I get this question often. Is it wrong to use cremation as a means of disposing of a loved-one’s remains? I read another article this morning that said that cremation (a cheaper alternative than burial) is growing rapidly in this difficult economy. That is buttressed by my own conversations with local funeral directors who have observed essentially the same thing. Cremation is becoming more common and we must answer the question whether it was wrong.
I would make the following two points:
1) The Bible does not mandate any single way of handling bodies. The Jews did not practice cremation as a rule, but little instruction is given on the subject.
2) The symbolism of cremation is Eastern (Buddhist/Hindu, etc) and not Christian. Burial customs tend to reflect beliefs about the afterlife. Cremation is rooted in an Eastern dualism in which the goal is not the resurrection of the body but escaping the cycle of rebirth. The body is destroyed by fire as a part of that process.
It is on this basis that some have condemned the process of cremation.
But ultimately, when I am asked, I tell them what I have just said. Cremation is rooted in Eastern symbolism, but it is not prohibited in scripture and it is a personal decision each person and each family must make under the Lordship of Christ.
What’s your view?
Here’s Russell Moore’s take on this question: http://www.albertmohler.com/2007/01/18/cremation-nation-does-it-matter-if-we-bury-or-burn/. (You can hit the play button or download the mp3.)
If the conscience of family and friends would be affected I would think it would be wrong to do. Moses spoke of taking Joseph’s bones with him in Exodus 13:19. Men’s bones were burned in 1 Kings 13:2 but it seemed that it was to disgrace them. David took the bones of Saul and Jonathan in 2 Samuel 21:13, 14 and buried them out of respect. Elisha’s bones were used by God to bring someone back to life in 2 Kings 13:21. The friend I grew up with wanted to be cremated and I attended his funeral. I felt odd… Read more »
I think the primary reason today for cremation is financial.
Actually, cremation just speeds the process of returning to the earth. Everything that burns goes to carbon dioxide which is the end result of things that decay. You are left with the bones. These are solid ashes.
I understand. My preference may be vanity, however, it is just a preference only or, at best, tradition. Regardless, I will be reunited at the rapture.
Personally, I want to be taxidermied and placed in the entryway in the church – preserved under glass.
They can sit you atop of Roy Roger’s horse Trigger. He is preserved in the same manner.
Then Thom Rainer can put you in the archives at LifeWay to represent circuit riding preachers from days gone by.
Circuit Riding Preachers were known to fall asleep either in the saddle on horseback or in their horsedrawn carriage and their horses which knew the way would carry them home . Doctors horses did the same as told to me by my Grandfather in Texas. I wonder if they ever made a mistake – the horse I mean .
The argument is that without any direct command to bury or how to bury, burial is still the mandatory method because it shows a testimony with regard to the resurrection of the body. I think it is fine to argue that having one’s body buried is a testimony to the resurrection. Of course, non-Christians for years who do not believe in the resurrection have had their bodies buried also, and they intended no such testimony in the act of burial. It is true that historically those who practiced cremation were not Christian, but the fact that non-Christians engage in some… Read more »
Just thinking about the “logic” of bodily resurrection, which body do I get? Is it the “young Elvis” or the “old, fat Elvis” version (remember the stamp argument)?
Are the same atoms going to be in the new body as the old one? How is the resurrected body going to look?
It will certainly have to be reconstructed. And if it is going to be reconstructed, what does it matter as to what is done with the body that we have when we die?
Hi BENNETT . . .
our resurrection is promised, regardless of the condition of our earthly remains . . .
“25 For I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 and though after my skin worms destroy this body,
yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another ”
(Book of Job, chapter 19)
A friend of ours is a long-time pastor, still preaching in his 80s. He commented a while back about how much money he’d seen put into the ground over the years of his ministry. He said there were many times when he’d counseled families to choose cheaper casket options and use the money to live on instead as a better way of honoring their loved one. Cremation is becoming more prevalent around here too, and I think you’re right in that it’s being economically driven. I don’t see any problem with it, personally.
I always thought that the simple was more dignified, but then I learned that, when my mom died, I was just like others . . . my sister and I and my father chose the most expensive, most beautiful pink (yes, pink was Mom’s favorite color) casket, with beautiful interior . . . we couldn’t help ourselves. I remember saying that if we didn’t get the nicest one, we would feel bad later. It was only later that I realized that we were doing this also for ourselves too. . . to comfort ourselves, no longer being able to help… Read more »
No, not wrong.
Moore does a good job of marshaling the historic and metaphorical arguments for burial rather than cremation. What he lacks is any Biblical stricture against cremation. There is none.
That said, I like a casket and a body. I love old cemeteries.
I think believers who are against cremation would have a hard time explaining how it’d not be OK to cremate, yet maintain that those killed in a fire, or folks who perished in the Twin Towers, would be less likely to be gloriously resurrected in that day.
What Bennett said. Plus .. do we REALLY believe this body is just the human suit we live in, while here? If we do, I’d think it’d be one of the determining factors here.
Sometimes we have no choice. If it is a choice, should we choose cremation or a regular traditional burial? My female cousin ran back into the burning single wide trailer for her screaming son. It caved in on them and both perished in the fire and both were buried together in a casket that never was opened. I was a pallbearer. They were not cremated but were burned beyond recognition. I’m glad they chose to simply bury them together as they were. Even though I would say that there is nothing wrong with cremation, I would think there is something… Read more »
Bruce: “Just a personal opinion”. Precisely.
I don’t much worry about that. The folks left here after I’m gone will have to live with whatever choice they make, so I don’t express a preference. That’d be an odd time for the dearly departed to be self-centered, with reference to what becomes of their remains.
And, having said that, Peg and I pre-arranged and pre-paid our funerals 15 or 20 years ago. And since they’re steel caskets, and if there’s no refund for cremation, I guess we’ll be pushin’ up daisies.
No problem. I have nothing pre-arranged but everything is covered. I told my wife that she should consider my life and schedule everything accordingly. Songs, message and everything else from what she saw my life to be. If cremation is her choice I will not resist now or after, mostly after.
I guess I can’t see much difference whichever way you go, whether cremation or embalming. I would guess the most natural way would be to just bury the body in the ground with no coffin or embalming. If I’m not mistaken, the Jewish people in Bible times put the bodies in a cave and waited until there were just bones left, then put the bones somewhere else. As believers, we know we will be resurrected. I wouldn’t lose a lot of sleep on the mechanics of that, or how someone’s body was disposed of after death. Also, is cremation really… Read more »
Interesting. I finished making pre-arrangements just this week for myself and my wife. The following information is true for Oklahoma….as I only plan on being buried in Oklahoma. The cheapest funeral is that of direct burial, that is NO embalming, a non-gasketed steel coffin, no grave liner and a graveside memorial service. All this must be done within 48 hours due to no embalment. Total less than $2500. Some states or municipalities may require grave liners (usually cement) and or gasketed coffins or embalming. This method is usually less expensive than cremation, not much but some. A friend was making… Read more »
People who are cremated are still buried.
Nope, not necessarily….some sit on a mantle place or bookshelf in a urn….unless that is only an Okie thing.
Sometimes kept, sometimes buried, only on occasion scattered—
but still to be remembered as “cremains” meaning “cremated remains.” Those are still the remains of a human being and should be treated with appropriate respect, whether kept or interred.
Navy burials at sea may be cremated or intact. My husband has chosen eventual cremation and burial at sea by the Navy, in accordance with his privilege and the Navy’s policies. He loved to go to sea as a young man, and cannot abide the thought of being placed in coffin into the earth.
I understand his wish and am at peace with it:
“And the sea gave up the dead that were in it . . . ”
(Rev. 20:13)
I’m told that the Popes are buried at the Vatican in dirt – no steel liners or cement sarcophagus. I like that idea as it seems to fit the “ashes to ashes and dust to dust ” idea. Bodies in a steel or cement container can not be one again with the elements or so it seems to me. But getting buried like that is hardly possible so I have chosen cremation as something goes up in the air and the rest goes into the ground. In low lying areas during floods etc. coffins are known to “pop up” like… Read more »
Jack, I thought ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust” was in the Bible somewhere, but it isn’t. Here is what I found today. ‘Ashes to ashes’ derives from the English Burial Service. The text of that service is adapted from the Biblical text, Genesis 3:19 (King James Version): “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.” The 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer indicated the manner and text of the burial service: Then,… Read more »
Bruce H , I appreciate your being more specific and accurate about the Bibles Words regarding ashes and dust. I looked it up as well so I could say I read it for myself. Probably someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t take the time to memorise the actual verse , reduced it to a bare-bones thought and people like myself have just repeated what they have heard. What religion used the 1622 Book of Common Prayer that you referenced if you know ?
All I did was Google it: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/ashes-to-ashes.html The book you are requesting is: The Book Of Common Prayer – Brian Cummings A description of the book: The words of the Book of Common Prayer have permeated deep into the life and literature of the English-speaking world. For nearly five hundred years, and for countless people, it has provided a background fanfare for a marriage or a funeral march at a burial. Yet this familiarity hides a violent and controversial history. When it was first produced, the Book of Common Prayer provoked riots among Catholics, and 4,000 died in a rebellion… Read more »
In Alaska even in the summer the permafrost is not far below the ground ; so even if you did dig a hole with a backhoe whatever was put in there would just freeze and remain frozen which might suggest cremation. I don’t know what their procedures are now ; I am aware of what the nomadic tribes practiced years ago.
The remains of 274 Troops were reported to have been dumped in a landfill in Virginia. The mortuary that was blamed with this has had the responsibility of the disposal of 6,300 troops since 2001. The really sickening problem with this is that high ranking Air Force personnel knew about this for a long time. It became public when the widow of a Soldier would not stop trying to find out about her husband’s remains. It took her four years to find out her husband’s remains were in a landfill (garbage dump) in Virginia. He was killed in Iraq in… Read more »
Agreed. What has happened to the greatest army in the world? As I understand it, orders have to be obeyed and it has to come from the top. Sad.
Agreed. Awful behavior. Dad, who is both retired Air Force and now currently a funeral director is about to blow his blood pressure on both sides for all the awfulness in this. He has very low opinions of dishonest funeral directors, lower opinions of those who disrespect those who serve the nation, and about the lowest opinion of those who dishonor their uniform by disrespecting those who serve.
Doug, I attended the funeral service of an Air Force retiree this past Thursday evening. I had not seen him in many years. He lived alone at his death. I found out at the funeral that he was to be cremated the following day. I also found out it was due to the high cost of burial where he lived. He had one daughter. He had paid for all of his funeral costs ahead of time. He had said, He did not want to leave his daughter with a burden of debt after he died. For him cremation was the… Read more »
It’s a long-running shame that the VA “death benefit” for veterans is lower than the typical cost of a gravesite, much less the rest of services.
Just to clarify: The cremation does not bother me, but sending those remains to a landfill is what was awful.
it is low . . .
but the real shame is that our country has over 100,000 homeless vets . . . for a variety of reasons, and yes, the state of the economy has driven many to homelessness
coffins are expensive, as is decent burial these days . . . would be good to find a way to bury our dead with great dignity and without lining the pockets of the funeral industry with excess profits . . . it can be done
Doug, I agree. The cremation is not the issue with me either. The Dean at SBTS has a limited view of real world death on a global scale to have drawn such conclusions as he did. The families were told that the remains would be cared for properly and in a “dignified manner” if I read the report correctly. To be put in a garbage dump is no dignified disposal. Somebody was just saving a dollar at the expense of American fighting men and women and their families. In Korea I visited a burial mound where Koreans were killed by… Read more »
And on the heels of that tragic event, CB, I will mention my friends brother who was dispatched to Iraq a few months ago to set up more morgues. Why? because when we pull out our sides knows they will start shooting even more so they can tell themselves and the world they ran us out. I had no idea the shooting intensified during a pull out such as this.
Lydia, According to FOX News, the widow of Sgt. 1st Class Scott R. Smith had written and called the mortuary with requests for the records of her husband’s remains for four years. Finally the mortuary director, Trevor Dean, wrote her a letter stating that the remains of her husband had been sent to a landfill in King George, VA. According to FOX News, Dean closed the letter thusly: “I hope this information brings some comfort to you during you time of loss” If that was the way the letter ended, I consider such rude behavior and cruelty worthy of a… Read more »
The problem with burial these days is the exorbitant expense for families who do not have the funds. It costs thousands and thousands of dollars to bury a body now. It used to cost little. So, that is driving much of this. Perhaps, if the church really felt that this was a theological issue and a witness, maybe the church could help offer burial of the body to families who wanted to give a witness to the bodily resurrection in that way? I don’t know that I’ve heard of that, though. In good conscience, I could not recommend that I… Read more »
My pastor was researching a sermon on the resurrected body and came across Moore’s piece that is linked to above. He was blown away by it and could not believe that sort of thinking was coming from an SBTS Dean!
I think the person who mentioned the twin towers and those perishing in fires make very good points. One cannot burn a soul.
What about children who die or aborted babies…
or the Christian martyrs who refused to renounce Christ and ‘gave their bodies to be burned’ . . .
I’ve been at our church Christmas party fulfilling one of my chief duties as pastor – test-taster of all foods.
But here is where I come down.
1) I will be buried because I believe it is the best model which honors the body in preparation for the resurrection. That’s my choice – based on moral and spiritual reasons.
2) I will not tell someone that this choice is the only right one. Someone who decides to be cremated will not get hassled by me.
I took part in my brother’s Jewish funeral in New York. I was a plain cloth-covered pine box; I do not know if he was embalmed but I suspect he was. When the procession got the cemetery, they waited until I arrived. As the only family there, I threw the first 3 shovels of dirt onto the casket, which had been placed directly in the dirt. Then his wife and friends all took turns throwing dirt on the casket, until it was completely covered. I asked his best friend, also Jewish, why that was the custom. He said simply “We… Read more »
Bob—Jewish, probably not embalmed, but you are his brother so you would know better. Typically the Jews do not embalm but bury within 24-48 hours after washing the body. Areas with large Jewish populations often have either a Jewish Funeral Home that handles almost all services or (sometimes and) a dedicated room in a Gentile funeral home that they use for Jewish preparation (washing). Memphis Funeral Home (that buried Elvis) had a “Jewish Room.” When the funeral directors made a removal in a Jewish family, they placed the deceased on a cot, rolled them into the room, and then closed… Read more »
Bob Cleveland – I’ve been to Jewish Funerals as part of an invited group of masons of the same lodge the deceased belonged to. I’ve stood in a circle of volunteer fireman whose chief was a mason dying from a brain tumor and he stood next to me. This guy was in Intelligence in WW2 and the guy who prayed – prayed in Christ’s name. At some point this friend squeezed my hand – probably because he knew I didn’t like to hold hands. The other good friend he had in there was Catholic and stood on his other side.… Read more »
Addition to Bob Cleveland : The Chief was also Jewish.
My brother died on a Thursday, and was buried the following Tuesday. I rather imagine he was embalmed. It was, indeed, a Jewish Funeral Home that handled the services, and he was also buried in a Jewish Cemetery.
Plus, I sure don’t like to hold hands during prayer, either.
I’m not sure what you mean by “Are you washed?” I did take a shower this morning.
🙂
So mote it be, Jack. So mote it be.
Obviously, “IT was a plain pine box….”
Monks out in Louisiana, after Katrina, were making simple wooden coffins for sale between $1500 to $2000.
The funeral industry in Louisiana went after the monks for ‘cutting into their profits’.
The profits from the work of these monks (baking raisin bread, etc.) go for the care of the homeless.
Sometimes the coffins are donated for a dead child, and the size is crafted specifically for that child.
I think the lobbyists won against the monks, but I’m not sure the monks are cooperating.
Christiane – The Funeral Directors Lobby in each state is a strong one and pays their own and other high price people on Capitol Hill to make sure that caskets are not offered at K-Marts etc. or On – Line Catalog purchases . Big profit item. I hope the monks do well . Regular , rectangular pine boxes are used by funeral companys to ship bodies. A brand new one is cheap and can be stood on end with some shelves plus a couple of hinges for the door(top) of a vertical cabinet and presto – a boat cabinet for… Read more »
I believe a Christian should be buried, not cremated. I believe the Bible at least strongly points in this direction. I also believe a well done gravestone can be a witness for Christ in the years to come. If I’m called on, however, to preach the funeral of someone who has been cremated, I do so, and keep my mouth shut about the issue of cremation. That is a matter to discuss when you are removed from the immediacy of a death and funeral. But if someone asks my advice, I advise against cremation. I also advise not to spend… Read more »
David R. Brumbelow, It is rare that I disagree with you, but I do here. I think the true witness is during our living days, not the way we are “buried” and anything can be put on a gravestone. I also believe that the power of Christ to make living men from dead ones by grace is the greatest of all miracles. Bringing His children from the seas, graveyards, ashes and landfills is small potatoes to the Lord who defeated sin, death, hell and the grave in His death and resurrection to save sinners like me. Jesus said He had… Read more »
Amen, CB. Please see my fuller entry below!
John
Wow. Amen CB.
I second that, Debbie.
That was beautiful, C.B.
CB,
I mostly agree with you… And still agree with what I said above.
I believe the best way is burial, but I fully agree God is more than able to resurrect us all, the just and the unjust, no matter how we are disposed of.
David R. Brumbelow
My wife and I have both put into our wills that we are to be cremated. We also have left a sealed envelope with a letter specifying where we’d like our ashes to be scattered. We both think that at some point, our grave markers become more like ‘Ozymandias’ and less like a true reminder of a life lived. We would rather invest ourselves more in the lives of our children and less into where our dead, rotting corpses will be laid down for our definition of eternity. We also believe that our God is a big God and regardless… Read more »
My great-great-great-grandfather, William Fariss, died in 1835 and was buried out in the woods near his home in Walker County, Georgia. That seems to have suited him and everyone else for about a hundred years. However, in the 1930s, “some” (and I suspect it was my cousins, who still lived there) got upset that the county’s only veteran of the Revolutionary War was buried out in the woods where very few people ever saw his grave. Consequently, they got all the necessary paper signed to transfer the remains to a place of honor near the center of the town cemetary… Read more »
what a wonderful story, JOHN . . .
thanks for telling it
I agree. Great story. And true.
David R. Brumbelow
As a kid: I thought I should be cremated and my ashes distributed as far as possible so that there was no denying the miracle when God resurrects me. I think I read a little too much about Harry Houdini, too.
My faith in God to resurrect me as he did Jesus is complete and without fear in part because of that youthful thought. So don’t make fun of me!!
The only time its really wrong to cremate is if the person is still alive. Then, its wrong….really, really wrong.
David
🙂
I fully agree, Vol.
See Bart’s comment below though for a more sobering view!
That we can have this discussion at all is blessed evidence of how far we’ve come. Manz, Hubmaier, Sattler, Huss, Tyndale, Wycliffe…so many have had no choice regarding the disposition of their bodies.
Bart,
You’re right. Great history reminder.
David R. Brumbelow
Amen!
Bart has brought to the table of this discussion those who we know from Church History who paid with their lives for their faith and their remains were dishonored. Their names are recognizable by those who have read of them. Yet, there are multitudes and multitudes beyond those he mentioned who have been burned, fed to animals, marched into the sea, etc., whose names we do not know and never will this side of eternity. A multitude are dying in hard ways in contemporary times and their bodies are disposed of without regard to their humanity. Their names and their… Read more »