Many Christians have asked questions about the fate of the soul of a person who committed suicide. Is suicide a one-way ticket to hell? Does God’s mercies make provision for people who commit suicide? Etc. I would like us to first look at a few suicide stories in the bible and see why those individuals committed the act in the first place. There are a number of such stories in the bible – especially in the Old Testament. I’m no expert in this however I will attempt to put these stories into categories. First we will look at the bible characters who almost committed suicide or expressed their desire for death, those who did it with the help of others and then those who actually did it on their own. 

I would like to start with the stories of those who almost committed suicide or expressed a strong desire for death. From my observation of some of these stories, I have come to the realization that ‘death before dishonour’ was a guiding principle for most people in ancient Israel. This points to the fact that in some of these stories the individuals were prepared to kill themselves lest they endure the pain or shame that accompanies dying at the hands of their foes or being put to death by their superiors because of some error on their part. This fact cuts across all the categories of suicides in the bible listed above. For example, in the famous jail-escape story of Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25-28) we see this happen. The two of them spent time singing praises to God and praying at midnight, soon there was an earthquake and the jail gates were opened. When the jailer realized the gates were opened he supposed the prisoners had escaped so he drew his sword and was ready to kill himself. Paul cried out and told him to stop. Now let us analyse this event critically. The jailer in this story was prepared to die rather than face the punishment that would be meted out to him if the prisoners who had been put in his care had escaped. Whatever the punishment was, it couldn’t have been worse than death. Hence, it appears in his bid to commit suicide, he was aiming at preventing something more severe, shameful and dishonourable than death. He preferred death to dishonour. This jailer is in this category because he didn’t follow through with his intentions. He was stopped by Paul and later, he gave his life to Christ. 

Elijah also fits into this category. He did not necessarily make an attempt to end his life but he expressed his desire for death because of some challenges he was facing. He prayed and asked God to kill him. He said ‘It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers” (1Kings 19:4). He said this because Jezebel was after his life. This may not quite fit perfectly into the principle of ‘death before dishonour’ but in some sense it does. Here we see Elijah expressing his desire to die at the hands of God rather than Jezebel’s. Maybe because it wasn’t death he was really afraid of but the dishonor of dying at the hands of Jezebel. 

The second category of suicide victims in the bible are those who asked someone else for help. The first of such stories is that of Abimelech. Abimelech, had just won a war against Gaal and his brothers. Later he heard that some of the men (he had just fought with) were hiding in the stronghold of the temple of the god of Berith. He and his men went after them and set the stronghold on fire and killed as many as 1000 men and women. Afterwards, he went to Thebez and he encamped there. The people there had also fled into their strong tower, shut it and went up the tower. Abimelech came near the tower and drew near the door to burn it, but a certain woman at the top of the strong tower dropped a millstone on Abimelech’s head. Abimelech preferred death to dishonour or a seemingly braver death than a dishonourable one. So he called his armour bearer and said to him, “draw your sword and kill me, lest men say of me ‘a woman killed him’” Judges 9:54. The armour bearer killed Abimelech at his command. It is a kind of suicide. It was also inspired by the ‘death before dishonour’ principle. Just like the others, he didn’t fear death per se. What he feared was the ‘dishonourable’ death at the hands of a woman. 

 The second person in this category is Samson. He also committed suicide with the aide of someone. When the Philistines had finally captured him, they gouged out his eyes and brought him out into their temple to make fun of him while they made merry. He asked the young boy who held him by the hand to take him to pillars that supported the temple so he could lean on them. He later prayed to God to give him strength. Samson positioned himself in the middle of the pillars and said (to God) ‘let me die with the Philistines’. He pushed the pillars and the temple came tumbling down. It was said that the death toll of this act far exceeded the number of Philistines Samson killed before his capture. Samson did this not because he wanted to prevent a dishonourable death, but he wanted vengeance against the Philistines for gouging out his eyes. And so vengeance is one of the reasons people commit suicide.  

The last group of suicide victims are those who actually did the act on their own, unaided. 

One of the most prominent suicide stories throughout all of scripture is that of Saul, the first king of Israel. He had spent a long time pursuing David in an attempt to kill him. While warring against the Philistines one time, they struck down the sons of Saul. The Philistine archers also wounded Saul badly. In that state, Saul told his armour bearer ‘draw your sword, and thrust me through with it,lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and mistreat me’. Again, we see the principle of ‘death before dishonour’ at play here, even with much more detail. Saul, preferred to die at the hands of his armour bearer than to be killed by the Philistines ( referred to as uncircumcised) who would have mistreated him. His armour bearer couldn’t obey Saul’s command because of fear so Saul took his own sword and fell on it. 

Ahithophel also committed suicide when his counsel was not followed. In those days the counsel of Ahithophel was as if one had consulted God on a matter. But when he joined Absalom’s camp, David prayed to the LORD to turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness. It did happen and Ahithophel couldn’t bear the shame of having his counsel ignored by Absalom. The bible says, he went home and put his house in order and hanged himself. 

I dare say the most prominent suicide story in the bible is that of Judas Iscarriot. His, was prophesied by David in the Old Testament and quoted by Peter in Acts 1:20. Judas’ suicide is the most popular because of the reason he did it. He had betrayed Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world for 30 pieces of silver. He later committed suicide because of shame and guilt. When he learnt that Jesus had been crucified he attempted to return the money he got for the betrayal. Then he hanged himself and died. He couldn’t bear the guilt of being the one disciple who collaborated with the enemies of Christ to kill him. 

I just wanted to make the point that people desire to die or commit suicide for so many reasons. It could be that they do it to prevent something dishonourable from happening to them, some also do it because of vengeance and others because of shame and guilt. At least these are the reasons why these characters in the bible attempted or committed suicide. 

Death is the most certain event in every human life yet its suddenness still leaves most of us in shock and fear. Death causes grief however, death by suicide causes a special kind of grief. This is because both the dead and the living close relations of the dead are all victims. Those who die by suicide are called victims of suicide. In some parts of the world, attempted suicide is a crime, implying that the worth of every human life is protected under the laws of the land against (even) him/herself. ‘You cannot get up one day and take your life’, that is what the law seems to say. Life is sacred. Life gets its worth from the giver of life himself who is God. 

On the question of where the souls of victims of suicide go, I can neither say ‘to hell’ nor ‘to heaven’ because it is a matter of judgment. Moses called the LORD ‘the judge of all the earth’. I trust that in such matters the judge of all the earth will judge righteously. Dr. Ravi Zacharias, who himself attempted suicide at the age of 17, was asked this same question. His answer was very profound. He too mentioned that only God can judge where any of us would spend eternity. What he added to that statement is what I find outstanding. He said ‘I wouldn’t want to meet Jesus after I have committed suicide’. What would you tell Jesus when you meet him after committing suicide? That you lost hope? That you preferred killing yourself to experiencing something dishonourable? So long as there is life, there is hope. I pray that anybody who reads this piece and is suicidal would reach out to God and the support system around them for help. Some of us actually need to get professional help from a counselor or a therapist. Your life is precious. Your life is precious. God wants you to be on this side of eternity until he calls you home. Hold on tight!

We will all stand before the LORD after we die to face judgment. I don’t know about any of you but I sure wouldn’t been looking forward to seeing after committing suicide. 

Do white people also come to terms with their whiteness when they come to Africa? I can’t tell. But even if they do, I guess the reality of who they are isn’t shoved down their throats in the most callous way. White people are adored by Africans. Black people are not respected as much as white people are on this continent. Black lives don’t matter here. You can tell that black lives don’t matter here by the way black deaths don’t matter.

People pretend at funerals. There are people who could barely stand the presence of another person even if he/she was 3 borders away and yet show up at their funerals crying Boti falls. I am just saying that people can even feign concern when the dead person was an arch-enemy. So I wonder what it takes to actually show no concern for the living and none at all after they die. 147 students were killed at Garissa in kenya and it isn’t given much attention by the media and African leaders. I don’t even want to put myself in the shoes of the parents of the dead, yet I can still feel the pain here. I was a university student not too long ago, so I can really relate to the plot. We must show concern. We are not too busy to show concern. Especially when our leaders flew all the way to France to join in a march against terrorism after the Charlie Hebdo attack. 11 African leaders went all the way to join world leaders of white nations to march against global terrorism. But when terrorism hits hard on the continent, they appear numb and indifferent to the plight of their very own. Black lives must matter on this continent.

 (Venezuelan students showing solidarity)

In America, it appears the easiest crime one can get away with is shooting a black man and claiming he was armed – even if he wasn’t. I watched the video of the white police man who shot  an older black man whose back was turned against him. It didn’t even seem real – that was how unbelievable the plot was. I watched the life literally squeezed out of Eric Garner by a white police man. Do you know what it means to see a man take his last breath? –More so when he wasn’t prepared? Black lives really don’t matter. Black lives have never mattered since the slave trade. They always make it seem the worst tragedy ever recorded was the killing of 6million Jews by Hitler in the holocaust. It turns out the death toll of the slave trade makes the holocaust look like an under-patronized slaughter house. Black lives have been under attack before we could even spell ‘attack’. I find it rather comforting to see a few white people join in the protests against ‘police brutalities against black people in America’. It only goes a long way to show that it isn’t an “us vs them” fight. But rather humanity versus injustice, humanity versus institutional racism. That is one sure way we can win the fight – when we realize the enemies of black people are of different colors (even black), religion and social standing.

I really feel sorry for my brothers and sisters in Kenya. These are hard times for them. Nevertheless, it will all be over soon – no situation is permanent. There is nothing more painful than to live in a world where nobody else thinks you matter and then your own brother kills you just to justify that fact. Those Aalshabab militants were black people. Black lives don’t matter to them. Boko Haram is made up of black people too. Black girls’ lives don’t matter to them. The members of ISIS in Egypt killed 21 of their kind. Black Christian lives don’t matter to them. Black lives matter, everybody else is probably blind to this fact. Till eyes are opened, those of us who see must rise up and show concern for black lives and about black deaths. Let love rain and reign in Africa.

Religion – Christianity for that matter – professes a life after death. You may disagree with me because I don’t have proof of this, but neither do you have proof of otherwise. There are two destinations so far as life after death is concerned: heaven and hell. Heaven is described with such soothing adjectives that one can only imagine it as the most beautiful place ever. I picture a large garden with crystal-clear rivers flowing through it; sweet scented flowers; soft green carpet grass and rabbits hopping about. This is how I picture it sometimes – such a beautiful place. Then of course there is hell. If you have seen Bill Weise’s presentation on his visit to hell, I doubt it is a place you would wish for any human being to go to. He spoke about how he was tormented repeatedly by grotesque gigantic creatures. He also recounted the shouts and screams he heard from the many souls that ended up there. It is heart-wrenching to know that many are already there and many shall go there.

These are the two destinations eternity has to offer us. Let me clarify this, Christians do not live their lives in perpetual fear of hell. We are not forced to believe in the existence of God because we are afraid we would be burnt by fire. On the contrary, it is the joy of being united with God that compels us to remain faithful to him. Who ever succeeded in any venture by fearing failure more than desiring success? It doesn’t work that way. The desire for success is a greater push to success than the fear of failure is. Hence, people who fear God as a by-product of their fear of hell are passengers of a hell-bound minivan that has no breaks.

Hell is the reason why death isn’t fatal. Ending up in hell is referred to as ‘the second death’ in the bible; that death is fatal. The physical death is nothing compared to the second death. We have every right to weep over relatives and friends we’ve lost. When somebody close to us dies, we cry mostly because we will miss the person; sometimes because of the circumstances surrounding the person’s death. It is okay to cry. But the truth is the person may end up on the more blissful side of eternity, while we live on in this depraved world. Our tears are very much justified. I just wish we would be more concerned about those who will die the second death. Those people are really in a hopeless situation. There is no hope in hell, there is nowhere to run to or hide even. That is depressing. Hence we should be more driven by compassion for the people who are bound to die the second death.

Have you ever felt somebody deserved to die? Seriously, like you hear of the death of a person and you merely shrug and say softly that ‘he deserved it’. Think of Sadam Hussein. Think of Idi Amin. For some funny reason we humans feel death is the worst thing to happen to a person. Thus when it happens to an ‘evil’ person, we leap for joy or simply mutter ‘otwiaa’ under our breaths. But when it happens to a ‘good’ person then it means God hasn’t been good or He isn’t all-powerful, all-knowing and ever present *such double standards*. It is our hope that there is a life on the other side, because Jesus promised us so. This hope keeps us alive even in the deadliest moments.

When ISIS killed those 21 Christians, was God asleep? Why did He allow the death of his own servants? These are the kinds of questions we ask anytime there is the death of a person we believe doesn’t deserve death. I always say this, God allowed the death of Christ – the gruesome murder of his own son – hence this is not the first time; and clearly not the last. I am personally intrigued by the attitude of the apostles towards death. While Stephen was being stoned, he pleaded with God on behalf of his murderers. Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross. It is believed that while he was led towards the cross he said “I have long desired and expected this happy hour…’. Who stares in the face of the worst thing that could possibly happen to a human being and call it a happy hour? See? Death isn’t fatal. In Revelation9:6, the bible foretells a period of great torment that will cause many to desire death. Amazing! It means there are so many things that could happen to a human being in this life that are worse than death. Many desire death in such circumstances. Death cannot be fatal based on these facts. God’s aim wasn’t to do away with physical death when Jesus died, his aim was to save as many as possible from the second death. Therefore, if there is anyone who believes in Jesus Christ and confesses him as Lord, such a person may die physically, but won’t die spiritually (go to hell). So is God all-powerful, all-knowing and ever present? Of course He is, because he provided a remedy to the second death. In this we find comfort.

I am not trying to make mild the pain of losing someone. I myself have experienced it and there hasn’t been a day since then that I haven’t thought about it. I am just saying death isn’t fatal. Death isn’t the worst thing to happen to a human being. The worst thing that can possibly happen to a human being is the second death. Nevertheless, the solution to this is Jesus Christ.

 REFERENCES: Revelations 9:6, Acts 7, 1st Thessalonians 4:13-14 and 1st Corinthians 15:26