Pastor Miguel Nuenez interacts with an important pastoral question.
This controversial topic has unfortunately often been addressed in emotional ways, not through biblical analysis. Those of us who grew up Roman Catholic have always heard suicide is a mortal sin that irretrievably sends people to hell. Influenced by the arguments of Augustine and Aquinas, this belief dominated through the Reformation. However, for Luther, the Devil is capable of oppressing (not possessing) a believer to the point of pushing him to commit the sin of suicide (Table Talk, Vol 54:29). As the salvation became better understood, many Reformation thinkers and theologians distanced their views from the Church of Rome.
Besides this traditional position of the Catholic Church, we encounter three others:
a) A true Christian would never commit suicide, since God wouldn’t allow it.
b) A Christian may commit suicide, but would lose his salvation.
c) A Christian may commit suicide without losing his salvation.
So what does the Bible say?
Let’s begin by talking about those truths we know as revealed in God’s Word . . .
Read the rest here.
