Question: Do professed believers who commit suicide still go to heaven?

On our website: https://www.thebereancall.org/content/question-do-professed-believers-who-commit-suicide-still-go-heaven
More question and answer: https://www.thebereancall.org/questionanswer

Question: We have been asked to respond to the question of whether or not someone who is a believer and commits suicide will still go to heaven. The individual who committed suicide had some form of depression for years, which caused great suffering.

Response: This is certainly a difficult question to ask and whether we take one position or the other, we still have to admit that we can't see what's going on in an individual's mind. We have prayed for an individual whose spouse had a stroke that changed their personality. They knew the Lord and throughout married life the individual was a good and kind spouse. But post-stroke the victim’s personality changed. We can't say they "willfully" changed their personality. Did they arrange for the stroke to happen? Their spouse said they constantly struggled to control their temper. When we are saved, scripture tells us we are a new creation, old things have passed away (sins are forgiven), and all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17). But, we still inhabit a body subject to illness and pain.

Scripture very clearly says "the old man" is still active in our life. Paul writes in Romans 7 about his struggle. That will continue until we die or are raptured. Then, and only then, "we all shall be changed" (1 Cor 15:51). That is, the old body we inhabit will undergo a resurrection and all the "evil" is done away with. In the meanwhile, the Scriptures speak of the security of the believer.

I remember a conversation I had with a Christian doctor when he was briefing me about some oral surgery I was advised to have. I made a joke, saying, "Please don't record what I say under anesthesia." The doctor laughed and said he wouldn't listen and then spoke of some patients he described as “beautiful grandmothers who were saved and yet under anesthesia would sometimes say some of the most vile things.”

And, let's also acknowledge mental issues. We’re not talking about psychology. As Tom and Dave both noted and medical science has shown, there can be biological damage to the brain that affects someone's ability to communicate, whether the damage is from an accident, internal tumors, or other disease. The question then arises: is there a point where disease or other factors bring an individual to a point where they are not thinking with a right mind? James 4:17 tells us, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

We must also consider the biological issues that come with old age. We don't have the insight to understand what is physically happening to an elderly person's brain. But, if things progress to where an individual isn't fully in control of themselves, can we arbitrarily believe God will send them to hell for that? "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen 18:25).

Our main website: www.thebereancall.org
Store: store.thebereancall.org
Download our app: www.thebereancall.org/app