WHAT
ABOUT CREMATION FOR A CHRISTIAN?
This is a question I have been asked many times
throughout 35 years of ministry. Reasons for the
question vary. Some ask for convenience sake, since it
is obviously far easier to cremate than bury.
The chief
reason, as one might assume, seems to be monetary. As
TOTT
reader TO in Texas recently wrote:
I wanted to get
your feedback on cremation as a choice for final
internment. I find the open casket and burial in a high
dollar casket a bit odd. When we lay down for our final
rest, I have always felt as a saved Christian we have
gone on to be with the Lord. All else seems to me to be
for the benefit of the living.
We agree, and even
empathize, here. While there are certainly Christian (or
at least ethical) funeral directors who are not guilty
of this, I have seen those who take advantage of
bereaved people, selling them high dollar “packages”
when there were several ways to lower the cost
dramatically. So why not just go the cheap route of
cremation? After all, we even have an urn for a
memorial.
For those reasons
and others, more and more people are opting for
cremation. According to the Cremation Association of
North America, for example, in 2005 there were 778,025
deaths in America, 30.88% of which were then cremated.
Based on the current rate of increase, the CANC goes on
to estimate that the percentage will grow to 38.15% in
2010. Another interesting statistic is the percentage of
cremations in other countries: China (41%), New Zealand
(58%), United Kingdom (70%), and Japan
(97%).
We would submit,
however, that the biblical evidence is overwhelming that
cremation is not the best, that it is, indeed, burial
that is the Scriptural precedent.
The Biblical
Precedent of Burial
The Hebrew qab?ar, which is also found in
most of the other Semitic languages, appears about 130
times in the Old Testament, the vast majority of which
are in the Pentateuch and historical books. It means to
bury or entomb and in every instance except one (Jer.
22:19) refers to human burial.
This fact
immediately and fundamentally underscores that burial
was important in Hebrew thinking. “A proper burial was a
sign of special kindness and divine blessing,” writes
one authority.[i] Not to be
properly buried, in fact, was considered great
misfortune, calamity, and even judgment (1 Kings 13:22;
14:11; 2 Kings 9:37; Jer. 7:33; 8:1; Ezek. 29:5; Ps.
79:3; Rev. 11:9). In accordance with Genesis 3:19,
burial was the accepted method of disposal of the dead.
We repeatedly see God’s people buried throughout
Scripture, often in a family tomb, as with Sarah (Gen
23:19), Abraham (25:9), Isaac, Rebekah, Leah (49:31),
Jacob (50:13), and many others; the list, in fact, is
long.[ii]
The Pagan Practice of Cremation
There is no doubt
whatsoever that cremation has always been practiced
predominantly by pagans. The Greek Homeric heroes were
burned, for example, cremation being introduced to them
by the nomadic Achaeans and Dorians centuries before
Christ.[iii] First
century Roman senator and historian Tacitus records that
by the time of Christ cremation was almost universal
among the Romans.[iv]
Writing on
this issue around the mid-20th Century,
Scottish born missionary and pastor James W. Fraser
recounts:
I asked a
missionary from India if the Christians of that land
cremated their dead. With a look of surprise he said,
“Positively not! Cremation is heathen. The Christians of
India bury their dead, because burial is
Christian.”[v]
It’s extremely
significant that Tacitus also observed that in contrast
to the Romans, it was a serious matter of piety with the
Jews “to bury rather than to burn dead
bodies.”[vi]
Cremation was, in
fact, rare among the Hebrews: “According to the Mosaic
law burning was reserved, either for the living who had
been found guilty of unnatural sins (Lev. 21:9; [also
20:14; Gen. 38:24; 2 Kings 23:16, 20]), or for those who
died under a curse, as in the case of Achan and his
family.”[vii] It was also
used to prevent disease epidemics in the case of mass
death (Amos 6:10).
As a
rule, then, burning was considered the ultimate
desecration of the dead (1 Kings 13:2; 2 Kings 23:16,
20). Note that even though the bodies of Saul and his
sons were burned, undoubtedly because the bodies were
badly mutilated and/or decayed, the bones were still
buried (1 Sam. 31:11–13), not crushed into powder as in
modern cremation. While a question is sometimes
raised over Asa, he was unquestionably buried but was
then honored by
“a very great burning,” that is, a fire of incense and
spices (2 Chron. 16:14). In contrast, Jehoram did not
receive the honoring spice burning because of his
shameful reign
(21:19).
During my research
of this question, I ran into one Christian leader who
was asked, “My husband and I are considering cremation.
Is cremation against the teaching of the Bible? Will
those cremated also be resurrected?” In His nationally
syndicated column, that Christian leader answered this
way:
The aspect of
cremation that worries some Christians is the thought of
the total annihilation of the body. We need to get our
thinking in a right perspective here. The body is
annihilated just as completely in the grave as it is in
cremation. The graves of our ancestors are no longer in
existence, and soil in which they were buried has long
since been removed elsewhere. We must therefore accept
that what happens to the body or to the grave cannot be
of any significance so far as the resurrection is
concerned.
Our resurrection
is related to that of Christ’s in 1 Corinthians 15, and
we must realize that the resurrection of Jesus was quite
different from that of say, Lazarus. Lazarus needed the
body that had been buried, but when Jesus came forth
from the tomb, his body was so changed that he could not
be easily recognized.
In that chapter,
Paul states of the burial of our bodies: “thou sowest
not that body that shall be” (v.37). The body that rises
is not made of the same substances as the one that was
buried, but is immortal and
incorruptible.
In Corinthians 5,
Paul makes the contrast between living in a tent, a
temporary home that can be pulled down and put away, and
living in a permanent home that will last forever. Our
bodies are our temporary tents. Our resurrected bodies
will be our permanent homes. They are similar in
appearance but different in substance. Cremation is
therefore no hindrance to the
resurrection.[viii]
The ignorance of Scripture and history in
that answer is sad in light of it coming from a supposed
great Christian leader. The resurrection is not the real
issue here; it is the desecration of the body that is
the issue, for the body is most certainly “significant.”
Even more tragic is the fact that many other Christians,
including some Bible teachers of a more evangelical
position than the above, are being deluded into
believing that cremation is acceptable. This is due
chiefly to the increase of pagan influence that has been
going on in Christianity for centuries.
Perhaps
most significant of all, it should also be noted that
there is not a single instance of cremation in the New
Testament, and that the body is always treated with
respect, the burial of our Lord, of course, being the
greatest example. A reading of 1 Corinthians
15:35–46 quickly demonstrates the obvious precedent of
burial as well as the joyous event of future
resurrection. Throughout Scripture, therefore, we see
that it is burial, not burning, that honors the body. Let us be Christians, not
pagans.
Dr. J. D.
Watson
Pastor-Teacher
Grace Bible Church
NOTES
[i]
Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New
Testament Words (Thomas Nelsom, 1985 revision), p.
28 (“To Bury” entry).
[ii] Just a few more include:
Moses (Deut. 34), Gideon (Judg. 8:32), Samson (16:31),
Samuel (1 Sam. 25:1), David (1 Kings 2:10-12; 1 Chron.
29:26-28), Solomon (1 Kings 11:41-43), and the long list
goes on.
[iii] See Will Durant, The
Story of Civilization II: The Life of Greece (Simon
and Schuster, 1939, 1966), p. 311 (cf. 37–38;
62–63).
[iv] Tacitus (ca. 56 – ca.
117 AD), Annals, 16, 6.
[v] Cremation—Is It
Christian?
(Loizeaux Brothers). Reprinted by Sola Scriptura
Ministries, 2001, p. 8.
[vi] Tacitus, The
Histories, Book V (ca. 110
AD).
[vii] James Orr (General
Editor), International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia
(electronic edition), “Burial”
entry.
[viii] Billy Graham, “My
Answer,” a nationally syndicated newspaper
column.
