Real Life Ministries processes suicide of Pastor Gene Jacobs, founder says he’s in Heaven

[Michie]

Days after one of his campus pastors was found dead by authorities from an apparent “self-inflicted gunshot wound” in Idaho, Jim Putman, founder and senior pastor of the multi-campus Real Life Ministries, comforted his grieving parishioners Sunday with a promise that though the campus pastor’s suicide is a sin, he believes he is in Heaven.

After failing to show up for an early morning meeting at his church on April 23, Pastor Gene Jacobs of Real Life Ministries Silver Valley, which is part of the multi-campus Real Life Ministries megachurch, was found dead by authorities hours later with a “self-inflicted gunshot wound” in a mountainous area south of Pinehurst, authorities said.

A recording of Putnam’s message at Real Life Ministries Silver Valley shared on YouTube shows the church’s senior leader working through the shock of Jacobs’ death in a service that was so packed, some attendees could only find standing room.

Continued below.

Real Life Ministries processes suicide of Pastor Gene Jacobs, founder says he’s in Heaven

Days after one of his campus pastors was found dead by authorities from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Idaho, Jim Putman, founder and senior pastor of the multi-campus Real Life ...

www.christianpost.com

 

[discombobulated1]

No one but God knows where anyone is after death.

People just believe what they choose to believe. No wonder Jesus said that FEW find that narrow road to Heaven.

No, no one wants to believe that very, very few make it. But if you disregard Truth just because it makes you uncomfortable.. well, needless to say, the devil loves that.

. The devil tells many, many lies and in a plethora of ways..

But we are called to fight that beast

 

[Tuur]

Attended the funeral of a Methodist who had committed suicide. Me, a Baptist, attended with a friend, who is a Roman Catholic. I expected a "memorial" sermon, where the minister, thinking a person was unsaved, doesn't bring up this up to the family. The minister, however, made the argument that the deceased was not in his right mind as the time, and expressed his belief that he was saved.

I didn't know what to think about that. I had heard (not in church) that is the sin of murder, one that you cannot ask forgiveness. Christ, however, said there was but one sin not forgiven of mankind, and from the context that likely wasn't this one. Still, I felt uneasy.

I don't usually discuss doctrinal issues with friends unless they are of the same denomination, so I don't know Roman Catholic belief on this (if I looked it up on New Advent, I've forgotten what it had to say). When I mentioned my surprise at the sermon, my friend seemed to be in agreement. Honestly didn't know what to think about that.

I submit that this is a spiritual danger as well as physical one, and urge anyone considering such to get help. Call a suicide hotline, talk to a minister, just get help somewhere.

 

[com7fy8]

God wants us to live and to love. Have hope for ourselves and for others.

So, God doesn't want suicide; so this is all we need to know. We do not need to just judge people who kill themselves; that is not the point; we need to do what God wants because of love, not only to stay out of hell or to get our own selves to Heaven.

Loving does us so much more good. But it takes God's correction; and if we refuse this >

"God resists the proud,"

we have in James 4:6 and also in 1 Peter 5:5.

God's resistance of a proud person can be very effective, so he or she can not have the selfish life he or she demands. And if someone keeps pushing against God, the person is already dead, not alive in God's way of love.

 

[Bob Crowley]

We're told not to judge but this applies to the reverse side of the coin as well. We can't presume someone is in heaven because they were Christian when they killed themselves. The fact they were a personal friend is going to affect our judgement. A bloke could be the biggest rogue around, but to his mates he might be a "scholar and a gentleman".

We don't know what the outcome was, and we won't know until we front up to our own judgement. I think we'll find out what happened to some other people we knew (or maybe all the people) who predeceased us.

I'm Catholic and I believe in Purgatory. Protestants have an all or nothing belief with heaven and hell, disregarding any possibility that some might "work through" some of their actions after death. In a certain context Christ said we would stay in "prison" UNTIL we have paid every last penny of our fine.

Matthew 5:26 "Truly I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny."

Not long after I became a Christian one of the pastor's sons committed suicide. He had what used to be called "manic depression" (now "borderline personality disorder" I think) and according to one of his other brothers when he was "down", he was really "down".

These days they might have better medication since that was 41 years ago and possibly it might not have happened.

I don't know what the family thinks, but I believe he may have gone to Purgatory, not Hell. On the other hand I don't think he would have walked into Heaven.

Anyone who goes to Purgatory gets to Heaven eventually, and I personally believe that with a few rare holy exceptions just about all of us are going to spend some time in Purgatory, if we haven't already gone straight to Hell.

That's why the Church teaches we should pray for the souls in Purgatory. Apparently they can't pray for themselves.

A Catholic psychiatrist I used to see (an ex-Protestant like me) said it took him years to work out where Mary fits into the scheme of things. As far as he could ascertain her main role was to intercede on behalf of souls in Purgatory. Hence in the latter part of the "Hail Mary" we have the request to "pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death".

If anyone thinks she can't intercede, the very first miracle performed by Christ was the wedding at Cana, which set him on his public ministry, and that was at her personal request. She's up there now and she still has the attention of her divine Son.

 

[Tuur]

My limited understanding of the concept of Purgatory is that it's something else, that Roman Catholics, like all Christian denominations, hold that we are saved through Christ's blood and not our own efforts.

 

[Bob Crowley]

The Catholic Catechism defines Purgatory as follows -

III. THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR PURGATORY

1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.

1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.606 The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:607

As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.608

1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."609 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.610 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:

Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.611

There is a link here on why Catholics pray for souls in Purgatory.

Why do we pray for the souls in purgatory? - The Bishop's Bulletin

Question: As a convert, I have never really understood purgatory and why we are to pray for those who are there. (submitted on Facebook) Answer: This is an excellent question and a common one: because other Christians—Protestants, specifically—do not believe in purgatory, they often have...

www.sfcatholic.org

It includes the following paragraph.

The existence of such a state is already found implicitly in the Old Testament, in 2 Maccabees 12, which speaks of Jews praying for the deceased. As the Church would later teach, prayer for the dead only makes sense if there is a temporary “place” after death in addition to heaven and hell. After all, our prayers are useless for anyone who’s in hell, and they are unnecessary for anyone in heaven. From very early on, then, Christians took up their Jewish ancestors’ practice—bolstered by what would be written down in the New Testament in places like 1 John and Revelation as well as 1 Corinthians 3:15 and 1 Peter 1:7 which speak of a cleansing fire—and prayer for the deceased. Already in the middle of the second century A.D. we find explicit reference to praying for the deceased, implying that this temporary after-death state must exist.

No doubt you've prayed for people you know. This isn't much different except they're no longer on earth but they still need your intercession.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

My limited understanding of the concept of Purgatory is that it's something else, that Roman Catholics, like all Christian denominations, hold that we are saved through Christ's blood and not our own efforts.

Amen! . You saved me a long post.