Burial or Cremation?

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on October 25, 2018 under Ask the Pastor |

A friend asks this question:

Will you discuss whether it is acceptable for Christians to be cremated at death? Does it biblically matter whether we are buried or cremated?

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Dear friend,

Thanks for writing–and thanks for this question. It’s a good one; and I always feel that whenever someone asks a question like this, there are some deep and personal reasons behind it.

It doesn’t seem to me that the Bible gives an absolutely definitive answer to this question. Most of the examples we have in the Scriptures of the treatment of the dead are of burial in a tomb. But I don’t believe it is giving this example in a proscriptive way–that is, as if the Bible is saying that that’s the only acceptable and honorable manner of treatment of the dead.

From a standpoint of the power of God to raise our bodies at the great resurrection, I don’t believe the manner of burial makes any difference at all. The Lord Jesus raised His friend Lazarus from out of a tomb–into which his body had been placed after having been wrapped in strips of cloth (John 11). And of course, the Lord Jesus Himself was buried in a tomb in much the same manner–from which He was raised the third day. In both cases, resurrections occurred only a few days after the burial.

But what about those who have–as believers–been killed in such a way that a body could not be placed in a tomb? The writer of the Book of Hebrews mentioned some of them in Hebrews 11, when he wrote, “They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword” (Hebrews 11:37). These might have been cases in which (forgive me; I’ll try to put this delicately) the whole body of the believer might not have even been available for a traditional burial. (Remember that the apostle Paul himself was beheaded.) But there isn’t any indication that the condition of their bodies at death presents a problem to God.

In Revelation 20:4, we’re told of “the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus” who were raised to life. It is not a problem for God to raise a body to life that was not whole at the time of death. Even more than that, we’re told in Revelation 20:13, “The sea gave up the dead who were in it”; and that would mean that those who had died at sea long ago–whose bodies disintegrated on the floor of the sea, and (again forgive me!) whose bodily particles had been scattered far and wide by having been consumed by marine life, will nevertheless be raised to appear before God.

All of that to say that the manner of death does not–in any respect–prevent God from being able to reconstitute the body in the resurrection.  In considering the power of God over our material bodies, I think it’s important to remember 1 Corinthians 15; and of what it says to our bodies at the great resurrection. In that passage, we’re told–pretty plainly it seems to me–that God is able to bring together the material structure of our bodies even after death;

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain—perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Corinthians 15:35-44; NKJV).

Our Creator God is able to perfectly reconstitute the bodies of His redeemed saints–without any hinderance at all–from the existing substance of the material universe which He has already made. (He did it the first time, after all, at the creation of Adam; why couldn’t He do it again?) What’s more, as that passage shows us, He is able to do so in a way that exceeds the glory of the pre-resurrected body. The Lord Jesus is our great example. He was raised in the same body in which He died; except that it was glorified. Someone being cremated doesn’t– I believe–prohibit our God in any way from resurrecting them in full glory on the day of our Lord’s return. Think of all the countless billions of people who have already done, whose bodies have already crumbled to dust and are scattered all over the globe, who will all be raised either for glory or judgment on the last day.

From that standpoint then, cremation does not make any real difference. The results of cremation are no different, really, from the results of a body laying in a tomb for thousands of years. Both, in the end, are broken down into dust; and yet, God is able to raise both as He wishes.

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I think that, when it comes to the subject of cremation, the greater issue is the motives that lay behind it.

Many sincere believers today express a desire for cremation simply because it involves less financial hardship on the family; and they do so with absolute confidence in God’s power to raise their loved one in full glory. I think–in that case–it’s an honorable motive. Others who have scruples about the idea of cremation want to preserve the wholeness of their body, or the bodies of their loved ones, in anticipation of the resurrection; and they do so by burying them in a conventional way–as whole as possible (although a ’whole-body’ burial does not affect God’s power one way or the other). And there again, I think the motives are honorable.

But there are others that I have encountered who have absolutely no interest in honoring God in the way the body is treated at death. In fact, some choose cremation and seek to have their bodies scattered in order–they think–to avoid any possibility of a resurrection for judgment. There was a famous author a few years ago–a profoundly ungodly man–who had his ashes fired out of a canon so that they can really get scattered! Any form of burial that seeks to dishonor one’s own body, or that attempts to cheat God out of the resurrection unto judgment, are both dishonorable and sadly mistaken.

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So; to sum up, I would say that cremation itself is not wrong. It makes no difference–in the long run–to God’s power to raise us in Christ to newness of life. The greater issue is, “How can I glorify God–not just in my life, but even in my death?” As Paul put it, “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and rose and lives again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living” (Romans 14:7-9).

I hope this helps.

Blessings,

Pastor Greg