Tag: bible (page 7 of 7)

Q & A: Is Suicide Always Wrong?

Dave – Hebrews 9:27 states, “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” So can I argue that if I killed myself today, that this was my appointed time? I say no because I can argue that I preempted God’s plan for my life which makes my action wrong. To be clear here, I am not talking about someone jumping on a live grenade to save others. I am talking about the willful act of ending one’s soul-life before “its time.” I am also not addressing the controversy of euthanasia for a sufferer either. This is a separate issue for me. Therefore, I contend that suicide in the context that I’ve laid out here is always wrong.

The next question is can a Christian who commits suicide still have eternal life? Many believers quote 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 for this issue, “Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him, for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” This certainly sounds like the person is in deep trouble on Judgment Day. The Lake of Fire (Hell) does destroy both body and soul according to Jesus (Matthew 10:28). To be honest, however, I am having trouble making a blanket judgment for all Christian suicide cases. Saul/Paul, however, did kill some Christians and yet was forgiven and has eternal life. I look forward to your thoughts. I’ll deal with euthanasia next time.

Feedback:

Gary R – Biblically speaking, suicide is wrong as 1 COR 3:16-17 tells us. Speaking from the human standpoint, Bible aside if that’s possible, from the moment of birth us humans work so hard to LIVE! It’s inconceivable to me one could end your own life, obviously in the depths of despair, but God’s Word, indeed has all the answers. I think suicide is always wrong.

Nick C – When you look at the Scriptures, there are many people who seemed to be plagued with suffering and pain. Job is the most notable. He said, “May the day of my birth perish” (Job 3:3, 11). Samson killed himself along with the Philistines. King Saul fell on his own sword. Judas committed suicide. The Bible doesn’t soft pedal those deaths. The Bible says it’s the Lord who gives and takes away (1 Sam. 2:6).

Pat T – I’ve had a relative who was schizophrenic who committed suicide and even had an evangelical pastor (business exec.) who suffered terribly from deep depression who took his own life. Both were confessing Christians. Even my wife who was sexually abused as a child for years by a family member had tried to take her life (never succeeded, thank God). And though I believe suicide is sin and we don’t have the right to take our own life, I too believe God has to make the final judgment on their destiny, especially those who are not in their right mind. Even King Saul fell on his own sword to end his life and other prominent figures in Scripture had wished for death. But God also warns us in Revelation that the cowardly do not enter heaven, which I believe to include those who bow out of life because life has been tough. Suicide is not of God or His way to die.

It is not the unforgivable sin as Jesus described in Matt. 12:31. All sins, past present and future where forgiven and paid for on the cross. All sins includes taking your own life. The problem is some people say the suicide victim never confessed their suicide to be forgiven. But, then where is grace? Unbelief is the only sin that keeps you from God’s grace. If salvation depended upon my ability to confess all my sins, I’d be hopelessly lost because who can remember them all? We all sin in ways we are not aware of. What happens to the guy that dies in a car wreck instantly who just stole a candy bar or lied or looked at porn or swore before he could confess his sin?

I believe suicide victims who are children of God are not sent to hell. They still are redeemed into heaven. There is nowhere in the Bible God says a suicide victim goes to hell.

You have to come to grips with Jesus saying nothing can snatch his children from his hand, nothing separates his children from his love, we are adopted so can we be unadopted? We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Can we be unsealed?

Jesus can and does heal those struggling with suicidal thoughts.

Those are my initial thoughts. I had a Christian friend commit suicide many years ago after he found his Christian wife in his bed with another man. The pain was too much to bear. He loved Jesus. I believe he is in heaven.

I believe that verse in 1 Cor. 3 is talking about defiling the church which is God’s temple, not our bodies.

Cindi L – Dave, well said. Suicide is one of the toughest issues for me mainly because of confronting the very issue of eternal life and being fairly close to individuals who struggle their whole lives with depression. What makes it tough is it’s the last act someone does, which makes us question the “typical” repentance aspect. I find myself not offering definites to anyone on the subject because I know our Loving God knows way more than us, the beginning, and the end and I leave it in His hands. I have witnessed some things that bother me when Christians on occasion “claim with certainty” that the person “went to heaven.” I think is a dangerous message to endorse as it may lead others who struggle to choose suicide because it offers them a “faster way out” to what they think is a definite “better world or place.” We must be cautious and though our hearts go out to all those families and friends that go through this horrible tragedy (it is so tough on those left in its wake), I usually choose to say my Hope would be that they are in heaven and with certainty we can TOTALLY TRUST God in this situation. As usual, it’s best left in God’s Hand, and defer our opinions to His.

Chris L – All really interesting thoughts… and good initial analysis from you. I think in some way, like mom said, it’s dangerous to ever speculate on anyone’s eternal destiny and I think Jesus being ‘the Door’ is basically Jesus warning that He – not man – decides who comes in and out. Sometimes I think in our attempt to support that claim (that Jesus is the Door) we can run the risk of actually defeating the whole purpose. The point is that He decides, basically warning us not to do so! And who else would we want to make that call? Especially with these questions (suicide, whether you are sealed, whether you haven’t heard the name ‘Jesus’, whether you are 9 years old, etc.)…you definitely don’t want me making those calls – God knows my own judgments would only flip back on me the moment I make them!

But at the same time, we can certainly affirm that God doesn’t like suicide or the mental illnesses that
leads to it or any suffering at all. It would therefore be our to job to ask God how we fight against that in
our lives and the lives of others. Whether that includes telling people they may not go to heaven if they
do, I’m not sure. I’m not sure that would be the best approach, but if it convinces people not to commit
suicide, then great. Good stuff

Cindi L – This was great feedback to read. The Scriptural suicides that were mentioned would be interesting to hear commentaries on from your group. For example, I would question whether Saul or Judas were destined for heaven in contrast with Samson’s decision. Samson’s seems a lot more like your first analogy of someone diving on a bomb to save more lives act. It was interesting to me that these were all lumped together.

Dave – Clearly, there is a difference between Samson’s death and Judas’. Saul’s soul is a mystery to me, not so much how he died (he was mortally wounded so he would have died without falling onto his sword) but that he was so backslidden.

Evolution vs. Biblical Christianity

Many Christians today do not believe in evolution but cannot offer sound scientific or Biblical reasons for their stand. Some actually believe that God used this process in His creation. The Bible says that we should always be ready to make a defense for the hope that lies within us with gentleness and reverence (1 Peter 3:15). In this essay, I will briefly explain why evolution cannot be true from both a Biblical and a scientific viewpoint.

There are some basic Biblical reasons why God did not use evolution. Scripture states plainly in both Testaments that man’s sin brought death into the world (Gen.2:17 and Romans 5:12). If evolution is true, then death was in the world for millions of years before any human did any wrong thing. Progressive Creationists believe that only human death occurred after sin, but plant and animal death was going on for millions of years (with survival of the fittest creating better species over time). If true, then God used death and suffering to create better species. I choose not to worship a god that would do his creating in that manner. The God of the Bible created everything good from the beginning. In fact, Jesus Himself said that Adam and Eve were made at the beginning of the creation (Mark 10:6).

I would hope that all Christians believe that they were “regular humans” and not some mix with animals. Adam had a language and could give names to animals. This sounds intelligent to me.

The Bible also states that each kind (species) was created after its own kind and that their flesh is not the same flesh (1 Corinthians 15:38-39). Evolution says all flesh has common ancestry (common flesh). Did animals die before Adam’s sin? No, because Romans 8:22 states that all creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth. This includes animals and plants. However, the Hebrew word for “life” is different for plants than for humans and animals. Therefore, plants did “die” before sin. God told Adam that He gave the green plant as meat in the Garden of Eden for him to eat. If Christians try to force evolution into the Bible, they run into serious problems. In my view, they are believing in secular mankind’s thinking too readily and then interpreting the Bible from what man says, rather then letting the Bible determine truth. Man’s science changes every second. The Bible never changes.

In fact, evolution is becoming doubted by many scientists as more facts are discovered. There are serious scientific problems with the idea that all living organisms came from a single, living cell. The first problem is abiogenesis, life coming from non-life. Science today says this is impossible, but due to evolution bias, scientists are forever trying to demonstrate this possibility. They have failed miserably. The famous Miller-Urey experiment in 1953 never did give much hope that life can come from non-life, although from what science books say about it leaves one thinking it was a grand success. One thing it did prove is that in order to have life (or try to have it) high intelligence is necessary to form every molecule perfectly, along with all systems and parts of systems working immediately within the living organism or cell. If one part is not fully functional from the beginning, life cannot exist. Life also needs oxygen, however, if oxygen is present at the
time of creation it kills life! There’s a strange paradox indeed. Lastly, if evolution is true, where did the complex DNA code come from?! Codes demand a Coder. Even simple codes that lead to functionality do not come from mindless chance.

Furthermore, with our expanding knowledge of DNA, we now realize that in order for a dinosaur to evolve into a bird, which is what evolution insists happened, there are tons of genetic informational changes required to produce such a miracle. That info is not there. Also, if body parts changed into other kind of body part slowly over millions of years, how could those parts function and preserve life when they were only partially changed? If some creature was evolving from water to land, at some point it would have half a fin and
half a leg. Now it can’t swim or crawl, and would be the first to be eaten by other predators! How does survival of the fittest work here? The same can be said for legs changing into wings and scales into feathers. There is just too much of a change needed from the DNA to orchestrate such huge changes and any super gradual changes would hamper function and would be lethal to that species. Therefore, in scientific terms,
evolution truly lacks a mechanism (scientific procedure) that could cause slow evolution and would support survival.

The fossil record does not show all the necessary gradual changes. Those imprints all look exactly like those critters look today. Evolutionists claim there are millions of transitional fossils, but they define “transitional” in such a general way that anything could be viewed as one. It’s ridiculous. A bat today still looks like a fossilized bat that supposedly died millions of years ago. Public school science textbooks fail to mention these basic problems. All those chapters on evolution give students is smoke and mirrors.

I have merely provided the tip of the iceberg as far as providing both Biblical and scientific reasons why evolution is a deception to get people to reject the authority of the Bible, God’s Word. Evolution stands as a modern-day Goliath strutting its boastful intellectualism against what our Creator has said. Goliath did the same. He strutted his arrogant confidence against the God of Israel and His people, so God defeated him with something small (a boy and a stone). Some evolutionists equate Bible-believers as “flat-earthers,” as if facts are not on our side and that our faith keeps us ignorant. Nothing could be further from the truth. Throughout history, several Christians contributed to the modern scientific method and other contributions. Fairly recently a strong creationist named Raymond V. Damadia designed the MRI machine. Many great scientists also reject evolution—you just never hear them being quoted in worldly literature. There does exist,
however, an arrogant spirit in science ever since the Age of Reason in Europe that stereotypes people who believe in the Bible, and it works hard to suppress truth. But remember what Jesus said about these types: “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants” (Matt.11:25). Today, Christians need to be destroying speculations and
every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), but with gentleness and reverence.

Feedback:

DM – Awesome. I will just forward this as I was not equipped to have this conversation. You are a true mentor!

Dave to DM – Thanks for the feedback and may the Lord anoint those words for whomever sees them – “Not by power nor by strength, but by My Spirit saith the Lord.”

NF – Right on Dave and happy Father’s Day to ya!

CL – Good concise deliverance of your immense body of knowledge!

Dave to CL – Thanks, and let’s hope and pray it gets out to others who are open to the Lord.

RV – Absolutely not throwing any stones here or trying to correct anything. I love your e-
mails. A couple comments:

  1. Assuming it is true, the most convincing thing I ever saw against the idea of evolution/life from non-life was the segment from the Truth Project about cell biology. Humans, scientists included, seem to be arrogant concerning things too small to see. A cell is not remotely a fundamental building block. Breaking down a cell, there’s a whole host of sub-cellular mechanisms that must pre-exist for the cell to function, yet have no function outside the cell. That speaks clearly to the engineer in me 🙂
  2. You made one statement that is kind of dangerous: “I choose not to worship a god that would do his creating in that manner.” Depending on what we eventually learn from God, that could be a bad thing to choose. I heard Bob Lonsberry say the same exact thing concerning “any god” who would allow Jeffery Dahmer into heaven. Unfortunately for Bob, God is the only one with a say in the matter. Without finding any fault with anything you assert, I think there’s plenty of room in scripture for God to someday say to us “What made you think you could possibly understand any of this?”
  3. Christians have worked hard to earn their reputation for being “flat-earthers.” Ultimately, whatever is actually true really IS actually true. I’m sure Christians have found ample biblical evidence to support an earth centered solar system, or anti-semitism or racism or slavery, and they clung mightily and embarrassingly to those errors (celibate priests anyone?). Better we embrace a stance that says we could be wrong on some details and that if something turns out to be an error we’ll embrace the Truth. Just like science can be a idol, trying to disprove it can be too.

Dave to RV – Thanks for your feedback and the spirit in which it was delivered. Your points are well taken. On your first point, I am very familiar with Michael Behe’s book “Darwin’s Black Box” in which he articulates his “irreducible complexity” assertion. Behe, a professor of biochemistry at Lehigh University, claims that each cell is highly complex and all mechanisms need to be fully formed in order for the organism to live and reproduce. We cannot go backward and keep assuming that all body mechanisms had a more primitive physical state as evolutionists do, because that state cannot keep the organism functioning alive. It seems to me that Behe would conclude that the only way we can have life exist as we know it is to have a “sudden poof” and then species can adapt and have some degree of variation within each kind. All this, of course, fits the Genesis account like a glove.

TL – There is a basic form of evolution that does happen – over time a species does change due to mutation and the available genetic pool. But that is a far cry from how evolution is portrayed by most today – originating everything and changing species to another species. It is beyond my comprehension how so many buy into the “evolution did it all” explanation. One day nothing was sitting around pondering nothing and decided to become – something – the universe. Nothing up my sleeve – presto – the universe and all its laws.
Now in this created from nothing universe we get just the right combination of soupy elements, add a little lightning – and you guessed it – presto – a living, single cell. Now quickly this first, single cell decided in its first second of life – I’m lonely – I need to find some company – another me! I’m going to find some way to divide in half – and presto – hey there twin sibling. And the amazing prestos just continues – I want to be more than one
cell – presto a two-celled critter. And at some point ol’ two cell was thinking – hey I don’t have anything to think with – one of us should become – a brain cell! And from there nothing could stem the cell’s (pun intended) creativity – deciding then adding new types of cells, then organs – to naturally wanting to climb out of the water, become an amphibian – no a reptile – no a mammal. And once you conquer changing from species to species – well a chimp isn’t bad, but I want to be a man. It really does take more faith to believe in this form of evolution – than to believe God created it all.

Dave to TL – It is great to hear from you again. Hope all is well. We think alike on this evolution issue – it does indeed take more faith to embrace Darwinism. It sadly demonstrates how and why some humans do this – “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it” (John 1:5) and “And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their
deeds were evil” (John 3:19). There are spiritual reasons why people trust in the theory of evolution. Unbeknownst to most, science has little to do with it. A revealing quote from a famous evolutionist in Darwin’s time confirms Scripture: “For myself, the philosophy of meaningless was essentially an instrument of liberation, sexual and political.” – Aldous Huxley, “Ends and Means,” p.270ff.

The “basic form of evolution” that you mentioned is not Darwinism, as you rightly pointed out. In fact, it should not even be categorized as any form of evolution because that serves as a smokescreen to deceive students in science. Adaptation is what this is. However, what the evolutionists, as well as the science textbook authors, do is define “evolution” is such general terms that they can get away with this. Defining “evolution” as “change over time” is far too general and is misleading. As we know, God put adapting ability into each species knowing that a fallen world would include environmental stresses. This, of course, has absolutely nothing to do with common ancestry.

The best definition of evolution comes from the the late Father of Biblical Creationism Henry Morris, author of “The Genesis Flood”: “UNKNOWN chemicals in the primordial past…through UNKNOWN processes which no longer exist…produced UNKNOWN life forms which are NOT TO BE FOUND…but could through UNKNOWN reproduction methods spawn new life in an UNKNOWN atmospheric composition in an UNKNOWN oceanic soup complex at an UNKNOWN time and place.”

Thanks so much for your feedback and please keep in touch!

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