SUICIDE 1: ONE SECOND AFTER DEATH
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Suicide
a) We have heard of Christians who have committed suicide. Some at the funeral said that they are now in hell…others believed that once a person is saved they will be in heaven no matter what they do here on earth. If a believer commits suicide, can they be saved? Is killing yourself the unpardonable sin? Does a believer go to hell if the end their own life?
2. One Second After Death
a) Like Lazarus and the rich man, immediately after death a person is in a conscious state. They understand at the moment after they die whether they are going to be judged and condemned to hell or they will know Jesus and be in His presence immediately.
b) The apostle Paul understood that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord as he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8: “ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” In verse one of this same chapter he says, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
c) The understanding is that the moment one dies in the faith, they are absent from earth but immediately present with the Lord. Paul doesn’t qualify this with “but if we kill ourselves then we will not be present with the Lord.” In fact in verse 5 he says, “Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
d) Thus, God is guaranteeing our delivery into the Lord’s presence. But if you are not born-again, then your fate, immediately after death is where the rich man was. He was in eternal torment being tortured by fire and was unable to cross over to the other side where God was (Luke 16:19-31). If you die without Christ, your fate is sealed. This is why it is so important that today you come to saving faith in Christ while it is still called today for no one has any guarantee that tomorrow will ever come (Hebrews 4:7).
The End ...
1. Suicidea) We have heard of Christians who have committed suicide. Some at the funeral said that they are now in hell…others believed that once a person is saved they will be in heaven no matter what they do here on earth. If a believer commits suicide, can they be saved? Is killing yourself the unpardonable sin? Does a believer go to hell if the end their own life?
2. One Second After Death
a) Like Lazarus and the rich man, immediately after death a person is in a conscious state. They understand at the moment after they die whether they are going to be judged and condemned to hell or they will know Jesus and be in His presence immediately.
b) The apostle Paul understood that to be absent from the body was to be present with the Lord as he wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8: “ Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. For we live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.” In verse one of this same chapter he says, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”
c) The understanding is that the moment one dies in the faith, they are absent from earth but immediately present with the Lord. Paul doesn’t qualify this with “but if we kill ourselves then we will not be present with the Lord.” In fact in verse 5 he says, “Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”
d) Thus, God is guaranteeing our delivery into the Lord’s presence. But if you are not born-again, then your fate, immediately after death is where the rich man was. He was in eternal torment being tortured by fire and was unable to cross over to the other side where God was (Luke 16:19-31). If you die without Christ, your fate is sealed. This is why it is so important that today you come to saving faith in Christ while it is still called today for no one has any guarantee that tomorrow will ever come (Hebrews 4:7).
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