May 15, 2025
During the recent Easter season people around the world heard much about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of the Son of God, the Savior of the world, is, of course, the centerpiece, the cornerstone, the lynchpin of our faith.
It was also noted that after the horrible scourging and torturous death of Christ that Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy Jewish man and a secret follower of Christ, requested his body from Pontius Pilate, took it down from the cross, wrapped it in linen, and laid (buried) it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone where no one had ever been buried (Luke 23: 53).
Upon hearing about the burial of Christ, an elderly woman came up to me and asked, “Are Christians to be buried like Jesus, or can one be cremated without violating Holy Scripture?”
It was not the first time someone had asked me that question. In fact, when I was a pastor, I was asked that question frequently.
In 2023, the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) reported that the U. S. cremation rate is expected to increase in the nation from 60.5% in 2023 to 81.4% by 2045.
Admittedly, there are some advantages to having the body of a loved one cremated. Obviously, it is less expensive. Cremation does not require embalming, the purchase of a casket or a burial plot. It also provides greater flexibility in planning a memorial service. While a funeral director can assist with the death certificate and cremation, the family will have more flexibility in planning the memorial service to fit the schedule that works best for all concerned.
However, God’s formation of male and female in His own image is the crown of His creation. Some feel that the cremation of God’s masterpiece is disrespectful. To some, it lessens the visual and spiritual impact of the rapture when the dead in Christ shall rise first. Others cite the pagan roots of cremation and highlight that ground burial is the overwhelming custom practiced by both Jews and Christians throughout history.
Nevertheless, the Bible nowhere directly forbids cremation. Timothy George, the founding dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala., stated, “While the weight of Christian tradition clearly favors burial, the Bible nowhere explicitly condemns cremation.”
In cremation, the body is placed in a wooden casket or some kind of cardboard enclosure and placed in the retort (cremation chamber) with temperatures in the range of 1800 to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. The body is vaporized and reduced to bone fragments.
John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., explained, “In cremation, the state of what remains of the old body is unimportant, so we need not focus on how to dispose of our earthly bodies.
“So, cremation isn’t a strange or wrong practice – it merely accelerates the natural process of oxidation. “It simply expedites the process of turning the body into dust.”
The question some might ask is, “Does cremation create a problem for the Lord at the resurrection of believers when He comes in the clouds to rapture His church?”
The answer is, “No, God is equally able to raise a person’s remains that have been cremated as He is the remains of a person who was not cremated.”
In Psalm 139, King David wrote, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them” (KJV). What are the “members” that God has written in His book?
Could it be that God has our DNA on file in heaven? Even if He doesn’t have our genetic makeup or DNA on file, Psalm 139 certainly emphasizes God’s comprehensive and intimate understanding of us from the time of our conception.
Though scientists may attempt to understand the complexities of the trillions of cells in the human body, and comprehend the intricacies of the 46 chromosomes that carry as many as 30,000 genes which are composed of strands of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and while they may attempt to control the dissemination and use of the "genetic blueprint for human beings” the genetic code ultimately belongs to our omnipotent Creator.
And if God could take some dust from the earth and create Adam, we can be sure that He can take the ashes, a hair, a fingernail, or a bone fragment from a cremated believer and miraculously fashion from those diminished remains a new, rarified, glorified body.
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J. Gerald Harris is a retired pastor and journalist who served as editor of The Christian Index for nearly two decades. You can reach him at gharris@loveliftedmehigher.org.
