Safety Coffin Fallacy

Dying request of George Washington: “Have me decently buried, but do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead.” 

In the 1700s and 1800s, fear of premature death was a real phobia among people. Medicine was definitely not an exact science and people feared being buried alive. Thought to be dead only to resuscitate after being boxed and planted, what could be worse?

During this period numerous patents exist for safety coffins: coffins equipped with bells, whistles, flags, breathing tubes, etc. for just such a situation. Although most historical sources state there is no evidence anyone was ever buried utilizing a safety coffin, many designs were created and sold.

Life and death have always consumed the thoughts of people. What is life? What is death? What happens? How do we know?

Unfortunately, for most this is simply a conversation about the body. Even more unfortunate is how many people see Christianity as a safety coffin for when the body gives out. They live as though in that moment they can ring the bell and God will take over. Like they are saying, “Okay, Lord, I’m done. You can have me now.” And a bell rings and another angel gets his wings. That view of Christianity is a fallacy.

Paul writes to the Ephesians, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1) Life and death have nothing to do with the body. When it comes to Christianity, it is about the spirit. It is about being brought to life from spiritual death.

Paul also wrote, “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” (Romans 14:7-8) Paul is saying that when it comes to the life of the body, it is irrelevant. There is a YOU that exists beyond the body. If the body is alive or dead, it doesn’t change YOU—the true spiritual YOU. And as a Christian, YOU belong to the Lord.

Paul is emphasizing his point of looking past the physical world and opening your heart and mind to the spiritual. The very point he made in Romans 12:1-2, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

It is about freedom from the physical world. Freedom from sin. Freedom from anxiety. Freedom from the very things bogging us down, keeping us up at night and overwhelming our minds. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17)

But we often have to admit, “I don’t see this freedom in my life!” Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” In other words, we can only begin to experience this freedom when we stop looking at ourselves and our world, and start looking at our Lord and Savior “as in a mirror” of who we truly are in this world and beyond it.

That is the true YOU! The spiritual YOU! The eternal You! And YOU belong to the Lord!

© 2025 Warren Martin. All rights Reserved.