Did Samson commit suicide?

[Aivani]

My friend committed Suicide in front of a church parking lot. At my friends funeral the pastor said he was in Heaven.
The pastor compared my friend to Samson in the bible. He said Samson committed suicide too but it was okay.
I've always heard suicide was considered a sin.

My question is did Samson really commit suicide? I thought he sacrificed himself.
Did the pastor just put that in to comfort mourners? I thought it was odd to include that.

I'm not trying to be rude. I miss my friend, and he has been on my mind lately.

[Jumping Jehosaphat]

I guess that could be an interpretation, but I found this too.

Quote:

In his case it was right he should avenge the cause of God and Israel. Nor is he to be accused of self-murder. He sought not his own death, but Israel's deliverance, and the destruction of their enemies. Thus Samson died in bonds, and among the Philistines, as an awful rebuke for his sins; but he died repentant.

Samson sacrificed himself for Isreal, not to die because he wanted to.

[Living Gospel of Jesus]

Jumping Jehosaphat

I guess that could be an interpretation, but I found this too.

Quote:

In his case it was right he should avenge the cause of God and Israel. Nor is he to be accused of self-murder. He sought not his own death, but Israel's deliverance, and the destruction of their enemies. Thus Samson died in bonds, and among the Philistines, as an awful rebuke for his sins; but he died repentant.

Samson sacrificed himself for Isreal, not to die because he wanted to.

You are right, it even hearkens back to Jesus Christ sacrificing himself. Even JESUS said he lays his own life down, no one else does. That doesn't mean he killed himself, but these things are sacrifices.

[Mea quidem sententia]

Samson didn't go to hashamayim, but sheol. Hashamayim is the place of the gods, not humans.

[Brothern]

Fawn Meadow

Did the pastor just put that in to comfort mourners? I thought it was odd to include that.

While Christians say that the Bible is the exact Word of God, to the contrary, the language in the Bible has always had loose and changeable interpretations to prove one point or another. Essentially I think the best answer to your question is - who gives a damn what Sampson did or did not do, or what one Christian denomination makes what interpretation?

For all of us death is a unimaginably difficult part of life to deal with. Especially when it comes to suicide, because it's heart-wrenching and taboo issue in our society. Your friend's family and friends must be devastated and are probably feeling a whole range of emotions involving blame, shame, sadness, a sense of failure, guilt, hurt, denial and you name it. Anything that can be done for the mourners to help them come to acceptance and find peace with themselves is a very good thing.

[Ashenflame]

He did end his own life, so I say it was a suicide. But a "good/noble suicide", he did it to save lives, like the crazy pilot in Independence Day who flew a nuke up an alien spaceship to save Earth. If your friend didn't have a "noble death", I think the pastor was trying to comfort the mourners. I don't blame him, death is hard enough on a family without an outsider trying to make the family feel worse or hate the deceased. I hope your friend is in a place better than whatever it was that drove them to take their life in the first place. sad

[Resid3nt]

You should remember your friend for what he was and not riddle yourself with something irrelevant.

[The Herald of War]

He went to South Korea to make TVs