Marcia said:
Yes, of course! I think I said at that in at least 2 of my posts.
That's not the point. I never said cremation is not good because God can't raise up the body!! Yikes!
The body is sown in dishonor Paul said. I am reminded daily that this mortal frame is buffeted by its corruption. I am reminded when I put on my glasses to read or take an aspirin for aching joints. I am reminded as the lines on my face draw deeper and the pigment leaves the very hairs God has numbered. I am reminded when I look across my backyard and see the village graveyard.
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
1 Corinthians 15:53-54 KJV
The corruption of my body came from Adam not a crematorium. There is no honor, dignity or respect we can demonstrate as humans that will ever overcome the very nature of our corruption culminating in our own death by natural course, accident or design. The wages of sin will be paid in full in my flesh. You can put my body in a satin-lined box with a lily on my chest but that cannot create dignity nor respect. You can embalm me vacuum seal the casket and seal the vault as well but that will not create honor. The very fact that I will die in the flesh because of my corruptible nature far outweighs what happens to what remains after I am gone. I, a redeemed child of God, presently dwell in a mortal, earthy, corruptible body of death. Turning my remains into a pile of ash will not make that any better or worse.
Our hope, our dreams, our eternity is consumed by the hope that we will put off the old body and be clothed in the new...
For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Philippians 3:20-21 KJV
I am not convinced that one choice for the -as they say in the business- final disposition of the remains is a moral high ground over the other. I've read in this thread that pagans practice burning bodies. Well, the Egyptians invented embalming and we all know about Egyptians.... Nobody wins that tact.
I believe the majority of us have shaped an idea of what we would consider acceptable after-life practices. We have our family and cultural traditions mixed with a sense of morality and decency shaped as much by our secular influences as our biblical one. We mourn through prescribed patterns. Fifty years ago funerals were held in the family home not a funeral home. 20 years ago, in this area, calling hours were always 2-4 and 7-9pm for two days and the funeral on the third day at 11am for Protestants and 10 am for Catholics. That is no longer the case.
That said, as Christians, our passions lie in what God does after we die and not what we do. I cannot be honored because I follow one burial practice over another. I will be honored in death because of Jesus Christ who has saved me. He saved my sin-sick soul and makes no provision for my body until after it is all used up. I can be frozen, burned, eaten by alligators, swallowed by the sea, pumped full of chemical, forced to wear a tie but none of those things will change what Jesus Christ has already done.
