And the command to persevere doesn’t take away the underlying reason that we are saved; by Jesus’ promise that those whom the Father gave him will not be cast out.

It’s no different than the exhortations to “repent!” when we know that not all men will, and that only those whom God chose in Him before the foundation of the world will actually do that…

Be careful not to put too much baggage on the verses that exhort something to someone…ought doesn’t imply ability…and in this case telling someone to persevere DOESN’T SPEAK TO WHY they’d persevere.

I hope I didn’t muddy the water too much with that.

bob

I appreciate your answer. It’s always easy for people to gloss over these questions in order to attempt to bring comfort to the hurting, but (as I think your answer demonstrates) true comfort comes through dependence on God’s Word and a whole-Bible understanding of how to address difficult situations.

-Andrew

Andrew, excellent and very challenging question. Here are a few thoughts:

-I hesitate to speak where scripture is silent, for I’m not aware of a scripture passage that speaks to the issue of suicide.

-Secondly, we must not read your question with the underlying assumption that suicide is always, without exception, clear-evidence that the person did not persevere in faith. We all stumble in many ways, and sinning right before death should not be looked at as any worse than sinning a week before death. For example, what of the person who has an unrepentant grudge within his heart at the time of death? Hate, of course, is murder in its infancy. Unrepentant and habitual hate is evidence that someone is outside of Christ, but inward ‘hate’, in a fleeting moment right before death (if real ‘hate’ is even possible for a child of God), would not necessarily be evidence of a false faith.

-Lastly, I’m inclined to say that more often than not, a person committing suicide was probably not a true believer, but that we cannot affirm this with 100% certainty. Faith in Christ is just that, it is faith in and the resting in the merits of Christ as our only hope for reconciliation with the Father and escape from our deserved condemnation. Faith in Christ is not a complete absence of sin –even a sin as heinous as suicide.

Ironically, I just read about this very issue in the excellent John Piper book, The Hidden Smile of God. In the book, the great hymn-writer William Cowper is described as attempting (but failing) to commit suicide on many occasions –even after his conversion. Piper briefly considers whether or not we can affirm that Cowper was in Christ given these troubling facts, but he concludes without a doubt (in his mind) that Cowper was indeed a true believer, though troubled with deep depression.

I understand that the word ’saved’ has different meanings depending on the context. I would of course argue that Jesus did use this word many times in reference to eternal salvation, in addition to His use of it in the context of temporal deliverance.

However, for this reason I added the Hebrews passages, and could have added many more. Clearly, along with the parable that Davide quotes above, the concept/doctrine that is at the heart of my post is the teaching of Holy Scripture.

How do you think that the truth you expound in this post impacts the question of whether a suicide may be admitted into heaven?

I don’t think that they are mutually exclusive.

I’m blessed by your posts Nathan, keep ‘em coming