Where is the Hope?
I despise news documentaries.
All the 20/20’s and Dateline’s of television “infotainment” get on my nerves. Give me a sitcom and I can forget about reality for 30 minutes (20 minutes after commercials). But with a documentary, I am forced to think about the real world.
My wife and I were watching one of those shows a few weeks ago, and I learned an amazing truth that I never knew. Somewhere in southern California, there is a facility that could freeze and store my body after I die until science discovers a way to bring me back from the dead. The cost for this process is about $75,000.
Now I recognize this might be a medical advance to defeat “premature” death. Isn’t death life’s greatest enemy? Death will claim us all, and we are correct to resist it as much as possible. On the other hand we forget that it has already been defeated.
During the program, they interviewed a particular family. This family of five had already paid so that they could all be frozen at death. Their children were all interviewed; the 12-year-old girl said that being frozen and preserved was “better than no hope at all“.
Please understand that nothing was wrong with this little girl. She does not have some other tragic illness. She just knows that one day she will become sick and die, and the hope of being brought back to life by a medical professional is the only hope she has.
I was horrified to hear this.
Even if this little girl gets cancer in her mid-forties and 70 years later is thawed out and cured, will she not then face Alzheimer’s or heart disease? No, this is a tragic viewpoint that fails to recognize that no advance in medicine will ever make this world right again.
Death is a result of sin.
Thank God for the resurrection of Jesus! Death will be with us until the day we follow Jesus in his resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15:19 Paul wrote that if Christ did not rise from the dead we (Christians) are to be pitied above all others. One version says “we are a pretty sorry lot”
Maybe you read that and you pity me because you do not believe in the historicity of the resurrection. Maybe you read that and you think I am insane. Maybe you have neither of those reactions. But the reality is that death will take you. If you freeze yourself, death might delay, but it will take you. We all have no hope of defeating death.
Those who believe in the resurrection know specifically that there is more life to be had than here on earth. At the very end of the Bible we are told that one day God will make things right. There will be no more pain, death, or tears.
This is the hope of a Christian. We trust in a future when death will die and things will once again be the way we always knew they should be.
Good post. And you brought up some very good points. I had actually heard of this several years ago when Ted “The Kid” Williams–also known as “The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived”–passed away. There were a lot of questions as to whether or not Williams wanted to be frozen, and there was quite a debacle between his children over the matter. In the end, the one who wanted him buried simply ran out of money so The Kid is still frozen. His head is severed from his body, but I guess at some point science is supposed to bring him back. (Figure THAT one out.)
I don’t quite know that I’d see death as “the enemy of life.” I’m really not sure how I see it, but certainly not as an enemy. More like a…really quick flight for a pretty good vacation. Heh.
Oh, they’re in Arizona too.
I think the whole cryonics thing really speaks to the human impulse that there IS something more than this life. I just want to say to these poor people, “you don’t have to pay all that money to freeze yourself! Christ has trampled down death by death!”
You know, the funny thing about it is that it’s a lot closer to Christian hope than a lot of other cultish things that talk about “our spirits being united” and all that. These folks are saving their physical bodies. They pretty much ARE saying “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting” put they’re putting all that trust in science that doesn’t exist yet.
“we are told that one day God will make things right. There will be no more pain, death, or tears.”
John Donne said almost the exact same thing in one of his divine sonnets (number x):
“One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”
Amazing!
It is interesting, Jared, that you find such revulsion (or pity?) for what this family and others are attempting to do through science, when you, yourself, something very similar through religion. You wrote:
“We trust in a future when death will die and things will once again be the way we always knew they should be.”
That sounds similar to what this family and many others are looking for. They are doing it with money and science. you are doing it with faith and religion.
i really liked this post! although i don’t think ‘death is a result of sin.’ the sin would be fearing death out of attachment to this world.
the ‘no hope at all’ pains me as the church then is really failing to get the message of Jesus out there. death is powerless! the boundaries have been broken! love all has he has loved us! that is what we’re commanded to do and out hearts should not be troubled… there are many “monh” that Jesus will prepare for us.
thanks for the insight. rawk!
I think one thing that makes it hard to see death as an enemy is an ingrained concept that “heaven is where we belong.”
This is probably a good topic for another post, but the reality is, we were made to live on earth, we were made to never die (its all in Genesis 1 and 2), and now we die.
Death was never supposed to happen to life. But because of sin it does. God somehow in his grace preserves a part of what we are until he gives us back a body to live in. He will do this when he sets all things right again.
Kyle, Point taken but consider this - 2 boys grow up dirt poor with nothing to their name. One of them dreams of being a high school janitor, the other dreams of becoming the US president. Which of them has a grander hope?
Science will never restore life to what it should be. God will.
Sorry, Jared, I don’t think I understand what you are demonstrating with that metaphor.
I think… at least how I took, it is that one “hope” is greater than the other.
Science (at least in this case) provides a future hope that is possible, while the Christian hope is one that is certain and promised by God.
Science provides a future hope that is partial (it may fix the disease that killed you, but you may still be killed again by something else). The Christian hope is comprehensive: no sin, no death, no pain, no suffering, 100% eternal.
It’s the difference between hoping you get a ball of yarn or a PS3 for Christmas.
The part where I mourn in this, is that people are so desperate for hope that they place it on something that is neither certain nor “fool-proof” (that man may conquer death) over the kind that is certain and full (that God has/will conquer death).
Does that make more sense? At least, that’s the way I view this cryo-stasis story.
One final note about the certainty of Christian hope… It is not that I believe it that makes it true. The reason why I believe is because it is true. Many things may give us hope, but all else (by comparison) is false hope.
“I think… at least how I took, it is that one ‘hope’ is greater than the other.”
This makes more sense.
Hello, I was just browsing You-Tube and was lead here via your profile. Before I comment want to thank you for your “Are You a Jew” video concerning audience oriented criticism and the meta-narrative. Now, concerning death, you are indeed right about one thing. It’s unavoidable. It is an inevitable vacuum that all humans are subject to and there is nothing we can do to change or alter that natural law. It is the reference point for all human existence without Christ. The great thing is that in the Gospel, even death becomes for us (1 Cor 3:22).
Unfortunately, science has done two things to us. It has given us the blessing of experiencing wonderful heights in intellectual achievement, but it has also given us an exaggerated sense of our own intellectual capacity that we can change laws. Natural law teaches that man only has the ability to procreate, not to recreate or create life.
I believe this family has taken a route that has been mediated as the only ‘credible’ alternative. Some choose Evolution while others choose cryogenic freezing. It is a sad stage in man’s history when his despair of death remains and salvation is ‘boxed-out’ but his ‘reasoning’.
Science has given good explanations about what happens when we die, but they have failed to answer why we die. Running short of understanding reality is not going bring them anywhere close to helping that poor family.
It’s also interesting how science has failed to give an adequate explanation for the beginning, but yet it is trying to secure eternal life.
The words of the Scriptures are true: “Put no trust in man who’s breathe is in his nostrils. For where is he to be accounted of?” (Isaiah 2:22)
This is all a little hard for me to read, because, frankly, it doesn’t sound very missional. (Not just Cory’s comments) I had sort of thought this missional idea, which I love so much, was about leaving behind the sanctimony and pity extremely religious folk utilize in viewing “the rest” of society. The tone regarding this family seems out of line with this blog’s mission.
I think that is what is irking me.
Kyle, i see what you mean, and that is not my intention. I don’t in fact view this family ( or any else ) as “other” or “not as good.” I just see the tragedy of misplaced hope that is prevalent in our society played out in this one area.
I will try to be more clear about that in the future. but understand that pointing fingers is not ever my intention or heart.
Cory,
Glad to have you here on the blog. I am glad you enjoyed the video. The material used in it has been rocking my world in an awesome way for about the last 2.5 years, so it is my pleasure to present it to anyone who will spend the 5 minutes to watch the video.
If there is anyone who regularly comes here but has not seen the video, you can go to my profile here:
http://youtube.com/user/STLChristian
Enjoy!