Christian views on suicide

There has been much debate over the Christian view on suicide, with early Christians believing that suicide is sinful and an act of blasphemy. In modern times, some Christian churches reject this idea, although others still espouse and teach this view.

There are seven suicides in the Bible, most notably in Matthew 27:5, the suicide of Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, and that of Saul (1 Samuel 31:4). In Acts of the Apostles 16:28 Paul prevents the attempted suicide of a jailor. Jonah (Book of Jonah 4:8), Elijah (1 Kings 19:4) and Job (Book of Job 6:9) express suicidal feelings.

Some Christians state that one cannot repent from suicide since one is not capable of praying and asking for forgiveness after death. However, this can also be seen as that when one commits suicide they are repenting because when dead one cannot choose to sin again, ultimately making suicide one sin that can only be committed once.

The most notable pro-suicide group was the Donatists, who believed that by killing themselves they could attain martyrdom and go to Heaven. They were eventually declared heretics. Most early theologians of the Catholic Church considered suicide as murder and thus a mortal sin in the absence of circumstances that could mitigate the sinfulness of the act.

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