Cremation or Bodily

Burial:
Which Brings God More Honor?

Darrell Stein
Origins of Cremation
 Derived from the Latin cremare (“to burn”), cremation is the
process of disposing (destroying) a dead body in the flames of
fire.
 Historical evidence indicates that burning dead human beings
apparently did not occur until sometime between 2500 and
2000 years B.C. It is quite likely that it started in India and
moved east. Outside of the Roman Empire, the Nordic culture
of Scandinavia performed some crematory acts on fireboats
from about 1500 to 1800 B.C.
 It was the pagan religious beliefs, which were an integral part
of cremation, that made burning the dead repugnant to the
ancient Hebrews, as well as to the early Christians.
Historical Methods of
Cremation
 To cremate a deceased human being in
ancient times required gathering wood to
erect a pile or stack several feet high and
longer and wider than the respective dead
body. The bones of the cremated body,
which for the most part did not burn, were
either buried or placed in an urn. These
urns were tall enough to accommodate the
unburned bones together with the body’s
ashes.
Modern Methods of
Cremation
 A crematorium’s furnace, which
resembles a large bread oven, is
commonly called a retort in the
furnace industry. After the body is laid
into what is usually a brick-lined
furnace, it is fired up to between 1700
and 2500 degrees Fahrenheit for
approximately 90 minutes to two
hours.
Modern Methods of
Cremation
Modern Methods of
Cremation
The Composition of Modern
Cremated Remains
 The mistaken common belief is that after
the human corpse has been burned, only
ashes are left. The bones do not burn.
Consequently, they are pulverized by a
grinding process. The entire contents of an
urn, depending on the size of the corpse,
ordinarily weigh between four and eight
pounds of ash and fragments.
Whose ashes?

 Recipients sometimes do not know

what portions of the ashes they have
on hand are really those of their loved
one. Sometimes family members do
not know whether the ashes they
received are those of their deceased
relative or ashes of wood or some
other product.
Why Did Pagans Choose
Cremation?
 Some scholars think the burning of human corpses began
because ancient people feared the dead; thus, theoretically,
destroying them by fire coped with that fear.
 Cremation enabled the survivors to carry the bones of the
deceased, back to their homes or to some other desirable
place.
 Ancient Greeks did it in part to prevent buried bodies from
being stolen by thieves or disturbed by other miscreants.
 In some instances, people burned dead human bodies
because they believed in the pagan notion that fire freed
the soul from wandering and searching for rest after the
person expired.
 All pagans burned their dead because they did not believe
in the physical resurrection of the body.
Why Did Pagans Choose
Cremation?
 It is because of these pagan realities, in
addition to the many biblical precedents of
earth burial, including the burial of Jesus,
that the early Christians opposed cremation,
not simply because pagans practiced it. For
Christians to accept and practice cremation
would have been tantamount to identifying,
at least symbolically, with the erroneous
pagan beliefs associated with it.
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation
 Shortly after Adam’s fall into sin, God
told him that not only would he die,
but his body, created out of the dust
of the earth, would return to dust
(Genesis 3:19). These words are a
clear indication that God’s plan is for
the deceased human body to be laid in
an earthen grave.
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
 Genesis 49:29 – Jacob told Joseph “Bury me with
my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the
Hittite”. Pharaoh granted Joseph’s request to take
Jacob’s body back to his homeland, where he was
buried in the same field where Abraham and Sarah
had been laid to rest (Genesis 50:5-6:13). Jacob’s
request indicates that he could not imagine his
dead body being disposed of in any other way.
 Joseph also asked to be buried in Canaan. In
Exodus 13:19, Moses took the bones of Joseph with
him. For 40 years, the Israelites carried and
protected his bones until they buried him in
Shechem.
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
 When Moses died, God Himself buried
him. The biblical text reads, “So
Moses the servant of the Lord died
there in Moab…And He [God] buried
him in Moab, in the valley opposite
Beth Peor, but to this day no one
knows where his grave is” (Deut. 34:
5-6).
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
 Christians who believe cremation is an acceptable
option, and that God has no objections to it, may
seriously want to ask why God Himself chose to
bury Moses in an earthen grave. By giving Moses
an earth burial, did God perhaps intend to show His
faithful people that He only approves of their
placing a deceased friend or relative in the earth?
Biblically minded opponents of cremation should
say “yes”. In fact, the rabbinic Talmud agrees with
this conclusion, for it states, “Follow the path of
God…bury the dead, even as He [God] did bury
Moses in the valley of Moab” (Sotah 14a).
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
On through the generations following Moses, the Hebrews
continued to bury their dead.
 Joshua was laid to ret in a grave (Josh. 24:30)
 Samuel died and was buried in Ramah (1 Sam. 25:1)
 David’s survivors buried him in Jerusalem (1 Kings 2:10)
 Inhumation was so important to the Hebrews that they even
buried the slain bodies of their enemies (1 Kings 11:15).
 The prophet Jeremiah notes with horror dead people being
unburied. Not to be buried was equivalent to being garbage
or refuse (Jer. 25:33).
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
When they did return from Egypt, the Israelites continued to
bury their dead. When they did perform cremations, it was
only for certain criminals who committed the most heinous
acts.
 Joshua announced that the accursed criminal “shall be burned
with fire, he and all that he has, because he has transgressed
the covenant of the Lord, and because he has done a
disgraceful thing in Israel” (Josh. 7:15).
 Moses commanded the punishment of a consuming fire for a
daughter of a priest who profaned herself and her father by
engaging in prostitution (Lev. 21:9).
 Moses also stated, “If a man marries a woman and her
mother, it is wickedness. They shall be burned with fire, both
he and they, that there may be no wickedness among you
(Lev. 20:14).
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
These examples indicate that some of the
worst criminals were occasionally
incinerated, and that the cremation served
as an added mark of punishment and
humiliation. For the most part, however,
the Israelites generally buried rather than
cremated most criminals. There is not a
single biblical case where God commanded
cremating any individual as an act of honor
or a blessing.
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
Throughout the entire OT, the act of destroying
deceased humans by fire was never pleasing to
God. This is especially evident with regard to the
king of Moab, who took the bones from the king of
Edom’s tomb and burned them to lime (Amos 2:1-
2). God not only took offense, but he sent fire to
destroy Moab and his fortresses. It can be argued
that this biblical reference is a clear denunciation of
cremation, one that applies to all people, pagans
and God’s people alike.
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
Although one could become unclean through
physical contact with a deceased person,
the Hebrews, nevertheless, treated the body
of a dead person with great respect.
Respect for the human body was one
reason the Israelites rejected cremation. It
indicated a rejection of the concept of
“respect due to the deceased”; to commit
the body to destruction by fire is
tantamount to the deliberate burning of
something that was once sacred.
Ancient Israelite View of
Cremation (cont.)
The Talmud, the formal codification of the oral
law, boldly states, “Every death which is
accompanied by burning is looked upon as
idolatry: (Avodah Zarah 1:3). If cremation
was idolatrous to the Jews of the Talmudic
era, then it was a practice contrary to the
First Commandment, which proscribes all
forms of idolatry. This reference is
additional corroboration that cremation was
unthinkable and unacceptable to faithful
Jews.
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation
Early Christians had several noteworthy examples of
individuals in the NT who were buried in graves.
 Mary and Martha laid their dead brother Lazarus
in a tomb (John 11:38)
 Stephen, the first Christian Martyr: “Godly men
buried Stephen” (Acts 8:2).
 The disciples of John the Baptist, whom Herod
Antipas had decapitated, buried him (Matt.
14:12).
 Every person who is noted as having died in the
NT received earth burial.
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation (cont.)
 Even Ananias and Sapphira, who were struck dead for lying to the
Holy Spirit, were interred (Acts 5:3-10).
 The most significant predecessor to whom the early Christians
could point was Jesus Himself who, was laid to rest in the tomb of
Joseph of Arimathea.
 The early Christians also saw precedents for earth burial in what
Jesus said and did. He once said, “Let the dead bury their own
dead” (Luke 9:60). Jesus fully accepted the Jewish practice of
earth burial. Note, Jesus did not say: “Let the dead cremate their
dead.” Had He said so, it would have been in conflict with what
He had previously said, namely that all the dead would hear His
voice someday and come forth from their graves (John 5:28).
Jesus attacked many early Jewish traditions, but burial of the dead
was not one of them.
The early Christians had no other thought than to follow their biblical
predecessors.
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation (cont.)
The Sanctity of the Human Body
 It is well-known among church historians that the early
Christians fervently opposed infanticide, child
abandonment, abortion, and suicide because they believed
in the sanctity of the human being. In their minds, the
sanctity of the human body did not come to an end when a
person dies. They saw the human being as the crown of
God’s creation:
 Man was made in the image of God (Gen. 1:27)
 “You made him [man] a little lower than the heavenly
beings and crowned him with glory and honor” (Ps. 8:5).
 Paul told the Christians in Corinth, “Don’t you know that
you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives
within you?” (1 Cor. 3:16)
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation (cont.)
Given this biblical view of the human
body, in addition to their belief in the
resurrection of the body, the early
Christians were not about to dispose
of a body, even though dead, by the
most destructive means known to man
– fire. They saw cremation as
unbiblical, unthinkable, and
sacrilegious.
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation (cont.)
 This mindset continued for centuries. The fact that
faithful Christians throughout the centuries believed
in the sanctity of the human body, alive or dead,
meant they did not see their body as their own,
something they were free to treat however they
selfishly wished. It was another reason why
cremation of their dead was an unthinkable option.
 If today’s Christians still believe in the sanctity of
the human body, and that it does not belong to
them alone, they will shun and reject the practice
of cremation, just as their early Christian
predecessors did.
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation (cont.)
 Early Church Fathers Oppose Cremation:
 The first church father who defended earth burial vis-à-vis
cremation was Minucius Felix. Around A.D. 190, he stated,
“we adopt the ancient and better custom of burying in the
earth. See, therefore, how for our consolation all nature
suggests a future resurrection: (Octavius 34).
 Tertullian attacked the practice because of its cruelty and
violence (On the Resurrection of the Flesh 1).
 St. Irenaeus underscored the Christian practice of earth
burial when he wrote, “But although it [the dead body] is
dissolved at the appointed time, because of our primeval
disobedience, it is placed, as it were in the crucible of the
earth…” (Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus XII).
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation (cont.)
Early church councils and synods did not issue
any canons against cremation. Why not?
There was no need to do so, because
disposing of the dead by cremation was one
cultural practice Christians did not imitate.
There is not a single recorded instance of
Christians having ever cremated their dead.
There was no legalized prohibition against
cremation in Christian Antiquity. None was
needed, for the Christians by reason of their
belief abhorred it.
Early Christian Rejection
of Cremation (cont.)
Early Christians also knew and believed what
Jesus said: “Don’t be amazed…for a time is
coming when all who are in their graves will
hear His voice and come out” (John 5:28).
They herd Him say “Graves,” not “urns.”
Moreover, burning the dead was not
consistent with what was done with Christ’s
dead body before He rose from the dead;
nor was it consistent with what He said
concerning the future resurrection of the
dead.
Cremation Over the
Centuries
Early Christian opposition resulted in the practice of
cremation being largely discontinued in much of the
Roman Empire by the latter part of the fourth
century. During the next several centuries, as
Christianity advanced, the disappearance of
cremation spread to the more remote parts of
Europe. Earth burial became the norm and
remained inviolable until the late 1800’s, when
advocates of cremation in the West broke with
Christianity’s historic opposition and revived this
custom from the pagan era of Rome.
Why a Revival?
As the spirit of the Age of Reason, with its
accompanying values of secularism
increasingly became a part of the culture in
Western societies in the 20th century, many,
including Christians, began conforming to
the values of this ideological movement.
Soon an increasing number of church
members, including Christian clergy, began
accepting and even defending the practice
of cremating the dead.
U.S. Cremation Statistics
In 1900 there were only 2,414 (0.003%)
deceased persons cremated in the United
States. In 1920, only 1% of all Americans
were cremated. Cremation remained a rare
occurrence until the 1960’s. In 1960, the
American rate was relatively low when 60,
987 (3.56%) were incinerated. It then
steadily grew over the next four decades.
In 2001, 26.25% of all deceased Americans
were incinerated.
Biblical Arguments
Against Cremation
The burial of Jesus:
It is indeed true that the early Christians rejected
cremation by burying their dead in large measure
because they had the burial of Jesus Christ as a
precedent. Christ was not merely buried because it
was a Hebrew custom, but because it was also
God’s will, reminiscent of His will in regard to the
burial of Moses. Thus, given that God willed Moses
and Jesus Christ to be buried, it is reasonable to
conclude that He wills that all people, past and
present, be given earth burial.
Biblical Arguments
Against Cremation (cont.)
The custom of memorializing persons in graves with monuments
is a centuries-old custom. The OT reports that Jacob set up a
pillar on the tomb of Rachel, his wife (Gen. 30:20). This act
by Jacob, and others in the OT, was not just to honor and
remember family members, but it was also intended to convey
a theological message. They were perpetual reminders that
they might be testimonies of the future resurrection, which
they believed and expected. If cremation continues to
increase, along with the scattering of cremains, the biblical
precedent of erecting grave monuments will undoubtedly
continue to decline, with an accompanying decline in the
Christian testimony to the physical resurrection of the body.
Biblical Arguments
Against Cremation (cont.)
“Ashes to Ashes”
 Even though an omnipotent God can resurrect bodies from
their cremated ashes – and Orthodox Christianity has never
denied this- these words do not have a biblical source or
precedent. The Bible never speaks about dead bodies turning
to ashes. According to the Bible, the deceased body turns
only to dust.
 It appears that these words became a part of the funeral
liturgy in the Church of England’s Book of Common Prayer
(1549) not because its formulators believed the body would
eventually turn to ashes, but because these words provided a
rhythmic, poetic alliteration.
Biblical Arguments
Against Cremation (cont.)
Cremation undermines the doctrine of the resurrection
 The resurrection of the body assumes burial and
graves, whereas cremation does not. To be
Christian is to believe in the physical resurrection of
the body of which Christ’s bodily resurrection is the
“firstfruits”.
 The doctrine of the resurrection body, based on
Christ’s own resurrection, is the lynch pin of
Christianity. If cremation fosters a vague belief in
only the survival of the soul, and the soul is never
seen as becoming reunited with its body on
resurrection day, then it shatters Christianity’s
cardinal doctrine. [see 1 Cor. 15:16-18].
Psychological Factors

 There is not a gravesite reminder of

the departed family member.
Consequently, relatives commonly
forget cremated people.
Clergy and Churches
Acquiesce
Doctrinal conflicts and divisions plagued the church soon after
Christ ascended into heaven. There were the Gnostics,
Docetists, Arians, Donatists, Nestorians, and others who
departed from the orthodox biblical teachings of the church.
Among these different heretical groups, however, none of
their followers accepted or advocated the burning of their
dead, not even the Gnostics who ridiculed the human body
and denied the physical resurrection of the flesh. Similarly,
the Docetists, who taught that Christ did not have a material
body but only appeared to have one, also did not engage in
burning their dead. Moreover, none of the other heretical
groups within the church ever questioned the Christian
opposition to it.
Clergy and Churches
Acquiesce (cont.)
 In terms of a Christian response to the modern cremation
movement, the Roman Catholic Church was the only Christian
denomination that formally opposed the practice when it was
introduced in the West.
 In 1963, however, the Roman Catholic Church made an about
face in 1963 to permit Catholics to be cremated. This decision
was not made on the basis of any biblically based theological
study of the problem. Influenced by the secular culture, it
merely issued a statement allowing it. No other Christian
denominations have produced any formal theological studies
dealing with cremation. They have merely acquiesced.
Clergy and Churches
Acquiesce (cont.)
 Acquiescence has occurred not only in
the Roman Catholic Church, but in
virtually all American Protestant
churches, including conservative
denominations. For the most part,
they all voice similar responses when
they say the Bible does not prohibit
cremation.
Clergy and Churches
Acquiesce (cont.)
 Why have so many Christian clergy and their churches
assented to cremation, especially since Christianity had
rejected it for most of 2,000 years? Answer: The powerful
influence of today’s secularized culture. Apparently,
unbeknownst to many clergy, churches, and theologians, the
secular culture has been so subtly and powerfully persuasive
that many clergy and churches apparently have not
recognized how it is undermining the historic biblical/Christian
position on the significance of earth burial and how it is
related to the decline in belief in the doctrine of the physical
resurrection of the body. As faith in the resurrection all but
disappeared in mainline churches, the practice of cremation
swelled.
Clergy and Churches
Acquiesce (cont.)
Supposed biblical silence:
Members of conservative churches tend to say that if
a given behavior is prohibited in the Bible, it must
not be practiced by them. However, when the
question arises of whether cremation is biblically
permissible, their churches’ leaders commonly say
that the Bible is either silent on the matter or that it
does not prohibit it. Members are told that
cremation is a practice that is neither biblically
commanded nor forbidden. For the most part, both
liberal and conservative churches have acquiesced
to the ancient pagan practice of burning the dead.
Clergy and Churches
Acquiesce (cont.)
 In 2003, the SBC’s website stated, “The act
of cremation is not a sin.” The website
made this conclusion by contending that it
would only be a sin if it violated one of
God’s laws, and since God has no such law,
it is therefore not a sin. Thus, the website
further stated that, “The disposal of the
body is left to our desires and wishes in
accordance with the law of the land.”
 As we saw earlier, however, the Bible is not
silent on this issue.
Clergy and Churches
Acquiesce (cont.)
 Moreover, a search of denominational
literature reveals that no denomination
has ever produced a formal biblical-
exegetical study document on
cremation.
Be Not Conformed to This
World
 The early Christians were mindful of Paul’s command in
Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of
this world”. Interestingly, this command from God is ignored
today when Christians are either told, or led to believe, that
cremation is an acceptable option. Why is it that so many
Christian clergy and churches fail to see the applicability of
this verse to the practice of cremation? This is especially
puzzling since cremation is pagan in its origins and used in the
OT as an extended form of punishment. Certainly, the early
Christians fully understood that by imitating the Romans by
practicing cremation, they would have been conforming to the
world of their day. So they did not.
Be Not Conformed to This
World (cont.)
 It would be appropriate for Christian
clergy to teach their members that
when God says “be not conformed to
this world,” it means that Christians do
not have the option of choosing the
secular, worldly practice of cremation.