A friend of mine showed me an article about a family who placed their little girl into cryogenic stasis because she has inoperable brain tumors. I guess their hope is that one day soon a cure will be found, they can bring her out of stasis and she can then live a long and productive life.
This reminds me of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. It seems when God created us His plan was that we would live forever in obedience to Him, the narrative goes that so long as Adam and Eve didn’t eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they would remain in a relationship with God. I will return to this thought later.
My understanding of cryogenics is that scientist have been able to place animals in suspended animation and then resuscitate them at some later point with no apparent side effects. This is where things become complex; humans unlike animals are said to possess a soul. I know some would disagree but that philosophical debate can wait for another time. If we assume that humans are different in a spiritual sense and are on a higher plane than animals and more closely connected to God then if the body ceases to function what happens to the soul?
Okay so there are all kinds of arguments and personal testimonies about people who are pronounced clinically dead and claim to have near death experiences NDE’s, where they travel down a tunnel of light and meet dead relatives or have out of body experiences OBE’s where they float around watching themselves being operated on or resuscitated. One must differentiate between clinical death and actual death which is the point of no return. In clinical death one’s bodily functions cease for a time but are then revived or restored so this can not be categorized as true death. Actual death is when the body ceases to function permanently and cannot be revived
Returning the the scenario where a person is placed in suspended animation one has to determine if this is actual death or temporary death. How long can one remain temporarily dead before it becomes a permanent state and if not where does the soul go during the intermediate time between life, death and reanimation? Is that even a possibility?
Returning to Adam and Eve, God has power over life and death, God grants life and takes life away. Because of the effects of Adam and Eve’s disobedience life is limited, death entered the world. But death is not the end. Death is a physical consequence of sin, however our spirit lives on.
After death at an apportioned time all the dead will be resurrected either to enter eternal life or be judged and cast into the lake of fire. Cryogenics wont save any of us from death. Even if we are one day able to suspend death we will ultimately face our own mortality. The question is what do you believe happens afterwards?
There are many different ideas about what death is and what happens to our spirit once it leaves our earthly bodies. So far as these many ideas go the bible’s prediction isn’t very popular because it is an either, or ending where one goes to heaven or hell based on their faith in the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ or their disobedience towards God whereupon they enter eternal punishment because they will not repent.
One can speculate about the after life and surmise all kinds of subjective philosophical outcomes where the soul joins the great force or all are universally redeemed and meet their loved ones in some kind of paradise; the bible is not so kind and is non optional. The bible is more arbitrary and judicial. The bible does not weigh peoples actions based on how good or bad they are or even the possibility that there is such a thing as reincarnation.
The bible points to one time in history where God substituted His Son in our place as a sacrifice for sin to turn aside His anger and satisfy His wrath towards those He chose before time to be called His children that they would be saved. Many looked forward to this time, we look back to that point in history for the hope of our own resurrection; not resuscitation. No matter how long one may attempt to suspend death no one will escape judgement. The good news is that we can enter into everlasting life and joy through Jesus Christ right now and enter His peace.
The Calvinist 