The Common Choice to “End” it All!

Richard Hollerman

We must call this taking one’s life. And it is more common than we might suspect. In fact, if we explore this closely, we will be shocked at these results and this finding.

I recall one of the first encounters with this sin related to a childhood friend from our neighborhood. This woman lived only two houses away from us in the little community in Western Pennsylvania, where we lived. She married and had several children, I was told, and then chose to take her life. As I was told, she stuck a hose into the window of her car. Perhaps if we had lived in a larger city, this sin would have been more prevalent.

Later, when I was working in an electronics plant, I learned that the head of shipping chose to take his life also. I don’t know the reason (or stated reason) for this occurrence. But it was a shock to me and surely to others.

Then I remember a young man who was with the group but fell into a cult and moved to another state. I heard that he also took his life. (Sadly, he was in a cult that was highly Calvinistic and believed that one could not lose his salvation.)

Another girl, whom I remember speaking to about life, committed suicide (I was told) although at the time I was not living there.

Is this something that you have encountered yourself? How do you handle it? We realize that probably we are filled with regret, as I was, thinking that we could have done something—a word, a gesture, a conversation, but it is now gone. We have no further opportunities to reach people in need like these people.

The Data

In 2022 we find that 49,255 deaths occurred, especially with the use of firearms in the form of suicide. (In the 2023 period, we assume this would be about 50,000 to 52,000 to take their lives.)

These deaths, about 1,000 a week, were brought on by various factors. Some deaths in the world are even more prevalent. We were under the impression that Japan had the highest suicide rate, however this is what we found:

Lesotho (wherever this may be) (72.4 per 10,000)

Guyana (40.3)

Eswathini (29.4)

South Korea (28.6)

Kiribati (28.3)

Micronesia (28.2)

Lithuania (26.1)

Suriname (25.4)

Russia (25.1)

South Africa (23.5)

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/suicide-rate-by-country.

We can understand some of this. After all, we know that if one has no hope, he is more tempted to take his life! Now to continue our study:

There were about 40,000 deaths of males and 11,000 of females. We may remember such notables as Marylyn Monroe and Judy Garland.

We might also know of a few of these people:

Robin Williams

Stuart Adamson

John McAfee

Mark Bendjelloul

Sean O’Haire

Alexander McQueen

Herman Brood.

A few more that many know the following. It would be good to realize that they all took their lives:

Adolph Hitler

Nero

Martin Borman

Vincent VanGogh

Tchaikovsky

Hermann Goering

Mark Antony

Erwin Rommel

Cleopatra

Ernest Hemmingway

Steve Reeves

Meriwether Lewis

Jim Jones

Rudolph Hess

Virginia Woolf

Marcus Junius Brutus

Joseph Goebbels

Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria

Now let us continue our study of suicide:

Our research shows that there were about 4,000 blacks, 5,200 Hispanics, and 38,000 whites who took their lives. As for ages, we find the following: 6,529 in the 10-24 age category, 16,843 in the 25-44 age category, 15,632 in the 45-64 age category, and 10.433 in the 65 and above category. This would seem to mean that men are much more likely to take their lives than women. And whites are much more prone to kill themselves than blacks.  Further (from the statistics below), we find that American Indians, Alaska Native Americans, non-Hispanic whites, and others would be more likely to kill themselves than others.

From what we have been able to gather, the highest in the United States would be the non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native, then Non-Hispanic White, then non-Hispanic Native Hawaiin/Other Pacific Islander, and then the non-Hispanic Multiracial. This would be followed by the non-Hispanic blacks, the Hispanics, and then the non-Hispanic Asian. The male rate would be males (22.8) and the females (5.7). Those who are 85 years and older, then 75-85 year olds, then 25-34 year olds, 45-54 year olds, 25-34 year olds, 55-64 year olds, 65 to 74 year olds, and 15-24 year olds would then more often commit suicide. As for the method, firearms would be the most common, followed by suffocations, and finally by poisoning.

(See https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/suicide-data-statistics.html#print).

Of course, we could go into much more detail on this if we were of the mind to do this, but this is sufficient for us to see how disastrous this calamity is.

Comments

We can see that vast numbers of people commit suicide (or take their lives). We learn that more men than women take their lives. Further, more American Indian, then white, and others also take their lives. The older generation also take their lives or kill themselves plus the younger people take their lives (men) more frequently than others.

We must bear in mind that suicide (the taking of our life, voluntarily) is not only without Biblical support but is contrary to the will of God. We know that the Lord is the One who gives life and He alone is the One who has the right and the power to take this life. We know that suicide is “self-murder” and “no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:16).

We know that our times are in God’s hands. (Psalm 31:15). We also know that God has the power to take and give life (Job 1:21). Our bodies do belong to God and He has the right to terminate this life (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), We also know that Greece, Rome, and Egypt all believed that taking our own life was evil and beyond hope.

God is the One who “gives to all people life and breath and all things” (Acts 17:25) and we have no right to take this life that He has given to us. See also Psalm 36:9; Job 33:4; Psalm 139:13-16; Genesis 2:7; Deuteronomy 32:39; 1 Timothy 6:13; 1 John 1:3-4.

Let’s also remember that the one who endures to the end will be saved and no one else (Matthew 24:13). There have been many people who felt despair and dejection, sorrow and depression, at various times in their life. We must not allow these emotions to overcome us.

In fact, we must also remember that Jesus Himself must have felt sorrow in the most intense way! Scripture says that Jesus “began to be grieved and distressed” (Matthew 26:37). We also read that Jesus admitted, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death” (v. 38). Of course, we must never assume that our Lord was tempted to take His life, but we can see how sorely tried he was. We may also be like this ourselves. (See also John 12:27).

So we can see that Jesus Himself had great sorrow and deep grief and knew that death lie before Him. We also can be in the depths of sorrow and realize that we “walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” yet we need “fear no evil” for God is with us (Matthew 23:4).

It is true that thousands do take their life and enter eternity without God, without hope, and without His help! But we can also know that the Lord can be at our side to bless and uplift us at all times. He is our Source of strength and our beacon of hope in these most trying times. Although the world does offer many instances of dread and sorrow and even death itself, we know that God can bless and encourage us!

May God help you now and during this time of trial!