You don't realize you yourself are arrogant in accusing suicidal patients of this gibberish.
In many cases, depression is a cross to bear and the afflicted serves God's will by suffering so. It can be a form of redemptive suffering, up to but not including suicide.
Steve, I’ve just signed up for free republic, but I have lurked for a long while. So, I have to say that I usually love what you post.
“In many cases, depression is a cross to bear and the afflicted serves God’s will by suffering so.”
Yes, that is very true. We all have crosses to bear, and it is great that we please God by doing so.
I have and will pray for you. I do so knowing that I am a very bad sinner in much need of prayer. If you want to, can you pray for me too?
I’m not following your position and I suspect you have missed mine.
Suicide involves the human volition.
It is not an act performed through faith in Christ.
It is by its very nature a form of thinking directed at oneself, and not towards God through faith in what God has provided at the Cross.
Suffering is a different issue. I fully agree that suffering is not limited to Divine punitive suffering, and indeed a believer in faith with Christ is indeed likely to endure temptation and suffering as a part of providential testing, which we do not always prevail. Our failure, though, is not due to our justly acting, but by falling out of fellowship with Him, not following His Plan, otherwise known as missing the mark or sin.
Suicide is painful for family members for numerous reasons. First is the grief consequential to death.
Death, as a state of existence involving separation, which we are unable to influence, leaves us in a state of grief.
It’s the very same state which God the Holy Spirit feels every time we fail to remain in fellowship with Him, i.e. when we sin, i.e. when we ‘Grieve the Holy Spirit’.
We also recognize the act as a sin unto death, not necessarily removing eternal life, but ceasing the suicidal victim’s opportunity to merit any future rewards in heaven beyond those he may have already satisfied. Such a constraint had eternal consequence.
Some people think suicide is a method of solving their suffering. This places man before God and before the Cross as a solution to our problems and is self-deceptive. If they believe they are justified in suicide, then they are placing more value on their judgment than upon God in His work at the Cross and are self-justified. If they refuse to place faith in God and what He has provided and how He will continue to endure in keeping His Word, then the suicide proponent also is self-absorbed, placing himself before God in his volition.