WHEN I WAS A SENIOR IN HIGH SCHOOL, I received a call I will never forget. Tim, a junior at my school, called me personally to ask me a question about an incident we had both been involved in at school that day. The incident involved a colorful leather hat I had bought in Mexico (and believe it or not, I wore it almost every day). Yet one day, to my chagrin, my hat was missing. A few days later, Tim showed up to school wearing the exact same hat. While I didn’t really know Tim, I knew he was a troubled kid. Because it seemed like too much of a coincidence, I approached him and asked for my hat back. He swore it was his hat, so I chose to believe him and not push any further.
That night Tim called and asked me a simple question. “Why,” he said, “did you treat me with such kindness?” To be honest, I was shocked to hear him say that. He seemed like such a “hard” kid. Why would he care what I said or thought? But what really breaks my heart as I look back on this is that I didn’t have the courage to share my faith with him then. He had noticed something different about me, but I passed on the opportunity to share Jesus with him and to befriend him.
One year after I graduated from high school, his older brother, who was in my class, committed suicide. I have often looked back on this incident in my life and wondered if I could have helped prevent this tragedy.
Suicide: A Growing Problem
We have all been affected by suicide. A friend. A family member. A classmate. A neighbor. We hear stories of movie stars, athletes, and pastors. Maybe even you have considered it. The reality is that suicide is an epidemic today. Even as I write this chapter, I think about a good friend of mine, a former professor and speaker, who recently ended his life. Heartbreaking.
Consider a few stats about how prevalent suicide is today:
Suicide is not a small issue but one we all must seriously think about.
The “Why” Question
Why would someone take their own life? There can be many contributing factors: bullying, failure, shame, financial loss, anger, revenge, loneliness, disappointment, substance abuse, broken relationships, and the list goes on. Ultimately, the issue of suicide boils down to people losing hope and falsely believing they are better off dead: “It became the only thing left I could do.”
But what about mental illness? While this is an important factor, 54 percent of people who die by suicide have not been diagnosed with a mental illness.[4] Some of these people may have had a mental illness, but without evidence we can’t simply assume they did. As my friend Jonathan Noyes notes, suicide rates have increased during the same time we’ve experienced significant improvements in psychiatric care. He explains:
We’re able to treat anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, and just about everything else more effectively than at any other time in human history. Today, right now, we have a better understanding of how the brain works than we ever had, yet that rate of suicide continues to skyrocket. With these advances in science and medicine and technology, shouldn’t we expect to see the suicide rates declining?[5]
Yes, we should. But we don’t. While mental illness is an important factor, I believe that suicide is primarily a spiritual problem. People who are suicidal are asking—whether they fully realize it or not—deep questions such as, Does my life have any meaning? Can I be forgiven? Am I loved? Is there any hope beyond my current pain?
As Jonathan notes, we have seen suicide rates rise at the same time Judeo-Christian influences have declined in our culture. Is this merely a coincidence? I doubt it. As you will recall, naturalism and its offshoot worldviews are prevalent in today’s culture and media. Naturalism is the idea that God does not exist and that everything can be explained by physical forces. Thus, God is a delusion, humans have no real value, death is the end, and life has no purpose. Some people get hurt and others get lucky. Atheist Richard Dawkins concludes, “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.”[6]
Simply put, naturalism teaches that you are a cosmic accident. What a depressing view of life!
Those who subscribe to a naturalistic worldview might then be tempted to think, Well, if God is not real, then I might as well live for pleasure. Why not get famous before I die? After all, I only live once. The apostle Paul anticipates this response, which is why he says that if there is no resurrection from the dead, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Living for the moment can be fun and pleasurable for a season, but what happens when the excitement runs out? Just ask Solomon. He experienced every pleasure the world has to offer–sex, wine, riches, power, fame, and so on–yet he “hated life” (Ecclesiastes 2:17). Living for today turns out to be a dead end.
Compared to naturalism, Christianity offers real hope. Jesus offers forgiveness, purpose, and genuine community. Jesus offers meaning in this life and hope for the next. Even if you don’t feel like it, you are made in the image of God and have infinite worth. The worldview clash between naturalism and Christianity could not be starker.
Can a Christian Who Commits Suicide Go to Heaven?
People ask me all the time about whether Christians who commit suicide can go to heaven. We’ll consider this question in a moment, but first, please keep something in mind: while God has unmistakable grace for people struggling with suicidal thoughts, we must realize that taking your life is a big deal. As I have said many times in this book, everyone is made in the image of God and has infinite worth. While we can understand that people who are hurting might entertain the idea of ending their lives, we must do everything we can to stop them from doing so. Suicide is sometimes downplayed today, but for Christians, it is an absolute tragedy. The person struggling with suicidal ideas is both hurting and the victim of the idea that taking their life will end their pain. As Christians, we know there is always hope in Jesus Christ.
Still, the question of whether a Christian who commits suicide can still go to heaven is worth considering. Here’s how a conversation on this subject might go:
Questioner: Can a Christian who commits suicide go to heaven?
Me: Based on what we see in Scripture, I think so.
Questioner: Isn’t suicide an unforgivable sin?
Me: There’s no biblical warrant for thinking the “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit” is suicide.[7]
Questioner: But suicide is murder.
Me: True, but God forgave King David for murder, right? (See 2 Samuel 12:9, 13.) Then he can forgive someone who unjustly takes their own life.
Questioner: But David repented. Those who commit suicide can’t repent.
Me: Yes, but when people believe in Jesus, he pays for all of their sins—past, present, and future. If a Christian lies to her parents and then dies in a car crash driving to school, she is still forgiven, right?
Questioner: But how can a genuine Christian lose hope?
Me: We live in a world that has been deeply rocked by sin. The apostle Paul warns Christians not to be “conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2) because even Christians are susceptible to the manipulation of Satan, the father of lies.
Conversations are not always this straightforward, of course. And the debate could go on. But here’s the bottom line: the recipe for eternal life is experiencing God’s grace by faith in Jesus Christ (see Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation comes not through our works but because of what Christ has done for us. I believe claiming that Christians who commit suicide cannot be saved threatens to place salvation in our efforts rather than God’s grace.
What Can We Do?
As I said, suicide is an epidemic in our country. Here are some things you can do to help:
[1] Ryan Prior, “1 in 4 Young People Are Reporting Suicidal Thoughts. Here’s How to Help,” CNN, August 15, 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/14/health/young-people-suicidal-ideation-wellness/index.html.
[2] Sally C. Curtin and Melonie Heron, “Death Rates Due to Suicide and Homicide Among Persons Aged 10–24: United States, 2000–2017,” NCHS Data Brief, No. 352 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 2019), https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db352-h.pdf.
[3] “Teen Suicide,” Child Trends, accessed August 24, 2020, https://www.childtrends.org/indicators/suicidal-teens.
[4] “Suicide Rising across the US: More Than a Mental Health Concern,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 7, 2018, https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/suicide/index.html.
[5] Jonathan Noyes, “How to Make Sense of Suicide,” Get a Grip 2020, https://www.livingoakschurch.org/getagrip (May 13, 2020).
[6] Richard Dawkins, River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life (New York: Basic Books, 1995), 133.
[7] See Sean McDowell, “Could Judas Have Been Forgiven by Jesus?,” June 2, 2020, https://seanmcdowell.org/blog/could-judas-have-repented.