 Kings 19:4

And there are those who infer that things might have turned out differently if an angel had not strengthened Jesus in Gethsemane:

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. - Luke 22:42-44

"AB Simpson, the Pentecostal leader struggled with depression. David Pawson suffered a major nervous breakdown half way through his ministry and couldn’t work for 18months. CH Spurgeon struggled with depression and called it ‘his black dog.’ JB Philips the bible translator-suffered panic attacks and had several major breakdowns. William Cowper the famous hymn writer who wrote "Oh for a closer walk with thee" and "There is a fountain filled with blood," suffered severe mental illness and attempted suicide. Martin Luther famously suffered depression/anxiety and OCD (he called them anfechtungen). Karl Barth the Swiss theologian had a breakdown after writing his influential Romans commentary. The list goes on and on." - from The Mind/Soul Foundation

Oswald Chambers, Scottish Baptist evangelist and author of what is arguably the finest devotional work ever penned, "My Utmost For His Highest", suffered debilitating depression while teaching at Bible College. Following is his devotional entry on the topic, entitled The Initiative Against Depression:

*"Arise and eat." - 1 Kings 19:5 The angel in this passage did not give Elijah a vision, or explain the Scriptures to him, or do anything remarkable. He simply told Elijah to do a very ordinary thing, that is, to get up and eat. If we were never depressed, we would not be alive— only material things don’t suffer depression. If human beings were not capable of depression, we would have no capacity for happiness and exaltation. There are things in life that are designed to depress us; for example, things that are associated with death. Whenever you examine yourself, always take into account your capacity for depression. When the Spirit of God comes to us, He does not give us glorious visions, but He tells us to do the most ordinary things imaginable. Depression tends to turn us away from the everyday things of God’s creation. But whenever God steps in, His inspiration is to do the most natural, simple things— things we would never have imagined God was in, but as we do them we find Him there. The inspiration that comes to us in this way is an initiative against depression. But we must take the first step and do it in the inspiration of God. If, however, we do something simply to overcome our depression, we will only deepen it. But when the Spirit of God leads us instinctively to do something, the moment we do it the depression is gone. As soon as we arise and obey, we enter a higher plane of life.

Clearly, there are thought and behavior altering mental conditions which affect those who also desire to exhibit faith, repentance, and godliness. The classification of sins committed into categories such as mortal sin or venial sin is a human creation and the desire to determine who is or is not forgiven based solely upon behavior is of the flesh. The Lord Jesus says that there is only one unforgivable sin and he defines it for us:

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. 

Therefore, anyone wishing to declare that successful suicide precludes salvation must demonstrate two impossible things; first, that suicide equals blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and, secondly, that true repentance and saving faith cannot be intermixed with deep despair.

My very limited experience is that, while a believer is alive, that person should be consistently pointed to hope in Christ and that, if the suicide is consummated, one must never presume to know what was in that person's heart as regards their internal struggle.

To say that there is great hope in Christ is the understatement of all time. He will never leave you ... even in the valley of the shadow of death.

If you are experiencing thoughts of self-harm tell someone...seek professional help ... dial 988 ...and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you