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The Bible and Suicide (Part 1): An Overview of an Upcoming Topical Series
John Bunyan spent 12 ½ years in prison in Bedford, England for preaching the Gospel and he never regretted being there. His belief in the promise of Romans 8:28 gave him hope. Bunyan witnessed to the guards watching over him, conducting Bible training for other prisoners, and wrote 12 books for the church at-large. The most well-known book written from prison was Pilgrim’s Progress, which is an allegory of a traveler named Christian who is trying to remove a growing burden. In the book, Christian travels from the City of Destruction – his hometown – to the Celestial City, which represents heaven.
There are many unforgettable scenes and characters in Pilgrim’s Progress. And one, I want to tell you about is when Christian visits a place called Doubting Castle.
Christian and Hopeful are growing weary. Their feet are sore, and the journey has been long. They meet a character named Vain-confidence, who promised to help them find their way to the Celestial City. Unfortunately, Vain-confidence had an accident where he into a deep pit and died. This discouraged Christian and Hopeful who are without direction.
The sky was getting darker; the path was becoming more difficult. It began to rain, the thunder rolled and the lightning crashed. The nearby waters begin to rise and they were fighting for their lives. They found a safe place to rest in a nearby meadow, and when they woke up, they realized they had been captured by the owner of that meadow. That owner’s name is Giant Despair. He takes them to Doubting Castle and threw them into a “nasty and stinking” dungeon as punishment. They suffered there for 4 days without food, water or light. And they were beaten every day.
Giant Despair’s wife tries to convince Christian and Hopeful to take their own lives. In effect, she says, “Commit suicide. Give up!” Hopeful disagrees and tells Christian “for one to kill himself is to kill body and soul at once.”
The plan does not work. By nightfall, Christian and Hopeful are still alive. Giant Despair threatened them with more punishment and torture. But, Hopeful reminds Christian of all the spiritual victories and deliverances he had encountered…and they survive. They eventually get out of Doubting Castle with a key of promise.
There are many lessons that can be learned from this section of the book. One sobering take-away is that suicide became an option; they actually discussed it. The darkness and despair had led these two travelers to be presented with an easier way out of their predicament: end it all by taking their own lives.
Why did Bunyan include this story as part of Christian’s journey? I believe it is because their experience is more common inside the church. The option of taking one’s life instead of facing the discouragement and the valley of the shadow of death, has become almost trendy and widely acceptable in our day and age.
For example, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S.
In 2019, almost 50,000 people committed suicide and 1.4 million attempts.
That means that every day, 130 people take their own life.
And others have said that it could be the leading cause of death among teenagers.
Society is normalizing suicide. Suicide has been glorified in drama series like Netflix’s 13Reason Why, which tells the story of a teenage boy named Clay who wrestles with the aftermath of a friend’s suicide. This friend’s name is Hannah, and she leaves a box of tapes behind explaining why she committed suicide. And the direction of the series – I am told – is after you hear Hannah’s story of how she was bullied, physically abused and assaulted – that you will sympathize where her decision to take her life. Anything that justifies or encouraged suicide is evil – plain and simple. In the next few weeks, on this blog, we will consider the Bible equipping nature for how to handle the aftermath or the consideration of suicide. It is my prayer than every reader will be helped by explanations of how the church has viewed suicide, some of the misconceptions about suicide, how to have a conversation about suicide, the reasons someone will commit suicide, and how we can help counsel the suicidal.
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