As someone who is chronically ill with multiple painful diseases, I have been depressed. Suicidally depressed. With “a plan.” How to kill myself. And God has helped me through that valley!
When I finally started feeling better, physically. I stopped being depressed. Not being able to get out of the bed in my own, coupled with extreme pain is suicidally depressing. But when I got on meds that worked, I was able to start riding my bike, garden, going to church and get out of a wheelchair. In the early years, if my meds failed, the depression would be overwhelming. I even stopped reading my Bible for 2 years, I was so angry at God. I had Word Faith friends mocking me because I wasn’t healed (they both became deathly ill not long after this. One died of breast cancer, the other had emergency surgery, didn’t die) God told me to read 5 Psalms every day. I did for 2 years. I met all kinds of sad, angry, confused people who loved God in the Psalms. Then, I got on good meds, my marriage was restored (broken marriages can often result where an unwilling partner is forced to become a caregiver!) I found a good Bible based church. Then. God called me to seminary. I met imperfect people, who wanted to serve God. One man was addicted to pornography. He gave his testimony about how the seminary helped him recover. We learned in Pastoral Ministries that many men pastors get involved in doing sermon prep in their offices and get a pop up porn window, and they literally get pulled into that sordid world. Every major denomination in the US has websites specifically for pastors addicted to porn.
Sadly, real people, spirit led Christians do get sick. They lose loved ones, and don’t have the resources to cope. I did papers on mental illness in seminary. Partly, I wanted to understand it. I also wanted some answers as to how to help depressed people, esp those who are physically ill, too. I have been working on a PhD in Disability Theology. I want to help people who are depressed and suicidal. I do not want to judge and condemn them, like this terrible OP. But what does the Bible say about depression and suicide?
"Why am I so depressed?
Why this turmoil within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will still praise Him,
my Savior and my God.
6 I am deeply depressed;" Psalm 42:5 HCSB
Most versions say "cast down" which is right for a direct translation. It is when a sheep falls over on its back, it is cast down - a shepherd's term. It can't get up on its own. If left alone, it will actually die. The shepherd needs to turn the sheep over, onto its feet. What a lovely picture of what our heavenly Shepherd does for us! When we are cast down by the troubles and trials of life, we can call out to God, and put our hope in him. We can praise him in the storm!
Sadly, a lot of people in the modern church don't know this. God is there in the fire, the flood and famine.
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour." Isa. 43:1b, 2, 3a.
Christians do get depressed. Pastors get depressed, too! And some people don't have the breadth of Biblical knowledge, the deep theological understanding that God will never leave or forsake them. They have been taught they have to work for their salvation, and if they do not, they will lose it. That means if they sin, any sin, they are always in danger of losing their salvation. That is all this OP really is. It is bad theology telling people that they alone are responsible for their salvation, and if they commit suicide, no matter the reasons, it is too big a sin for God to forgive. But, God saved us before the foundation of the world, and not by works, but by his grace!
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." Eph. 1:3-9
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Eph. 2:8-10
Not of works! God already knew what our actions would be, because God is above time. Yet he chose us before the foundation of the world! That makes me want to love, serve and obey God more. That he chose a wretch like me! And God will not leave or forsake us.
"I will never leave you, and I will never abandon you." Hebrews 13:5; from Deut 31:6,8.
A promise in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It doesn't say "as long as you behave I won't abandon you." It doesn't say, "I'm never going to leave and abandon you, unless you get depressed or commit suicide." In fact, the entire Bible is the good news, that Jesus came to die for our sins - that includes depression and suicide. And suicide is a sin. We should fight to live. But, we do not go to hell, in that last hour when life on earth has become a hell. No, God remains with us. God chose us, he did not make a mistake.
Basically, this whole thread by Jimmy has been based on faulty theology. It assumes that we make the choice to cut ourselves off from God's love. But that is not true! God is love. He will never abandon us, and certainly not when we are in deepest depression, sadness and/or grief. I pray Jimmy never has to cope with major loss that throws his life into total chaos and confusion. Some people don't go through that. As someone who has, and clings to God, I'll give you the verse God gave me during a bad med failure, when I was back in bed, in agony.
"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5
God does not cast out the Christian. He understands depression and suicide better than we do. He is there, even in the midst of the wrong decision to commit suicide. I want to encourage anyone reading this post who is suffering from depression, and even has a plan, to seek medical help and spiritual counselling. My husband was depressed for 25 years after his father died in a skiing accident my husband was in at age 15, where he survived, but his father did not. He had enormous survivor guilt, but he thought as a Christian it was wrong to get help for his endless grief and depression. I was finally able to convince him to go on antidepressants. He came home from work one day, and told me he could do his work. He literally was living in a depressive fog, and could not think. He's on those pills forever, but he never wants to go back to that miserable, foggy serious depression. I've learned the skills so I don't get depressed if a med fails and I end up in bed/wheelchair. That is even a bigger trick. To be chronically in pain or ill, to know you will never get better, and still love life and God? Those people have developed true character, with the help of the Holy Spirit. I'm lucky and God keeps giving me more chances to keep loving him, and sharing the truth that Jesus is our saviour, and died on the cross for our sins. We only need to believe and repent!
"Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." Romans 10:9-10
Please send me a message if you are depressed or suicidal and need help. I am not a certified counsellor, but I have had courses in counselling from seminary and I have been through it myself. God has helped me out the other side. I have been able to point a lot of people in the right direction. And while God does not abandon those who kill themselves, that is not God's plan for our lives, ever! God wants us to choose life, not death. No matter how dark the clouds, how terrible the circumstances, or how bad the sin, God is in the business of helping us all to be conformed to the image of his son. And that means living now, and with help, climbing out of that pit of sadness and depression. And that is a good thing!
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Romans 8:29
