Should Christians be cremated?

[kalawine]

Actually, I think that how we conduct our funeral practices DOES have theological significance. However, you can conduct full burials in Christian or pagan ways. So too, you can handle cremation with respect for the body and proclaiming resurrection hope.

Pagan cremation...

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

From "Paradise" by John Prine

Pagan burial...

Gee but that graveyard is a lonesome place
Lord but that graveyard is a lonesome place
They put you on your back throw
that mud down in your face

From "TB Blues" by Jimmy Rodgers

Godly burial...

Joshua 24

32 And Joseph's bones, which the Israelites had brought up from Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the tract of land that Jacob bought for a hundred pieces of silver from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem. This became the inheritance of Joseph's descendants.

 

[kalawine]

I don't see enough regulatory language for any particular methodology to be problematic as long as it is done decently and in order. I prefer cremation. Very tidy. Sing a song, preach the Gospel, move along.

Soli Deo Gloria!

I had an uncle die a couple of years ago. He was a man without God all his life. He was one of those "last minute converts." He repented and asked Jesus to save him less than a year before he died. This man had no time to do an indepth study of cremation or anything else much. When he died he was cremated. It was my first cremation funeral to attend. I have struggled for years over this issue and have always leaned toward the idea that burial is biblical (very obviously I believe) and (of course) cremation was a pratice of the heathens. Yet, I know that my uncle chose cremation because he wanted to be the least possible financial burden to his kids (he had no present wife) that he could. When I remember my uncle I know that in his ignorance of doctrine he was sincerely and humbly going the most honorable route he knew.

 

[Davidius]

So looking at all this, and knowing some Romish theolgy - Roman Catholicism has decreed that cremation is okay as long as the ashes are not dispersed, as long as they are contained together, either in an urn or buried that way. Now, is this legalism? Are they resting on the will of God to save based soli fidelis? Someone put into a coffin or cremated still faces the judgment seat of Christ.

What do you mean by soli fidelis?

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Samuel Crook, The Guide to True Blessedness, pp. 114-115:

4. Q. What is required in this [Sixth] Commandment?
...
Finally, decent[d] burial, with moderate[e] mourning.

[d] Gen. 23.4.
[e] Ecclef. 12.7.

 

[py3ak]

Should Christians be cremated?

As a general rule, not until they're dead.

 

[shackleton]

Should Christians be cremated?

As a general rule, not until they're dead.

Someone should have told the early Catholic Church that.

 

[Jerusalem Blade]

Expense may certainly be an issue, and one that hasn't been brought up here yet is grave desecration. We live in a perverse and intensely satanic age.

"...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" 1 Cor 10:31

"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient..." 1 Cor 10:23

"Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand....For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's." Romans 14:4, 7, 8

Opinions abound, but this is a matter of liberty.

 

[AVT]

For me it is burial. God himself buried Moses . He could have consumed Moses' body with fire by simply saying a word but He did not.

Deuteronomy 35;5 and Moses the servant of the Lord died in Moab, as the Lord had said, v "He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is."

A decent burial is one of the ways God shows His tender mercies to his own people.

Jeremiah 16; 4 "They will die of deadly diseases, They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by the sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth."

Amos 2;1 This is what the Lord says: "For three sins of Moab, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath, Because he burned, as if to lime the bones of Edom's king."

During cremation the dead body is fired up to 2,000 degrees heat and the bones turns to lime.

Comments welcome. Why God chose to bury Moses gives me conflicting thoughts. And yes I know He could reconstitute our earthly bodies because He is God and can do anything.

 

[AVT]

Cremation reflects a Gnostic-like disdain for the body, while burial testifies that the body was created by God and will be resurrected. I urge enquirers to practice burial instead of cremation. In our day, I'm sure, many who choose cremation do so because of financial reasons, not religious or philosophical.

Bill

Pastors need to be teaching this. The secular culture is so ingrained in the church, that we no longer even recognize when a practice is unbiblical. The thought of cremation was always offensive to me anyway, but until my last pastor explained the objections, I would have never realized it was a pagan practice.

Janis and Bill,

In natural circumstances I would say a Christian should not be creamated but I think we should keep in mind that creamation may become necessary if the Lord should send a catastrophic event, valcano, earthquake, flood, pestilence or famine to prevent even more deaths.


Have a good Lord's day,
Bill

People who die due to catastrophic event didn't have a choice. Cremation bothers me because the early Christians and Jews in majority of circumstances practiced burial and not cremation. God Himself buried Moses.

 

[AVT]

1 Samuel 31:11-12
Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there.

Can you explain how this impacts or answers the question at hand?

In the O.T. The Jews shows a lot of respect fort the body. In normal situations, the body is buried immediately and not left lying on the streets or hanging on the cross.

In the case of Saul, they wanted to retrieve his body but they were running
from the Philistines and they were afraid that the Philistines will kill them and
desecrate Saul's grave. So, they burned his remains.

 

[jwithnell]

And Christ Himself was buried. Burial has been the Christian practice on this basis and as a result of believers in both testaments being buried. In general, I don't think all the embalming and so forth is reasonable either. Dust to dust, but the grave will not have the final victory!

 

[Grymir]

It's better to bury the body. It helps in the healing of the family. It's also more respectful. I might be glib about my own death ("Just throw me into the lake and let the fish eat me and be done with it because I'll be in heaven (I really have a lake in by backyard and do say this)); but we have to remember those left behind. And the loss that they will feel.