Does the Bible Forbid Cremation of Bodies?

 

DOES GENESIS 3:19 CONVEY BIBLICAL AUTHORITY ON CHRISTIAN BURIAL? DOES IT SPEAK AGAINST CREMATION OF BELIEVERS?

By Ezekiel Kimosop

I have come across this question on a number of occasions. Cremation is traditionally identified with Eastern societies, majorly among Hindus. It is nowadays an increasingly common method of disposing human bodies even among sections of conservative African societies who traditionally bury the dead.

The Jews buried their dead. Jesus Himself was buried in a borrowed grave. Some African societies did not bury their dead. They simply discarded the bodies, leaving them at the mercy of wild animals!

Does the Bible expressly or impliedly address the above question? Would a believer violate Scripture if they expressed in their will that they wished to be cremated upon death? Should Christians be buried rather than cremated?

Genesis 3:19 says

"In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread

Till you return to the ground,

For out of it you were taken;

For dust you are,

And to dust you shall return."

Some have cited the above text of Scripture as evidence that burial rather than cremation was intended by God for His covenant people.

This scripture speaks of the origin of the physical or material nature of the human body and its earthly rather than heavenly destiny. My view is that whether the believer's body is cremated or buried in a grave, it ultimately returns to the dust, the very place Scripture describes above!

The human body bears the consequences of the curse of Adam! The Bible teaches that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God!

What do we learn from Genesis 3:19? 

The theological context of the above Scripture can be distilled from the passage of Genesis 3:1-24 which is dedicated to the Fall and judgement of Adam and Eve and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. 

It speaks about the origin of the Fall through the disobedience of the woman and the man in Genesis 3:1-7 and the divine consequence that followed in Genesis 3:8-24.

When we read Genesis 3:19 in its passage context, we discover that it is not an authority on Christian burials.

The New Testament Scripture does not convey an explicit doctrine on Christian burials even though passages of Scripture such as 1 Corinthians 15 appear to presuppose burial in line with Jewish and Greco-Roman culture.

The Bible reveals that a believer who dies in Christ awaits the resurrection of the dead in Christ [cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17]. It matters little, in my view, how his body was disposed of.

Even if the believer's is cremated or perishes in the sea or is dissolved in sulphuric acid other agent as happened in Nazi death camps during Hitler's Third Reich, this will never affect the resurrection of the believer from the dead at the sound of the last trumpet! 

We learn from 1 Corinthians 15:42-43 that  "...the body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power." The sowing here is a metaphorical reference to the burial of the believer. 

One cannot help but imagine that some believers in societies that traditionally bury the dead may consider the cremation scene as repulsive because of cultural concerns. Similarly, the Hindu Christian would perhaps cringe at the notion of burial being carried out in the place of their traditionally established cremation method! 

My view is that burials and cremations should be consigned to the exigences of culture and should not inform Christian doctrine.

I am therefore hesitant to teach that Genesis 3:19 speaks against cremation or that it is an authority on Christian burial as the sole method for disposal of human bodies.

Revelation 20:13 says "The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works."

Who buried those who died in the sea?

My view is that while burial is a decent and environmentally healthy method of disposing of human bodies, the Bible does not expressly teach or imply that a believer must be buried in the ground. 

Burials and cremations are the subject of human cultures and traditions. They do not affect the believer's destiny in Christ.

© Ezekiel Kimosop 2021