Is Cremation Okay If I Give My Body to Science?
00:00:00.000 | Well, we have addressed the topic of cremation on the podcast back in episode 874.
00:00:09.360 | We have addressed the topic of giving the body to science back in episode 406.
00:00:14.120 | But what if you give your body to science and that program cremates the remains they
00:00:17.920 | don't need or use by way of a standard policy?
00:00:21.480 | Here's the exact question.
00:00:22.480 | "Pastor John, hello.
00:00:23.520 | I'm a nurse at the local university medical center and I'm considering donating my body
00:00:27.600 | to them when I die.
00:00:29.800 | After they harvest organs and tissues, the rest of the body is cremated.
00:00:34.280 | In the APJ episode on cremation, you said that this was not an edifying option for Christians.
00:00:39.640 | I'm seeking your wisdom on this situation.
00:00:41.960 | Number one, is it virtuous for Christians to donate their organs and tissues for medical
00:00:46.200 | use and number two, is cremation less of a concern in such a situation?"
00:00:52.280 | To set the stage for my answer, let me review my reasons for encouraging Christians not
00:01:01.880 | to cremate but to bury their loved ones.
00:01:06.200 | And if people want the whole argument, they should see Desiring God, the article is entitled
00:01:11.800 | Should Christians Cremate Their Loved Ones?
00:01:14.760 | I argued that two focuses of Scripture lead away from burning to burying for Christians,
00:01:23.360 | namely one, the preciousness of the human body as God's creation and purchase by the
00:01:29.720 | blood of his Son and his possession.
00:01:33.160 | We're not our own.
00:01:34.160 | We're bought with a price now and forever.
00:01:36.360 | That's the first emphasis.
00:01:37.760 | The second is the dreadfulness of fire as it relates to the human body, especially after
00:01:44.680 | death.
00:01:45.680 | So those two biblical emphases disincline me from encouraging people to use cremation.
00:01:53.080 | I don't care how cheap or convenient it may seem.
00:01:58.440 | The early Christians in the New Testament buried their loved ones, encouraged to do
00:02:04.280 | it by two apostolic symbols implied in burying.
00:02:10.040 | One was sowing seed, and the other was laying to rest.
00:02:16.880 | For example, what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable, 1 Corinthians 15:42.
00:02:23.520 | So the body is sown like a seed, and it comes up out of the ground at the resurrection imperishable.
00:02:29.560 | That's the first picture.
00:02:30.840 | And the other one is we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will
00:02:36.920 | not precede those who have fallen asleep.
00:02:41.480 | So handling the body in a way that is a precious gift from God is that we handled it like a
00:02:51.680 | seed sown in the ground and like a person being laid to sleep to be awakened from their
00:02:58.720 | sleep by the resurrection.
00:03:01.800 | The other focus of Scripture that pointed to burying rather than burning the body is
00:03:07.600 | the meaning of fire as it relates to the human body now and in the life to come.
00:03:13.640 | In the Bible, the use of fire to consume the body on earth was seen as a sign of contempt.
00:03:22.960 | Never a blessing to have your body burned.
00:03:25.880 | It was not a glorious treatment of the body, but a contemptuous one.
00:03:31.640 | Early Christians believed in the judgment of God after death, Hebrews 9, 27, and the
00:03:37.760 | most dreadful picture of that judgment was fire.
00:03:43.280 | Hell is a place of fire, according to Matthew 5, 22 and James 3, 6.
00:03:49.240 | This fire is meant to be felt by the body.
00:03:53.240 | We're cast as bodies into hell fire, Jesus said.
00:03:59.360 | He was able to kill both body and soul in hell.
00:04:04.200 | Therefore, the early Christians shrunk back in horror from exposing the precious blood-bought
00:04:11.000 | body of a believer that would be revived, renewed, raised, and glorious forever.
00:04:17.040 | They shrunk back from exposing the body to fire, which was like exposing it to hell.
00:04:24.420 | That was my double argument against cremation, besides some really pragmatic ones like, "You'll
00:04:31.520 | never know whether those are your loved ones' ashes."
00:04:36.160 | But now the questions are, one, is it virtuous for Christians to donate their organs and
00:04:43.560 | tissues for medical use, and is cremation less of a concern in this case of what parts
00:04:50.560 | of the body are left over to be disposed of?
00:04:56.520 | My answer is yes to both of those questions.
00:05:02.120 | If the heart is humble and trusting God's mercy rather than proud and seeking to score
00:05:07.960 | points with God and man.
00:05:11.280 | You can donate your body and be an arrogant person trying to earn God's favor, but I'm
00:05:16.000 | assuming that's not at all the case here.
00:05:18.680 | So first, I would note that from the earliest times, Christian martyrs have been willing
00:05:26.320 | to be burned alive.
00:05:29.160 | First Corinthians 13, 3, "Though I give my body to be burned," rather than deny the faith.
00:05:36.160 | Now this means that there are higher values than avoiding being burned to ashes, like
00:05:44.080 | not forsaking the faith, not bringing reproach upon the Savior.
00:05:49.800 | From this, I would infer that there are other values that might override the ordinary way
00:05:57.720 | Christians show honor to the body in burial.
00:06:02.160 | And one of those would be the conviction that offering our bodies to medical science may
00:06:10.480 | serve the discovery of some disease-healing drug, or may provide an organ transplant that
00:06:19.800 | could save a person who's about to die on dialysis, or something like that.
00:06:24.560 | So the value of loving others in this way may override the value of burying the body,
00:06:33.240 | in its entirety at least.
00:06:35.120 | Then our nurse friend asks, after they harvest the organs or the tissues or whatever they're
00:06:42.160 | going to use for good purposes, "The rest of the body is cremated," she says, and that
00:06:48.760 | would be part of the price we may be willing to pay to do the good that we believe God
00:06:55.120 | is calling us to do.
00:06:56.480 | I don't know enough here to make pronouncements.
00:06:59.920 | I don't know the ins and outs of the process of using a body for medical research or for
00:07:07.000 | organ transplanting, but I would at least raise the question whether it might be possible
00:07:14.640 | to still bury the body.
00:07:17.360 | There have been examples in the Bible and in history where bodies have been mutilated
00:07:24.920 | and parts have been severed, and families have longed to have any remnant of their loved
00:07:33.440 | one's body that they could honor in burial.
00:07:39.000 | Whether this is possible will depend on the process.
00:07:43.080 | I know nothing about it.
00:07:44.240 | I can't say.
00:07:45.240 | She would probably know better than I.
00:07:47.480 | But it might bear significant testimony—if we did it that way, it might bear significant
00:07:53.400 | testimony to the medical community and professionals—if Christians gave a biblical reason for why
00:08:01.040 | they would like to proceed with some kind of burial after medical use of the body that
00:08:08.000 | they can use.
00:08:09.760 | But putting all that uncertainty aside, my answer would be yes.
00:08:16.520 | If we act from faith, it can be a beautiful act of love for Christians to donate their
00:08:23.640 | organs and tissues for medical use.
00:08:26.040 | And yes, cremation, while not ideal, may carry new meaning under those circumstances.
00:08:32.680 | Thank you, Pastor John.
00:08:35.200 | And thanks for listening.
00:08:36.360 | Again, we address cremation more generally back in episode number 406, and in episode
00:08:41.480 | 874, we talked about giving the body to science.
00:08:44.920 | To find those episodes, go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn and type
00:08:50.680 | "cremation" in the search bar.
00:08:54.080 | Well over 90 times the Apostle Paul speaks of the flesh.
00:08:58.000 | So what does this keyword mean for him?
00:08:59.760 | It's a shrewd and important question for any Bible reader to get clear on.
00:09:03.600 | What does Paul mean by flesh?
00:09:05.800 | We'll tackle that next time.
00:09:06.800 | I'm your host Tony Ranke.
00:09:07.800 | We'll see you on Wednesday.
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