freebird
Ex Member
|
I think I'll jump in here and point something out. If we are to believe the Bible, then we must believe that in at least one case in human history, a suicidal form of death was pre-ordained: the death of Jesus Christ.
Jesus chose to go to the cross when it was entirely possible for him to escape trial and execution and continue his ministry outside Jerusalem, or even in a foreign country if necessary. It was because he believed God wanted him to die on the cross so that he could be resurrected from the dead, to help his disciples be forgiven of their sins and born again in the Spirit, that he decided to submit to martyrdom. As Jesus explained to his disciples, "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life -- only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father." (John 10:17-18 ).
Jesus is saying that when he is crucified, nobody actually kills him; he is killing himself, because he believed according to his conscience that God wanted him to die on the cross and would empower him to rise from the dead. No wonder, Jesus went to Jerusalem and allowed himself to be arrested, instructed his disciples not to prevent the Roman soldiers from capturing him, and did not speak out in his own defense at trial. Pontius Pilate gave Jesus an opportunity to try to persuade him to let him go free, saying, "Do you refuse to speak to me?... Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" (John 19:10). Jesus did everything possible to ensure that he would die.
It is likely that Jesus was a highly unusual case, so we cannot necessarily draw any sweeping conclusions from it. However, we should also look at the issue of martyrdom in general, which is closely related to suicide. Thousands of Christian radicals, especially in the early church, willingly submitted to horrific forms of death to show the extraordinary strength of their faith. In many of these cases, martyrs could have decided to avoid death without necessarily doing anything to repudiate their religious beliefs -- but they actually wanted to die in martyrdom and sought out a suicidal death, because it was considered a noble and glorious way to die, meriting automatic entrance into heaven. Ironically, many Christians believe non-martyr suicides automatically go to hell.
Perhaps the truth is that a voluntary death can have various moral dimensions and meanings, depending on the exact individual circumstances. Some acts of martyrdom might just be stupid, a waste of a good life that could have been better used serving God on earth for many more years. Some other suicides might be justified because continued life in this world would be pointless or even produce a negative effect. Only God knows, and Christians are not supposed to judge the state of people’s souls.
I think it's obvious that a lot of suicides are a poor moral choice. Some suicides have little to do with choice and are basically pre-determined because of extreme mental illness producing a brain that goes into self-destruct mode, robbing people of their free will. Other suicides are done in an attempt to prove a point, which may be a good or bad thing depending on the point and the effects it produces. In the case of Jesus and suicidal religious martyrs, we can decide for ourselves whether the effect was good or bad. My own view is that Jesus was pre-ordained to choose a voluntary death on the cross, and that this was a good decision that God wanted him to make for the benefit of humanity.
Those are some of my thoughts on this interesting issue.
Freebird
|