Resurrection and Cremation

Since my message on Sunday I've been asked this question many times: "What does the Bible say about cremation?"

Here's a short answer to a very hot--no pun intended--topic.

The Bible doesn't say anything about cremation. It always assumes the burial of a body.

The early church always buried the dead. They believed that the resurrection was imminent and they wanted their bodies to be ready to be transformed when Jesus returned.

Even today, the Eastern Orthodox Church does not allow their members to be cremated.

Cremation is practiced as part of Buddhism and Hinduism. Neither of these faiths anticipates a future resurrection of the body.

That being said, when the early Christians were captured by Nero in the 1st century, many of them were hung in his garden and set ablaze as living human torches. Their bodies would have been burned to a crisp. Likewise, when dissidents like John Huss and John Wycliffe were tried at the hands of the Roman Catholic church and convicted as heretics (over issues like Church theology and communion), they too were burned at the stake.

It would be hard to think that those who have taken a stand for Jesus and get their bodies burned (as in cremation) would not have their ashes gathered--on that great and glorious day when Jesus transforms the bodies of the living and the dead into eternal, incorruptible bodies--wholly and completely.