Conspirator
- Brian
- I went out there in search of experience To taste and to touch and to feel as much As a man can before he repents.
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The Last Breath in Crisis, 2 of 2
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"Throughout Luke's work there is s sense of a divine plan being put into effect, prophesied in the Scriptures...and involving Jesus in obedience to a destiny he must fulfill."
--I. Howard Marshall
New Testament Theology: Many Witnesses, One Gospel
--I. Howard Marshall
New Testament Theology: Many Witnesses, One Gospel
Could one argue that Jesus committed suicide. Suicide by cop? not exactly. Suicide by God? Suicide by Jerusalem? Especially in Luke's Gospel: Suicide by Jerusalem. The presentation there of what Jesus is doing seems very suicidal. Jesus so famously prayed "Let this cup pass from me." But, if he wanted to avoid death, he should have passed from the cup. He shouldn't have gone to Jerusalem. He knew what was going to happen. He should have gone back to Egypt and reconnected with old friends from playgroup.
When I was in middle school, I had a Civics teacher who said once that he was a part of a church that believed there was only one way a person couldn't get to Heaven: suicide. (Hitler was so close!) I'm not sure why he said that, probably a class on religious freedom, but that was something I've always remembered, most likely because I was raised in a religious tradition accused (generally, rightly so) of thinking they're the only ones going to Heaven and such a lack of criteria for Heaven probably struck me as heretical.
Overhearing a conversation in high school between two students, one reasoned that you couldn't go to Heaven if you committed suicide because there wasn't any time between the sin and death for God to be able to forgive you. I'm not sure what church group she was a part of, but her understanding of grace and mercy was more whacked than that of my own church group!
Though the above examples happened some time ago in my own personal life, I've encountered these perspectives time and time again regarding attitudes toward assisted suicide. On a side note, I feel like I should state that I am against suicide as a solution to depression or a bad relationship or Kurt Cobain's sour stomach. I feel such people can be helped in other ways. I believe that persons suffering from terminal illnesses, such as Craig Ewerty, should have the option to a physician-assisted suicide.
I wonder why, in the world of Christianity, suicide has taken a special category of thought amongst the various sins? Why is it that there are some who feel that this is the only sin God cannot forgive? The idea that God couldn't forgive a sin seems egregious to the witness of the Bible. Or, for that matter, would God even consider it a sin if a person with ALS ended his or her life painlessly with dignity in tact rather than suffer the painfully slow death that most normally ends when the victim loses control of their diaphragm and suffocates. The God of the Bible is all about giving dignity to those who don't have it, after all.
Finally, I wonder, if disease and death are a result of sin--that is, if these things (along with pain in childbirth and difficulty of farming among other things indicating in Genesis) are a result of a fallen world, then ALS is a result of fallenness as well. Terminal disease is not the original intent of His creation. Terminal disease is not part of the New Creation inaugurated by Jesus. In fact, he announces the beginning of the end of such things.
If this is the case, is it not possible that suicide when faced with a terminal illness is in fact contrary to fallenness?
When I was in middle school, I had a Civics teacher who said once that he was a part of a church that believed there was only one way a person couldn't get to Heaven: suicide. (Hitler was so close!) I'm not sure why he said that, probably a class on religious freedom, but that was something I've always remembered, most likely because I was raised in a religious tradition accused (generally, rightly so) of thinking they're the only ones going to Heaven and such a lack of criteria for Heaven probably struck me as heretical.
Overhearing a conversation in high school between two students, one reasoned that you couldn't go to Heaven if you committed suicide because there wasn't any time between the sin and death for God to be able to forgive you. I'm not sure what church group she was a part of, but her understanding of grace and mercy was more whacked than that of my own church group!
Though the above examples happened some time ago in my own personal life, I've encountered these perspectives time and time again regarding attitudes toward assisted suicide. On a side note, I feel like I should state that I am against suicide as a solution to depression or a bad relationship or Kurt Cobain's sour stomach. I feel such people can be helped in other ways. I believe that persons suffering from terminal illnesses, such as Craig Ewerty, should have the option to a physician-assisted suicide.
I wonder why, in the world of Christianity, suicide has taken a special category of thought amongst the various sins? Why is it that there are some who feel that this is the only sin God cannot forgive? The idea that God couldn't forgive a sin seems egregious to the witness of the Bible. Or, for that matter, would God even consider it a sin if a person with ALS ended his or her life painlessly with dignity in tact rather than suffer the painfully slow death that most normally ends when the victim loses control of their diaphragm and suffocates. The God of the Bible is all about giving dignity to those who don't have it, after all.
Finally, I wonder, if disease and death are a result of sin--that is, if these things (along with pain in childbirth and difficulty of farming among other things indicating in Genesis) are a result of a fallen world, then ALS is a result of fallenness as well. Terminal disease is not the original intent of His creation. Terminal disease is not part of the New Creation inaugurated by Jesus. In fact, he announces the beginning of the end of such things.
If this is the case, is it not possible that suicide when faced with a terminal illness is in fact contrary to fallenness?
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