I was recently asked to speak at a conference on mental health and illness. I should say, as I said there, I am not an expert. I am not a doctor, a mental health nurse or anything approaching a trained, qualified person. I am just a pastor who has suffered from some serious bouts of depression. I can offer an experiential perspective, but I cannot give a qualified medical one. Nevertheless, I can point us to what the bible has to say about these things and how I understand them as one who suffers this way.
One question that consistently came up was that of suicide. I had addressed it clearly in my talk but it came up as a repeated question regardless. What should be make of those who profess faith and yet commit suicide? Doesn’t this mean they are not, in fact, believers? Surely someone in whom the Holy Spirit dwells would not do such a thing?
There is a lot we could say. I gave a whole set of answers. But I thought today I would repost this old article in which I address this question. In the post, I address it in respect to whether suicide is the unforgivable sin but it deals with an awful lot of the crossover with the questions I was getting too.