by Kent E. Heaton Sr.
as originally published in the November 14, 1999 edition of The Trenton Bulletin
It is hard to imagine what Adam and Eve went through when they found their second son was dead. The record only tells us that she bore another son whom they called, Seth, "For God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed." (Genesis 4:25) As death has been a part of mans existence, so has the action of the final disposition of the body. The first burial that is recorded is the "burial at sea" performed by God in the great flood. (Genesis 6)
On mans part, burial was a common practice. Numerous places in scripture mention burial as a mode of disposing of the body when death occurred. Notable burials include Abraham seeking a place to bury Sarah (Genesis 23). Joseph promised to fulfill his father's request not to bury him in Egypt - "So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father." (Genesis 50:12-14)
The ceremonies of disposal of the body vary from culture to culture. The word "funeral" comes from an old Sanskrit word of northern India which means "smoke." Many of the customs of disposal of the body are connected with geography (need to bury above ground), theology (Indonesians of the island of Bali make a life-sized image of a scared bull to hold the coffin of the dead person - during the funeral, the bull and its contents will be carefully burned), necessity (burial at sea) or traditions of culture (the Viking dead were placed in their boats, which were set on fire and pushed out to sea).
The process of disposing of the body at death is not given as a law in the word of God. As there are many examples of burial there are a few examples of what is defined as cremation. Cremation is the act of destroying the body by fire. The method used today is to place the body and casket in a special furnace where they are subjected to a heat of from 2,000 - 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The bones are reduced to ashes.
There are examples of "cremation" in the Bible. In Joshua 7, we find "Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, 'Why have you troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day.' So all Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger. Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley of Achor to this day." (Joshua 7:24-26)
Following the death of King Saul (by his own hand), "All the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them there. Then they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days." (1 Samuel 31:12,13) In this case the bones were not completely consumed with fire as even later, "David went and took the bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the men of Jabesh Gilead who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, after the Philistines had struck down Saul in Gilboa. So he brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from there; and they gathered the bones of those who had been hanged. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the tomb of Kish his father. So they performed all that the king commanded. And after that God heeded the prayer for the land." (2 Samuel 21:12-14)
Josiah, King in Judah, "Took away all the shrines of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger; and he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in Bethel. He executed all the priests of the high places who were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them; and he returned to Jerusalem." (2 Kings 23:19,20)
Under the Law of Moses, certain sins were punished with the burning of the body. "And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you." (Leviticus 20:14) "And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire." (Leviticus 21:9) In the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38), when Judah was told that Tamar had played the harlot and was with child, Judah said: "Bring her out and let her be burned." These are specific examples of "cremation" being used as the penalty for sin.
During the days of the Babylonian captivity, fire was used as the means of execution as seen with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego. "And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace." (Daniel 3:6) The Babylonians used fire in contrast to the Persians who used animals to punish criminals. "And the king commanded, and they brought those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives; and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den." (Daniel 6:24)
The act of cremation is not a sin. Sin is defined in 1 John 3:4 as "Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law." God does not have in His law a place that makes the act of cremation a violation of His law. To burn the body is a personal choice that can be made by anyone who desires to do so (in accordance with civil law).
The problem with cremation that many feel is not in association with the law of God but rather the personal attachments given the body. This is a natural course of mans makeup. The reason for marble monuments is to remind ourselves of the outward person that we know and love. As Christians we recognize the importance is not the outward man but the inward man.
We know that our fleshly bodies will grow corrupt and decay to return to the dust. What we look forward too is the eternal body that will never decay or die. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, "And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." The focus of our lives should not be grounded upon the outward man but what will become of us when we stand before God.
The disposal of the body at death is not relevant to our eternal salvation. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." (2 Corinthians 5:1) Whether we are buried above ground, below ground, at sea or burned with fire, our soul is what matters. The disposal of the body is left to our own desires and wishes in accordance with the law of the land. We look forward to our "new" body!