Cremation

That's not a "biblical model", it's simply an OT custom that was made mention of. Burying the dead is no more a biblical model than crucifying criminals is a biblical model.

In fact, the Jews of Jesus' day weren't buried. They was interred in an above ground tomb, and after two years, their bones were removed, placed into a small box called an ossuary, and that box reinterred. Today, the idea of reinterring our loved ones remains is morbid and offensive.

Anyhoo, scripture doesn't give any model or admonition for how to dispose of a body after death. So it's literally up to the decedent and family.

 

It was a typo I did not mean "men" I meant to put "me".

 

I think we should look at the roots of cremation. It was started as a pagan practice. While it is not necessarily pagan today, I think the Bible speaks in favor of burial...
1 Corinthians 15:35-55
It is the same way with the resurrection of the dead. Our earthly bodies are planted in the ground when we die, but they will be raised to live forever. Our bodies are buried in brokenness, but they will be raised in glory. They are buried in weakness, but they will be raised in strength. They are buried as natural human bodies, but they will be raised as spiritual bodies. For just as there are natural bodies, there are also spiritual bodies.

 

Actually, the Gospels say Jesus was "laid" in a tomb, which is in keeping with Jewish tradition of the day. Only in 1Cor does it use the word "buried" regarding Jesus, and here it's being used to juxtapose his death with his ressurection (it's not an attempt to say how his body was handled). It's a similar use when Colossians referrs to us being buried with him in baptism and risen with him through the faith.

Also, it's a myth that cremation "burns" the body. That's not what happens at all. The body is never exposed to flame. Rather, cremation uses heat to highly accellerate the natural decomposition of the body in a matter of hours, rather than a matter of months (or years). This is unlike pagan burning, which is not only done by scorching the body, but is done for religious reaons (whereas modern cremation is done for secular and practical reasons). So, no matter how you slice it, cremation is completely permissible in scripture.

 

lol,
Well if it happens to be 'this body' that is glorified..... its gotta change alot as I see little to glorify, as it ages..... make that 'too much' to glorify if you want to count I'm fat.

Reincarnation is not the same as resurrection...... though some think they are the same because they don't know better.

Reincarnation is a false belief, originating in pagen religions.... some Egyptians believed in it, it was part of Babylonian culture and has tainted some of the rabbical teachings which blended Babylonian culture and philosophy to explain the mysteries, and superstitions, which some of them felt the scriptures omitted, a false belief system still held by the Eastern Religions and somewhat universally duplicated elsewhere.... as in the beliefs and stories of the American Indian. Reincarnation is the belief that once the spirit of life leaves the body, it reenters another vessel to inhabit and bring life. To the Buddhist, it could return as a cow or an insect, a dog or another human being... such as a baby. Some jews believe the spirit of one dead can return to a baby born. When I lost my husband, a couple of cards sent to me by people of mormon religion had personnally hand written messages which implied that the writers of each believed in reincarnation....... but i don't know if this is the mormon religious belief or if it is the way an already false religion absorbs the superstitious beliefs of persons who join it.

The scriptures say that God has placed eternity in the heart of every man.
I believe this very well explains the universal human occupation of viewing his own mortality and sense of immortality from which arises various superstions and stories to explain death and give hope to the living. Most of these include some relationship to how a person lived will determine how that person will 'return'. If one looks carefully, he can see how man makes his own religions and gods and explanations when he's unwilling or unable to seek and know the true God and either leave the mysteries to Him or turn to Him and His Word for answere. A careful look at most of these religious superstitions also shows man senses a judgement or retribution for choices he made in this life...... but in these false religions he in one way or another believes he's in control..... and he creates his own 'salvation' based upon works. This is not the same salvation as taught in the Bible.... which means forgiveness for sins and eternal life. These false 'salvation' have to do with man own idea of just and justice and destination or appointment to either another vessel.... reincarnation as human or animal or rarely inanimate object.... or theory of 'place'.

For it is appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgement.
If God has place 'eternity' in the hearts of each and every man.... then it is easy to realize that every man, regardless of what he professes.... even the atheist who states life ends at death.... has got a witness in his heart that there is more beyond death which is of concern. So both the person who denies a life after death.... and the person who believes there's a life after death without knowing the Giver of that life, have a sense of duty, of action and consequences, and develop a construct of judgement in their own thinking similar to that of balances....... but the only standards they have which guides them are those which they set for themselves or which are taught in their culture, therefore, they have created their own stories for the question of all men 'after death then what?' and they have created their own imaginations and explanations for the 'what' and without knowing the righteousness of God, they trust their own ideas regarding what seems reasonable or attainable and build their hopes and the answere to that 'after death then what?' upon their own judgement of right and wrong..... thats what I call their own idea of saving themselves..... not a true 'salvation'.

Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life. NO MAN can come except by me. Jesus is the light of the world..... he shows us the father and is the evidence of the righteousness of God before us. He is truth. He is the bread of life upon which we feed and are nourished and restored and healed....and draw our strength.... which sustains us and preserves us. He is our rock.... the one over us who shelters us in times of storms, who hides us from the darts of the devil, who is beneath our feet, a sturdy foundation unmovable, unchangeble, the rock which crushes our self into pieces that he can rebuild and restore and remove the corruption in us. He is the foutain from which we drink and find refreshment and contentment based upon the faith which he gives to us as needed, moment to moment, day to day, assurance of his presence and the promises as good as done. He is the door of salvation through which we must enter..... a door in which no man can open and no man can shut but all who will have eternal life must enter. He is the rigtheousness of God, the perfect Adam or man... by which standard no man can compete or meet ...... but will fail if He doesn't cover him. He is the perfect LAMB which takes away the sins of the world... more perfect than the sacrifices of animals before and more perfect than the works which man might try.

While there's much mystery concerning the resurrection..... we do have glimpsies....... corruption will put on incorruption and mortality immortality.... we don't know how we should appear but we know we shall be like him...... in heaven we will be as the angels, neither male nor female. In my own understanding I see this as saying the dead.... what ever form of corruption their bodies may be.... will be restored to new bodies which death cannot touch.... so it wont be this body but a new body. The living, which aren't yet dead but are in bodies in process of dying.... will be changed into immortal bodies which will live forever. And we are told there will be a new heaven and a new earth. All that is old will pass away (maybe I wont look my age after all????? lol) and all things will become new. Just exactly what all of this means..... I cannot know.... but it must be so amazing so marvelous and even so far beyond our comprehension that we either accept it in faith or we may entertain error in trying to unveil that which is meant to be unavailable for now.

 

I am in agreement with Marcia and annsni on the cremation issue - I have done extensive reading on both sides of the issue, so enough said from me on that.

We also did not have our mother embalmed and had a closed casket. We had three hours of visitation with pictures near her casket, and a private family devotion and burial at the cemetery. I have nothing against inviting people to a funeral or memorial service and then the cemetery, but I do have to say this, if for no other reason than just to vent: I was raised in California and lived there for almost 40 years. I went to a LOT of funerals. After moving to the south I was shocked to see the family paraded down the aisle behind the casket, and back at the end of the service, in wedding procession style, their grief on display, and some barely being able to walk as it was if they were elderly. In CA they were always seated way ahead of time at the front or side front, and could be greeted after the service in their seats. They left after everyone else was gone. All our family on both sides except for one cousin is out there and I know in the event of one of our deaths, that would NOT fly, so although we desire a service, it will not be done in the "southern" tradition... rant ended. :wavey:

 

There are often very valid reasons for cremation. My ex wife said the she was someday going to dance on my grave. So I told her I was going to be buried at sea.

 

I don't particularly care what happens to my body after I've gone to be with Jesus. If my family wants to stare at it that's fine by me. I have given some more fun options:

1. Make it animatronic for the funeral service...a great way to liven things up.
2. Cremation is fine too...just make sure the urn is high dollar, is kept with the longest living child, passed down two generations, then interred in a facility to be determined at a later date by the department of corrections...oh wait got confused
3. Cremation is fine too...if you must the urn should be taken and afixed to a monument in the courtyard of the church where I am last serving.
4. Bury me at sea...take me out by helicopter and dump me in the sea as clothed as I was when I came into this world. Something fun about coming into the world from water and leaving this world by going back into water.
5. Skyrockets in flight...yep I want to sent out into the far reaches of space. More than likely in a cool looking casket, but a cool looking urn is fine too.
6. Burried in catacombs...yep take me to Italy or somewhere over in Europe and leave me with the saints of old.

well these are some options...

 

LOL

How about cremating me, mix my ashes with pyrotechnics and send me off on the 4th of July!

 

I don't want my family to have to pay thousands of dollars to bury me because some have the opinion that creamation is un-godly. I cannot justify the costs. To me that's just as un-godly if not more so. It's poor stewardship. If I die I will still have a wife and son left behind and I am the sole bread winner. I would rather my life insurance be used for their support than in purchasing a casket, vault, cemetary lot, digging and closing the grave, etc.

 

Let the Lord tarry a thousand more years and there won't me much left of these buried bodies except some bones and a little dust.

 

Tough

I'm sorry, but I just can't help myself (my sense of humor has gotten me in trouble all my life), but this just seems so appropriate right now. I posted this in the jokes section a few days ago............:

A tough old cowboy from south Texas counseled his grandson that if he wanted to live a long life, the secret was to sprinkle a pinch of gun powder on his oatmeal every morning.

The grandson did this religiously to the age of 103 when he died.

He left behind 14 children, 30 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren, 25 great-great-grandchildren, and a 15-foot hole where the crematorium used to be.

 

You will still pay thousands (at least in this market) for a cremation service as well. Like anything, you pay for what you need. Cremation and a traditional burial can run roughly the same if you budget right. Unless your family is going to bury you in the backyard and forgo any service it will still cost you at least a couple thousand.

 

Not even that. Bones left to the elements will also turn to dust, unless a natural circumsance serves to preserve them. A few years ago, a research group exhumed the body of Jesse James. There wasn't much left except for a few bones (but enough to do DNA testing on). So, in a thousand years, there probably won't be anything at all left of your earthly remains.

 

Well crud. I forgot to tell hubby about that whole body donation to science thing. WOOPS

ROFL Better go let him know...

 

John- your statement is not completely accurate. While a person could alternatively argue that cremation is/is not the "burning" of a body, you certainly can not argue that the body is not exposed to flame. In every consolation that I have been a part of, the families are specifically instructed that flames will directly contact the body.

 

@ PamelaK,

I am from and live in the south. While I have seena nd heard of the kind of funeral you are talking about, they are not practiced everywhere in the south. Normally things are done the same as what you had in CA. The main difference is that most people pull over and stop for funeral processions... at least the older people do.

For everyone else...

Cremation comes down to personal choice, just like which bible translation you use. There is nothing for or against it in the scriptures. People in the bible didn't dig graves and bury, nor did they cremate their dead as a practice.

For me personally, I don't care what's done to my body. I know my wife will not have me cremated as she just can't even consider it. My parents both made their funeral arrangements many years ago and we plan to do the same as soon as we are financially able.