What does the Bible say about cremation?

[Music] well hey everybody welcome to ask LBC a ministry of Lamar's Bible Church my name is Jake will Becker I'm the associate pastor here at LBC and I'm joined today by Fred gums he's currently the pastor of congregational care here at LBC but for 29 years served as the lead pastor so we are honored to have you here today Pastor Fred we have a great question today and the question we're talking about is this what does the Bible say about cremation so pastor Fred what what do you have to say right well thanks Jake it's really good to be here this morning this is a question that I've received over the years and I thought it might be good to address it is cremation permissible for a Christian for a believer today does the Bible give us any guidance about that but first of all before we address that specifically I want to just say a few words about funerals in general today in the culture at large in which we live things are changing when it comes to funerals memorial services you just read the obituaries and you can see that frequently or more frequently you see something like no services are planned or a gathering will be planned in the future and maybe sometimes it's going to be at a picnic shelter or a campground or a restaurant or a club or a pub and basically it's a gathering to share memories and so on and there's various reasons for that I think why we see these changes happening um for one thing more families today are disconnected from one another maybe geographically relationally and planning a funeral service can seem overwhelming so let's just maybe do something a lot simpler also what I've been reading and observing is that fewer and fewer people today in our culture feel the need for a religious component in their final in their we'll service five years ago it was 50% of our population felt that was important and necessary now it's down to 40% Wow of our population that feels a religious component is something they want included well my desire is a pastor Jake is that we who know Christ we who know Christ that we would continue to place a high value on on our funeral service our memorial service where the truth of Christ and the wonderful truth of eternal life can be can be faithfully proclaimed at that time to paraphrase a verse in Scripture we shine as lights in a dark world and and our funeral service is a wonderful opportunity to do just that yeah well having said that what about this matter of cremation what does the Bible say about cremation first of all obviously anyone can observe that this practice is becoming more popular in our culture in 2016 that was the first year in our country that the number of cremations exceeded the number of burials Wow and next year in 2020 it's projected that 56% of deaths will be handled by cremation so 56% is what we're up to it's a growing thing it's a growing thing it's a growing thing and it's interesting to me how the percentages break down within the United States for example the states with the highest amount of cremation are out west Nevada Washington Oregon Hawaii states that are not as biblically oriented as maybe the rest of the country and then the lowest rates for cremation are in Utah predominantly Mormon and then the heart of the of the Bible Belt Kentucky Alabama Mississippi low rates of cremation the United Kingdom has presently a rate of 77 percent so America were approaching 56% were just kind of following along it's interesting that almost all Hindus and all Buddhists practice cremation so therefore in a nation like Nepal the rate is 95% in India obviously almost predominantly Hindu it's 85% in Japan 99.9% population there so the question is why is it increasingly popular in the Western world in Western civilization particularly in America well for one thing it's more economical I understand that it's more economical the average cost of a traditional funeral today is fourteen thousand I'm sorry ten thousand dollars I I did talk to a local funeral director and he said Fred it's upwards of 14,000 traditional prayer service funeral burial and so on so the family obviously can save several thousand dollars with cremation as I said earlier families are separated geographically so cremation would provide you flexibility to have a service at a later time also in some metro areas cemeteries are reaching capacity right some places have even passed laws no more burials in the cemetery but here's the reason I wonder about and that is in our culture it's becoming increasingly secularized less and less biblically oriented and I think that is increasingly contributing to this rise in the rate of cremation but a little bit about the history of cremation in the ancient Roman Empire the influence of other cultures led to the adoption of cremation and it became fashionable in the ancient Roman Empire for the aristocratic class to to cremate the dead bodies and it also was the funeral mode of the Caesars but then something interesting happened about 200 AD the practice began to wane the spread of Christianity is what is attributed to that decrease in cremation then about 500 ad in the ancient Roman Empire the practice had virtually ceased now again I want to be clear the Bible does not provide us with a specific thou shalt not cremate or thou must bury the body of the deceased and yet it's interesting Jake that from ancient times cremation has been avoided and discouraged by almost everyone in the judeo-christian tradition so in a day when cremation is becoming increasingly popular among believers and unbelievers alike how should we as believers think about that how should we think about it biblically and wisely sure so again I want to be clear you know biblical verse that would prohibit cremation but I think there are things that can help us form a wise and biblical perspective and how we should think about it and perhaps find guidance in that I found in my file an article by a man named David Jones and he wrote an article called to bury or to burn cremation in Christian perspective it was quite thought-provoking actually I drew a couple things from that article one thing he pointed out and I think we've observed this ourselves is that in both the Old Testament and the New Testaments the people of God almost exclusively practiced burial of their dead the Old Testament for example Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses buried by God himself when he died when Moses died David and so on the New Testament the New Testament tells us John the Baptist was buried Lazarus Ananias and Sapphira Stephen our Lord Jesus Christ himself sure as the Apostle John wrote in John chapter 19 the custom of the Jews is to bury and so in spite of the fact both in the Old Testament and a New Testament that's surrounding cultures practiced cremation the the people of God did not practice it when it was practiced on rare occasion in the Old Testament it always had a negative connotation it was maybe a criminal punishment human sacrifice war or something like that the article also pointed out that something that maybe should we should think about is the principle of biblical stewardship to be a biblical steward means the proper care of something and certainly that would apply to our bodies we are stewards of our bodies and he pointed out in the article that stewardship is not synonymous with frugality thus the easiest and cheapest option which would normally be cremation may not necessarily be the moral or the wisest option from a biblical perspective this is what I really found interesting Jake that scripture refers to buried corpses as persons and often by name I'll give one example mark writes in mark chapter 15 when Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus from the cross and buried him it says this joseph of arimathea laid him in a tomb he laid him in a tomb and I always used to think well that isn't a proper way to talk the Spirit is departed but no to be human means that we have a material and an immaterial component now in biblical times as you know there was this widespread dualistic philosophy that the body was bad and the Spirit was was good and it didn't matter what you did with your body but that's not a biblical perspective while we're alive the body of a believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit that death of course the spirit departs the body but the body still needs to be shown respect and dignity for it is the the workmanship of God something else I think we need to consider is the Bible's teaching about death and resurrection when it says in 1st Corinthians 15 it is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body well whatever else that is saying it seems to imply that a body is being placed into the ground Jones writes in his article now quote from biblical times until the mid 1800s the church was nearly United in the view that burial best demonstrates respect for and the dignity of the human body and that it most clearly communicates the hope of future resurrection and the promise of an eternal physical existence for the believer in Christ unquote now since we are to do all things for the glory of God and we are whatever you do do all for the glory of God which option as we think about this which option might provide the most opportunity to glorify God people may come to different conclusions on that now I realize that sometimes a family will be required to choose creation I'm sorry cremation yeah financial resources location of death a manner of death the loved ones wishes other factors may necessitate it there's freedom in that when you go before the Lord there's freedom in that because the Bible does not prohibit it and in no way in anything I've said am i judging anyone that would choose that for themselves or their loved one what I'm trying to encourage us to do Jake and this is just to really think through the issue to think maybe more than just the utilitarian aspect of cremation and the cost factor but to think about it and just not go along with the cultural practice today I will say this that if cremation is chosen I do strongly urge people to bury the urn to bury those ashes rather than just scatter them to the winds or scatter them on the on the water somewhere to me that seems rather superstitious I really think there's value in having a specific place a memorial to our deceased loved one and even something put on that stone or that marker that gives a lasting testimony a verse of scripture and to think through that what testimony could I have so that even in a sense though he is dead yet he speaks sure - of somebody that would come through that place in the future in conclusion I noticed David Jones says if a choice you know there are options but if given a choice contemporary believers open to cremation would be wise to carefully consider the practice and evaluate it in the light of God's Word because for us as believers funerals ought to be christ-centered events testifying in every aspect to the message and the hope of the gospel and eternal life in Christ so again I hope that's helpful as we yeah yeah that is you know it's you know I think people often get to thinking about funerals and it's just something you got to get through you know but it's it's a sad thing anytime someone passes away but I think it's helpful to think through how can I use even in this kind of sad experience to to preach the gospel to to maybe people who have never come into a church another time epsilon here's what an opportunity to glorify God even even at a funeral absolutely well Sid yeah we'll sit well thank you all for joining us for ask LBC I hope you can join us again next time

Channel: Le Mars Bible Church

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Length: 14min 15sec (855 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 30 2019