Is Cremation a choice for the deceased Christians ?

Thst cave of mechapalah (sp?) still there today in the Hebron district. if you want to you can go visit Sarah's grave, if you can get past security. now if it wasnt there and God actually didnt care, and abrahm had just destroyed sarahs body, we wouldnt even know.

And if Abraham actually went ahead and cremated his own son, we wouldnt have Jesus.

This simple thing is that people dont want to acknowledge that God cares about our bodies as they are the temple of the holy spirit, Jesus was BODILY resurrected he wasnt just a spirit or ghost. People who deny that Jesus came in the flesh, are anti-christ.

The BODY of christ, is made up of lively stones.

When the holy spirit convicts us it goes into our JOINTS and MARROW.

To destroy bones by burning them up into ashes is abomination. When the bible says we return to ashes and dust its talking about unbelievers being destroyed till they are NO MORE.

The wicked bones actually do rot, but the righteous are preserved. So if you want to hasten the process, well, you can make your own fire.

But dont tell believers that burial is wrong. It is God given.

God makes dry bones live. Remember Eve was made out of adams BONE, and God made adam from the earth but he fashioned his bones first like a potter fashions out of clay. GOd can, because Hes God, shatter people to shivers but he will also preserve people as holy vessels. He renews us and makes us unique. If someone comes along to destroy Gods creation, theres not much God can do to make another you. He will mend brokenness that satan cleverly tries to destroy, but Hes not going to bother with a pile of ashes.

Goodbook said:

In Genesis, Abraham, remember him? He was the first patriarch of the faith.

When his wife Sarah died, what did he do? He didnt burn her (if God had instructed him to do this, we would all be burning dead bodies) no, he bought LAND to bury her.

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Yes he did.
But we don't know if burning her (cremation) was an option, and if so, did he ask God which option he should take?

Goodbook said:

Remember he had a son, Isaac. The TEST God gave him was to offer his son as a bURNT sacrifice. He nearly cremated his own son but the angel stopped him. EVER WONDER WHY?????

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Err no.
If Abraham had gone ahead and killed his son, God would have had to give him another one, or there would have been no heir. And God's promise that his descendants would be like the stars in the sky would not have been fulfilled.
Sure, there was Ishmael. But he was born as a result of Abraham's impatience/doubt - he was born, to a slave girl, in the normal way.
It was Isaac who was the miracle child; whose birth to a 90 year old woman and 100 year old man was a result of God's promise. This incident was a test of Abraham's faith and foreshadowed God offering his own Son on the cross.

There's nothing at all in the text to say that God stopped Abraham from offering Isaac because he wanted to show that cremation is unacceptable.

Goodbook said:

The wicked bones actually do rot, but the righteous are preserved. So if you want to hasten the process, well, you can make your own fire.

But dont tell believers that burial is wrong. It is God given.

God makes dry bones live. Remember Eve was made out of adams BONE, and God made adam from the earth but he fashioned his bones first like a potter fashions out of clay. GOd can, because Hes God, shatter people to shivers but he will also preserve people as holy vessels.

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I wonder what you'd say to people who were burnt at the stake - burnt alive - for practising their Christian faith?

Goodbook said:

He renews us and makes us unique. If someone comes along to destroy Gods creation, theres not much God can do to make another you.

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You're surely not saying that there is something that God - who spoke and the whole universe came into being from nothing - can't do?
Really?

Goodbook said:

He will mend brokenness that satan cleverly tries to destroy, but Hes not going to bother with a pile of ashes.

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How do you know what God is, or is not, going to bother with?

Some bodies are already dust due to the fact they have been gone for centuries. Also there have been people who were burnt to death and nothing reminds. Your earthly body is gone but your soul is with God. God will undone what has been done.

Strong in Him said:

There's nothing at all in the text to say that God stopped Abraham from offering Isaac because he wanted to show that cremation is unacceptable.

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I also don't believe anyone who is cremated is being offered up to God as a sacrifice. An awful lot of liberty has been taken with that passage to try and use it as an argument against cremation.

Personally, I don't agree with cremation. It expends a great deal more energy and does great violence to the human body. Burial does neither.

Another Lazarus said:

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


May Jesus bless you all HalleluYAH

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I don't see that it is inherently wrong. Though I prefer burial because it lines up a little better with scripture. I don't think God will be mad if your body is cremated though.

As to your second question, how would God resurrect us if nothing is left? He is God, He created the universe... So to recreate your body would be nothing compared to that.

I was rereading the question under discussion and realized that I answered it incorrectly. The question is "Is cremation a choice for the deceased Christians?" The answer to that has to be no because deceased Christians don't have any choice in the matter. Once you are deceased the choice belongs to others.

Archivist said:

I was rereading the question under discussion and realized that I answered it incorrectly. The question is "Is cremation a choice for the deceased Christians?" The answer to that has to be no because deceased Christians don't have any choice in the matter. Once you are deceased the choice belongs to others.

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Not entirely true. If it was up to me, my father would not have been cremated, but as it was clearly specified in his last will and testament that his body be cremated, I was not going to cause strife in our family by contesting his decision.

So how many believe that all those millions (of faith) through time that were blown to smithereens, burnt to a crisp, or eaten and deteriorated in the sea (other scenarios also exist), where there is nothing of a body left, will NOT be resurrected?

The over 1000 faithful children of God obliterated in the 911 explosion for example? Will they receive a glorified body or not?

And how many believe that God WILL still raise them from the dead?

Please reply with a direct simple answer? Thanks

prodromos said:

Not entirely true. If it was up to me, my father would not have been cremated, but as it was clearly specified in his last will and testament that his body be cremated, I was not going to cause strife in our family by contesting his decision.

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But reread the question. Your father made the decision when he was alive--it was not a decision by a deceased Christian.

pshun2404 said:

So how many believe that all those millions (of faith) through time that were blown to smithereens, burnt to a crisp, or eaten and deteriorated in the sea (other scenarios also exist), where there is nothing of a body left, will NOT be resurrected?

The over 1000 faithful children of God obliterated in the 911 explosion for example? Will they receive a glorified body or not?

And how many believe that God WILL still raise them from the dead?

Please reply with a direct simple answer? Thanks

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Yes He will raise them from the dead in all the instances you listed.

pshun2404 said:

So how many believe that all those millions (of faith) through time that were blown to smithereens, burnt to a crisp, or eaten and deteriorated in the sea (other scenarios also exist), where there is nothing of a body left, will NOT be resurrected?

The over 1000 faithful children of God obliterated in the 911 explosion for example? Will they receive a glorified body or not?

And how many believe that God WILL still raise them from the dead?

Please reply with a direct simple answer? Thanks

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God doesn't need our earthly bodies our souls are there to be judge. We will be giving new bodies. If God says we will raise than we will raise . God is above death itself. I look at it like this our souls return to earth. For those who don't have an earthly baby the soul will just make a new one. I mean far too many bodies have been lost due to time or burnt in events like the holocaust. God is above death and time itself. So he can do many things. They will receive new bodies. We all will be judged no matter how our were kept or burial. God will just give people new bodies. I mean if God is going to raise centuries of people that means those who are bone will get back their skin and flesh.

Goodbook said:

Cremation of Gods image ie His creation is abomination to God.

Read your bible.

Further scripture.. Deuteronomy 12:28-32

Especially verse 31

It is CLEARLY commanded in Gods word that his chosen do NOT follow pagan practices and other gods.

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Dear sister, without saying cremation is right or wrong I ask that maybe you should revisit Deut 12:31. Maybe even try being a little more gentle on those who post. I know it's hard to vision but people were actually offering human sacrifices in worship of Baal or Molech during that time, even their own children. This was also addressed in Deut. 18:10 and Leviticus 18:21. It was also talked about in Jeremiah 32:35. With all respect, that cremation was in worship of other gods and has nothing to do with the intended tread here of a respectable cremation. If you have scripture to back up your statement of: "Cremation of Gods image and His creation, is abomination to God" then share them with us, (Proverbs 27:17) other wise, it will look as if you just simply want people to believe the way you believe. God bless

After a body is buried and when it reaches a point when it has been buried so long that all of it has completely decomposed and there is nothing left, can it still be resurrected?

Most Christians do not want to be cremated, they want to be buried because they think that the body needs to be preserved for the resurrection.

But, is this necessary? After a body has been in the ground long enough, it does not matter how well you tried to preserve it, it turns to dust and is like or goes back to being "dirt" essentially eventually. Why try to preserve it, it just a shell, the spirit within you being or becoming an everlasting spirit is what really matters for resurrection, not the body. It is vanity to try to make your body last as long as it can after death and shows a lack of faith in God to me. God can create or make manifest a body out of nothing can't he?, if he has a spirit to put in it that is... right?

When Lazarus was resurrected, he had decomposed some and many knew he must stink, but, did he come back stinking or partially decomposed like a zombie? I don't think so. I don't think he did. The bodies that were resurrected at Jesus death from the memorial tombs were not like zombies either, they were not resurrected being partially decomposed.

So, it doesn't even matter if there is nothing at all left of the Body, God can give you a new one out of nothing if he wishes...

God Bless!

pshun2404 said:

So how many believe that all those millions (of faith) through time that were blown to smithereens, burnt to a crisp, or eaten and deteriorated in the sea (other scenarios also exist), where there is nothing of a body left, will NOT be resurrected?

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If they were in Christ at their death then they will be raised on the last day, no question of it. For me it is simply a question of treating someone who was made in the image and likeness of God with the appropriate respect due to that image after their death.

Neogaia777 said:

Most Christians do not want to be cremated, they want to be buried because they think that the body needs to be preserved for the resurrection.

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Do you have some reference for this claim? I certainly don't think this and I don't believe "most" Christians do either.

prodromos said:

Do you have some reference for this claim? I certainly don't think this and I don't believe "most" Christians do either.

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OK, most people, including Christians have an aversion, it's just a trait of humanity to preserve the body the best and as long it can be, cause they just have a natural innate built in aversion to just having their body thrown into a dirt hole and buried with no casket... And, it is true that most common Christians and people in general, most of them, but not all, have a natural aversion to being cremated as well... But, it is becoming a more accepted practice over time...