Is Cremation a choice for the deceased Christians ?

[Another Lazarus]

Is cremation Biblical ?
How would God resurrect us if nothing is left of our body.


May Jesus bless you all HalleluYAH

 

[TurtleAnne]

Nothing is left of most people's bodies, as they decompose over time, plus consider all of the people who have died in such ways that their earthly bodies were destroyed. Even for non-believers considering the topic, obviously the ancient peoples, living in such harsh times, had witnessed the decomposition of bodies, so even if a non-believer does not believe in what the ancient peoples wrote in regards to the scriptures, it is still plain as day that those ancient peoples were not referring to like, a zombie apocalypse style resurrection, with corpses climbing up out of the ground and such. To my knowledge nothing in the Bible forbids cremation, from what I have searched and read. It seems the resurrection will be spiritual, of the sleeping souls be they in tombs or decomposed into the dust of the earth (remember that nothing ceases to exist, but just changes form, hence the process of decomposition), and then people are to be given new bodies, if I recall it correctly from the scriptures.

Matthew 27:52 The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised

Combined with

Daniel 12:2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake

So both the bodily preserved and those who have decomposed, alike.

 

[Paul Yohannan]

Is cremation Biblical ?
How would God resurrect us if nothing is left of our body.


May Jesus bless you all HalleluYAH

God is omnipotent, so there is no question of "how," and everyone will be resurrected.

However, the Orthodox Church rejects voluntary cremation and will not perform funeral services for people who elect to be cremated.

 

[RC1970]

Is cremation Biblical ?
How would God resurrect us if nothing is left of our body.


May Jesus bless you all HalleluYAH

It's probably symbolically spiritually poor for a Christian to choose cremation, but physically, you're going to end up as dust eventually anyway.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

More and more christians I know are wanting to be cremated. One reason is obviously its cheaper. Especially since they just have a memorial service instead of a full blown funeral, burial, lunch after....etc thing. My parents (christians) have it in their will to be cremated. I want the same.

Doesn't matter what we do to the body really. Its just a vessel. And once dead its just a empty vessel that fades away eventually anyways. And theres nothing wrong biblically with creamation. I mean your soul, so to speak, goes to heaven. Not your literal body. Hence you get a new body.

 

[Paul Yohannan]

Its just a vessel.

The problem with this line of thought is it has the effect of devaluing the Incarnation of our Lord, and of devaluing the human body. The Orthodox perspective is that our bodies remain temples of the Holy Spirit even after we die, and must therefore be treated with extreme reverence at all times.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

True, depending on your view some see it as important.

 

[Another Lazarus]

Folks, thanks for your replies. i understand our bodies will become dust anyway.

but i just remember that Adam's body was preserved well by his descendants until Noah took Adam's body into the Ship that saved them from the flood and buried it in the sacred place. The gold, myrrh and incense from Adam was finally given to the baby Jesus as per Adam's will.
The Book of the Cave of Treasures - The Third Thousand Years

May Jesus bless you all HalleluYAH

 

[Strong in Him]

Is cremation Biblical ?
How would God resurrect us if nothing is left of our body.

God created us from dust; I don't think he'd have too much trouble raising us from dust.

 

[Goodbook]

For believers, cremation is not really an option but modern day society/the world has made it seem like the attractive and cheaper option.

The reason I say this is because the israelites always buried their dead. They never burned their bodies, crushed them into a powder and scattered them -this is a hellish practice only pagans do. The holocaust was basically a giant cremation, intended to destroy the chosen people.


I will go further into scriputre to show you that God tells us to bury our dead, not burn them. Our bones are important to Him.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

I will go further into scriputre to show you that God tells us to bury our dead, not burn them. Our bones are important to Him.

I genuinely would like to see verses that talk about this because I have not seen anything about bodies after death mention in the bible.

Though I think as always its one of those "Agree to disagree" things since its just a empty vessel that has no purpose anymore. At this point Adam and Eves bodies have long been "dust" Probably scattered about the planet from storms and what not. Trees growing out of the ground they were buried in.

And technically speaking nothing is impossible for God. To limit His power because our vessels are gone is silly. He created everything. I doubt ashes are an issue for Him.

 

[Paul Yohannan]

since its just a empty vessel that has no purpose anymore

This is of course inaccurate, as the experience with relics demonstrates.

 

[Paul Yohannan]

If someone can produce a "thou shalt not" or "you will not" burn the dead in Christ because God cannot resurrect them

We do not say that they cannot be resurrected (the error of the OP), but rather, cremation shows an excessive violence towards the deceased bodies, which remain holy.

 

[Paul Yohannan]

I'd sure like to see biblical support for that. That still seems like a tradition and not a command.

Well, scripture unambiguously condemns Paganism, and the practice of Roman pagans was (and the practice of Hindus, Buddhists et al generally still is) to cremate the deceased, in contrast to the Jews and Christians who buried their dead. Thus, cremation can be rejected implicitly as a pagan custom.

We can also reject embalming implicitly as a pagan custom owing to its use by the Egyptians and lack of use by Israel and the early Church.

This is not btw in any sense intended to accuse anyone of intentionally or unintentionally engaging in Paganism. Rather, I am simply explaining a scriptural basis for it.

The real reason not to do it is for the reasons I cited previously, which are a theological implication of our Lord's statement as to the sanctity of our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit, and of His incarnation, etc, which is why the early Church rejected this practice (despite being generally open to other aspects of Roman culture, for example, eating pork).

 

[Goodbook]

Burial vs burning.

Jesus talks many times about how hell is where people perish and are BURNED.

You only have to look in the new testament and read His Word.

Lazarus was buried in a tomb - and came back to life. He was NOT cremated.
Moses body was buried at an unknown location - it wasn't burnt.
Josephs body was taken to his homeland to be BURIED, not burnt.

In Leviticus, a red heifer was burned and the ashes used to sprinkle on those who touched dead bodies so they can be clean again - human corpses were NOT burned.

In Ezekiel, there's the valley of the dry bones. They came back to life. These bones were NOT ashes.

Do you need any more?

Jesus said let the dead BURY their dead. He didn't say to burn them.

 

[Goodbook]

Jezebel was eaten by dogs and her body was dung on the face of the earth. If you are cremated your body will become as DUNG on the face of the earth.

Maybe people don't know what dung is. But dung that is not buried stinks.

 

[Goodbook]

Do you know how blood and bone (fertiliser for the garden) is created??

 

[Goodbook]

Matthew 7:19

 

[Goodbook]

Also refer to this scripture..it is Jesus words. You cannot refute Jesus words. Notice he does NOT say BURNED. A seed is not burned, unless you want to destroy it. It is BURIED.

John 12:24

 

[Goodbook]

Well, sorry for you but you are mistaken, as many professed christians are, to choose hell over Jesus way, truth and the life.