Is Cremation Biblical?

[nanlm3]

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Several years ago, I recall hearing that cremation isn’t biblical and Christians should have a standard burial. Would you please share scripture & your thoughts on why or why not? Thanks in advance
~nlp

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

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Several years ago, I recall hearing that cremation isn’t biblical and Christians should have a standard burial. Would you please share scripture & your thoughts on why or why not? Thanks in advance
~nlp

Throughout Scripture, the fires burning the babies and children and adults were
never sought for by the Ekklesia (YHVH'S People).
Only the wicked in the Bible sought to be burned.

It may not be a 'doctrine' per se.
It was however a basic truth, a principle, for thousands of years,
until recently when
MONEY became a bigger concern than Godliness.

 

[nanlm3]

Throughout Scripture, the fires burning the babies and children and adults were
never sought for by the Ekklesia (YHVH'S People).
Only the wicked in the Bible sought to be burned.

It may not be a 'doctrine' per se.
It was however a basic truth, a principle, for thousands of years,
until recently when
MONEY became a bigger concern than Godliness.

Thank you for your reply. Its God’s will I desire so, I can see I have some researching to do. I don’t want to burden my children with this decision or cost.

 

[aiki]

The only people cremated in Scripture were the wicked.

 

[Abaxvahl]

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Several years ago, I recall hearing that cremation isn’t biblical and Christians should have a standard burial. Would you please share scripture & your thoughts on why or why not? Thanks in advance
~nlp

I'd personally say it doesn't make a difference as the body will be risen and glorified. What we have right now is not glorified and rots. Burying it with pomp and circumstance in a casket is for no one except the living. Preferably, if possible, I think a Christian would make themselves useful to the environment after death by being buried in it directly (not sure that's possible everywhere but I had heard of some doing that), or to science by donating the whole thing.

Ultimately there are no verses on it being good or bad, unless you consider records of things that happened in a culture to be doctrine.

 

[nanlm3]

I'd personally say it doesn't make a difference as the body will be risen and glorified. What we have right now is not glorified and rots. Burying it with pomp and circumstance in a casket is for no one except the living. Preferably, if possible, I think a Christian would make themselves useful to the environment after death by being buried in it directly (not sure that's possible everywhere but I had heard of some doing that), or to science by donating the whole thing.

Ultimately there are no verses on it being good or bad, unless you consider records of things that happened in a culture to be doctrine.

Thanks. Checking doctrine will be helpful as well. Not that, that would be the deciding factor...more for knowledge & understanding.
I’ve read many verses on Fire being used for purifying. It would be nice to at least get the last thing I do right. Lol.

Signed a donation clause years ago, if the body can be used, especially to save a life, that’s awesome. I’ve read where some are planting trees from the ashes, which is great as well. I’m all for conservation, caring for the earth God created for us.

 

[apogee]

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Several years ago, I recall hearing that cremation isn’t biblical and Christians should have a standard burial. Would you please share scripture & your thoughts on why or why not? Thanks in advance
~nlp

In all honesty there are so many reasons why this idea is nonsense, it's hard to pick one.

I suspect the reason they said it, was because they thought that destroying the body meant that there was no body to raise from the dead on the last day.

Which is clearly a problem for God, I mean it's not like he's some all powerful godlike character that can just create stuff out of nothing.... I mean that's rediculous right?

 

[apogee]

God forbid anyone gets blown to bits by a terrorist, or eaten by a shark.

 

[DawnStar]

God forbid anyone gets blown to bits by a terrorist, or eaten by a shark.

Or burned at the stake like many in history have been.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

Bible says it best... from ashes to ashes and dust to dust. My parents will be cremated, I want to be cremated. Not sure what my wife wants yet. Cremation is also cheaper. No point putting an empty vessel (bodies) into a giant wooden box so it can decompose over time. Meanwhile people can on very rare occasions come to my expensive stone in the ground with my name. And anyways, after I'm gone and my future kids are gone, I doubt anyone would come to my resting area anyways. So be a waste of time and money.

Put me in a urn and dump my ashes into the Grand Canyon (assuming I don't see it while alive). Then throw my urn away. Or better yet if my wife wants something to remember me by, ush my ashes to make a piece fo jewelry. I seen they do that now. Or use my ashes to bury with a baby tree. So many options that seem much more appropriate. Also no funeral home thing. Just have a get together. A "Remembering <name>!" party. Talk about the memories you had with me. Celebrate I'm in a better place...etc. Also make sure you watch Three Stooges and eat Pizza, Chili Dogs and Chipotles.

 

[aiki]

I will not be cremated. I think my body being buried in the ground intact better signifies my anticipation of a future resurrection of my body than cremation does. The grave isn't the end of me - or my body - and I think burning my corpse to ash doesn't acknowledge that well at all. If I can in death remind the living of the future coming of Christ, however obliquely, I'd like to do that.

No saint in Scripture that I know of was cremated. Only pagans did this sort of violence to the remains of the departed (and to some who were not yet dead). There is, though, one instance I can think of in the Bible where God "cremates" some folk: The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah. God will also punish the unrepentant wicked in the fire of eternal hell. These associations between judgment and fire and pagan practices and burning that exist in Scripture reinforce my determination not to be cremated. I am a Christian and will not go on to fiery judgment at my death, nor will I emulate the practices of the pagan in disposing of my remains.

 

[Andrew77]

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Several years ago, I recall hearing that cremation isn’t biblical and Christians should have a standard burial. Would you please share scripture & your thoughts on why or why not? Thanks in advance
~nlp

There is no Biblical grounds for saying that cremation is, or is not, acceptable.

Different Christian groups, have different views on the topic.

There are countries in this world, which simply do not have the land to use for burial. We living in western countries with lots of empty land, find it easy to say that Christians must be buried. Well, that's nice for us, but what about Christians on island countries that simply don't have space for burial plots?

The BBC had a documentary on this topic, because one country the price of a burial plot was so extremely high, that they were burying people, and then digging them up to re-use the same plot. The people simply didn't have the money to afford new plots.

But we know that the moment people die, they go to be with the lord, no matter what happens to the empty shell we inhabit before.

If you consider the method of burial to be of concern in the life after this.... well then you run into endless problems.

For example... Christians killed in bomb blasts. Where nothing is left. Are they doomed? What about the millions of Christians that are buried at sea? What about ones eaten by animals? What about ones left in the sand in a desert? Or in the snows of mount Everest?

You even have to ask, what happened to the Christians burned to death by the Romans? They were effectively cremated without choice. Does that mean they are doomed?

So my general view is this. You should as best you can follow whatever beliefs of the Christian group you are in... but I don't think there is any valid reason to conclude there is any 'right' or 'wrong' way to deal with the bodies of the dead.

Burial and funerals are mostly just for the benefit of the grieving people left behind. Not for anything of value to the person who is already at their eternal reward.

And I don't really pay much attention to people who mention the Israelite/Jews did thus and so.... because if you really want to look at what they did as a basis for us, then we should all be carving caves in the side of mountains. Right? Abraham was buried in a cave, as were his wives. Lazarus was buried in a cave, when Jesus brought him back. Jesus himself was buried in a cave.

They all buried the dead in caves. I don't see a ton of cave graves around here, do you?