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Liberty Advocate http://www.libertyadvocate.com
February 2014
My dear friend,
Burial or cremation? Some Christians choose to cremate their loved ones because it’s cheaper. For a Christian, does it really matter what happens to our body after death? Burial is the act of placing a dead body in a tomb or in the earth or in the sea, generally with appropriate ceremonies: as opposed to exposure to beasts, or abandonment or cremation. Cremation is the burning of a corpse. As always, we must look to God’s Word for guidance… And we are quickly guided to the first book of the Bible. In
the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return unto the ground: for
out it wast thou taken: for
dust thou art, and
unto dust shalt thou return. Genesis 3:19 Death is the sentence for sin. We were formed from the dust of the earth, and we shall return to the dust of the earth. This is a natural process. But our eternal home is not the grave. We have hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because He lives, we will also live after death. Matthew 27: 50-53 records the glorious resurrection of saints after Jesus’ resurrection: Jesus, when
he cried against with a loud voice, yielded
up the ghost. And,
behold, the veil of the temple was rent
in twain from the top to the bottom; and
the earth did quake, and
the rocks rent; And
the graves were opened; and
many bodies of the saints which
slept arose, And
came out of the graves after
his resurrection, and
went into the holy city, and
appeared unto many. The saints’ graves were opened and saints arose to show that death was overcome! Jesus’ death brought us life after death!
Death is natural, but cremation is unnatural. And God does not wish His creation – man – to be unnaturally destroyed. This is a desecration of His handiwork.
In
Old Testament days, pagans sacrificed infants to the idol Molech.
The victims were slowly burnt to death in the arms of the idol.
Admittedly, these sacrifices were burned alive, unlike modern cremation,
which burns the dead. But
burning a body was a pagan practice that the Israelites did not use. Burning
a body is a desecration of God’s creation that no Christian should
condone. This will be discussed in more detail soon.
Grace and peace, Karen
Pansler-Lam, J.D.
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