TylerRay
Puritan Board Graduate
As a spin-off to a recent thread about procreative ethics, I want to answer some questions and elaborate on a position that I put forth in that thread. There, I stated that we do not have the prerogative to take parts of one person's body and fuse them to another person's body. I hope to prove that as one of the necessary implications of a biblical view of God's ownership of our bodies.
The Bible teaches in no uncertain terms that God owns our bodies, both by nature, as our creator, and (for the Christian) by virtue of our being his by covenant. Paul makes this fact abundantly clear in I Corinthians 6, in which he writes, "the body ... [is] for the Lord," and, "glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
In Leviticus 19:28, the Lord deals with the subject of body ownership and prerogatives. He states, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD." Charles Ellicott comments on the passage:
Thus, the prohibition of tattooing was a prohibition of making a mark which dedicated the body (and thus the person) to another, whether it be a false God, or a man. It may be noted in passing that tattooing serves the same function in our society--a person dedicates his body to a person, idea, band, movement, or any number of things by giving a portion of his body to it.
So, we are prohibited from giving ourselves (body or soul) to others. We belong to God; our bodies aren't ours to give. This ought to be enough to settle the issue, but there is more that may be brought into consideration.
First, our bodies really are part of us. This cannot be stressed too strongly in a Christian culture that struggles with dualism. I have heard a dear Christian brother say, "I am not a body; I am a soul--I have a body." This is not the Biblical view, and it is not the Reformed view. The Bible teaches, and Reformed Christians have always confessed, that man has two parts--a material part (the body) and an immaterial part (the soul). God created man with both parts, both parts are affected by the fall, Christ redeemed both parts, and both parts will eventually be perfected. Our souls belong with our bodies, and our bodies belong with our souls. The horror of death is that it tears apart the two constituent parts of a man--it is highly unnatural.
So, if our bodies are part of us, and belong with our souls, then the individual parts of our bodies belong with our souls and with the other parts of our bodies. To separate any part of a man is highly unnatural.
Second, as I have already alluded to, our bodies are being redeemed. Westminster Shorter Catechism 37 says that our bodies are still united to Christ after we die, and Westminster Confession XXXII: ii says that "all the dead shall be raised up, with the selfsame bodies, and none other." So, my body, organs and all, will be united to Christ after I die; and my body, organs and all, will be raised on the last day. We will not be furnished with new organs in the resurrection any more than we will be furnished with new heads, hands, or feet. My kidneys are united to Christ, and I will continue to have them in the resurrection.
So, with all of this being said, if my body (including my organs) is not mine to give, and if my body (including my organs) is an integral part of me from conception to eternity, how can I possibly have the authority to donate my organs to anyone?
The Bible teaches in no uncertain terms that God owns our bodies, both by nature, as our creator, and (for the Christian) by virtue of our being his by covenant. Paul makes this fact abundantly clear in I Corinthians 6, in which he writes, "the body ... [is] for the Lord," and, "glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
In Leviticus 19:28, the Lord deals with the subject of body ownership and prerogatives. He states, "Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the LORD." Charles Ellicott comments on the passage:
The slave had impressed upon his body the initials of his master, the soldier those of his general, and the worshipper the image of his tutelar deity. To obviate this disfiguration of the body which bore the impress of God’s image, and yet to exhibit the emblem of his creed, the Mosaic Law enacted that the Hebrew should have phylacteries which he is to bind as “a sign” upon his hand, and as “a memorial” between his eyes “that the Lord’s law may be in his mouth”
Thus, the prohibition of tattooing was a prohibition of making a mark which dedicated the body (and thus the person) to another, whether it be a false God, or a man. It may be noted in passing that tattooing serves the same function in our society--a person dedicates his body to a person, idea, band, movement, or any number of things by giving a portion of his body to it.
So, we are prohibited from giving ourselves (body or soul) to others. We belong to God; our bodies aren't ours to give. This ought to be enough to settle the issue, but there is more that may be brought into consideration.
First, our bodies really are part of us. This cannot be stressed too strongly in a Christian culture that struggles with dualism. I have heard a dear Christian brother say, "I am not a body; I am a soul--I have a body." This is not the Biblical view, and it is not the Reformed view. The Bible teaches, and Reformed Christians have always confessed, that man has two parts--a material part (the body) and an immaterial part (the soul). God created man with both parts, both parts are affected by the fall, Christ redeemed both parts, and both parts will eventually be perfected. Our souls belong with our bodies, and our bodies belong with our souls. The horror of death is that it tears apart the two constituent parts of a man--it is highly unnatural.
So, if our bodies are part of us, and belong with our souls, then the individual parts of our bodies belong with our souls and with the other parts of our bodies. To separate any part of a man is highly unnatural.
Second, as I have already alluded to, our bodies are being redeemed. Westminster Shorter Catechism 37 says that our bodies are still united to Christ after we die, and Westminster Confession XXXII: ii says that "all the dead shall be raised up, with the selfsame bodies, and none other." So, my body, organs and all, will be united to Christ after I die; and my body, organs and all, will be raised on the last day. We will not be furnished with new organs in the resurrection any more than we will be furnished with new heads, hands, or feet. My kidneys are united to Christ, and I will continue to have them in the resurrection.
So, with all of this being said, if my body (including my organs) is not mine to give, and if my body (including my organs) is an integral part of me from conception to eternity, how can I possibly have the authority to donate my organs to anyone?