Herbert W Armstrong

   The question, "Is suicide a crime?" has puzzled many.

   A 56-page pamphlet, "Ought Suicide to be a Crime?" the work of a five-man committee appointed by the Arch-bishop or Canterbury, "primate of all England," was published and distributed recently. The committee members investigated the subject or self-destruction from almost every conceivable angle — historical, legal, medical, moral — and came to the astounding conclusion that the Bible does not condemn suicide!

   Think of it!

   "Suicide was not always frowned upon," states this noted Anglican Church body; "... the ancients in the Hellenic times (the pagan Greeks) tended to look upon the power to take one's own life as an inalienable privilege!"

   However, Chairman Christie later admitted on BBC: "If any member or the committee were asked if HE considered suicide wrong, he would say it was!... that no man or woman had the right to terminate life entrusted to him by God" (TIME, November 2, 1959, p. 74).

   What he is actually saying is that HE THINKS God does not forbid the taking of one's own life, but man, in his superior wisdom, reasons that suicide is not proper. That it is a coward's way or solving his problems. That it is like running away in battle!

   In other words, the Bible is not the final authority for the decision they have reached. Human reason is their authority.

   Nevertheless the Bible DOES condemn suicide!

   God commands: "THOU SHALT NOT KILL" (the sixth commandment). Webster defines the word "kill" as "to deprive of life." To commit suicide, then, is breaking one or the

   Ten Commandments — and is definitely condemned by God.

   No murderer — or suicide — has eternal life abiding in him (I John 3:15). He has no hope unless and until in the general resurrection after the Millennium he repents of his sin (Matt. 11:20-24).