I have a friend who wants to know if any verses in the Bible discuss what will happen to persons who commit suicide. Do they go to Hell?

Editor's Note: If you have a friend or loved one who is talking about suicide, please encourage him or her to seek professional help. Call your local crisis hotline. To learn more about suicide prevention, see the links at the end of this page.

Dear friend, I want to be gentle and compassionate in responding to your question because God is gentle and compassionate. Sometimes people ask questions on behalf of a friend when the friend is their own deep feelings and impulses. And so I want to be careful.

I don't believe that a loving God sends people to Hell for committing suicide. I want you and your friend to know the Truth. God is more loving than any of us can imagine. And God is more compassionate than any of us can believe. And so I hope you will be patient and follow my response to the end.

When the Church has spoken to the question you ask about suicide, it has cited the Ten Commandments ("you shall not kill") or recalled the story of Judas hanging himself (Mathew 27:5 and Acts 1: 16-20). The Church has known that God has a deep sadness whenever there is killing and doubly so when some person kills himself or herself. God's loving purpose for human beings is life; God is on the side of living, not killing in any forms.

At her best, the Church knows God is the God of Life and for people to choose death in killing others or self is to miss God's hope and purposes for human beings. That missing of God's purpose is called "sin."

Mostly, in the Bible, sin is a word that comes from the language of bows and arrows. It has to do with missing the target. Over shooting. Under shooting. Shooting to the left or to the right. But missing the target. And for a person to kill another or self is to miss what God intends for life.

Frequently, when the Church has talked officially about matters like suicide, it has been direct and harsher than anyone wants. So what has been said is that persons who kill themselves are outside of God's will and therefore are consigned to Hell.

There is much in the Bible that "discusses" this, as you put it in your question. But such a position is a logical conclusion. If God does not purpose killing and death, then those who kill are outside God's purposes and will. That, by definition, is sin and the reward for sin is separation from God, which is Hell.

But God is not logical. God is loving. God is compassionate. God is more understanding than any of us can imagine. The psalmist says it this way:

"[God's] steadfast love endures forever." (Psalm 118 and others)

And Paul says it more grandly still:

"I am convinced that neither death, nor life, ... nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39).

Theologians and ethicists are charged with the responsibility of giving correct, logical answers. God's people are charged with the responsibility of Good News. God's love extends to everyone, even those who take their own life. And if God loves that lavishly -- and God most certainly does, even going to the cross and dying to show the extent of God's love and compassion and understanding -- then we have hope.

Tell your friend there is hope in God whose mercy endures forever! Believe this good news and live in peace.

-- Hank Blunk
One of Julian's consultants
Indiana, USA

Hank Blunk is a Presbyterian minister, spiritual director, teacher and retreat leader, and writer. He describes himself as a "spiritual being in search of a human life." Hank "retired" in January 2000, saying he was not "Y2K compatible." Now, he follows a Benedictine discipline of daily prayer, reading and physical labor, tends to family and friends, and drives his Jeep Wrangler, all with Benedicta, a yellow Labrador puppy, close at hand.

Suicide Prevention Links:
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
National Hopeline Network

Julian of Norwich, a late fourteenth-century mystic and spiritual writer, chose to live a solitary life in a cell attached to the Church of Saint Julian in Norwich, England. Because Julian was known for her wisdom, seekers approached the window of her cell to ask her questions about Christian faith and practice.

Learn more about Julian by reading Encounter with God's Love: Selected Writings of Julian of Norwich from Upper Room Books.