Is Suicide a Forgivable Sin?

Welcome to God First, a program committed to encouraging you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Now, in honor of the one and only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, please join us for today's episode. And as always, it is a joy and honor and a privilege to join you each week.

And I want to thank you for tuning in. Well, today I want to share with you the answer to a question that came out of our local assembly a couple of weeks ago. But before I get to that, I want to invite you to be a part of our local assembly. If you are looking for a body of believers that are really looking to dig deep into the word of God, then we want you to be a part of us because that is exactly what we do each week. We come together and we dig deep into the word of God. I've said before how you hear that saying that so so many places now with churches are two miles wide and two inches deep, meaning that they cover surface topics. They don't go deep into the word. But I like for us to be several miles deep because we dig deep into the word of God.

I mean, we just reference scriptures and we just unpack it. And it is such a great time that we have. We have lively discussions, even though I'm the one who is leading it is not just you listening to me give a monologue. There is back and forth discussion.

There are questions and their comments. And again, we just have a great time is very lively. And I don't mean lively from the standpoint of saying there's conflict, but I mean, people are really enjoying getting into the word of God.

People's eyes are being open to what is going on in the world. And that is what we do. We tie the Bible to what is taking place in the world. And that is why Bible prophecy is so important.

And that is why we cover it. And just let me say to you now, if you are attending a church that is not studying Bible prophecy, that is not teaching it and getting you to see how what is happening in the world relates to the Bible, what the Bible prophesied, then I have to say you should strongly consider another church because we are living in the times that the Bible said would take place. And I heard a pastor say not too long ago, he was talking to a man who told him it would have been so great to live in the Bible days. And the pastor said, man, we are living in the Bible days. We are living in the times that our Lord said these things would take place just before he returns. And I certainly believe that is what we are seeing.

If you look around in society, the lawlessness that we see and how people in high places, political powers, how they are seemingly advocating this lawlessness, winking at it, just letting it slide. When we look at Black Lives Matter, critical race theory, we are not afraid to call out the wickedness that is in those organizations, in those movements. We're not afraid because we know what the word of God says and we stand on the truth of the word of God.

So, again, if you want to be a part of an assembly that is not afraid to talk about things that the world will say is not politically correct to talk about, come and join us. We would love to have you because, again, we go deep into the word of God. We love truth. We are truth seekers. We are lovers of the truth. And the Bible said Jesus Christ is the truth. He is the truth and the way.

And so if you love Jesus Christ, you should be a lover of the truth because Jesus is the truth is one in the same. And so we love, again, to go deep in the word and to share God's word and visit our website. Godfirst.org. That's G-O-D, the number one S-T dot O-R-G. And there's information there where you can find out how you can be a part of our God first Bible fellowship. So, again, please join us.

We would love to have you. If you want to go deep into the word of God, if you want to understand why these things are taking place in the world. There are people who sense things are happening, even nonbelievers. They say something is taking place. And I'll just tell you now, folks, what is taking place is that there are spirits that have descended upon the earth that is causing this lawlessness, that is causing this authoritarianism, that is causing this this globalist movement. The Bible said these things would happen. And right now we're going through the book of Revelation.

We started earlier this year. We're about halfway through. And so we're digging deep into the word of God. And so many are getting so much out of it. And even myself, as as the leader of the the lessons I'm learning so much because perspectives are given that I never thought about before. And so, you know, that saying that iron sharpens iron. And so we have, again, a great fellowship that God has blessed us with.

We would love for you to be a part of it. So the question that came up a couple of weeks ago as we were going through Revelation was, what about suicide? If a person commits suicide during the tribulation, what is their destination?

So I want to share with you today the answer to that question. If you would look at Revelation Chapter 13, verse seven, the text tells us there it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue and nation. This passage tells us that during the tribulation, the Antichrist will have authority over the entire world. He will unleash tremendous persecution on Christians and Israel.

Daniel, Chapter seven, verse twenty five says he will wear out the saints. These will be tribulation saints, those who missed the rapture because they were not saved but become born again during the tribulation. Although Satan will have control over the nations, praise be to God that some individuals during that time will reject him and accept Jesus as the true Messiah. So I am a pre tribulation rapture viewer.

That is the view that I hold. And so we're looking at this from this angle that the rapture has taken place. People have been left behind. But the Bible says there are some who will come to Christ during the tribulation. So what about those people who are left behind but come to Jesus Christ? So the question was raised during our time, again, our local assembly just a couple of weeks ago that I want to expound on. Will Christians who commit suicide because of the great suffering during the tribulation still go to heaven?

This is a very thought provoking question. First of all, how great will the suffering be that it could cause someone to be tempted to take their own life? Well, Revelation tells us that there will be twenty one judgments from God that will be poured out on the earth over a span of seven years. The seal, trumpet and bowl judgments will bring about famine, inflation, murder will increase as bad as it is in our world today, folks. This this pales in comparison to what is going to come, which is which just blows your mind of how bad that is going to be.

There will be cosmic disturbances. It says one third of the trees and all green grass will be burned. The waters will turn to blood that will be torment from scorpion like locusts, sores breaking out on people's bodies.

A scorching heat, a darkness so intense that people will gnaw their tongues in pain. And then 100 pound hailstones are going to fall onto the earth. That is why Jesus stated in Matthew 24, 21, that this will be the worst time that the earth has ever seen or ever will see as God pours out his wrath on the unbelieving world. Covid 19 has certainly brought about sickness and death, and I'm not making light of it, but it pales in comparison to what the tribulation will be like. There has been a significant uptick in suicides during this covid 19 pandemic, so should we expect an even greater increase in suicides during the tribulation and will Christians who do so still go to heaven?

Well, apparently people will not be able to commit suicide, at least for a period during the tribulation. We find evidence of this in Revelation chapter nine, verses five through six, which speaks of scorpion like locusts that will torment mankind. That passage tells us, and they were not given authority to kill them, but to torment them for five months.

That torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. In those days, men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them. During this five month period, people will want to die, and it is insinuated that many will try to take their own lives, but will not die. And can you imagine that God is going to make it so that people have to suffer under this judgment? Some may walk the earth with with parts of their heads blown off from self-inflicted gunshot wounds, but not be able to die.

There will be no way out. And this is a good time to remind you, to urge you to accept Christ as Lord today if you have not already. So you will go away in the rapture and not have to face this torment that is going to come upon the world again. Jesus said it's going to be the worst time that the earth has ever seen or ever will see. And so this opens up another question. Will God supernaturally protect Christians from judgment, just as he protected the Israelites during the plagues in the land of Egypt? Well, if we look again at the torment of the scorpion like locusts, Revelation 9 for reads, they were commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree, but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. So are these sealed a reference to all Christians?

There is debate. We find another account two chapters earlier that uses nearly identical language as what we just looked at in Revelation 9 for. If you look over at Revelation Chapter seven, verses two through four, we find the following text. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, saying, do not harm the earth, the sea or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. And I heard the number of those who were sealed. One hundred and forty four thousand of all of the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed.

All right. I think Revelation nine for and Revelation seven, two through four is speaking of the same group of people. And who are they? Well, we just read that they are one hundred and forty four thousand Jews who will be on special assignment from God to evangelize the world. So this lets us know that there will be some on earth who will not suffer under the judgments. But what about the other followers of Christ? Will they to be supernaturally protected?

Well, I cannot answer that with one hundred percent certainty. But Revelation Chapter 16, verse two tells us that only those who make allegiance to the Antichrist will suffer the first bowl judgment. That passage reads, so the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. So will this apply to all of God's judgment judgments? Will only those with the mark of the beast receive them? Well, the Bible does not say so.

We simply do not know. I mean, we can only speculate some point to First Thessalonians five nine to make the case that Christians will not suffer under God's judgment during the tribulation. That passage tells us for God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. I think this passage is specific to church age saints who go away in the rapture before the tribulation. Now, could it apply to tribulation saints? Revelation 16 to implies that it will to some extent, but I don't think we can say definitively that it will apply concerning all judgments. Now, I lean toward thinking only church aid saints are promised to not suffer the judgments at all.

That is those who go away to heaven by way of the rapture before the tribulation. I think this is the reward for accepting Christ in this age. But whether tribulation saints suffer the judgments from God or not, they will definitely suffer the persecution of the antichrist. Many will suffer great hunger due to being unable to buy or sell without his mark. Many will be beheaded for refusing to make allegiance to him. Again, Daniel 725 says he will wear out the saints. It's going to be a time, folks, that again, our Lord says the earth has never seen nor ever will see.

It's going to be a great time of suffering and persecution. We want to take a short break. Be on the other side of this announcement. We'll come back and talk about it more.

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Box two sixty six, Nightdale, North Carolina, two seven five four five for more information. Now, let's return to the conclusion of today's program. Welcome back to the program as we are looking at the tribulation and for Christians during that time who decide to take their own lives.

What will be their eternal destination? Folks, again, I want to thank you for joining us. You can visit our Web site, God first dot org. This G.O.D., the number one S.T.O.R.G. and you can also write to us God First Bible Fellowship P.O.

Box two sixty six, Nightdale, North Carolina, two seven five four five. So as we were looking at before the break, this time of suffering will be great for many. But we must remind ourselves of our Lord's words in Matthew twenty four thirteen. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. Now, this does not mean living to the end of the tribulation, but it means remaining faithful to Christ and all who do so will receive eternal life. So now that we have established that Christians will indeed suffer greatly during the tribulation, back to the original question of will they go to heaven if they commit suicide? Well, first off, I will say that if a Christian really wants to die and go to heaven during the tribulation, rather than commit suicide, they can just live their lives in the open. And what I mean by that is simply just do not hide or fight back against the antichrist.

I mean, you will easily be found and beheaded. Revelation 20, verse four tells us that just take the same approach as the first century church who allowed themselves to be fed to lions by Roman emperors. But if someone who is a true Christian, meaning they are born again, takes their own life, I can definitively say based on scripture that they will go to heaven. Now, we must remember that suicide is not the unpardonable sin of Mark three, twenty eight through 30. I won't go into the unpardonable sin during this this episode.

We'll talk about that another day. But the unpardonable sin is not suicide. It is a sad reality that some Christians have committed suicide and the false teaching that committing suicide automatically equates to a sentence to hail only as to the tragedy unnecessarily. Many believe and teach that if a Christian commits suicide, he or she will not go to heaven.

That is simply not supported by the Bible. John three sixteen declares that as soon as a person becomes born again in Christ, they are guaranteed eternal life. That fact is further supported by First John five thirteen, which reads these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Jesus died for all our sins, past, present and future. A true Christian can and will come under spiritual attacks during their life. If in a moment of weakness, they take their own life, that scene of suicide is still covered by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is important for us to understand that suicide is not the determining factor in whether a person is allowed entrance into heaven. A person who is not born again in Christ and commit suicide will go to hell, not because of suicide, but because they did not believe in the name of the only begotten Son of God, which is recorded in John three eighteen. Now, some argue that a true Christian would not commit suicide, but I want to caution that we should not be arrogant to think that we, as fallen man, cannot commit certain sins. We all like to think that we will stand true to God's word, no matter the circumstances.

But long periods of suffering and torment can cause anyone to succumb in a moment of weakness. Just look at the apostle Peter. He declared that he would be that he would never deny Jesus. But when fear came, he denied our Lord not once, but three times.

And many consider Peter to have been the fiercest of all the apostles. So never say what we will not do. But let me be clear that suicide is a sin, and I would never encourage anyone to carry out such an act under any circumstances. Suicide is murder and is always wrong. For those who say that we do not know whether a believer will enter heaven or not if they commit suicide is, in essence, stating the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was not enough.

Do not underestimate the blood of Christ, because the Bible declares that his death satisfied the wages of sin to God the Father. So to say that a Christian will go to heaven, even when death comes by suicide, it's not giving people a false hope. It is proclaiming simply what the Bible proclaims. You know, it makes me think about the Pharisees and how they place the great burden on people by guilt shaming them into following manmade rules. When we teach that all people, including believers, go to hell if they die by suicide, we place an unnecessary grief on their loved ones who they left behind. Let us follow the Bible and not manmade doctrines. But you see, people struggle with this because of the idea that we have to ask for forgiveness for all of our sins or else they will be held against us.

Think of it this way. There is probably not a married person on earth who has not experienced the sin of unrighteous anger toward their spouse. And that unrighteous anger is a sin. So let's say I lose my temper with my wife at a moment of weakness, immediately walk out of the house, and as soon as I step foot on the front porch, I am struck by lightning and killed. Because I never asked for forgiveness for that sin, does that mean I will go to hell even as a born again believer?

Of course not. We should always ask for forgiveness to our Lord to express our sorrow for the act. But when we accept Christ, all our sins that we will ever commit are accounted for. So whether it is during the tribulation or even in our present day, a born again believer in Christ is guaranteed to go to heaven no matter how they die, even if it is by self murder. But again, I stress and I take this teaching very, very seriously because if there's anyone out there that is contemplating suicide and you say you are a born again believer, this is not to influence you to take your own life. And I truly believe that a born again believer is not going to premeditate sin in that sense, because even though born again, we all know that sin displeases our Lord, even if it's accounted for.

He's not pleased with us committing sins. And so this is not a license to take one's life. And again, I stress that I would never, ever, under any circumstances, encourage someone to take their own life no matter what they're going through. But the question really was raised from the standpoint of what about loved ones who have been left behind? And they are grieving and wondering, well, will my loved one have eternal life? And from the angle that we were looking at it in our local assembly is what about a believer that goes away in the rapture before the tribulation, but they have loved ones who were not saved and they were left behind, but then come to know Jesus Christ during the tribulation? If they take their own life during that time, will they go to heaven? So that is the scenario in which this this question was presented.

And that is the the angle by which I was looking to answer it. But again, we stress that under no circumstances do we encourage suicide. But there are people in the world today who are grieving unnecessarily thinking that their loved one definitely went to hell because they took their own life. And folks, the Bible simply does not teach that that is a false doctrine of people teaching that if you take your own life, that means an automatic sentence to heal.

So we don't want people grieving unnecessarily. But again, I stress when we look at this time that we're living in today and we look at what is to come, this time that Jesus said it's going to be the worst time that the world has ever seen or ever will see. It's nothing to play with, folks. There are people who play that game and they say, well, if all this stuff is true about the rapture and the tribulation, I'll just wait until that time comes. And when I see the rapture take place, then I'll get right with God at that time. But this is a very, very dangerous game because, for one, nobody is guaranteed to live another day. Nobody's guaranteed to live another second.

You could drop dead at any moment from a natural cause or from a car accident or from anything. So don't play that game of you'll just get right when the time comes. The other thing that the Bible says is that because they did not love the truth, God will send some strong delusion so that they will believe a lie. Now, we don't know exactly which ones that that will be, how God is going to decide who receives this strong delusion and who does not. But I imagine that it would be some of those people who play that game and say, I'm just going to live for the devil and then get right with God when the tribulation comes. Well, God apparently is going to say, no, you didn't choose to accept Jesus Christ as savior when you had the opportunity. You intentionally refused to get right.

You chose to just run with the devil. And so he's going to make it so that you want to believe the lie. And what is that lie? The lie is that the Antichrist is God and people will worship him and give allegiance to him. So, again, folks, that will be the great deception, the great lie, and many will choose the Antichrist. But in doing so, they will know without a doubt that they are given allegiance to him by accepting their mark. They are declaring him as God.

But of course, we know the God of the Bible is the true God. So don't play the game of waiting until the time comes, because, folks, we are living in the days that just like that pastor said. We are seeing fulfillment of what the Bible says in Revelation and in Daniel and in all the prophetic passages that are pointing to our lower second coming.

And we are seeing these things come to pass. And again, these are things pointing to the day when our Lord's feet will touch the earth. That's for his second coming, the rapture. He doesn't come to the earth.

He just descends into the clouds and we're caught up to meet him in the air that comes before the second coming. So if we are already seeing the signs that are pointing to the day when his feet touch the earth, we know the rapture is even that much nearer. So that is why we should be excited and on fire and getting right with the Lord for those of us who are believers in him, getting ourselves ready, being prepared as a bride, prepared for the bridegroom coming to get us. And then for those who have not received him, now was the time. I encourage you to do it today because Jesus said, when you see all these things begin to happen, to look up and watch for your redemption draws near. And folks, we see the things taking place in the world that our Lord says, you will see these things take place before I come.

So again, folks, I want to extend the invitation to you. If you would like to be a part of our local assembly each week, we talk about the prophet prophecy. We talk about the coming of our Lord. We talk about things that are taking place in the world.

We don't shy away from any topics. We believe in the truth and we love the truth of God's word. And we are excited about our coming Messiah because he is coming soon. And man, it just puts such a joy in my heart when I see the things that even though I feel heartbroken over wickedness being promoted, but I get excited over the idea that our Lord said these things would happen just before he returns. So, folks, we are all out of time for this week, but I want to thank you once again for tuning in.

It is always a joy to spend time with you each week. Please come back next time as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until then, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and to the only wise God, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen. Thank you for tuning into the God First program. Please come back and join us next week as we continue to encourage you to put God first while viewing life through the window of the Bible. Until next time, remember to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Bless God's great nation of Israel and seek first the kingdom of God.