Should Christians Be Cremated?

I received this question recently from one of our flock.

I was reviewing the details of my will and have specified that I wish to be cremated.  I have no real strong feelings; I guess just an engineer’s approach to simple and efficient.  I did google Dr. Dobson (Focus on the Family) and found:

“Dr. Dobson’s personal feeling is that cremation isn’t an issue of moral significance. Whether through cremation or prolonged decay in the earth, our physical bodies will return to ash.

Although as Christians we believe in bodily resurrection from the dead, the Apostle Paul indicates in I Corinthians 15:42-44, & 49 that our bodies will be somehow different at the time of Christ’s return: “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body . . . And just as we have borne the likeness of earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”

In short, Dr. Dobson believes the spiritual bodies we receive at the resurrection will not be dependent upon the state of our bodies here on earth.

Just wondering what Dr. Brauns thought.

Thankful you are my Pastor and a friend.

Respectfully recognizing that there are differences amongst Bible believing Christians on this issue, my answer is two-fold:

  1. I partially agree with Dr. Dobson.  In no way is the resurrection of believers limited by what happens physically after death.  A Christian obliterated by an explosion, for instance, will just as surely share in the resurrection.  If you have a Christian loved one who chose cremation, you need not fear that he or she will not be resurrected.
  2. But, unlike Dr. Dobson, I counsel against cremation.  It is not consistent with how burial was handled biblically (recall, for example, the specific instructions given by Jacob in Genesis 49:29-32).  More important, it does not square with a biblical view of humanity (anthropology).  We are physical beings.  Not that Dr. Dobson said this, but when people state that the body is just a shell for the soul they reflects Greek philosophy, not a biblical worldview.  We will be resurrected physically.

I encourage you to read Russell Moore’s article in Christianity Today, “The Emptied Tomb and the Emptied Urn.” Here is a splendid and hopeful excerpt from Moore’s article:

I still oppose cremation. There’s a reason Christians throughout the centuries have committed the bodies of the faithful to the ground, dramatically picturing our trust in the reclamation of these very same bodies when the roll is called up yonder. But I’m careful now to explain that, whatever is the case, cremation isn’t forever. Neither is amputation or mastectomies or the horrifying tattoo marks of totalitarian regimes sending prisoners to their executions.

This is a good place to again recommend Dr. Wittmer’s book, Heaven Is a Place on Earth: Why Everything You Do Matters to God


Published by Chris

10 thoughts on “Should Christians Be Cremated?”

  1. Thanks for tackling this. I was just asked this about a week ago and have been putting off giving a reply. I especially appreciated the link to Tullian & Wittmer. Blessings.

  2. I lean contrariwise.

    Dealing with this issue Biblically, as we must, is difficult. For one thing, you have the hermeneutically difficult issue of asking when the descriptive becomes prescriptive. Yep, the ancients buried their dead. They also made agreements by putting their hands under one another’s thighs. No one advocates the latter (thank God); are we bound to reproduce the former, absent a command to do so?

    I’m in hearty agreement with not wanting to downgrade the body in God’s redemptive plan. However, once a person dies, doesn’t he go to be “with the Lord”? Isn’t it the case that the body he leaves behind now actually is a shell? I mean, there is no remnant of him in that dead, rotting corpse, is there?

    Since we’re bound to formulate a position without specific Biblical directions, could we not equally argue that — if set within a whole theology that affirms the body as Scripture does — cremation is equally a statement of faith that the person is with the Lord, and that one day he will be reunited with a new, glorified body?

    These questions are genuine questions, btw, not snarks disguised as questions.

  3. Dan, I detected no “snarkiness” . . .

    You’re right, of course, about the prescriptive/descriptive distinction. And, I’m not looking to reinstate the thigh ceremony. Or, closer to the issue of burial, none of us wants to buy a cave to bury our loved ones in.

    Your position, then, would be more in line with Wittmer’s. It depends on the motivation. You know, I wouldn’t argue with someone who held that position so long as they emphatically affirmed the resurrection.

    When I write this next line, I feel a bit like I’m walking out in the middle of the train tracks with the headlight bearing down on me, but I must admit that some of my position is . . . (okay, here we go). . . a bit of “theological intuition” . . . But, it is intuition in light of the description of how burial was handled in the Bible, and in view of the resurrection.

    I also agree – – to be absent from the Body is to be present with the Lord – –

  4. I’m really appreciative of Dan’s comments as I have thought much of what he stated, but couldn’t put it into text as well as he did. Thank you for that.

    Chris, I have heard your arguments laid out by Bible professors and other preachers whom I respect greatly and yet it still has never satisfied me.

    I’m really glad to read Dan’s comments to see I’m not crazy on this one.

  5. Aaron, you would also appreciate Dan’s blog. I have an article that will be on-line soon. And, my writing it was prompted in some part from his post on capital punishment.

    Dan is writing a book that will be published one of these days. But, be sure and go by his blog and also Pyromaniacs.

  7. Yes, I am well aware of Dan at Pyromaniacs and on his own blog although I have not decided to make myself a regular commenter in the meta of those blogs yet (not sure I can keep up). What an honor to be invited by Dan Philips himself to sit down. Keep the Bible Dodges coming! I’ve got one for ya that someone has used on me:

    “I’ve just changed my hermeneutic to be different than yours now. That’s how I can say homosexuality is ok.”

  9. I appreciate your comments on cremation. For more on the subject, you can check out my article at…
    http://www.wordwise-bible-studies.com/cremation.html
    There I discuss seven biblical arguments against cremation. I hope you find them helpful.

    On my daily blog, Wordwise Hymns, I tell the story of the writing of the gospel song, “When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder.” Perhaps that site on hymn history would be of use to you as well.

    God bless.

  10. Robert, thank you for stopping by and for the link to your article on cremation. You gave a much more complete and compelling answer than I did.

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