Does the spirit live after cremation?

Question

Mother was cremated four years ago. How can I cope with this in my beliefs? I wanted her to have resurrection, then she talked of cremation. How does all this come together in belief of God. Is it like the movie Casper where some form of transference takes place to give back a body?

Answer 1

This idea of resurrection of the physical body is a misunderstanding of scripture.

The body is a limitation placed on spirit for the express purpose of gaining certain crucial understandings that are not ascertainable by spirit in its nonphysical primary reality.

The idea that spirit would wish to continue to be encumbered with this limitation that the body is is unrealistic at best.

It is the equivalent of someone who had their head in a wooden box for 60 or 70 years with only a small hole to look out of wanting to keep the box after they were able to take it off.

Think about it, its Not likely.

love and blessings Don

Answer 2

The Bible does not give specific directions for the disposal of the body following death. Bible-era practices are described in Unger's Bible Dictionary as follows: "Interment in Bible times followed soon after death, as is evident in the narratives of the burial of Sarah (Genesis 23:1-20), Rachel (Genesis 35:19-20), and Rebekah's nurse (Genesis 35:8). The Hebrews did not normally cremate, except in most unusual cases of emergency, as in the case of Saul and his sons (1 Samuel 31:11-13). Later Babylonians burned their dead and deposited their ashes in ornate funerary urns, as did Greeks and Romans. Hebrews in later time, indicated by the numerous ossuaries found in New Testament Palestine, also practiced cremation."

Christians will want to show respect for the body. Even though the essential person or spirit has moved on to an eternal destiny, the body is the tangible reminder of all that person meant to us. In addition, the body is destined for resurrection, transformation, and reunion with the spirit at Christ's return. Whether burial or cremation best expresses that appropriate respect is a very personal decision. The wishes of other close family members and friends should also be considered in any decision because they are the ones who will live with the decision and with the memories.

At the resurrection it will not make any difference whether a person's body has been buried or cremated. God knows how to raise the body, either in the resurrection of life or the resurrection of condemnation (John 5:28-29). The new body of a Christian will be a radically changed and glorified body like the body of the exalted Christ. It will be an eternal, spiritual body never again to experience weakness, disease, suffering, or death (1 Corinthians 15:35-54 and Philippians 3:20-21).

Answer 3

The spirit lives on regardless of what happens to the body. What ever your beliefs in resurrection, do you honestly think the bodies are going to rise up out of the earth and look just like the day they died?? What do you think happens to any body after decades or centuries of decomposition? Dust is dust, whether it comes from centuries of decay or cremation.

Besides would you want to come back as a 90 year old feeble wheelchair bound crippple (just an example here)? Doesn't sound like a great way to spend eternity to me. I'm pretty sure that is not what resurrection means. It's the soul at issue here. The body is merely the shell that housed it on this earth. So don't worry about your Mom...her soul is just fine.

Answer 4

If the spirit/soul can live on after death and burial then it certainly can live on after cremation. Are you referring to the resurrection of the body (Christian belief)? If so, then cremation poses no obstacles to resurrection of the body. God is God afterall - He can put a cremated body "back together" so to speak or he can give a new resurrected body to the soul of a cremated person. Think about it - would God deny resurrection of the body to people whose bodies were destroyed in other ways - burned to ashes in the World Trade Center, blown to bits by bombs, eaten up by sharks, etc?

Answer 5

Cremation is the same process as decomposition in the grave, only faster. Either way the body no longer exists. What happens to the dead body has nothing to do with being resurrected on the last day.
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Answer 6

First, I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your mother.

Your question is about our identity. Are we flesh with a soul or soul with flesh? Some even believe that we are only flesh and that life ends at our physical death.

I beleive as Christianity teaches that we are souls (our primary identity) with flesh and that at the time of our physical death we join our creater. Later, our bodies will be resurrected. If God can resurrect our bones He can certaily resurrect our dust left from cremation.

Answer 7

I believe that we lived as Spirit Children of God in Heaven before we came to this earth to receive a physical body.

I believe that the body is a very precious gift from God and that we should not destroy it...

I believe that at death our Spirit separates from our body and at resurrection we get our body back (in better shape than original).

However, I also believe that when we are resurrected it will not matter what condition our body is in (after all, we were created from dust in the beginning).

Answer 8

Yes it does. There is nothing wrong with creamation. Really now, it is no different than laying there rotting. Sorry, but it is the truth. She is never going to need that body again. Her soul is what is important. And souls don't burn or rot. Think of it this way. When you clip your fingernails, do you ever wish you had not gotten rid of that part of you? Ever wonder what happened to it? No you certainly don't. When we die, that is how we are going to feel about our bodies. We only need them for here on earth. From then on, we will be using our souls only. We that are left here without them are the ones who have a hard time with this. And that is because we still think of them as alive and do not want to hurt them. We don't want to harm them in any way. So when God comes to get all of us for judgement day, we will be ok because we will have our souls.

Answer 9

Does the soul survive passing through the digestive tract of worms and does it become worm-poop? We buried my dad and all I can think about are the worms crawling around his body and hoping that they do not consume his soul before the resurrection. What happens when the entire body is consumed, as has happened to most Christians who died long ago? Will the resurrection mean that all the worms are going to crawl out of the ground because of all the souls they have consumed eating bodies and the remains of each other?

Answer 10

When the body dies it is as Jesus described with Lazarus as though being asleep. The thoughts and feelings of that person is gone.
After Armageddon God will raise the dead to let them come to an understanding of God and bring judgment on those who are not written in to the book of life. The second death - total annihilation not hell fire.. The soul is not immortal but dies as does the body, it is God who can give back the life. The soul is the person and not a spirit inside us.