Tom Rice Ministries

SUICIDE?

I was taught as a child that if we committed suicide we would go to hell. That teaching was with me when a young man who I took to and liked very much took his life. I remember him saying in his testimony in Church just after he had become a Christian that he had tried to take his life before. He explained that he had put a rubber hose from the exhaust into the car but someone had been there to stop him. He then gave his life to Christ and not long after succeeded in committing suicide. I was unsure and hurt and it weighed heavy on my mind for several days. How could God accept someone and then because they could not go on abandon them to hell? I was not at peace at all and as I rolled it over and over in my mind I heard the still small voice of God say:

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor anything above, nor anything below, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Roman 8:38-39

A peace flooded my heart and I knew my friend was alright and with the Lord. He was God’s and he was in heaven with all the saints and I was convinced. A little later a new friend had a son who was a Christian and had committed suicide. I was quick to give her my testimony about the young man and how God had spoken to me to comfort me when I feared he went to hell! Nothing could separate us once we had given our hearts to Him. Later in my Bible study I saw a wonderful thing. Saul had committed suicide and was not the best of kings and his last act before the battle was to go to a spiritist and get in touch with the prophet Samuel. God is totally against this and Saul had driven most of the mediums and the like out of the land. I do not know how God allowed Samuel up from paradise but I do know because He did, we can all see something beautiful!

“And Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has turned from you and become your enemy?

The LORD has done to you as he spoke by me, for the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbour, David.

Because you did not obey the voice of the LORD and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the LORD has done this thing to you this day.

Moreover, the LORD will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me. The LORD will give the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”
1 Samuel 28:16-19

This is the word of the Lord and Samuel said “and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.” Saul who committed suicide and tried to kill David and made a real mess of being king was going to be with Samuel! Where was Samuel? He was with Abraham and Moses and Elijah and all of our brothers and sisters that would enter heaven with the conquering Christ! Saul is also in heaven and although his life was a mess and far from being perfect God took him to be with him! Even after suicide! God and his mercy are far greater than the judgment of man and the teaching of the Church can sometimes get it wrong. Look to God for the answers He has them like golden treasures which set us free from natural thinking and into believing what God has said! Would the Lord who showed us so much love deny the very one’s He came to save? Would He who hung on the cross and stayed there because He loved us abandon us because we cannot cope? I say no because his mercy endures forever!!

“But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God. You are patient, always faithful and ready to forgive.”Psalm 86:15