The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum cremation

we are not arguing the same thing here! And I would not say "yes . . ." for the analogy is not applicable. In your "axe" analogy that which was the axe, i.e., the handle and the head were replaced and thus it cannot be said to be the same tool. But in the case of one's body, it remains the same although its form has changed. God created man out of the dust of the earth and it is to the earth that it returns when the spirit no longer dwells in it. How the Lord God will create the spiritual body isn't revealed in His Word. But, as I have twice now brought up, the post-resurrection body of the Lord Christ does tell us some things, e.g., it was recognizable, it had substance, it could consume and digest food, etc. What the disciples saw after Christ rose from the dead was not a totally different body from that which He had prior to His resurrection.

You can have the last word if you like, but I think I've reached the end of the road you are wanting to go down.

In His grace,

You can have the last word if you like, but I think I've reached the end of the road you are wanting to go down.

...yeh, good idea.

So lets boil this down to original question: is cremation biblical? In my humble (and I believe, very accurate )oppenion, If...

God created man out of the dust of the earth and it is to the earth that it returns when the spirit no longer dwells in it...

...then I see nothing in terms of prohibition in the Bible when it comes to the assortment of that "dust" when it returns to the ground.

Look up in any dictionary of the English language what the meaning of "corpse" is!

I don’t know where to post this but isn’t this interesting it says the Scriptures command. Should we search the Scriptures?

Second Helvetic Confession (1566)

Chapter XXVI. Of the Burial of the Faithful, and of the Care To Be Shown for the Dead; of Purgatory, and the Appearing of Spirits


The Burial of Bodies. As the bodies of the faithful are the temples of the Holy Spirit which we truly believe will rise again at the Last Day, Scriptures command that they be honorably and without superstition committed to the earth, and also that honorable mention be made of those saints who have fallen asleep in the Lord, and that all duties of familial piety be shown to those left behind, their widows and orphans. We do not teach that any other care be taken for the dead. Therefore, we greatly disapprove of the Cynics, who neglected the bodies of the dead or most carelessly and disdainfully cast them into the earth, never saying a good word about the deceased, or caring a bit about those whom they left behind them.

Just thought I would add the following since everyone seems to have missed it.

Saul and his sons were burned (although not totally), 1 Samuel 31:11-13.

Now when the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men rose and walked 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. They took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and (F)fasted seven days.

Was Jabesh-gilead a city of Israel? If it was a city of Israel then it indicates there may have been a practice (rightly or wrongly) of cremation at that time.

John