Cremation

[handy]

With my father's impending death, we've been dealing with funeral homes and arrangments, buying a casket and things like that. My husband and I have already discussed and decided upon what we will be doing upon our own demise. We had decided upon cremation, and my husband had said that he wanted his ashes scattered at a lake in Arizona that holds many special memories to him. I don't particularly care what happens to mine.

Well, anyway, one day we were discussing the issue at my folks and my dad, mom and sister were really upset at the idea of cremation. They felt that it was totally 'pagan' and that a Christian should never be cremated. Now, I'm not a biblical scholar by any means, but I have studied the bible for many years and haven't seen any biblical bar to cremation for Chrisitans.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? Is cremation really something that a Christian shouldn't do? or is this a matter of Christian liberty?

 

[Agricola]

The idea that cremation is bad comes from the Catholic Church amd is yet another man made rule and idea. First a number of reasons as to why cremation is seen as bad.

The body is a holy object and must not be destroyed by fire, especailly as it is a common practice amongst many other religions and cults, for example, burning the body to release the soul etc. Another reason is that people must be buried , because Christ was buried, slight flaw in this is that Christ was not buried by simply placed in a tomb, essentially a cave, but anyway. People say you need your whole body complete together in order to be raised and given a new body, without this you can not be raised nor can you get a new body. :-?

I think that this is a silly argument. If you are buried, then over time your whole body will rot away, if you bury a body in a very acidic soil then over a couple of hundred years everything will have been eaten away and dissolved. People who die in disasters, lets say the Twin Towers, the bodies of those people who would have been killed as the planes hit, nothing would be remaining of thier bodies.

Destroying your body after death by fire is not blasphemous, nor is it going to have any effect on your salvation , nor is it going to prevent you from getting a new body upon your resurrection. If it is important to God to have your complete body, then do not worry, for God surely knows where all the atoms and molucles from your body have gone.

As you point out, if burning our bodies after death was such a hideous crime in eyes of God , then we would have a number of verses that clearly state this within the Bible, we do not, we do not even have Paul writing about it, so just go ahead and be cremated, its perfectly fine to do so.

 

[Carol Lowery]

I agree.....if it was such a stickler with God, I agree It would be loud and clear to us in the Bible.

Kudos HIM,
Carolpsalm91

I just got a little chuckle, boy the things people come up with to shake a christians faith. :wink:

 

[John]

Can your body still sin after its dead?

 

[Carol Lowery]

hummmmmmmm interesting question.....can you enlighten me. Never asked myself that question, something to ponder. But can you open a channel of thought for me?

Kudos HIM,
Carolpsalm91

Additional question.....are you talking about the corruption of decay?

 

[John]

No i was saying that after your body dies and the spirit goes on, and your body gets cremated and lets say cremation is a sin, does that sin get placed upon you or the person cremating you?

Its a conundrum for sure, the only logical explanation is...its not a sin.

 

[Vic C.]

Can your body still sin after its dead?

Don't you have some hand grenade pins to inspect, or something to that effect? :

My husband and I have already discussed and decided upon what we will be doing upon our own demise. We had decided upon cremation, and my husband had said that he wanted his ashes scattered at a lake in Arizona that holds many special memories to him. I don't particularly care what happens to mine.

Same here. But now that I think about it, better leave the ashes in the urn. I don't want to pollute any of my good ol' fishing holes. :-D

Well, anyway, one day we were discussing the issue at my folks and my dad, mom and sister were really upset at the idea of cremation. They felt that it was totally 'pagan' and that a Christian should never be cremated. Now, I'm not a biblical scholar by any means, but I have studied the bible for many years and haven't seen any biblical bar to cremation for Chrisitans

My question is usually this: if cremation is a sin and you really believe we need this decrepit old sinful flesh, what about all the believers who have died in a fire, were dismembered, eaten by a shark, etc.? (no Dahmer jokes please)

We will be given a new, glorified body. Is God not capable of creating one from "scratch"? 8-)

Gen 3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

 

[John]

Don't you have some hand grenade pins to inspect, or something to that effect? :

If i am inspecting the pins where are the grenades.... O Crap..... BOOOM!

 

[Carol Lowery]

Gotcha John....that was an interesting thought. Then someone came up with gernade pin and my mind went to spinning to this question. OK well if a man is holding a gernade/pin pulled as a bluff to protect himself and someone/ones comes up upon him with harmful intent on the one holding the gernade, and kill him anyway and as a result he drops the gernade kills the one/ones who killed him. Is the man with the gernade responsible for the others death when they killed him first?

Kudos HIM,
Carolpsalm91

 

[John]

There are many threads on War and the Bible already posted.

We are dealing with 3-4 seconds here (the time it takes for a grenade to go off,lol :wink: )

 

[handy]

I'm surprised that so far there hasn't been an opinion shared on cremation being unbiblical. After posting this query last night, I googled the subject and found that there are indeed many Christians out there who believe that cremation is something that is anti-Christian. I can't say that any of the opinions I read last night really swayed me. They were based more in the fact that the Bible mentions burial and that God uses burning as a judgment, but I can't see the jump to making cremation something sinful.

John, no the body can't sin after its dead, but could the decision of what to do with the remains of one's body, made while still living of course, be sinful? So far, I'm not convinced. I was rather surprised at my family's attitude about it.

 

[Catholic Crusader]

With my father's impending death, we've been dealing with funeral homes and arrangments, buying a casket and things like that. My husband and I have already discussed and decided upon what we will be doing upon our own demise. We had decided upon cremation, and my husband had said that he wanted his ashes scattered at a lake in Arizona that holds many special memories to him. I don't particularly care what happens to mine.

Well, anyway, one day we were discussing the issue at my folks and my dad, mom and sister were really upset at the idea of cremation. They felt that it was totally 'pagan' and that a Christian should never be cremated. Now, I'm not a biblical scholar by any means, but I have studied the bible for many years and haven't seen any biblical bar to cremation for Chrisitans.

Does anyone have any ideas on this? Is cremation really something that a Christian shouldn't do? or is this a matter of Christian liberty?

This is interesting. In my faith tradition, we condemned cremation in the past, but not now. Centuries ago, some people cremated bodies as a sort of repudiation of the Christian faith, a sort of "statement" that since they did not believe in the resurrection, burial is pointless. The Church condemned this belief, and the practice.

But these days, people choose cremation as simply a choice or option, not as a repudiation of Christianity. So now, it is acceptable to us (as long as the ashes are interned respectfully, something your husband may wish to reconsider).

Personally, I am not comfortable with cremation. But, there is certainly nothing specifically "pagan" about it.