Introduction

Kathryn and I often get asked about cremation so we have put together this synopsis to answer them.

History

  • We see the practice of burial all the way back to Abraham. This was the Father of Israel and Israel maintained that practice throughout the bible.
  • Jesus’ body was buried, not burned.
  • Burning one’s body was seen as a way of desecrating the life of the one burned, just as burning the American flag is done to desecrate America. It was done to those who lived wicked lives.  (1 Kings 13:1-2)
  • It was also done as an insult to an enemy defeated. Burial then was to be the way one would honor the dead and respect the body!
  • Jacob made his sons promise not to leave his bones in Egypt when they left. Four hundred years later they took the bones of Jacob when they left Egypt.

Hebrews 11:22    By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

Exodus 13:19    And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.

 

Symbolism

The symbolism of burial is “rich.”

  • Burning a body symbolized the end of life whereas burying them was seen as a continuation of life. Jesus coined the term “asleep” to refer to death which denoted a point at which the body would awake.
  • The pagan religions of pantheism and nihilism practiced cremation. The Christian Church practiced burial to follow after their Lord Jesus and as a symbol of their belief in the resurrection.
  • Baptism is symbolic of being buried, not cremated.

Romans 6:3-5    Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? [4] Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. [5] For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection

 

Religious

Burial represents the sanctity (holiness, respect, separation from all of creation) of the body.

  • Christians can say that their body was the home of the Holy Spirit. How should we treat this sanctified temple?  To destroy the body by cremation is to desecrate that temple.
  • In Ezekiel, we read of the departure of the Holy Spirit from the physical temple in Jerusalem. When the Spirit left, did the Jews burn down the temple?  No, they treated it with great honor as if the Spirit were still there.  How are our bodies any different?

We are created in the image of God, by God.  Therefore, we should honor our bodies by showing respect to the dead and allowing the actions of nature, also created by God, to do with the body what it will.  To cremate a body is to interfere with that process.

 

What about those who get cremated by no fault of their own?

Saying that cremation is okay because, for instance, a Christian fireman loses his life and is cremated is not a cogent argument.  We are not responsible for what is done to us but we are responsible for what we do to ourselves or others.

I would ask this, “Why do we instinctively get angry at the desecration of a graveyard?”  Why is it that when a contractor is excavating a piece of land and comes across some human bones that all work is stopped until those bones can be removed and identified?  In addition, if that happens to be a lost graveyard, why is all work halted for good and the project abandoned?  We know intrinsically that we are to honor those who have died and that separates us from all the other living species on earth as being created in the image of God.

Amos 2:1  — 1 Thus says the Lord, “For three transgressions of Moab and for four I will not revoke its punishment, Because he burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.

 

Will a person who is a Christian still go to heaven even though they were cremated according to their instructions?

 

Yes, but you still have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account of all that you have done in the flesh.

2 Corinthians 5:10  — 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Those who refuse the instructions of the Lord are atheists, pagans, and foolish virgins who also lack discipleship.

 

Instruction

Deuteronomy 21:23  — 23 his corpse shall not hang all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him on the same day (for he who is hanged is accursed of God), so that you do not defile your land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.

Those that committed a crime that would invoke capital punishment were to be buried.  If the evilest were to be buried by God’s command, surely the righteous are to be buried.  Regardless of how one lives their life, their bodies are still created by God

1 Kings 11:15 — 15 For it came about, when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army had gone up to bury the slain, and had struck down every male in Edom

Finally, we cannot forget that there will be a thousand year period where Jesus will rule upon this earth from Jerusalem in Israel.  At the end of this time, the Gog/Magog war will take place.  Notice what the government of Israel under Jesus’ rule does with the bodies.

Ezekiel 39:15  — 15 “As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he will set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog.

It should be clear at this point that God sanctions burial and not cremation.