Board index ‹ Suicide

[Floppy]

Is it a sin to commit suicide to avoid capture in war? Just saw a video of a downed Russian pilot who committed suicide by grenade to avoid capture by Jihadists. Now I know normally suicide is considered a sin in Christianity, but are there any exceptions in this case or any others?

[jimwalton]

There aren't any verses that talk about suicide. Some people in the Bible committed suicide (Possibly King Saul, definitely Judas), but there are no teaching in the Bible about it.

Obviously, suicide is taking a life, and the Bible does say that it's wrong to willfully take a life by violence (Ex. 20.13), but it doesn't speak specifically about suicide.

Some people consider that the Roman Catholic Church teaches that anyone who suicides goes directly to hell. While some Catholics agree to that, others don't. But what we definitely do NOT find is the Bible teaching that. The Bible never says that people who kill themselves go to hell, even though the last act they committed on this earth was murder. The teaching of Scripture is clear that your final destiny is not dependent on an action like that, but the state of your soul (with a sin nature or the nature of Jesus) at the end of life.

To answer your question, I don't think it's a sin to commit suicide to avoid capture in war. It just might come under the category of "justifiable homicide."

[Floppy]

Thank you. That's really interesting that there's nothing in the bible, since I'd heard many times it was a sin.