Cremation or Bodily Burial:

1
Cremation or Bodily Burial

• Which Brings God More Honor?
• Darrell Stein

2
Origins of Cremation

• Derived from the Latin cremare (to burn),
  cremation is the process of disposing
  (destroying) a dead body in the flames of fire.
• Historical evidence indicates that burning dead
  human beings apparently did not occur until
  sometime between 2500 and 2000 years B.C. It is
  quite likely that it started in India and moved
  east. Outside of the Roman Empire, the Nordic
  culture of Scandinavia performed some crematory
  acts on fireboats from about 1500 to 1800 B.C.
• It was the pagan religious beliefs, which were an
  integral part of cremation, that made burning the
  dead repugnant to the ancient Hebrews, as well as
  to the early Christians.

3
Historical Methods of Cremation

• To cremate a deceased human being in ancient
  times required gathering wood to erect a pile or
  stack several feet high and longer and wider than
  the respective dead body. The bones of the
  cremated body, which for the most part did not
  burn, were either buried or placed in an urn.
  These urns were tall enough to accommodate the
  unburned bones together with the bodys ashes.

4
Modern Methods of Cremation

• A crematoriums furnace, which resembles a large
  bread oven, is commonly called a retort in the
  furnace industry. After the body is laid into
  what is usually a brick-lined furnace, it is
  fired up to between 1700 and 2500 degrees
  Fahrenheit for approximately 90 minutes to two
  hours.

5
Modern Methods of Cremation
6
Modern Methods of Cremation
7
The Composition of Modern Cremated Remains

• The mistaken common belief is that after the
  human corpse has been burned, only ashes are
  left. The bones do not burn. Consequently, they
  are pulverized by a grinding process. The entire
  contents of an urn, depending on the size of the
  corpse, ordinarily weigh between four and eight
  pounds of ash and fragments.

8
Whose ashes?

• Recipients sometimes do not know what portions of
  the ashes they have on hand are really those of
  their loved one. Sometimes family members do not
  know whether the ashes they received are those of
  their deceased relative or ashes of wood or some
  other product.

9
Why Did Pagans Choose Cremation?

• Some scholars think the burning of human corpses
  began because ancient people feared the dead
  thus, theoretically, destroying them by fire
  coped with that fear.
• Cremation enabled the survivors to carry the
  bones of the deceased, back to their homes or to
  some other desirable place.
• Ancient Greeks did it in part to prevent buried
  bodies from being stolen by thieves or disturbed
  by other miscreants.
• In some instances, people burned dead human
  bodies because they believed in the pagan notion
  that fire freed the soul from wandering and
  searching for rest after the person expired.
• All pagans burned their dead because they did not
  believe in the physical resurrection of the body.

10
Why Did Pagans Choose Cremation?

• It is because of these pagan realities, in
  addition to the many biblical precedents of earth
  burial, including the burial of Jesus, that the
  early Christians opposed cremation, not simply
  because pagans practiced it. For Christians to
  accept and practice cremation would have been
  tantamount to identifying, at least symbolically,
  with the erroneous pagan beliefs associated with
  it.

11
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation

• Shortly after Adams fall into sin, God told him
  that not only would he die, but his body, created
  out of the dust of the earth, would return to
  dust (Genesis 319). These words are a clear
  indication that Gods plan is for the deceased
  human body to be laid in an earthen grave.

12
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• Genesis 4929 Jacob told Joseph Bury me with
  my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the
  Hittite. Pharaoh granted Josephs request to
  take Jacobs body back to his homeland, where he
  was buried in the same field where Abraham and
  Sarah had been laid to rest (Genesis 505-613).
  Jacobs request indicates that he could not
  imagine his dead body being disposed of in any
  other way.
• Joseph also asked to be buried in Canaan. In
  Exodus 1319, Moses took the bones of Joseph with
  him. For 40 years, the Israelites carried and
  protected his bones until they buried him in
  Shechem.

13
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• When Moses died, God Himself buried him. The
  biblical text reads, So Moses the servant of the
  Lord died there in MoabAnd He God buried him
  in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to
  this day no one knows where his grave is (Deut.
  34 5-6).

14
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• Christians who believe cremation is an acceptable
  option, and that God has no objections to it, may
  seriously want to ask why God Himself chose to
  bury Moses in an earthen grave. By giving Moses
  an earth burial, did God perhaps intend to show
  His faithful people that He only approves of
  their placing a deceased friend or relative in
  the earth? Biblically minded opponents of
  cremation should say yes. In fact, the
  rabbinic Talmud agrees with this conclusion, for
  it states, Follow the path of Godbury the dead,
  even as He God did bury Moses in the valley of
  Moab (Sotah 14a).

15
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• On through the generations following Moses, the
  Hebrews continued to bury their dead.
• Joshua was laid to ret in a grave (Josh. 2430)
• Samuel died and was buried in Ramah (1 Sam. 251)
• Davids survivors buried him in Jerusalem (1
  Kings 210)
• Inhumation was so important to the Hebrews that
  they even buried the slain bodies of their
  enemies (1 Kings 1115).
• The prophet Jeremiah notes with horror dead
  people being unburied. Not to be buried was
  equivalent to being garbage or refuse (Jer.
  2533).

16
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• When they did return from Egypt, the Israelites
  continued to bury their dead. When they did
  perform cremations, it was only for certain
  criminals who committed the most heinous acts.
• Joshua announced that the accursed criminal
  shall be burned with fire, he and all that he
  has, because he has transgressed the covenant of
  the Lord, and because he has done a disgraceful
  thing in Israel (Josh. 715).
• Moses commanded the punishment of a consuming
  fire for a daughter of a priest who profaned
  herself and her father by engaging in
  prostitution (Lev. 219).
• Moses also stated, If a man marries a woman and
  her mother, it is wickedness. They shall be
  burned with fire, both he and they, that there
  may be no wickedness among you (Lev. 2014).

17
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• These examples indicate that some of the worst
  criminals were occasionally incinerated, and that
  the cremation served as an added mark of
  punishment and humiliation. For the most part,
  however, the Israelites generally buried rather
  than cremated most criminals. There is not a
  single biblical case where God commanded
  cremating any individual as an act of honor or a
  blessing.

18
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• Throughout the entire OT, the act of destroying
  deceased humans by fire was never pleasing to
  God. This is especially evident with regard to
  the king of Moab, who took the bones from the
  king of Edoms tomb and burned them to lime (Amos
  21-2). God not only took offense, but he sent
  fire to destroy Moab and his fortresses. It can
  be argued that this biblical reference is a clear
  denunciation of cremation, one that applies to
  all people, pagans and Gods people alike.

19
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• Although one could become unclean through
  physical contact with a deceased person, the
  Hebrews, nevertheless, treated the body of a dead
  person with great respect. Respect for the human
  body was one reason the Israelites rejected
  cremation. It indicated a rejection of the
  concept of respect due to the deceased to
  commit the body to destruction by fire is
  tantamount to the deliberate burning of something
  that was once sacred.

20
Ancient Israelite View of Cremation (cont.)

• The Talmud, the formal codification of the oral
  law, boldly states, Every death which is
  accompanied by burning is looked upon as
  idolatry (Avodah Zarah 13). If cremation was
  idolatrous to the Jews of the Talmudic era, then
  it was a practice contrary to the First
  Commandment, which proscribes all forms of
  idolatry. This reference is additional
  corroboration that cremation was unthinkable and
  unacceptable to faithful Jews.

21
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation

• Early Christians had several noteworthy examples
  of individuals in the NT who were buried in
  graves.
• Mary and Martha laid their dead brother Lazarus
  in a tomb (John 1138)
• Stephen, the first Christian Martyr Godly men
  buried Stephen (Acts 82).
• The disciples of John the Baptist, whom Herod
  Antipas had decapitated, buried him (Matt.
  1412).
• Every person who is noted as having died in the
  NT received earth burial.

22
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation (cont.)

• Even Ananias and Sapphira, who were struck dead
  for lying to the Holy Spirit, were interred (Acts
  53-10).
• The most significant predecessor to whom the
  early Christians could point was Jesus Himself
  who, was laid to rest in the tomb of Joseph of
  Arimathea.
• The early Christians also saw precedents for
  earth burial in what Jesus said and did. He once
  said, Let the dead bury their own dead (Luke
  960). Jesus fully accepted the Jewish practice
  of earth burial. Note, Jesus did not say Let
  the dead cremate their dead. Had He said so, it
  would have been in conflict with what He had
  previously said, namely that all the dead would
  hear His voice someday and come forth from their
  graves (John 528). Jesus attacked many early
  Jewish traditions, but burial of the dead was not
  one of them.
• The early Christians had no other thought than to
  follow their biblical predecessors.

23
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation (cont.)

• The Sanctity of the Human Body
• It is well-known among church historians that the
  early Christians fervently opposed infanticide,
  child abandonment, abortion, and suicide because
  they believed in the sanctity of the human being.
  In their minds, the sanctity of the human body
  did not come to an end when a person dies. They
  saw the human being as the crown of Gods
  creation
• Man was made in the image of God (Gen. 127)
• You made him man a little lower than the
  heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and
  honor (Ps. 85).
• Paul told the Christians in Corinth, Dont you
  know that you yourselves are Gods temple and
  that Gods Spirit lives within you? (1 Cor.
  316)

24
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation (cont.)

• Given this biblical view of the human body, in
  addition to their belief in the resurrection of
  the body, the early Christians were not about to
  dispose of a body, even though dead, by the most
  destructive means known to man fire. They saw
  cremation as unbiblical, unthinkable, and
  sacrilegious.

25
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation (cont.)

• This mindset continued for centuries. The fact
  that faithful Christians throughout the centuries
  believed in the sanctity of the human body, alive
  or dead, meant they did not see their body as
  their own, something they were free to treat
  however they selfishly wished. It was another
  reason why cremation of their dead was an
  unthinkable option.
• If todays Christians still believe in the
  sanctity of the human body, and that it does not
  belong to them alone, they will shun and reject
  the practice of cremation, just as their early
  Christian predecessors did.

26
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation (cont.)

• Early Church Fathers Oppose Cremation
• The first church father who defended earth burial
  vis-à-vis cremation was Minucius Felix. Around
  A.D. 190, he stated, we adopt the ancient and
  better custom of burying in the earth. See,
  therefore, how for our consolation all nature
  suggests a future resurrection (Octavius 34).
• Tertullian attacked the practice because of its
  cruelty and violence (On the Resurrection of the
  Flesh 1).
• St. Irenaeus underscored the Christian practice
  of earth burial when he wrote, But although it
  the dead body is dissolved at the appointed
  time, because of our primeval disobedience, it is
  placed, as it were in the crucible of the earth
  (Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus
  XII).

27
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation (cont.)

• Early church councils and synods did not issue
  any canons against cremation. Why not? There
  was no need to do so, because disposing of the
  dead by cremation was one cultural practice
  Christians did not imitate. There is not a
  single recorded instance of Christians having
  ever cremated their dead. There was no legalized
  prohibition against cremation in Christian
  Antiquity. None was needed, for the Christians
  by reason of their belief abhorred it.

28
Early Christian Rejection of Cremation (cont.)

• Early Christians also knew and believed what
  Jesus said Dont be amazedfor a time is
  coming when all who are in their graves will hear
  His voice and come out (John 528). They herd
  Him say Graves, not urns. Moreover, burning
  the dead was not consistent with what was done
  with Christs dead body before He rose from the
  dead nor was it consistent with what He said
  concerning the future resurrection of the dead.

29
Cremation Over the Centuries

• Early Christian opposition resulted in the
  practice of cremation being largely discontinued
  in much of the Roman Empire by the latter part of
  the fourth century. During the next several
  centuries, as Christianity advanced, the
  disappearance of cremation spread to the more
  remote parts of Europe. Earth burial became the
  norm and remained inviolable until the late
  1800s, when advocates of cremation in the West
  broke with Christianitys historic opposition and
  revived this custom from the pagan era of Rome.

30
Why a Revival?

• As the spirit of the Age of Reason, with its
  accompanying values of secularism increasingly
  became a part of the culture in Western societies
  in the 20th century, many, including Christians,
  began conforming to the values of this
  ideological movement. Soon an increasing number
  of church members, including Christian clergy,
  began accepting and even defending the practice
  of cremating the dead.

31
U.S. Cremation Statistics

• In 1900 there were only 2,414 (0.003) deceased
  persons cremated in the United States. In 1920,
  only 1 of all Americans were cremated.
  Cremation remained a rare occurrence until the
  1960s. In 1960, the American rate was
  relatively low when 60, 987 (3.56) were
  incinerated. It then steadily grew over the next
  four decades. In 2001, 26.25 of all deceased
  Americans were incinerated.

32
Biblical Arguments Against Cremation

• The burial of Jesus
• It is indeed true that the early Christians
  rejected cremation by burying their dead in large
  measure because they had the burial of Jesus
  Christ as a precedent. Christ was not merely
  buried because it was a Hebrew custom, but
  because it was also Gods will, reminiscent of
  His will in regard to the burial of Moses. Thus,
  given that God willed Moses and Jesus Christ to
  be buried, it is reasonable to conclude that He
  wills that all people, past and present, be given
  earth burial.

33
Biblical Arguments Against Cremation (cont.)

• The custom of memorializing persons in graves
  with monuments is a centuries-old custom. The OT
  reports that Jacob set up a pillar on the tomb of
  Rachel, his wife (Gen. 3020). This act by
  Jacob, and others in the OT, was not just to
  honor and remember family members, but it was
  also intended to convey a theological message.
  They were perpetual reminders that they might be
  testimonies of the future resurrection, which
  they believed and expected. If cremation
  continues to increase, along with the scattering
  of cremains, the biblical precedent of erecting
  grave monuments will undoubtedly continue to
  decline, with an accompanying decline in the
  Christian testimony to the physical resurrection
  of the body.

34
Biblical Arguments Against Cremation (cont.)

• Ashes to Ashes
• Even though an omnipotent God can resurrect
  bodies from their cremated ashes and Orthodox
  Christianity has never denied this- these words
  do not have a biblical source or precedent. The
  Bible never speaks about dead bodies turning to
  ashes. According to the Bible, the deceased body
  turns only to dust.
• It appears that these words became a part of the
  funeral liturgy in the Church of Englands Book
  of Common Prayer (1549) not because its
  formulators believed the body would eventually
  turn to ashes, but because these words provided a
  rhythmic, poetic alliteration.

35
Biblical Arguments Against Cremation (cont.)

• Cremation undermines the doctrine of the
  resurrection
• The resurrection of the body assumes burial and
  graves, whereas cremation does not. To be
  Christian is to believe in the physical
  resurrection of the body of which Christs bodily
  resurrection is the firstfruits.
• The doctrine of the resurrection body, based on
  Christs own resurrection, is the lynch pin of
  Christianity. If cremation fosters a vague
  belief in only the survival of the soul, and the
  soul is never seen as becoming reunited with its
  body on resurrection day, then it shatters
  Christianitys cardinal doctrine. see 1 Cor.
  1516-18.

36
Psychological Factors

• There is not a gravesite reminder of the departed
  family member. Consequently, relatives commonly
  forget cremated people.

37
Clergy and Churches Acquiesce

• Doctrinal conflicts and divisions plagued the
  church soon after Christ ascended into heaven.
  There were the Gnostics, Docetists, Arians,
  Donatists, Nestorians, and others who departed
  from the orthodox biblical teachings of the
  church. Among these different heretical groups,
  however, none of their followers accepted or
  advocated the burning of their dead, not even the
  Gnostics who ridiculed the human body and denied
  the physical resurrection of the flesh.
  Similarly, the Docetists, who taught that Christ
  did not have a material body but only appeared to
  have one, also did not engage in burning their
  dead. Moreover, none of the other heretical
  groups within the church ever questioned the
  Christian opposition to it.

38
Clergy and Churches Acquiesce (cont.)

• In terms of a Christian response to the modern
  cremation movement, the Roman Catholic Church was
  the only Christian denomination that formally
  opposed the practice when it was introduced in
  the West.
• In 1963, however, the Roman Catholic Church made
  an about face in 1963 to permit Catholics to be
  cremated. This decision was not made on the
  basis of any biblically based theological study
  of the problem. Influenced by the secular
  culture, it merely issued a statement allowing
  it. No other Christian denominations have
  produced any formal theological studies dealing
  with cremation. They have merely acquiesced.

39
Clergy and Churches Acquiesce (cont.)

• Acquiescence has occurred not only in the Roman
  Catholic Church, but in virtually all American
  Protestant churches, including conservative
  denominations. For the most part, they all voice
  similar responses when they say the Bible does
  not prohibit cremation.

40
Clergy and Churches Acquiesce (cont.)

• Why have so many Christian clergy and their
  churches assented to cremation, especially since
  Christianity had rejected it for most of 2,000
  years? Answer The powerful influence of
  todays secularized culture. Apparently,
  unbeknownst to many clergy, churches, and
  theologians, the secular culture has been so
  subtly and powerfully persuasive that many clergy
  and churches apparently have not recognized how
  it is undermining the historic biblical/Christian
  position on the significance of earth burial and
  how it is related to the decline in belief in the
  doctrine of the physical resurrection of the
  body. As faith in the resurrection all but
  disappeared in mainline churches, the practice of
  cremation swelled.

41
Clergy and Churches Acquiesce (cont.)

• Supposed biblical silence
• Members of conservative churches tend to say that
  if a given behavior is prohibited in the Bible,
  it must not be practiced by them. However, when
  the question arises of whether cremation is
  biblically permissible, their churches leaders
  commonly say that the Bible is either silent on
  the matter or that it does not prohibit it.
  Members are told that cremation is a practice
  that is neither biblically commanded nor
  forbidden. For the most part, both liberal and
  conservative churches have acquiesced to the
  ancient pagan practice of burning the dead.

42
Clergy and Churches Acquiesce (cont.)

• In 2003, the SBCs website stated, The act of
  cremation is not a sin. The website made this
  conclusion by contending that it would only be a
  sin if it violated one of Gods laws, and since
  God has no such law, it is therefore not a sin.
  Thus, the website further stated that, The
  disposal of the body is left to our desires and
  wishes in accordance with the law of the land.
• As we saw earlier, however, the Bible is not
  silent on this issue.

43
Clergy and Churches Acquiesce (cont.)

• Moreover, a search of denominational literature
  reveals that no denomination has ever produced a
  formal biblical-exegetical study document on
  cremation.

44
Be Not Conformed to This World

• The early Christians were mindful of Pauls
  command in Romans 122 Do not conform any longer
  to the pattern of this world. Interestingly,
  this command from God is ignored today when
  Christians are either told, or led to believe,
  that cremation is an acceptable option. Why is
  it that so many Christian clergy and churches
  fail to see the applicability of this verse to
  the practice of cremation? This is especially
  puzzling since cremation is pagan in its origins
  and used in the OT as an extended form of
  punishment. Certainly, the early Christians
  fully understood that by imitating the Romans by
  practicing cremation, they would have been
  conforming to the world of their day. So they
  did not.

45
Be Not Conformed to This World (cont.)

• It would be appropriate for Christian clergy to
  teach their members that when God says be not
  conformed to this world, it means that
  Christians do not have the option of choosing the
  secular, worldly practice of cremation.