Home » Discussion Area » Rant/Rave » Cremation versus burial?
| Cremation versus burial? [message #11811] |
Sun, 11 October 2015 11:46  |
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 Gary
Messages: 1025
Registered: August 2008
Location: Indiana |
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Bear with me if we have discussed this before.
More and more you hear about people being cremated versus being buried. I read an article where one woman did not want her body laying in the cold ground, but wanted her ashes scattered around the flower bed.
Before I became a Christian I always thought of death as going to sleep and you would dissolve into nothingness, total darkness, and ceasing to exist as a person. The thought was always frightening and I would only dwell on it for seconds and then push it from my mind. To the unregenerate person death is the final reality everyone must deal with, no matter how they joke about it in public they still have to deal with it in their conscience when their alone and away from the crowd. They say there is no God, but there is "death" and that means a possibility there "Is a God". No matter what everyone may say publicly around their peers, they still have to deal with their conscience when their alone and this fact cannot be over emphasized.
The real reason cremation is being considered is because of "money". Most funerals start at 6000.+, cremation costs around a thousand dollars depending on how fancy a urn you buy. We do have a renegade funeral director up here that will do a no frills funeral for around 3000., he is disliked by all the funeral homes in the area.
While the thought of death is never pleasant, having your remains thrown to the wind does not sound that appealing. The other scenario is do we buy the fancy mahogany coffin with the hand carved cherubs versus the tin model that sounds like a soup can and is subject to rust and corrosion. Either way, our bodies will be going in the ground until the day the graves are opened.
While I don't believe its a lack of faith to prepare for this event, going out and picking a grave site is on the bottom of my to do list, let alone thinking about a funeral.
I don't know if I mentioned it here but a good while back I seen a picture of a boxer standing in the corner of a ring, with his gloves on, boxer shorts, and a pair of sun glasses. The thing you could not tell was that he was stuffed and mounted and quite dead. The family then went and took turns going up and standing by him so they could get their pictures taken. The article went on to tell of strange burial procedures. One man had a glass room and he was setting on his Harley and was mounted where people could go see him. What a waste of a good bike. Another man was buried in his Cadillac the article said; he had a lot of fond memories of his car and it was his baby. Who said you couldn't take it with you?
Anyway because of the high cost of funerals it has given people the idea that cremation is the better option to take.
I have mixed emotions concerning this thinking, (concerning cremation versus burial), but to me the ultimate would be having the Lord coming and taking us out of here. Our bodies changed in the twinkling of an eye.
Gary
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| Re: Cremation versus burial? [message #11812 is a reply to message #11811] |
Sun, 11 October 2015 20:41  |
james
Messages: 2142
Registered: April 2008
Location: Birmingham, AL |
Senior Member |
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I have a Christian friend who insist that she wants to be cremated due to the high cost of funerals. We have discussed it several times and seem to have different views. I can't find Biblical examples of Christians burning their bodies as a means of disposal. Jesus was buried, and every other example given throughout scripture shows saints being buried. Genesis 3:19 says we are made of dust and to dust and the ground we shall return.(notice it doesn't say ashes, there's a difference between the two.)
I'm not sure when the burning started but I believe it's been around for centuries, the Hindu burn their dead. Maybe that's where it began, but I don't really know. I don't know that it would be a sin to be cremated, but my conscious wouldn't allow me to be part of cremating anyone.
I do know that it wouldn't prevent The Lord from recreating us in our new glorified bodies.
“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,”
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| Re: Cremation versus burial? [message #11813 is a reply to message #11812] |
Mon, 12 October 2015 10:04 |
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Gary
Messages: 1025
Registered: August 2008
Location: Indiana |
Senior Member |
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| james wrote on Sun, 11 October 2015 16:41 |
I have a Christian friend who insist that she wants to be cremated due to the high cost of funerals. We have discussed it several times and seem to have different views. I can't find Biblical examples of Christians burning their bodies as a means of disposal. Jesus was buried, and every other example given throughout scripture shows saints being buried. Genesis 3:19 says we are made of dust and to dust and the ground we shall return.(notice it doesn't say ashes, there's a difference between the two.)
I'm not sure when the burning started but I believe it's been around for centuries, the Hindu burn their dead. Maybe that's where it began, but I don't really know. I don't know that it would be a sin to be cremated, but my conscious wouldn't allow me to be part of cremating anyone.
I do know that it wouldn't prevent The Lord from recreating us in our new glorified bodies.
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I looked at wikipedia and it was not much help, so much information is false and you don't know what is fact or fiction. For instance, they said, that archaeologists had found an urn with ashes that was 20,000 years old, I don't think men have been on this earth that long. They did say also that pagans practiced cremating their dead, including the Romans and Greeks.
When Christianity started to spread to other countries, cremation was frowned upon, so many stopped for a while practicing this form of burial. They went on and quoted a number of scriptures supporting not cremating, but many of the scriptures being quoted was pulled out of context and was not speaking of cremation.
As far as I could tell the NT does not legislate how to bury the dead, the few examples we see in the NT they buried their dead and wrapped the bodies. Wiki said; that Christianity followed the Jewish practice of how they buried their dead and this stayed with the church. There was several scriptures given that only showed bodies being burned in the OT, when it was judgement on someone. I would have to look up all the scriptures and see in what context they are being used. But just reading through the ones given it sounded like a good reason not to cremate. The Catholics did not even cremate but in recent years many are following this custom, along with a lot of churches. I have a friend as well who wants to be cremated because of the money and what it cost versus a burial.
Either way I agree with you, if the Lord tarries I would not want to be cremated, and I just would want a simple graveside service. Displaying the dead is an American practice,and is the other side of the coin, and it seems morbid. People now take pictures with their cell phones. You would think someone had just won an award with all the cameras flashing.
I had heard the story, but don't remember all the names, of a King in England who called a priest in to his death bed and said; At his funeral he wanted for the priest to say something "great" about him to everyone who attended.
The day arrived and the king was laying in a fine carved casket with a large candle burning at the head of the casket. When the priest got done speaking he walked down by the candle and took his thumb and first finger and snuffed out the flame on the candle, then he turned to the crowd and said: "Only God is Great", then walked off.
Gary
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| Re: Cremation versus burial? [message #12955 is a reply to message #11812] |
Mon, 09 December 2019 16:23 |
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Gary
Messages: 1025
Registered: August 2008
Location: Indiana |
Senior Member |
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james wrote on Sun, 11 October 2015 20:41I have a Christian friend who insist that she wants to be cremated due to the high cost of funerals. We have discussed it several times and seem to have different views. I can't find Biblical examples of Christians burning their bodies as a means of disposal. Jesus was buried, and every other example given throughout scripture shows saints being buried. Genesis 3:19 says we are made of dust and to dust and the ground we shall return.(notice it doesn't say ashes, there's a difference between the two.)
I'm not sure when the burning started but I believe it's been around for centuries, the Hindu burn their dead. Maybe that's where it began, but I don't really know. I don't know that it would be a sin to be cremated, but my conscious wouldn't allow me to be part of cremating anyone.
I do know that it wouldn't prevent The Lord from recreating us in our new glorified bodies.
We have the option here in Indiana now at least in my area where you can get a "Green Burial", what this consists of is a plywood casket, no embalming, no vault unless required by cemetery your buried in.
There's a funeral director who provides this service, most of the other funeral homes in our area don't like the guy.
I think you can get buried for around $3000.00. The casket looks ultra cheapo but hey, its going into the ground. I think the grave plot may be included in that price.
I went to a funeral several months ago and they went all out with a fine walnut casket. It must of cost a fortune. Just seemed to me like a waste of money. The plywood casket I seen before that looked like you didn't care how your loved one was buried. Does it really matter both people were with the Lord and both caskets are probably already rotting.
In Him,
Gary
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| Re: Cremation versus burial? [message #12958 is a reply to message #12955] |
Mon, 09 December 2019 21:46 |
Marilyn Crow
Messages: 598
Registered: September 2013
Location: Australia |
Senior Member |
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Hi Gary,
Over here we are doing funerals different. Many people have a family time around the grave, and then go to have the service, without the casket. Do any do that over your way?
Marilyn.
Marilyn C
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| Re: Cremation versus burial? [message #12961 is a reply to message #12958] |
Mon, 09 December 2019 23:34 |
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Gary
Messages: 1025
Registered: August 2008
Location: Indiana |
Senior Member |
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Marilyn Crow wrote on Mon, 09 December 2019 21:46Hi Gary,
Over here we are doing funerals different. Many people have a family time around the grave, and then go to have the service, without the casket. Do any do that over your way?
Marilyn.
In America they may spend several days around the casket and then go to the grave sight. Afterwards they have a dinner some where.
In this green burial they have to bury the body quick because they do not use embalming fluid. The one I went too, everyone went to the grave sight they quoted scriptures then buried him. Afterwards they had a dinner.
Sad moment, the guy was real young just had a son, then they found he had a brain tumor, they took it out then he died weeks later. He was a Christian so it made it easier.
In Him,
Gary
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