2006-12-21 07:36:06 · 44 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Okay I noticed the first few posts said Christians aren't. But here's an example. My dad wants to be cremated, but my parents have said, their preacher is against it. It's like against the bible, and I'm asking you all because these people are a bunch of fundamentalists or envangelical Southern Baptists who don't explain things well.
2006-12-21 08:01:58 · update #1
Theologically, it has to do with belief in the general resurrection at the end of time. Some Christians are concerned that their bodies be in the best shape possible for the resurrection. (After all, Jesus didn't heal his nail and spear wounds.)
Other Christians have realized this is silly as God could manage the process as he wished. Among Catholics, cremation is only discouraged if the reason is disbelief in the resurrection. Graveyards aren't getting any emptier (or cheaper) and many people are thinking practically. Still, old superstitions persist.
2006-12-21 09:31:25 · answer #1 · answered by skepsis 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
In Christian countries, cremation fell out of favour. The Catholic Church's discouragement of cremation stemmed from several ideas: first, that the body, as the instrument through which the sacraments are received, is itself a sacramental, a holy object; second that as an integral part of the human person (St. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, specifically rejected the notion that the human person is merely the soul "trapped" in a body) it should be disposed of in a way that honors and reverences it, and many early practices involved with disposal of dead bodies were viewed as pagan in origin or an insult to the body; third, that in imitation of Jesus Christ's burial, the body of a Christian should be buried; and fourth, that because cremation was often seen as or used as a statement by certain groups denying the resurrection, allowing it would confuse the faithful. The Church never forbade cremation because of any alleged belief that it interfered with God's ability to resurrect the body.
The Catholic Church still officially prefers the traditional burial or entombment of the deceased, but cremation is now freely permitted as long as it is not done to express a refusal to believe in the resurrection of the body.
2006-12-21 07:41:11 · answer #2 · answered by merideathx 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Jews are against cremation, as are many fundamentalists. The belief is that they will need their bodies when the rapture/judgement/end time/ etc arrives. If their body isn't waiting to reunite with their souls, I guess their souls drift out into space or something.
It is a belief that can be traced back to the egyptian book of the dead. The egyptians beleived that the afterlife was much like their "real" life, thus their body was needed to sleep, eat, have sex, etc.
Why anyone would want to a reenter a decomposed stinking peice of dead meet to wear for eternity is a mystery to me.
Early christians were cremated. This resurrection doctrine is relatively recent.
2006-12-21 08:12:47 · answer #3 · answered by Dane 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I wasn't going to respond to this question until eventually I study an answer that replaced into obviously incorrect. interior the previous, some Christians objected to cremation because they concept it did not coach sufficient comprehend for the sacred continues to be of the useless. a minimum of interior the Catholic Church that has been replaced and cremation is not basically allowed yet completely customary. Catholic cemeteries even furnish particular crypts for the repose of cremated continues to be. An statement made that God by some ability may get wondered and under no circumstances be able to positioned the cremated continues to be of human beings decrease back at the same time on the superb Day is laughable (even although I doubt it replaced into meant to be). An all-powerful and omniscient God basically isn't constrained with the help of such issues. basically one extra representation of ways sophomoric information isn't constrained to faculties.
2016-12-01 01:36:08 · answer #4 · answered by bartow 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good question. I for one have never heard of any christian being against it. I mean yes people in the Bible were buried, but to those who answered this question with "it is the only way God can come back for us, and take our body and soul" --do you not realize that MANY christians burned in fires? They have no bodies. Does that mean God will not take them? Of course not! It is our SOULS that go to heaven...the Bible says "And the dead in Christ shall rise first" --that is those who died before us who are going to be taken with Jesus in The clouds, then we who are still alive will be raptured to meet them in the clouds ( See 1 Thessalonians 4) --And the Bible also says that "to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord"
Cremation is not a sin. I think too many people are hung up in legalism- or rituals. If I died today, in a fire. I know I would be with the Lord forever. If was cremated, I know I would be with the lord- for what is it that saves us? Jesus Christ alone, His grace through Faith~ Ephesians 2:8
2006-12-21 07:53:27 · answer #5 · answered by Mandolyn Monkey Munch 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Who says we are? I've already told my mom to have me cremated--of course, she's not hearing it.
I think this 'no cremation' thing has to do with the passage in the scriptures that says the body is the temple of the Lord--praphrased. That means that we are not to desecrate it in any way, while living or dead. But, I've yet to find the correation between that and cremation. If people are so gung ho about not desecrating the body, then why pierce ears, get tattoos, or cosmetic surgery?
I say ashes to ashes and dust to dust--I'm just helping the process along while saving my family thousands of dollars.
2006-12-21 07:52:54 · answer #6 · answered by reeses30135 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I'm a Christian, and I am not against cremation. I think it has more to do with where a person is from when it comes to cremation. I'm from East Texas where burial seems to be the popular choice.
2006-12-21 07:42:48 · answer #7 · answered by Becky 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Christianity in general doesn't prohibit cremation. Some people are comfortable with it and some people aren't. It's a personal choice just like some people prefer to be burried under ground and some indoors in mausoleums. personal choice.
2006-12-21 07:40:28 · answer #8 · answered by talktime 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'm a Christian, and I'm not against it. My grandmother was Catholic, and she was against it because of the passage in Scripture that talks about raising people physically from their graves and then transforming their bodies. I say that God would have no problem raising my ashes and transforming them into a new body for me. Certainly there have been plenty of people whose bodies have been torn apart by animals or disintegrated at sea or burned in fires. Cremation shouldn't be a problem.
2006-12-21 07:41:33 · answer #9 · answered by happygirl 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
You are too generalizing, I don't think all Christians are against cremation. All Christians who know their Bible will agree that whether you are cremated, buried, thrown into the sea, eaten by animals, or incenerated into dust in a bomb explosion, you will still be resurrected at Jesus' Second coming. His power is not limited to restore us to our origin, or rather a better being!
2006-12-21 07:43:00 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 2⤋