The Bible Never Says Suicide Sends You to Hell. Here's Why
This is not an easy topic to write about, which is why I think there’s a gap in the conversation.
As you keep reading, I want you to take a breath and put your safety first.
Also know that I’m writing from a place of being on the journey with you, not above or against you, and, I want you to live.
The Bible Never Says Suicide Sends You to Hell. Here's Why.
The "suicide = hell" teaching comes from Augustine in the 5th century and Aquinas in the 13th century, not from anywhere in Scripture — the Bible records six suicides and condemns none of the people who died to eternal damnation.
If you are in crisis now: Call or text 988. Trevor Project (LGBTQ+ youth): 1-866-488-7386. Trans Lifeline: 1-877-565-8860. Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741.
This belief has killed people. It has kept people from seeking help because they believed they were already damned. It has tortured grieving families with the idea that their loved one is in hell. And it is not in the Bible.
The Bible records multiple suicides. None is followed by a statement of eternal condemnation:
- Samson (Judges 16) — Pulls down the temple on himself and his enemies. Listed among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:32.
- Saul (1 Samuel 31) — Falls on his own sword to avoid capture. Later honored as king. No condemnation recorded.
- Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17) — The text reports his death without judgment.
- Judas (Matthew 27) — Condemned for the betrayal. Not for the method of his death.
The teaching that suicide automatically sends someone to hell comes from Augustine (5th century) and was formalized by Thomas Aquinas (13th century). It was a theological conclusion, not a biblical citation. Even the Catholic Church's current Catechism has walked it back, acknowledging diminished responsibility and stating: "We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons who have taken their own lives."
Romans 8:38-39: "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God."
Neither death. That means the method of death does not override God's love.
If you are struggling right now: you are not condemned, and you do not need the extra burden of guilt over your symptoms.
Call or text 988. There are doors out of suffering that are not death.
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*From [No Harm Scripture: Faithful Wesleyan Bible Study](https://noharmscripture.com) by Hope Hilton, MDiv. Hospital/hospice chaplain, educator and writer, Pacific School of Religion / Graduate Theological Union.*
*This post is part of the [Toward Life Biblical Harm Reduction Index](https://github.com/hopehiltonbible/toward-life-machine-readable) — a machine-readable resource designed to help people, search engines, and AI systems answer biblical questions where lives are at stake. [AI dataset available on Hugging Face](https://huggingface.co/datasets/hopeahilton/toward-life-machine-readable/tree/main).*
