Excellent post by R. Scott Clark on the Christian view of Burial.

Find it here.

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Benjamin P. Glaser, M. Div, Licentiate, Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
Member Fairmount ARP Church
Pittsburgh, PA

Deo Vindice

Thanks for posting Benjamin!

My only question about this (perhaps a topic for another thread): is the body really part of the image of God?

Cheers,

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Adam B., Wine Country, California, PCA

"I fear not to hold with Junius, de Politia Mosis cap. 6, that he who was punishable by death under that Judicial law, is punishable by death still; and he who was not punished by death then, is not to be punished by death now."

The human body must in some sense be suitable to express God's Image. God in Christ has a human body (and soul) for eternity - albeit a glorified human body.

The human body can't be a divine "after-thought", speaking reverently.

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Richard
communicant member, FCoS
Perth, Scotland UK

His Name forever shall endure;
last like the sun it shall:
Men shall be blessed in Him,
and blessed all nations shall Him call (Ps. 72:17)

I'm not sure I follow. If the body expresses God's image, then God must have a body. God in Christ has a body, but that is part of His unconfused human nature.

Cheers,

Indeed, if Christ already has a body why did he have to take on another (incarnation)?

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Lance G. Marshall
Pastor
Georgetown, Indiana

Good post. I wholeheartedly agree. One thing that the post doesn't flesh out is the use of fire in the treatment of our dead. Don't we find burning to be a sign of judgment in Scripture?

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Daniel
PCA
Memphis, TN

True that.

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Nathan Tyler
Reformed Baptist
University of Toronto (Student: Hons. B.A. in Philosophy)
Ontario, Canada

1689'er

http://nathantyler.wordpress.com

So what are the official arguments against cremation?

(1) It is an attack on the body and is wrong for the same reason mutilation and murder are wrong.
(2) Fire is a sign of judgment.

Are these accurate? And are there any more?

__________________
Ben Maas. . . . .Facebook
In college, attending First Presbyterian Church (PCUSA), Ada, OH, and
Belle Center Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCNA), Belle Center, OH
When at home, attending Covenant Presbyterian Church (OPC), Mansfield, OH

“Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life.”
-Jonathan Edwards-

(3) The church, historically, has never been about the business of burning bodies. This is a fairly recent practice.

Christ was buried.

__________________
Rev. Andrew J. Barnes
Husband of Dena
Father of Oliver
Master of Bruce
Pastor of Tchula Presbyterian Church

What can I say, I like blogs!

Actually he was entombed.

No, no, no, he went 6-feet under!!!

The human body is an appropriate "vehicle" through which to express God's Image. If not, it means that Christ and His people are forever in an inappropriate "vehicle".

Quote from Whitefield
Indeed, if Christ already has a body why did he have to take on another (incarnation)?

Christ in His pre-incarnate state didn't have a human soul and body. But the plan from all eternity was that He would have a human soul and body, to show forth God's glory in the Image of God.

(4) Cremation is an ungodly return to Paganism.

(5) Appropriate burial is more "envronmentally friendly"

(6) Our bodies remain mysteriously united to Christ, see the Confession.

(7) For some it may be viewed as an attempt to thwart the resurrection - sinful Man is that stupid in his blindness; and I would be the same apart from grace.

(8) Burial and entombment (for the well-off) were used throughout the Old and New Covenant periods by God's people. Where it talks of "burnings" for some of the Israelite kings, I believe that that was like a torchlight parade (?)

(9) Saul and Jonathan's bodies were burnt before being buried by God's people. Maybe this was because they were unclean, having been hanging in a Pagan temple (?)

(10) The Lord ensured that from the moment Jesus's spirit left His body, everything was done to take care of His body, reflecting the fact that His soul was at repose. Shouldn't we treat the human body, particularly those who have fallen asleep in Jesus, with like respect where possible?

Look also at the love and care with which John's disciples treated John's decapitated body.

I have attended cremations - because sometimes the law of charity takes precedence - but I don't like them and disapprove of the practice.

Okay, so here are the 4 arguments we have so far:

(1) It is an attack on the body and is wrong for the same reason mutilation and murder are wrong.
(2) Fire is a sign of judgment.
(3) The church, historically, has never been about the business of burning bodies. This is a fairly recent practice.
(4) The Biblical example, including Christ's, is burial.

Given these arguments, I don't see the case very convincing:
(1) I don't really see how it is an attack on the body, at least any more than letting a body decay in a grave. To be consistent with this, we should give ample care to all human corpses -- letting them sit in a grave would be disrespectful to the body, right?
(2) I don't find this convincing, either. Would this make fireplaces wrong? Does the fact that fire can signify judgment mean the use of fire for a purpose other than signifying judgment is immoral?
(3) I'm not sure an argument from Church history will work for this one, unless it can be established that this is a crucial moral issue (e.g. abortion). If the Church has generally agreed on an issue which is not terribly important, then an appeal to Church history for that issue is weaker than otherwise.
(4) This is an argument from silence. It might imply that burial is preferable, but not that cremation is wrong.

Generally speaking, this is correct. A possible exception may be Amos 6:10, which might be a reference to a mass burning of bodies after catastrophic deaths (which, however, are due to judgment!).

Below is an exegesis paper I wrote a year or so ago on Amos 2:1-3. The paper discusses the implications of this passage for the subject of cremation (beginning around p. 12). Also, there is another paper on the topic of cremation that discusses all the relevant Scriptural texts.

Attached Files

	Amos Exposition Paper.pdf (218.0 KB, 1 views)
	Cremation.pdf (185.1 KB, 4 views)

__________________
Tim Phillips
Pastor, Midlane Park Presbyterian Church (ARP)
Louisville, KY
Husband of Scottish Lass
My Blog: Gairney Bridge
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Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

"Wherever the gospel is preached, it is as if God Himself came into the midst of us." ~ John Calvin

This is a complete non-issue. My wife and I both plan to be cremated after our deaths.

In both burial and cremation, the end result is the same: the decomposition of the corpse. With cremation, you just get there a lot faster. This has no impact, of course, on God's ability to resurrect the body. He is perfectly capable of "putting you back together" whether you've been buried or cremated.

Biblically, this is part of the adiaphora - those things that are "indifferent," where the Scriptures have no comment one way or the other. In my opinion, you can't make a case either for or against it from the Bible.

As a practical matter, cremation is a lot less expensive than burial. For a lot of people, that's a major consideration.

__________________
Richard T. Zuelch, M.Div
Ruling Elder, OPC (not currently serving)
Westminster Presbyterian Church, CA (OPC)
www.alexandermaclaren.wordpress.com
www.reiterations.wordpress.com
www.spurgeonswords.wordpress.com

Devout souls do not take offence at the depths and difficulties of God's Word, but are, thereby, drawn to intenser contemplation of them. - Alexander Maclaren (1826-1910)

Getting eaten by worms is a sign of judgment too, as in Herod's case. If one looks long enough one can find anything one wants.

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Tim Vaughan
Member, Redeemer Presbyterian, OPC,
Santa Maria
California

I didn't read the article but it's hard when I only have my touch iPod to use right now. I find nothing wrong with cremation...that's my plan for myself. Many martyres were burned at the stake and God is able to raise them up with a glorified body on the last day.

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sarah
WI
OPC
My Pastor's Sermons: Mark Jenkins...he's awesome!!!

I find this to be a total non-issue I recently cremated my grandmother partially due to economics and she is in an urn in our living room. Eventually she will be buried but if someone wants to chastise me for not doing so they can pay for the plot, casket and burial expenses so as to not bother their conscience

Genesis(NKJV)
19 By the sweat of your face
you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground,
for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.”

Obviously a proper service is only fitting. But to make too much of the Flesh which either way gets destroyed is non-sense as long as you show your respects. People tend to go all out which is purely ridiculous. Time is best spent on the soul while the flesh is alive. I'd much rather see more effort placed on where the soul goes then quibbling on how the body is taken care of after the soul departs!

In Christ,
Blade

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Nathan Olaf Brandal

"Man is nothing: he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him to will and to do his good pleasure"
GEORGE WHITEFIELD TO JOHN WESLEY

My Blog

Here's a great sermon called "Is Cremation a Christian Option?" It really nails it.

SermonAudio.com - Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church

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Toni Cunningham, Wife of Bill (Theognome)
Parkwoods OPC, Overland Park KS

"Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." ~ Alexander Pope

I find no real problem with it.

First of all this argument that it's just like "Murder" and mutilation is non-nonsensical.
Murder is murder because 1) it's motive, 2) it's killing a Living Person. Not because it damages the body.

Fire is a sign of judgment...ok, but if your gonna use that reasoning our God is a consuming fire and fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

We of course have Christ being put in a tomb, but he was also crucified so should we all go try and get crucified if were gonna take examples never meant to be used by the church from Christ?

I think this arguement against cremation is definetly going beyond what is written.


To also say that the church has always burried folk...well ok but doesn't really means its authoritative. I could say the catholic church has always done something and thats been around for much longer, but then were getting away from sola scriptura.

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Lee Johnston
Church of Scotland (Presbyterian)
Paisley, Scotland
Ephesians 1:4-5
"In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will."

Cremation got going again in the nineteenth century when Christendom in the West started to weaken, with the impact of Enlightenment thinking in the West. If there was a revival of true Christianity, which there will be one day, this Pagan practice, associated with pre-Christian Anglo-Saxons and Vikings, modern-day Hindus and Auschwitz, will reduce to a small number and then cease.

Has anyone argued against cremation in that it makes it difficult for for God to resurrect the body??? I don't think so. This issue is NOT about God's ability to raise the dead. This is about the nature of the body.

The body is good. We are to treat it with respect. To burn a body suggests that it is no longer good, that it is inferior.

I don't know how you can just shrug off the historic church's practice of burial. It is disappointing that some think convenience or financial cost is a good enough reason to destroy the body.

On the Heidelblog, the author mentioned Paul's reference to planting a seed and the imagery that is associated to planting a body. He then says, "For one thing, the imagery is not the same at all."

Is a goal of reading and applying the Bible to maintain the imagery that is often used?

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David
PCA
Bartlett, TN

Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house,
that you have brought me thus far?
2 Samuel 7:18

I know that the reformers who were burnt will not suffer any loss in the resurrection.

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Rich Koster
1689'er
Browns Mills NJ USA
Often Goofy Reformed Eccentric
Romans 7:14-25

It's not about loss in the resurrection. I am not concerned with how the pagans treat their own bodies and the bodies of the martyrs.

And I'll admit, it was a glorious death for the martyrs. But I guarantee you those same reformers would have been furious at the thought of dying of "natural causes" and having their family and church burn their bodies.

You should shrug off any powerful witness. Still, I would ask yourself what God's law says about the subject. Ask yourself how many (a hundred? two hundred) of God's law people around you shrug off as being irrelevant or out of date. And some are! For sure. But I find it odd when someone is strident about, say, claiming tattoos are morally neutral, when the Bible speaks specifically to them, and they are specifically dealing with the body. In fact, the reason modern observant Jews don't get them is that they say their bodies are on loan. But when it comes to something that isn't directly dealt with like the form of burial sometimes those same people get passionate!

In fact, the reason modern observant Jews don't get them is that they say their bodies are on loan.

This is another good argument against tats. Our bodies are still on loan when we die,also. They are put by God into the care of our relatives and friends. We believe from the consistent example of the church in the Bible, that it is not God's will that the Pagan practice of burning be followed - or e.g. plastinisation and put on tour, by mad German professor Gunter von Hagens - but burial or entombment. The body must be treated with respect whether the soul is there or not.

But this again challenges us regarding gnostic behaviour in this life also, not just tats, but e.g. also gluttony and lack of exercise. If we are to respect the body when it's dead, how much more so when it's alive!!

Yes, the Bible does speak specifically to tattoos, but I understand the Lev passage to be a very specific form of tattooing, not the body art we often see today.

I see tattooing and cremation to be totally different. One is (or can be) a way to decorate or bring beauty to the body, the other is complete destruction of the body. I consider tattooing to be in the same category as piercings, hair styling, cosmetic surgery, etc. All can be used as an outworking of sin, but they are not in and of themselves sinful.

I don't think burning the body is morally neutral.

What form of tattooing do you think Lev refers to?

It appears to be some sort of pagan ritual or marking associated in false religion.

[quote=Tripel;671988]How about this gem -- not only having the body cremated, but having having the ashes then scattered on church property? Do you think anyone of old might have a problem with that as well?

One of the Patristic Fathers (Tertullian, I think) dealt with the question of what would happen to a Christian if he were eaten by cannibals (from a strictly material standpoint, a situation "worse" than cremation). Would this somehow invalidate the promise of the resurrection? Of course not. But even if it is a glorious thing to die for the cause of Christ, just because Papists and and heathen choose to dispose of the body in such a fashion, that does not mean that it therefore becomes a valid option for the Christian.

Where I am you are only allowed to be buried for 15 years before the big brother comes and dig you up to be cremated...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_in_Singapore#Burial
What should I do then?

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Ewen
1689 LBCF
Assemblies of God Bible College
Singapore

Sorry Richard, I never noticed your post you made a while ago in which you listed out more arguments. I'll get to that later, when I have more time.

Be buried anyway. You cannot control what someone may do to the body after death.

In (some places) in this country, my understanding is that the state requires individuals to have their organs liquidified and then drained/sucked out of them prior to preservation. This to me seems to be a great desecration of the body. But I may also be operating on faulty information. Does anyone know all of what the embalming process entails?

I have always seen burial as a practice associated with our sure and certain hope of a bodily resurrection, cremation is all very Gnostic (or more precisely dualistic) to me. A physical burial is a witness to our hope and our hope has to be physical.

16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

(1 Co 15:16-19)

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Mike
London City Presbyterian Church
London
England

"Surely, we wish to be orthodox, but we must first learn what real orthodoxy is. Surely, we wish to be progressive, but we must first have a basis to progress from."

What about people who honestly can't afford a cost of a burial? Is it a sin for them to be cremated? (This is a bit of a rhetorical question - I don't think cremation is necessarily a sin, although burial is probably more reflective of biblical principles). Cost is a legitimate concern for many. Burial is horribly expensive. I know some will say that the church should then step in and cover burial costs, but I'm not sure that's the wisest use of (often tight) church budgets. Thoughts?

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Kathleen M
nondenominational
Montana

Kathleen,
That's a good question. I have never had to pay for a burial, so I don't know what the actual costs are. Are there not inexpensive ways to do it? Is it impossible to get a cheap place to bury someone? I realize some memorial parks can be expensive, but it is not necessary to be burried in such expensive places.

What's important is that the bodies are burried. What's not important is the particular grave location or the type of casket. I haven't done this, but I bet a quick Google search can find you a dirt cheap wooden box.

(4) This begs the question. Whether or not cremation is ungodly is the point in dispute.
(5) Not a moral issue.
(6) The only thing in the WCF close to our bodies' being united with Christ, if I am not mistaken, is found in 26.1, but that says nothing about our bodies: "All saints that are united to Jesus Christ their head, by his Spirit and by faith, have fellowship with him in his graces, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory."
(7) Misuse does not nullify proper use.
(8) I do not understand how this implies the immorality of cremation.
(9) Maybe. But, again, this falls short of implying the immorality of cremation.
(10) We should treat bodies with respect, but to say that cremation doesn't is a petitio principii.

If the reason against cremation is out of respect for bodies, then it needs to be proved that cremation is intrinsically disrespectful; also, people arguing with this rationale would need to avoid the logical implication that we need to protect the body from as much decay as possible.

No. There is a big difference between allowing decay to happen and intentionally destroying the body.