Christian's Cremation!

This is a discussed issue found at a Christian newsgroups concerning Christian cremation. Credit for this article should go to “Saltlight” channel:

Many people nowadays promote cremation of the dead because of several reasons we can think of e.g. (1) might be those who denies God (2) lacks of land space (3) His promise regarding the resurrection of the dead (3) Etc. The Bible doesn't say cremation is sin. However, it was not practiced by God's people either in the Old and New Testaments' times, though many nations around Israel did burn their dead. In Old Testament days, the Jews buried their dead with the exception of some criminals, who were burned as punishment. Thus, we learn from Scripture the burning a body is dishonoring it. Man is not an animal. Man is a unique creation fashioned after the creator and has eternal significance. The Jews considered it a tragedy if a person wasn't buried. Both the Hebrews and Christians buried their dead knowing that the cemetery was only a resting place for one body; it would rise again in the resurrection. With all of its frailties, there is sanctity about the Christian's body. The body is not garbage; each was designed as a house for a person in which to live to fulfill God's promise. Burial shows respects for the person who was honored in that body. It also shows respect for the body, which is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). But in today's world, cremation is a normal thing so I wonder if cremation is biblical or not by writing this topic whether agree or not, let us ponder over this issue of how to dispose of our bodies when we die. (Some of the points given here was not from mine alone as it was more of a discussion on a Christian newsgroup channel).

At one time when I was much younger I thought the mode was important. I was not in favor of cremation because I kept wondering: what if people mistakenly thought I was dead and proceeded to cremate me! I would not survive their mistake! But if they buried me, perhaps I still had a chance to break out of the coffin and give everyone second thoughts! It’s an extremely unlikely scenario but trust me for thinking about such eventualities. But now that I’m older I think that even if they bury me by mistake there’s no chance of my getting out alive because I would be six feet underground!

Many Christians advocated cremation but on the other hand, expressed concern about the effect on the assembly of our resurrected bodies. That’s what I call looking ahead! However, many of us agree that the mode of disposal of our present bodies is immaterial. God doesn’t need the pieces of our old bodies to create new ones, right?

I’d go for the cheapest way (the cheapskate that I am!). Burial plots are getting more expensive these days so I find a case for cremation on that account. But they might as well take my body in a boat and throw it into the sea. It may be eaten up by the sharks but I don’t care. That might be even cheaper and it does the same job! However, if any of you wish to follow my advice, do get a reputable doctor to issue a death certificate first. Otherwise, someone may accuse you of murder by drowning!

About the age-old concern for respect of a dead body which is why people sought proper burials. On biblical grounds from the NT, Grace is more concerned about taking good physical care of our bodies while still alive and refraining from sexual immorality. I think that as long as we avoid acts of perversion on dead bodies (such as mutilation, necrophilia, and the like) we are showing enough respect. There’s no need to go too far.

I remember visiting a Chinese cemetery in a suburb of Manila where rich folks built grandiose structures to house the dead. You can even put a mahjong table in one of these halls and some even play mahjong there, I’m told. The Filipino tour guide shook her head at these structures and I can imagine how insensitive these ostentatious displays are to a population where many yet alive have no adequate housing.

In my view, how you take care of people you like (or love) after they die is immaterial. It is how you interact with them while they are alive that is important. My mother died many years before I became a Christian and when she died I promised myself that I would pray for her soul every night for one year. I was educated in a Catholic school and I recited the Lord’s Prayer. I think I did it partly from concern about her afterlife and partly from a sense of guilt. I had many conflicts with her because I had grudges against her arising from my childhood. She died of a brain tumor. Of course I now know that praying for the dead is not biblical. It does nothing for them.

If I may extend this topic further, the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus tells us, among other things, that we can have no communion with the dead. That’s why Benny Hinn was roundly criticized for saying that he was taken up in spirit to have communion with the late Kathryn Kuhlman.

William Shakespeare wrote that the world is a stage and we are merely players, with our exits and entrances. This is the one most depressing thing I find about this world - the exits of a few friends that I liked. The Lord whisked them away without warning, leaving me wishing I had found more time to spend with them while they were still alive. Perhaps God is testing my responses to people and do not find it useful to prolong the test more than is necessary.

Sometimes we behave as though we are all immortal and that there will be time enough “tomorrow”. We know this is not the case but we behave as though it is.

I don’t believe in elaborate funerals either. I attend funerals purely out of courtesy to the living. It does nothing for the one who died. So, folks, when I die, there’s absolutely no need to attend my funeral. Spend your time more profitably among those still living. “Let the dead bury the dead.” Forget the flowers; don’t waste your money, I won’t be able to smell them. Also forget the eulogies (assuming I deserve any in the first place). If you want to see me or interact with me, do so while I’m still alive! Respect me while I’m alive, not after I’m dead!

What Is the Bible's View?
Is Cremation Proper for Christians?

What is your reaction to the thought of having a deceased relative's body cremated? Does cremation seem to you to be as suitable a way of disposing of the dead as burial? Or does cremation go against your sentiments? Does it seem improper or even unscriptural?

Your reaction may have been molded by the view prevailing where you live. In some lands cremation is quite common. For instance, in West Germany, England and Denmark over half of the dead are cremated, and in Japan it is almost universal. But in the United States only about 8 percent of the dead are cremated and in other lands it is still more uncommon. Why such differences?

Unquestionably, local conditions bear on the customs regarding how the dead are disposed of. For example, in some areas the ground is frozen during much of the year and firewood is scarce. So it is customary for the dead to be `exposed' to be consumed by birds or animals. In such lands only the middle and upper class persons are buried or cremated. In certain countries where land is scarce cremation is popular because it costs less than burial in a normal grave.

But religious beliefs also come into the picture regarding cremation. With their belief that a person has an immortal soul, some of the ancient Greeks and Romans viewed cremation as a fine means of rapidly releasing the soul from its dead body.

On the other hand, the Encyclopædia Judaica reports: "Disposal of the dead body by burning is not a Jewish custom and inhumation [burial] is considered by traditional Jews to be obligatory." Also, for centuries the Roman Catholic Church strongly opposed cremation. In the late nineteenth century Canon Law 1240 declared that Catholics who ordered their bodies cremated were to be deprived of ecclesiastical burial unless they repented before death. A papal decree in 1963 somewhat revised this position, but still it urged `abstaining from cremation unless compelled by necessity.'

What, then, is the proper view of cremation from the standpoint of God's Word? Is it proper for a Christian to be cremated?

In Bible Times

During the Biblical period God's servants customarily interred the body of a deceased person in a cave, tomb or grave. Abraham set an early example. Upon the death of his beloved wife Sarah he purchased a cave as a family burial site. (Gen. 23:2-20; 49:29-32) Abraham's descendants, the Hebrews, attached considerable importance to the proper burial of a person. For someone to be deprived of burial was a severe calamity. (Jer. 14:16) Thus Jehovah's repudiation of King Jehoiakim was expressed in the prophecy that the king would receive "the burial of a he-ass," that is, his corpse being dragged outside
the city and left unburied.—Jer. 22:18, 19; compare Jeremiah 25:32, 33; Isaiah 14:19, 20.

With this emphasis on proper burial, it would have been disgraceful for someone to be refused burial and the corpse just be burned up as trash. In connection with some crimes the Law required that the criminal be killed and his body burned. (Lev. 20:14; 21:9; Josh. 7:15, 25) Similarly, when Jesus was on earth the Valley of Hinnom south of Jerusalem's wall was a garbage dump where fires were kept burning to destroy refuse. Some bodies of dead criminals viewed as unfit for a decent burial were cast there. Jesus used this as a symbol of complete destruction without hope of resurrection.—Mark 9:47, 48; Matt. 5:22.

But do these examples of the burning of corpses indicate that it would be improper to have a body cremated?

First, it is not as if the Law invariably linked the two, criminals and burning. Jews use Deuteronomy 21:23 as a proof text in support of earthen burial. It says that the body of a man executed and hung on a stake should not be left overnight, but "you should by all means bury him on that day." So burning was just one way in which a criminal's corpse might be disposed of.

And it can be appreciated that there is a vast difference between the corpse of an ancient criminal being burned with refuse and modern funeral procedures involving cremation. While the former was intended to express rejection and shame, the latter is arranged as a dignified alternative to a person's returning to dust through normal decomposition in the ground. Actually, modern cremation is somewhat comparable to the actions of the men of Jabesh-gilead after they rescued the bodies of King Saul and his sons from the Philistines. They took the bodies to "Jabesh and burned them there. Then they took their bones and buried them." (1 Sam. 31:12, 13) Faithful David did not consider their burning the corpses as shameful. It was part of a respectful disposing of the dead.—2 Sam. 2:4-7.

The early Christians continued the Jewish custom of burial in the earth or in tombs. In addition to the Jewish background of Christianity, a reason for this seems to have been that cremation at that time was associated with paganism such as the immortal-soul
teaching. In later centuries the Roman Catholic Church legislated against cremation, thus forbidding by Church Law what was not forbidden by Scripture.

What about Christians today? The fact is that there is no Bible command for or against either burial or cremation. Nor usually does burial instead of cremation help to distinguish true Christians from believers in the pagan idea of an immortal soul; today some of the chief adherents of that unscriptural doctrine are found among churchgoers who normally bury their dead.

Additionally, the Bible plainly shows that it matters not whether a dead body is returned to dust rapidly by fire or gradually by decay. Either way God's words are true: "For dust you are and to dust you will return." (Gen. 3:19) It certainly is not as if God needs a mummy in order to resurrect a person. The apostle Paul taught that a person resurrected to heaven will be given a new body, so that he is "changed" from the fleshly body that disintegrated. He showed that `God gives to each one a body just as it pleases him.' (1 Cor. 15:35-49) It will be similar with those resurrected to life on earth in the New Order. God will be able to provide adequate human bodies no matter how their former bodies disintegrated, whether rapidly by fireor slowly by decay.

In conclsion, God's Word does recommend that the body of a dead loved one be dealt with in a dignified, respectful way. But whether a family, for emotional, economic or other reasons, will have a deceased lovedone cremated or not is a personal matter.