It is too easy to be dogmatic on this one
Submitted by Forgiven on July 27 2000 15:20:16
In reply to hell and suicide submitted by Visitor on July 26 2000 12:26:10
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There is nowhere in the bible which discusses suicide particularly - and there are relatively few stories of it, though Judas Iscariot is the best known. At a fundamental level suicide is wrong in two ways: 1) it is the murder of a person, arrogating to ourselves that which only God (and the state as his agent - let's not get into that discussion....) has the right to do. 2) It is a rejection of God's love for us - it is saying that I have no hope in this world, and there is no role, opportunity for service or way for me to make the world a better place. Also to carry it out is to believe that your state afterwards will be better than it is now - which is not a safe assumption!! Historically the church was very hard on suicides - by definition they died outside the grace of the church and so it was assumed that they would be rejected by God; as a result they were buried on unconsecrated ground without a funeral service. I suspect that this is too easy an assumption to make - but equally it is unsafe to strongly believe otherwise! As is the case in a lot of other areas, the modern church has wandered too far to the other extreme, and on the whole ignores the issue when it does emerge, carrying out the normal funeral rites regardless. This is part of its unwillingness to really engage with the issues - for fear of hurting or giving offence - in my opinion thereby attempting to give a false hope which is usually a lie, and so undermining the reputation of the church in dealing with TRUTH!! (Sorry, I'll get off my hobby horse now...) I hope I don't sound unsympathetic - having spent several weeks last year seriously tempted by the possibility, and finding the prospect not unattractive at the moment, it is not an entirely hypothetical argument for me at the moment. Anyway, thanks for dropping by and I hope you'll stick around and ask us somemore interesting questions! |
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