 | Reverend Terry G. Fox is Senior Pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church. He is Chairman of the North American Mission Board, member of its Executive Committee and the FamilyNet Broadcast Communications Committee, as well as numerous other subcommittees. He's listed on the Who's Who Among Outstanding Corporate Executives. He is a sought after speaker and has traveled and ministered in many places in the United States, Latin America and Southeast Asia. Rev. Fox and his wife Barbara have three children. You may contact him at Immanuel Baptist Church, 1415 South Topeka, Wichita, Kansas, 67211; phone (316) 262-1452; or Fax (316) 262-4704. |
Religion
2004-07-01 09:14:00
Cremation... is it a moral or spiritual issue?
: Is cremation a moral or spiritual issue? Is it now or was it ever considered to be a desecration of the body.
ANSWER: Yes, it has been considered to be a spiritual issue, and even a public health issue. It is a difficult spiritual issue because there is no direct mention of it in the Bible. The Hebrews used earth burial or entombment and there seems to have been no Middle Eastern country that used cremation in Biblical times. The Egyptians, of course, placed enormous emphasis on proper burial and developed embalming and mummifying technology that still confounds morticians.However, in Europe cremation was common. At the time of Homer (about 800 BC) it was the common Greek method and was encouraged for reasons of health, especially for battlefield aftermath. The Romans accepted cremation around 600 BC and it was so common that an official decree was issued in the mid 5th century forbidding cremation of bodies inside the city of Rome. During the Roman Empire, 27 BC to 395 AD, it was widely practiced, and cremated remains were generally stored in elaborate urns.So the early Christian church encountered this decision in its early days. Following the Jewish example and with the strong belief in the resurrection of the body at the Christ's return, cremation was rare. After the Christianization of the Empire under Constantine, earth burial completely replaced cremation except for rare instances of plague or war for the next 1500 years. The anti-cremation stance hardened into doctrine and was forbidden by canon law. In the 8th century Charlemagne declared it a capital offense. Only with Vatican II did Roman Catholics relax the ban, but burial is still the church's preference. In the East, Hindus in India used cremation almost exclusively, as is logical with their belief in reincarnation of the soul.American and European cremation began only a little over a century ago. Queen Victoria's surgeon, Sir Henry Thompson, concerned with health conditions near cemeteries, founded the Cremation Society of England in 1874. In 1876 the first American crematory opened in Pennsylvania. Many Protestant clergy desired to reform burial practices and the medical profession was concerned with health conditions around cemeteries. By 1900, there were 20 crematories in operation in the USA; in 1975 there were 425 crematories and nearly 150,000 cremations. In 1999, in America, over 25% of the deaths led to cremations. This is small compared to England's 70% and 98% in Japan. So this is an issue that is not likely to go away. We commonly hear of persons who direct that their ashes be scattered on some place that was dear to them, believing that this is a spiritual act.Those who are most concerned with desecration of the body have led to mortuary cosmetologists and very high funeral costs. We have always had to face the question of how resurrection of the body applied to martyrs burned at the stake and sailors buried at sea. And there is little left of bodies buried centuries ago. But Christians can be assured that God still remembers their bodies and can reconstitute them according to the changes described in I Cor.15. We who are Christian believers rest in the assurance that "Jesus Christ...will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body" ( Phil.3:21 ). And "we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." ( I John 3:2). All of us face death and judgment. So the larger concern should be whether we have accepted the salvation purchased for us by Christ and offered to each of us who will entrust our lives to Him. For now, cremation is usually a matter of personal or family choice with some guidance from the clergy. I have a close friend - a teacher - who willed his body to the medical school so that it could help teach physicians. Upon his death, this was done and a Memorial Service was held with no body present. Later his remains were cremated and returned to be buried with his wife. Some may have questioned whether this was a proper Christian burial, but most joined him in rejoicing in his "last teaching job".
