so i was up late last night thinking about my friend who had committed suicide and where he might be right now. his birthday is coming up and i always wonder if he made into heaven. i was raised catholic and i currently practice the religion. i believe that i have a very personal relationship with God and that my relationship with Him is pretty healthy.
my best friend Jason committed suicide about 5 years ago. i was 13 and he was 16. he was the big brother i never had. his mother was raised born-again christian and his father was raised as roman catholic. his mother had dismissed her religion when she was a young adult after she moved out of her parents house for her parents were very strict and sheltered her most of her life. she still held some beliefs though, such as the belief that if one commits suicide, one is automatically going to hell. now, i believe in heaven and hell but i don't agree with the suicide thing.
Jason was a wonderful person. Sure he sinned like every other person on this earth but he was quick to ask for forgiveness from God and those he had hurt. he tried to redeem himself as much as possible and wouldn't dare hurt anyone, no matter who they were. Jason didn't judge or discriminate. he was open-minded and looked out at the world and everyone in it with open eyes. he saw the good in people, even those who had hurt him. he always knew the right things to say and was always there for me and those he loved. i thought he was the happiest person i knew, but obviously i was wrong. i don't know why he took his life and neither do our other friends or his family.
i was the one who found him.
i do not agree with suicide. i feel that suicide is the easy way out and that it can be very selfish of the person who is acting upon suicide. but i also do understand that if one makes the decision to do such a thing as to take one's own life, then that is one's decision and one has the right to do whatever he or she wants with it. and that's the way jason was. he was the kind of person who i feel that if i had the opportunity to talk to today would say "hey it was my decision, get over it and move on....you're dwelling too much."
my question is, is that if one commits suicide and one goes to hell because of it, does that mean God ignored everything else that person has done within his or her life? i know God is the only one who can judge, but can He be ignorant? Jason was a good person and if he's in hell right now does that mean that on Jason's judgement day, did God dismiss all the good he has done and send hi straight to hell because he took his own life? Or is it possible that God looked passed the suicide and looked at his short life as a whole? Could God be ignorant? I say no because God is perfect...but there is still question in my mind. If it is true that those who commit suicide go to hell, does that mean then that i must accept that my best friend who i idolized and saw as so good is suffering for all of eternity?
If we are created for a purpose, if we are created by God to fulfill something, to do a job that He wants us to do, and we do that job within our life, only then to take our own life, does that mean that on our judgement day, we will face God and He will send us to hell, even with Him knowing that we did is what He created us to do?
judgement day, suicide, and hell question....
judgement day, suicide, and hell question....
love always,
emmi
emmi
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One Walker
- Posts: 595
- Joined: Wed Jan 14, 2009 4:42 pm
- Gender: Female
- Location: Minnesota, USA
Hi emmi!
No, I don't believe Jason went to Hell or is irredeemable or anything like that. And no, God didn't turn his back on Jason because of it. But Jason has some issues that he'll need to work out in future incarnations (If you believe in reincarnation. I do.). Jason seems to have expressed many Positive qualities and that will not be overlooked. But, the problem or 'issue' with suicide is that you destroy the Ultimate Gift to you-your Life. Committing suicide means you were unprepared to handle Life on the physical plane. Some major understanding and readjustments are necessary before returning to it and the process of living through a future life or lives will be that much more difficult because you're virtually starting over again. There are many things about life on the physical plane that can only be fully understood by living through them on the physical plane. Jason wasn't a coward or weak. He was unprepared. During his time between incarnations let us hope he is gaining strength and-being shown where he went wrong-is gaining in understanding.
And as for God, Purpose, and Humans; I believe our 'mission' is simply to live up to our fullest potential. If we have Free Will-which was given to us by The Divine-then our mission cannot be one of gaining converts or groveling to His Majesty because then Free Will would be a lie and would make God an egotistical megalomaniac. Our task then is to find our own Humanity on an individual basis and live up to it. When we do that we will live up to our greatest, fullest potential. That potential is to willfully refuse the trappings of the material world and its associated beliefs and habits. As we do that we discard more and more of the physical attractions of this plane of existence in favor of the spiritual and that leads us back to The Divine. This is, in fact, the evasive 'Glorifying of God' referred to in Organized Religion; for what greater glory could God know than to have us return to The Divine of our own Free Will?
Just my .02. Hope it helped some!
One Walker.
No, I don't believe Jason went to Hell or is irredeemable or anything like that. And no, God didn't turn his back on Jason because of it. But Jason has some issues that he'll need to work out in future incarnations (If you believe in reincarnation. I do.). Jason seems to have expressed many Positive qualities and that will not be overlooked. But, the problem or 'issue' with suicide is that you destroy the Ultimate Gift to you-your Life. Committing suicide means you were unprepared to handle Life on the physical plane. Some major understanding and readjustments are necessary before returning to it and the process of living through a future life or lives will be that much more difficult because you're virtually starting over again. There are many things about life on the physical plane that can only be fully understood by living through them on the physical plane. Jason wasn't a coward or weak. He was unprepared. During his time between incarnations let us hope he is gaining strength and-being shown where he went wrong-is gaining in understanding.
And as for God, Purpose, and Humans; I believe our 'mission' is simply to live up to our fullest potential. If we have Free Will-which was given to us by The Divine-then our mission cannot be one of gaining converts or groveling to His Majesty because then Free Will would be a lie and would make God an egotistical megalomaniac. Our task then is to find our own Humanity on an individual basis and live up to it. When we do that we will live up to our greatest, fullest potential. That potential is to willfully refuse the trappings of the material world and its associated beliefs and habits. As we do that we discard more and more of the physical attractions of this plane of existence in favor of the spiritual and that leads us back to The Divine. This is, in fact, the evasive 'Glorifying of God' referred to in Organized Religion; for what greater glory could God know than to have us return to The Divine of our own Free Will?
Just my .02. Hope it helped some!
One Walker.
We have seen what Power does.
We have seen what Power costs.
One is never equal to the other.
We have seen what Power costs.
One is never equal to the other.
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Collective Insight
Just Think About It :idea:
Heaven is the one only reality, a reality that dose not have limits or time and dose not govern death, as for hell it is only a state of mind and as for judge, god is loving and forgiving he wants everyone to join him, he judges no one he only has love for you, it is you who judges. The one who punishes you is you.
Heaven is the one only reality, a reality that dose not have limits or time and dose not govern death, as for hell it is only a state of mind and as for judge, god is loving and forgiving he wants everyone to join him, he judges no one he only has love for you, it is you who judges. The one who punishes you is you.
I know this is an old post but I saw this only last night. It bugs me whenever a grieving person is told that a loved one who committed suicide is going to Hell.
First off, there is the question of Hell itself. Did you know that, by a lot of historical accounts, early Christians did not even believe in the existence of Hell? This was injected a few hundred years later after Emperor Constantine took over the religion and blended a lot of old Roman paganism into it. It was apparently the Roman Empire's way of scaring the masses into participating in their form of militarism. The closest thing before Constantine was a belief among a few of the early churches in a temporary place for purification before entering Heaven. It was sort of like purifying metals by fire, and I have this image of God looking up and saying, "Don't worry. I'm just cleaning them." If you are interested more about it, there is some good info at Tentmaker.org. There are also some good YouTube videos about it by "Tentmaker777" and others have joined ranks with him. Just type in "Hell Mythologies" and see for yourself.
Next there is the question on the nature of God. I've seen documentaries like "Hyperspace" and wonder why, if God is the Creator of such a vast grand universe, would He care about micro-managing every little detail of our lives? Is He really so petty and angry that He would give His creations, his children, a limited number of years on earth to be good by some narrow rules provided in mysterious riddles only to toss them into an eternal torment somewhere if they step out of line based on some other person's interpretation of them? How arrogant of ANYONE to think they know the mind of God so well that they can judge in place of God and say with confidence where anyone would go in the afterlife.
Even when I believed in Hell as a kid and we had an authoritarian upbringing, I had been told that God is a fair judge and will take many things into account on the last day. Of course, there were always those other members that would get cocky and say with a sardonic smirk, "He committed a major sin and did not repent." There always will be ignorant fools like that who know just enough to be a menace. Pay no mind to them.
First off, there is the question of Hell itself. Did you know that, by a lot of historical accounts, early Christians did not even believe in the existence of Hell? This was injected a few hundred years later after Emperor Constantine took over the religion and blended a lot of old Roman paganism into it. It was apparently the Roman Empire's way of scaring the masses into participating in their form of militarism. The closest thing before Constantine was a belief among a few of the early churches in a temporary place for purification before entering Heaven. It was sort of like purifying metals by fire, and I have this image of God looking up and saying, "Don't worry. I'm just cleaning them." If you are interested more about it, there is some good info at Tentmaker.org. There are also some good YouTube videos about it by "Tentmaker777" and others have joined ranks with him. Just type in "Hell Mythologies" and see for yourself.
Next there is the question on the nature of God. I've seen documentaries like "Hyperspace" and wonder why, if God is the Creator of such a vast grand universe, would He care about micro-managing every little detail of our lives? Is He really so petty and angry that He would give His creations, his children, a limited number of years on earth to be good by some narrow rules provided in mysterious riddles only to toss them into an eternal torment somewhere if they step out of line based on some other person's interpretation of them? How arrogant of ANYONE to think they know the mind of God so well that they can judge in place of God and say with confidence where anyone would go in the afterlife.
Even when I believed in Hell as a kid and we had an authoritarian upbringing, I had been told that God is a fair judge and will take many things into account on the last day. Of course, there were always those other members that would get cocky and say with a sardonic smirk, "He committed a major sin and did not repent." There always will be ignorant fools like that who know just enough to be a menace. Pay no mind to them.
It's like walking down an empty street, listening to your own footsteps. But all you have to do is knock on any door and say, "If you'll let me in, I'll live the way you want me to live. And I'll think the way you want me to think." And all the blinds will go up, and all the doors will open, and you'll never feel lonely. Ever again.
~Henry Drummond, "Inherit the Wind" (1960)
~Henry Drummond, "Inherit the Wind" (1960)
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Sythan
Re: judgement day, suicide, and hell question....
As for Judgement Day, personally I doubt it even exists, same with hell. For myself, we are fairly given punishment or rewards by The Goddess, who is the mother of all things. She is the only one not ignorant, she makes sure everything is in balance in the world. She will do whatever it takes to make things right.
On to Jason, he will be given another chance at life in a different reincarnation. The Goddess sees suicide as a cry for help more than a selfish act. She will watch over him to make sure he is happy in his new life.
On to Jason, he will be given another chance at life in a different reincarnation. The Goddess sees suicide as a cry for help more than a selfish act. She will watch over him to make sure he is happy in his new life.