It has become apparent to me that the seed (the human body) that is put in the ground at death is not the body that comes out of the ground at the time of resurrection.

From my understanding of tradition, I knew - or thought I knew - that God had given strict direction to Israel about the burial of the dead.

It was an even greater surprise when I learned of the number of ministers who would acknowledge they knew that the practice of cremation did not matter to God, but confessed they could not bring themselves to consider cremation as an alternative to burial.

Today when the subject comes up, I assure my fellow ministers that I certainly understand their feelings. Then I mention something that was a great help to me in considering this sometimes very controversial subject.

That is, if God had an explicit plan about the disposal of a dead body and it did not include cremation as one of them, I don't believe He would have told Abraham to offer his only son as a burnt sacrifice to Him on Mt. Moriah.

The testing of Abraham's faith as a foreshadowing of Christ's sacrifice (Heb. 11:17) was of course paramount in Isaac's offering…but this is something to think about.

I am not trying to persuade anyone about the "rightness" of any form or treatment of our loved ones who die. As always, the saddened family must make this choice. I simply wish to present or discuss the choices that do exist.

And cremation is one of those choices.

A Long-Waged Argument
The argument against cremation put forth by many, that Christian burial honors the body and that cremation dishonors it, will probably always be waged. I simply want to show the fact that our Western burial arguments stem from tradition, not Scripture.

When this mortal life is over we will face eternity where "this mortal is swallowed up in immortality." So, again, what is done with this body should be of no real concern! Our major concern should focus on the disposition of the deceased's spirit, which will never die.

Why?

The Psalmist wrote that, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Ps. 116:15), because the cessation of natural life on earth to the Christian is just the entryway into God's plans for man's spiritual, eternal life. And in accordance with these, He has appointed a divinely set time in the future when "this mortal will put on the immortal" in a divinely prescribed resurrection from the dead.

To be absent from body is only phase one, so to speak. But phase two will involve the creation of a completely new supernatural "tent" in which God's saints will dwell someday. It will be just like the one Jesus possesses now, and it will have nothing whatsoever to do with the disposition of the corpse that returns to be dirt.

Job received tremendous prophetic insight in the day of Abraham concerning this coming resurrection when he said, "And after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:26). But the flesh would not be mortal, as we shall see.

Resurrection Realities
It would be through the apostle Paul that God would address the amazing realities of the resurrection of the dead. It is only in the fifteenth chapter of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians that we can find the subject of the resurrection in a depth of revelation that is nowhere else to be found.

Nevertheless, the Church seems to struggle with it today, even as they did then.

After first proving the resurrection of Christ, Paul discusses the resurrection of the church. Apparently there were some who made light of this subject. So he wrote, "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?" (1 Cor. 15:12).

If the resurrection was a fantasy, Paul went on to say, then what the apostles had been preaching in the Gospel was a lie and they were false witnesses!

Dake's put it this way, if there is no resurrection, then, "Our preaching is in vain, our faith is in vain. We would be yet in our sins and all that have already died would simply be perished…then, if we have no hope, we are miserable and just plain fools."

If our Christian faith is based upon the hope that the grave is not the end (and it is…!), then what seems to cause this great doubt as referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:12-14?

They Expected His Return
All of the early disciples sat under Jesus' ministry for three years or more. They heard Him tell Martha that her brother would rise again. Then a little later He declared, "I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live again, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die" (John 11:25).

Then as they witnessed Jesus' ascension the disciples heard the words of the angels say, "This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven" (Acts 1:11b).

Then these followers of the Lord went their way believing and teaching that the generation who saw Jesus disappear would see Him return in their lifetime. They weren't told by Jesus or the angels when any of this would happen. But there were two distance things they heard:

1. You will never die
2. Jesus would return soon, in the same manner as He went away

To confirm this, Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about their very deep concern for their loved ones who had died before Christ returned. Because they all expected the return of Christ in their generation, they were grieving and in great sorrow over their loved ones who had received Christ and died.

So Paul wrote:

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
(1 Thess. 4:13-18)

Paul was thorough in his writings about the resurrection of the dead. But he also had deep insight into the things concerning Christ's return and what would occur, not only with the dead saints, but also with the living.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is they sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Cor. 15:50-57) (Also see 1 Thess. 4:17)

Confusion Remains
These are great, magnificent truths that are as surrounded today by confusion as they were when Paul addressed them. The Church, after two thousand years, is still in much perplexity about this great subject.

The confusion is obvious at the time of a Christian's death and burial. Many believe the disposition of their loved one's corpse will have an impact on the promised resurrection.

Others weep as the world which has not the hope of Scripture. It is at the time of a Christian's physical death we show that we lack an understanding of the Scriptures and the truth the apostle Paul so plainly taught.

And again, Christians who have lost loved ones will spend millions of dollars every year for expensive caskets and tombs. Much of the time it is money that the loved ones can't afford.

In the light of Scripture, what so many of us believe is really just as odd as some eastern burial traditions. We talk to headstones and bring flowers to our dead.

But there really will be a resurrection of the dead.

And the question we still face today is the same one faced in Paul's day:

But some man will say, how are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?
(1 Cor. 15:35)

To answer this, in part anyway, one should examine the resurrection of Jesus because there is much to learn from it. And it is a subject I plan to discuss in one of my forthcoming articles.

Source: Creation to Cremation by Dr. Roy Hicks
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers