Cremation

My will states that my body is to be cremated. There doesn't seem to be any Biblical opposition to it.

 

I know of no biblical opposition to the practice of cremation. But it has traditionally been linked to the practice of some of the eastern religions, which has made it a less than acceptable alternative to most christians.

Carol

 

With land availability, it seems that cremation is the responsible way to go. In Holland, a body is only allowed to remain in a site for ten years. There are exceptions, such as the war graves.

In the UK land is at a premium considering it is essentially a small island. Cremation again makes sense from an ecological viewpoint.

Many things point to other religions, but there is no reason we can't borrow sensible solutions. Once this body is dead and the soul has departed, there is no earthly or heavenly use for it. In the end we will receive heavenly bodies........I don't want this old shell and all its flaws of years.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I too have stated in my will that I wish to be cremated. As a child I could see the cemetary from my bedroom window, it was at the end of the bottom of the garden. What really put me off burial was watching the burial of a suicide. That really upset me and made an impact on me. I have also seen the distress caused when graves are vandalised. The crematorium where our son's ashes are is a woodland setting, so much lovelier than a cemetary i think.

 

I'll stick with burial. It is a practice that is definitely supported by scripture. If it's good enough for Jesus it's good enough for me.Why follow a practice that has pagan origins just because it's fast becoming the accepted way. Christians should be buried.Let the pagans be cremated.

 

Since at the return of our Lord, all the bodies, whether buried in the ground or at sea, whether burned in house fires, car fires, or incinerator fires, will be put back together in their glorified state, it doesn't really matter. The origins of something are not the issue. The biblical teaching on it is.

 

I'll take burrial, no way am I to be cremated.

A statement that could be used many ways on many differtn topics. I'll ahve to rememebr that at the holidays.

 

The Bible does not require a certain type of disposition after death. However, it's very clear that the body after death is but an empty shell and of no value.

Decay and turning to dust is the natural and normal state. Every part of the body, even the bones, disappear in a relatively short period of time (a few years at most). Cremation simply speeds that process up.

If cremation is wrong, then so is embalming, imo.

I plan on being cremated.

And before we start the whole ressurrection thing, please, please PLEASE, I don't want to be ressurrected to this same body.... too many things wrong with it.

BTW - Jesus wasn't buried. He was temprarily interred until after the sabbath, when his body was to be prepared for a below ground burial or above ground interment, as was the jewish custom (his body would have been disinterred after a year, and the boned placed in an ossuary for the family to either keep ot place in a tomb. But his body never made it that far.

 

The cremation is wrong because God practices burial -- Which did God do to Moses? Bury OR Burn? (Deut. 34:5-6)
Abraham was b____ (Gen. 25:8-10)
Sarah was b____ (Gen. 23:1-4)
Rachel was b____ (Gen. 35:19-20)
Issac was b____ (Gen. 35:29)
David was b____ (I Kings 2:10)
John the Baptist was b___ (Matt. 14:10-12)
Stephen was b____ (Acts 8:2)

 

The warning about the cremation is that the cremation is a sign of God's curse as example of Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:6), of Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10:1-2), of magic books (Acts 19:18-19)and others.

 

They didn't have sliced bread, bottled milk or motorcars in either the Old or New Testament, but we all use them.

Customs for the times, and times for the customs.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I rather doubt "most Christians" are familiar with that argument against it.

My parents' bodies were cremated, and I would not object to any portions of my own body that cannot be put to better use elsewhere being cremated. However, I would balk at being cremated on top of a tall pole.

Haruo

 

Nevertheless, cremation is a type of God's winnowing. As it is written,

Haruo

 

Many think it makes no difference. How one's body is disposed of is up to the individual's own wishes. They believe the Bible is silent on the matter, and God leaves the decision up to each one of us. But is this necessarily true?
Solomon wrote under inspiration of The Holy Spirit, "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12). What does the Word ofGod say about the death, burial, or cremation of loved ones?
Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes, "If a man beget a hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial, I say, that an untimely birth is better than he" (Eccl. 6:3).
According to the Scriptures, it is a curse for a dead body not to be buried! Isaiah wrote of the king of Babylon, "But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcass trodden under feet. Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned" (Isaiah 14:19-20).
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible points out: "Various places of burial, in addition to natural caves, are mentioned in the Scriptures. Frequently only the name of the city or region is mentioned; thus Aaron was buried at Moserah (Deut. 10:6; cf. Num. 33:38, where Mount Hor is named as his burial place); Moses in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor (Deut. 34:6); Joshua in his own inheritance at Timnath-serah (Josh. 24:30; cf. Judg. 2:9); Jephthah in his city in Gilead (Judg. 12:7); Samson between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father (Judg. 16:31); Saul and Jonathan . . . under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh (I Sam. 31:13), their bones later being buried in the land of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish (II Sam. 21:14); David and Solomon in the city of David (I Kings 2: 10; 11:43). The various kings of Israel and Judah are said to have been buried in the city of David (I Kings 15:8, 24; II Kings 8:24; 12:21; etc.), Tirzah (I Kings 16:6), Samaria (I Kings 16:28; 22:37), and Jerusalem (II Kings 14:20)."
Burial was the proper means of disposing of dead bodies, according to the entire record of the inspired Scriptures!
Where, then, did the practice of cremation come from? Says the Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible, "Cremation was not practiced by Jews or early Christians, as it was on occasion by Greeks and Romans. When bodies were burned, it was a sign of vengeance (I Sam. 31:12), unrighteousness (Amos 6: 10), or punishment of criminals (Lev. 20:14; 21: 9; John. 7:25). The Mishna forbids cremation as idolatry (A.Z.I. 3)" (ibid.).
The World Book Encyclopedia tells us: "Burial is the most common method of disposal in Christian, Jewish, and Muslim countries. Human burial developed from the belief that the dead rise again. Like a seed, according to this belief, a body is planted in the earth to await rebirth.
"Cremation is customary in Buddhist and Hindu nations and is increasing in the United States and Canada" (article, "Funeral Customs").
What does the Word of God say?
Abraham bought a field, that he might bury Sarah there, the field of Ephron, which was in Machpelah, and which contained a cave (Gen. 23: 8-17). When Abraham himself died, his sons "Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah . . . there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife" (Gen. 25:9-10).
When Isaac died, "his sons Esau and Jacob buried him" (Gen. 35:29). When Jacob's wife Rachel died in childbirth, she "was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave: that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day" (Gen. 35:19-20). When Jacob, whose named was changed to Israel, was about to die, he told his son Joseph, "Bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt: But I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place" (Genesis 47:29-30). Jacob later charged all his sons, "I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought . . . There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah" (Gen. 49:29-31). His sons did so, with great mourning and lamentation (Gen. 50:5-13).
Why does God give us all this detailed information in the very first book of the Bible as to the disposition of the dead? There must be a reason! Obviously this instruction is written down for OUR admonition, as a guide for us, today!
The apostle Paul explained, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (Rom. 15:4).
God's way for the disposition of the dead is BURIAL! The practice of cremation is pagan -- idolatrous -- heathenish -- and wrong! The practice of cremation was inspired by no less than Satan the devil and his host of demons, as a part of his diabolical counterfeit superstition involving the belief of reincarnation and the immortality of souls! According to the pagans, the "purifying fires" of cremation prepare the soul for its flight after death of the body.
Yet people will do what they want anyway.,then look for every imaginable justification
chet

 

Please give me the Scripture reflecting K's quotation.

 

If scripture supports burial, then why weren't many of the Jews buried? Many were interred in above ground tombs.

What about all those whose remains are interred in above ground crypts, or mausoleums? They're not buried.

Also, in all places where the OT and NT speak of burial, it does not mention embalming. So embalming our remains must be unbiblical too.

 

I think one wrong way to formulate a theology in regard to a particular subject is to note the absence of a practice or command in scripture and on that basis to comdemn the practice. The 'Churches of Christ' do that with instrumental music, and say the absence of a command to use it means they should forbid it. And as if to justify this to others who disagree, occasionally they note that pagans or totem worshippers used flutes and drums to accompany their rituals. This cremation topic appears to be a similar thing. Scripture does not forbid cremation, and its apparent absence as a procedure among early Christians is no more of a doctrinal foundation than the absence of pianos, organs, or microphones.

 

It is amazing to say the least to see the attempt to formulate a biblical argument against cremation. It just has not been done. The truth of the resurrection shows that the method of body disposal is irrelevant. The body is dead folks. It will be raised again whether it was burned in a house fire, in the world trade centers, in a war from a bomb, or buried intact. It just doesn't matter. Any attempt to show that it does simply does not take into account the truth about the resurrection.

 

I told my wife that when I died she could do anything she wanted with my body. I didn't care if she put me in a baggie and threw me in the creek. I just asked one thing. To make absolutely sure that I was done with it.

But seriously folks...I don't really care what happens to my old body, I just can't wait to get my new one. Me and time have pretty much wore this one out.