Secrets from Beyond The Grave

service charges, embalming, viewing in the funeral home, hearse, casket and vault, and burial costs--now averages $6,130.1 Families struggling with finances and without burial and death insurance often choose cremation not as a first choice but as the only option. The question is: From the biblical and Christian perspective, is it ever wrong to cremate a fellow believer? First, the entire Bible is clear on how the patriarchs, the Hebrew people, and the New Testament believers buried their loved ones. Abraham purchased a cave in Hebron, the cave of Machpelah, to bury his wife, Sarah (Gen. 23). Later, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, and Leah were all buried in the same cave (Gen 25:9; 49:30; 50:13). Joseph was embalmed in the traditional Egyptian method, and his body was laid in a golden coffin and placed in a special vault in Egypt (Gen. 50:26). At the time of the Exodus, Moses entered the vault and removed the golden coffin with Joseph's bones, and they were transferred from Egypt to the Promised Land (Exod. 13:19) and later buried by Joshua in the land of Joseph's inheritance (Josh. 24:32). This burial process was requested by Joseph before his death. He wanted to be brought back to the land of his fathers when Israel returned to the land (Gen. 50:25). Those who completely oppose cremation point out the following: In Joshua 8, after Achan sinned by stealing the gold and the garments from Jericho, his sin was exposed, and the people stoned him and burned his body, leaving a pile of stones as a reminder of God's anger being turned from Israel (Josh. 7:24-26). Also, it is noted that the pagan city of Jericho was to be "burned with fire" (Josh. 6:24) after it was conquered by the Hebrews. There is, however, a practical (not just a spiritual) reason for burning the dead remains of people, animals, and the city with fire. Jericho was located in a hot desert region. There were thousands of bodies of men and animals lying in the streets of the city. The Hebrew men were told to take the land, and they did not have the time to bury the remains of the dead, as touching a dead carcass would also make them unclean according to the Law of Moses (Lev. 5:2; 7:19-21). If these dead, bleeding corpses were permitted to lie in the sun for days, disease would spread to the living and could spread among the Hebrew people, eventually taking the lives of the Israeli warriors. Thus the simplest explanation for burning the city was to prevent deadly plagues from being passed on. The sin of Achan was so great that when Israel engaged their second city, Ai, in battle, this smaller city defeated the Israelite soldiers! Usually God permitted His people to hold on to the spoil of a city after the battle. However, Jericho was the first of thirty-one cities Israel was to conquer and was a firstfruits city . It was taken during the Feast of Firstfruits, and the spiritual principle mandated that all possessions in the city belonged to the Lord and to the treasury in the tabernacle built by Moses. Achan actually stole from the Lord! There is no clear scripture either promoting or discouraging cremation. This is actually a spiritual and moral issue with some, but it probably falls under the scripture that teaches, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). Some people believe that in some way cremation impacts God's ability to resurrect that person from the dead, since the crematory fires have consumed the entire remains, except the powder of the bones. This cannot be true, for consider the number of Christians who were unable to escape from and died in burning planes, homes, or large buildings. Their departure from this life in a tragic fire will not impact their future with Christ because their souls and spirits are already with the Lord. Cremation does not affect the soul and spirit; these two eternal life forces exit the body at death. Often after death, a major autopsy is performed. Also, many people have stipulated in their wills that their organs should be donated for medical research or to assist a person who needs a kidney or some other life-giving organ. The fact that the remains of the person has undergone the knife of a specialist searching for the cause of death or to harvest organs for