How long does Eternal Life last?

 From the Chaplain's desk

       We had a brief discussion in our meeting concerning the topic of suicide.  The question was does a person who takes his/her own life lose their salvation?  

      This question has been presented to me in grief group on many times.  It seems to me that some have taken a human approach to the discussion rather than a Biblical one.  I have had members of the grief group sharing a tragic story of someone that they know or a close friend knows that took their life and conclude with the words, "It is a shame they will not go to heaven since they committed suicide.  

      This is a topic that can be answered by way of a closer look at the truth claims of Scripture.  I will use only a few verses of scripture to explain my point.  Can a person who takes their own life go to heaven? 

      The answer is yes.  This is not the nice comfortable answer I would like to give due to the breath of depression that looms in the world today.  Sometimes those who struggle with this terrible mental issue will turn and consider taking their life while in the depressed state.  They come to a permanent answer to a temporary problem.  This is a tragic solution to someone who is coping with the pains of life.  Life can really throw a darkness at you that seems impossible to bare.  But I would say if you know someone who is struggling with depression, help them to know that they have a true friend in you and attempt to move them into a loving community.  That is where they will find the type of support they need to the problem they have. They need not only the grace of an accepting community but also Truth from that accepting community.  The truth of God not the ideas of people or culture.    I would like to say that I still believe that suicide is a sin but I do not believe that we go to hell because of the last sin that we committed. 

John 5:24 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life."

    Notice that Jesus does not say the person that comes to me will have eternal life.  He says, "He has eternal life."  It is very important for a believer in Christ to know that Christ is the one who gives eternal life at the moment of belief.  The big problem for us is how do we judge this?  As people, relatives, Christians, how do we tell if another person is saved even through suicide?  What is the answer?   This is not our prerogative.  It is God's business and that person's alone.  

    Years ago I wanted to know this because I wanted to be able to tell if a person was a believer or not but the Holy Spirit revealed to me that this was not why I was a minister.  My duty was to offer the Gospel message and affirm the answer and then seek to help the person to get to know God better.  Only the person making the profession can tell if it is real and true. Even if it is sincere, this still could not be true.  It is possible to be sincerely wrong and still in your sinful state.   So, Jesus declares that the one who comes to him has eternal life.  How long is Eternal Life.  I would think Forever.  

     So, this should answer a bunch of other questions I had about salvation.  

    Let's look at another verse from Scripture. 

      John 6:37-39  "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day."

      Jesus clearly informs his listeners that anyone who comes to him has been brought to him by God the Father.  When God brings you to know Jesus personally, Jesus will not cast you out.  This is a huge statement against losing your salvation.  But I have heard the argument, "What about Judas?"  Was he saved because he knew Jesus?  The person and account of Judas gives us more reason to look closer at our own reason for coming to Christ and ask about why I claim to be a Christian.  Judas is in the pages of Scripture proven to not be a believer in Jesus but a person who wanted to manipulate Jesus' ability for his own purpose.  Is that you?  

        Do you want Jesus to save you for your own life to be better and pleasant?  Are you in this faith because you think you will get your prayers answered?  This is a dangerous place to be because you are fooling yourself not God.  God knows who is devoted to His plan not to His plan.  He can tell if your heart is in it or not.  This is what makes this topic very personal because we cannot judge another person's devotion/ relationship to God.  We can only look at the fruit of that relationship to determine what that relationship is like but only God judges if they are saved or not.  

       So, you still may not be convinced.  Let's look at one more verse. 

   Romans 4:4-8

         Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation.  However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.  David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from work:   7  "Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.  Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord never count against him."  

        The Apostle Paul is quoting from the Old Testament to prove that a person who comes to Christ in faith is the person who is saved.  Many people believed, like many do today, that you have to live a perfect life in order to be saved but Paul is dispelling this belief.  Paul is making the argument that Christ is the atoning offering to God for the sins of the one who puts their trust in Him.  Christ lived the perfect life so that the believer would be accepted into the family of God through faith alone.  Not on the basis of works but on the basis of faith.  Some do not like this because they say a person can claim anything but not believe it.  This is very true.  But when you believe something, you act like it.  

      A person who believes that water is too dangerous to swim in will show by their actions that they will not go into the water past their knees.  If someone believes that fire is hot they will take over precautions against the heat.  These are only two simple examples of living by faith/ belief.  And faith is not said but lived.  So, why would a person think to take their own life?  Because they believe that it is the answer to their pain.  The state of death is better than the pain of this life.  This is only a temporary pain something like the pain of grief.  But hold on!  God has overcome the pain of this life to give us a testimony that will glorify His name and give fulfillment to the one who looks to Him to answer their big issues.