cremation of a christian woman
dear Chrissie,
You are wondering about your final destination. As a Bible believing Christian woman, should you be cremated? You have felt very uneasy when attending crematorium funerals. Is this the Spirit within witnessing against cremation?
Burial seems to be the Bible's preferred mode of displosal:
Miriam, Moses' sister, died while the people abode in a place called Kadesh, "and was buried there" (Num. 20:1).
"So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab" (Deut. 34:5-6)
Furthermore, the Bible appears to explicitly condemn cremation:
"Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Moab, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime" (Amos 2:1)
Some even believe that the inside of the cremation retort is a vision of hell. And yet others view cremation as the work of Satan himself. As Wim Malgo stated, "Cremation belongs to Satan's refined system of destruction." And can cremation by reconciled with resurrection?
"Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead." (Isa 26:19)
You will not be dwelling in the dust to wake up, but will have gone up the crematorium chimney and into the atmosphere.
According to the vision of Ezekiel, the body parts were simply commanded to reassemble and they obeyed. But what about "your" atoms which were used by other organisms after your cremation? On resurrection day, will you have to fight with them for atoms?
This isn't the whole picture.
To start with the Bible does not unanimously condemn cremation. In Amos 6:10 cremation appears to be accepted:
"And a man's uncle shall take him up, and he that burneth him, to bring out the bones out of the house"
Neither is there any condemnation of the burning of Saul's body
"All the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-shan, and came to Jabesh, and burnt them there." (1 Samuel 31:12).
If we look at the way the Ancients treated bones, it is not that different to the way ashes may be treated today:
"And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence." (Genesis 50:24-26)
It looks like Joseph expected his bones to be carried around, in the same as some day someone might lovingly carry your ashes around Chrissie. After all what are "ashes" but incinerated bone? And indeed Joseph's bones were carried:
"And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him: for he had straitly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you." (Exodus 13:19)
Fire is good. God himself is often portrayed as a fire:
"For our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:23)
"For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God" (Deut 4:24)
"And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. " (Exodus 24:17)
So perhaps we could say the devouring fire is like the glory of the Lord or a consuming fire is your God. When you are slid into the retort Chrissie, you encouter the Lord's glory and are devoured by your God.
The cremation chamber is a holy place. A place where you meet your God as the fire. Of course you will consumed by your God, but how could it be otherwise? Whenever the Lord received a sacrifice in Scripture he would send fire to consume it, and then it would go up in smoke. In the cremator you will be the sacrifice Chrissie. The Lord will accept your sacrifice and consume you.
Of course fire purifies. And the body needs purification:
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness" (Galatians 5:19)
Cremation and resurrection is not an issue, unless you take a physical view of resurrection. There will be no need for the old Chrissie, at the resurrection a new being - a Spirt Being or Angel - will be created. As the Christ said:
"For in the resurrection they ... are as the angels of God in heaven" (Matthew 22:30)
Or as the Paul says:
"There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:44)
The new being will not be skin, muscle and bone like Chrissie who went into the retort. They will be spirit. Chrissie will have been burnt down into pile of bits and pieces of bone, and then ground up into a fine ash. Being burnt up, ground down and scattered is cause for rejoicing. Chrissie cannot get into Jehovah's kingdom because as Paul says:
"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption" (1 Corinthians 15:50).
It is better that the Chrissie is destroyed.
Is cremation the work of Satan? Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan was cremated. His ashes were not buried, but were eventually divided amongst his heirs as part of a settlement, on the assumption that they possess occult potency, and can be used for acts of Satanic magic. But it was not only cremation that LeVay was in favour of:
"No pantyhose - the enemy of every witch. ..... The classic seamed stocking was designed to augment the beauty of a woman's leg, the seam tracing the gentle curves, the dark contrasting top accenting a woman's seldom glimpsed thigh." (Anton LeVay, The Satanic Witch).
I know you like wearing stockings rather than tights Chrissie. But that doen't make you a follower of LeVay or Satan himself. So it is with cremation. (Like the black fishnets by the way!).
Very warmest reguards.
Lucy F
