Suicide is diabolical. Suicide is demon possession. Suicide is possession by the devil.

Martin Luther establishes that suicides “do not wish to kill themselves but are overcome by the power of the devil.”[1] Suicide is the deceit of the devil who whispers doubt, questions divine mercy, and leads one into spiritual despair. The Cloud of Unknowing calls this affliction melancholy. Melancholy is despair as doubt as devilish deceit. Some believe that holy water and the sign of the cross are the only protection.

For John Calvin, suicide is demon possession as furious anger. Calvin states: “we cannot help but conclude that the devil has put such a rage in man that such a man is no longer himself and no longer knows what he is doing and what he is saying.”

Suicide is unnatural, brutish, and villainous and is only overcome by way of “natural sense.”[2]

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[1] Martin Luther, Works, vol. 54, 29.
[2] Jeffrey R. Watt, “Calvin on Suicide,” Church History 66, no. 3 (1997): 463-76.