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THE LAST WORD ON BURIAL AND CREMATION 1-12-2011
The fascinating truths presented in this article will set you free from
the bondage of some false concepts that you have embraced for a long time. Jesus told His disciples the truth will set you free. But it's not
merely reading or hearing truth that sets you free, it's embracing truth
that sets you free. Free from what? Free from the bondage of false
teaching, false concepts and deceptions. You
unnecessarily experience anxiety and stress because you embrace false
concepts concerning death, funerals, burial and related matters. This anxiety can be especially
great when you are confronted with an unexpected loss of a family member
and pressure is added to an already emotional and grievous state. At a time like that, thinking
rationally can be difficult. There is usually cultural influences and
pressure from family members for you to conform to widely accepted
beliefs. Most of these beliefs are of
little or no concern to God. If you pay close attention to all
of this article, you will not only be relieved by this newfound freedom,
but you, or your family, can save thousands of dollars concerning burial
or cremation expenses. However, saving money is not
the most important benefit of reading this message. You are about to read
some of the most fascinating and little-known truths concerning not only
burial and cremation, but also what you really are, what death really
is, and what life really is. As with all of our beliefs and
practices, those concerning burial and cremation, should be in accordance
with the truths presented in the Bible. The first thing you need to
understand is what you are. Most people think they are
their body. You are not your
body. You are only in your body.
You are a spirit that dwells in your body. If you are a Christian your
body is a temple of the Holy Spirit of Christ. Your spirit, which is you,
dwells within the realm of your soul, which is in your physical body, as
long as your body is alive. It is your soul that enables
you to have experiences with the physical realm. Your soul interfaces, as
it were, with your physical body. Your soul is the realm in which you have
your mind, your personality, your will and your emotions. It's because of your soul---
the realm between you and your
physical body--- that you can experience all the emotions that are common
to man. Now that you know that you are
not your body, you will find out what death really is. By knowing what death is you
can better understand what God has to say concerning dead bodies, burial
and cremation. The main difference between a
Christian and an unsaved person is that a Christian is spiritually alive,
and an unsaved person is spiritually dead. The Bible reveals that all who
are not born again are spiritually dead in their trespasses and sins. Because of Adam's sin, people
are born spiritually dead, and
spiritually separated from God and live a soulish life as opposed to a spiritual
life. One can live a spiritual life
only after being born again by the Holy Spirit of Christ. Of course, in
these last days of apostasy, many true Christians live a soulish life
rather than a spiritual life. It is important to understand that spiritual death is separation from God. It is the salvation experience,
also known as being born-again, that results in being given eternal life
by Christ, who is Life. Jesus said, I am the Way, the
Truth, and the Life. If you don't have the Spirit of
Christ in your spirit, you are spiritually dead and separated from God. When one experiences physical
death one does not cease to
exist, as some believe. I have coined a new word that
better describes reality concerning a human corpse, or dead body. That word is ex-body. Believing a dead body is the
person who used to inhabit it is a false concept. Also, to believe that a corpse
belongs to the person who used to inhabit it is a false concept. Again, to believe that a dead
body is the person who used to inhabit it, or to believe that a dead body belongs
to the person who used to inhabit it, is a delusion. Sometimes at funeral homes
people say things like, Joe is in that casket over there. Or, Joe's body
is in that casket over there. Or, someone might say something like Joe is
interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery. Or, Joe's body
is interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery. If all these statements were
referring to a real person, all these statements would be false. An ex-body is simply a corpse
that remains after a person experiences physical death and vacates that
body and goes either to heaven or to hell. That body no longer belongs to
the previous occupant and he or she has no connection to that dead body. A corpse is no longer your
loved one's body, it is his or her ex-body. Furthermore, the person who once inhabited that dead body,
has no concern whatsoever regarding what happens to it. So, physical
death is separation of the soul and spirit from the body, and spiritual
death is separation from Jesus Christ, who is God. True Christians who abide in
Christ cannot die, but they can experience their body dying. Of course, Christians who are
raptured when Jesus returns will not experience physical death. In the strictest sense, it
would not be accurate to say unsaved people die, because they're already
dead in their trespasses and sins. It would be accurate to say that an unsaved person experienced physical
death or that his or her body died. Therefore, it is accurate to
say someone, whether saved or unsaved, experiences physical death, because
whether one is spiritually alive or spiritually dead one can experience
physical death, sometimes more than once. There are several accounts in
the Bible of people experiencing physical death and being miraculously
brought back to live in their body. Sometimes people say things
such as, Joe died yesterday. But the truth is that if Joe is a Christian
who abided in Christ, he did not
die. Concerning those who have been
born again and remain in Him, Jesus said in John 11:26 that everyone who
lives and believes in Him will never
die; that is, will never experience spiritual death, which is separation
from Him. Concerning physical death,
there is no longer any relationship between a person who has experienced
physical death and the body that is left behind, anymore than a cocoon
that is left behind by a butterfly. A corpse is only
the ex-body of a person, and is no longer a part of that person, and never
will be again. Some important truths
concerning the resurrection will be revealed, later. When a person experiences
physical death, he or she goes to heaven or to hell, and regardless of
which place one goes, that person doesn't care, at all, what happens to
the body they left behind. Not even one little bit. This means that every single
person in heaven and every single person in hell couldn't possibly care
less whether or not their ex-body is buried or cremated or left to rot in
a desert or eaten by vultures. For example, as alluded to
above, when a dead body is being buried the surviving friends and
relatives refer to the corpse as Joe or Jane being buried. Or, some people refer to a
grave as that person's final resting place. Neither of these could be
further from the truth. Likewise, the strong
identification with one's body results in even Christians saying, for
example, "When I die I want to be buried in such and such
cemetery." Or, "When I die I want to be cremated." Reality is that, after a person
experiences physical death, it is impossible to bury that person or to
cremate that person. It is only the ex-body of a
person that can be buried or cremated. No person, has ever been buried
or cremated after he or she experienced physical death. When a person experiences
physical death, he or she leaves that body and if there were any demons in
that person's body or soul they leave, too. You can no more cremate a human
than you can cremate a demon. Burial or cremation of a
person's ex-body is only a means
of disposal of a corpse. A person who is in heaven or in
hell has no connection whatsoever to his or her ex-body. Therefore, a
funeral is not for the person
who went to heaven or hell, but rather for those who are survivors. A funeral is not even for a
person's ex-body because they no longer have any connection to that
corpse. In one dictionary a funeral is
defined as "ceremonies connected with burial or cremation of the
dead." Writers, editors and publishers
of dictionaries, do not understand that after people experience physical
death, they cannot possibly be buried or cremated. After you experience physical
death, the ceremony in which survivors participate and refer to as
your funeral, in reality is not your funeral, at all, but could more
accurately be described as their
funeral. A funeral is for all the
participants of a funeral ceremony, not for the person who used to inhabit the corpse being buried or
cremated. The person who experienced physical death is not concerned, at
all, whether or not anyone participates in what is erroneously called his
or her funeral. Burial of the dead, cremation
of the dead, and funerals for the dead are widely accepted concepts, but
those concepts are as false as the sun orbiting the earth or the earth
being flat. The overwhelming majority of
true Christians believe the body they leave behind which is buried or
cremated will, sometime in the future, be resurrected. Indeed, there will
be a resurrection, but all the resurrected bodies will be spiritual
bodies. None
of the physical bodies that were buried or cremated will be resurrected. In First Corinthians chapter
15, Paul wrote about the disposal of a physical dead body. He said it is
sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body... it is sown a
natural (or physical) body, it is raised a spiritual body. Paul said if
there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Whether or not your ex-body is
buried or cremated or neglected altogether, will make zero difference
concerning you and the resurrection. The truth is, corpses or dead
bodies that are left behind will never be inhabited by anyone again. What everyone
will inhabit is a resurrected spiritual
body that is different than the one left behind. If you will accept these
profound truths, you can have peace about the disposal of a loved one's
ex-body and bring glory to God by being a good steward of His
money that He entrusted to you. The Bible says that God is
invisible and that no one has seen God at any time. Jesus is God
manifested in the flesh, that is, in a physical body. He said when you
have seen Him you have seen God the Father. What Jesus was saying was that
when you see His body, you see the image or representation of God the
Father, who is invisible. Christ is fully Man and fully
God. He is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. People can, as it were, see God
the Father by looking at the body of the Man Christ Jesus. Otherwise, you
could not as easily comprehend certain attributes of God. The Bible says God the Father
is Spirit and is invisible. You are a spirit and therefore you are
invisible, and the reason other humans can know and interact with you is
because you're in a physical body. It is because we almost totally
interact with people via their body that we wrongly think of them as being
their body. Relatively few are aware of the
fact that the people with whom they interact are not the bodies those
people inhabit. Because of this age-old and
universal human way of perceiving what they think
is reality, God accommodates man's continual propensity to ignore reality
in favor of perpetual social conventions. By this I mean that, even though
humans aren't their bodies and only reside in their bodies, virtually all
of us believe and live as though we are
our body. In His written Word, God
employed the literary technique of referring to a corpse as the person who
used to inhabit that body, or, of referring to a corpse, for example, as
Moses' body. God, in some cases, refers to a person's ex-body as being
that person, which is not reality, but only God's accommodation of
mankind's perception of reality. God sometimes accommodates some
generalized human concepts and social conventions that aren't based on
reality, at all. Another example is that the
Bible many times refers to the rising of the sun. Reality is, the sun only
appears to The sun does not orbit the
earth, as it appears. A human is
not the body in which he or she lives, as it appears. God does not and cannot lie, so
the Bible referring to the sun rising is not a lie, but is only saying
that which was universally accepted as a true concept based on perception,
and not on reality. God allowed virtually all
humans, including His people, for thousands of years to believe that the
sun orbited the earth. In the Bible God uses phrases
such as a man, after experiencing physical death, being "laid among
his fathers." God inspired writers of Scripture to pen phrases such
as "the rising of the sun," but these phrases were not
meant by God to be taken literally. Generally, it was after Galileo
and perhaps a few others proved that the sun did not
orbit the earth that this universal belief was realized to be false. Galileo was accused of teaching
heresy and even suffered persecution because his claim was considered to
be contrary to the Scriptures. In the Book of Deuteronomy,
chapter 34, the Bible refers to God burying Moses in the valley in the
land of Moab; but reality is that God did not literally bury Moses, or
even Moses' body, but rather God buried Moses' ex-body. Hundreds of years later Moses
appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses wasn't resurrected, he
simply left his body at the time he experienced physical death, and
centuries later appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus,
Elijah, Peter, James and John. When a Christian experiences
physical death and leaves his or her body, that person and
the Spirit of Christ in that Christian leaves that corpse. That body is no
longer a temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, cremation is not After a Christian leaves his or
her body for the last time, the Holy Spirit will never again live in that
body, and neither will the Christian who used to indwell it. Paul wrote in First Corinthians
15 that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Your physical body or your
physical ex-body cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. God says a dead body is sown a
physical body, but will be raised a spiritual body. Even if there is continuity of
the ex-body and the person in heaven or hell who used to indwell it, it
makes no difference whether the dead body is buried or cremated, or
vaporized in a nuclear blast. On the Last Day the entire
universe and heaven will be completely destroyed by fire and all
the elements will melt with fervent heat. After what I call The Great
Cremation, only that which is spiritual or invisible will remain, until
the New Heaven and the New Earth are created after The Judgment. God says in Second Corinthians
4:18 that the things which are seen, or physical, are temporal, but the
things which are not seen, or spiritual, are eternal. On the Last Day everything
physical, including the earth, all the stars and planets, the entire
universe, and even heaven, will be completely destroyed by fire. After the total destruction of everything
physical by the Great Cremation, God will create a New Heaven and New
Earth. Now, you need to know a little
more about death. Jesus died because He was separated from God the Father
by spiritual death. On the Cross, Jesus experienced
physical death and spiritual
death. God the Father separated Himself from the Man Christ Jesus on the
Cross, just prior to Jesus' physical death. The agony that Jesus
experienced was so great that He cried out, "My God, My God, why have
you forsaken Me?" When the burden of all
mankind's sins were laid upon Jesus, the incomprehensible agony of
spiritual death, which was being separated from God the Father, was so
great that Jesus experienced physical death shortly afterward. Spiritual death is not ceasing
to exist, but rather separation from God. A Christian who abides in
Christ won't experience physical death for the last time until he or she
fulfills on earth, the purpose of God, just as the Book of Acts tells us
about King David. God's Word in Ecclesiastes 7:1
says that the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth. Paul, who experienced being
caught up to heaven and returning to earth, said it is far better for a
Christian to go be with the Lord than to stay here. The Bible also says,
"Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints." Paul alluded to the fact that,
for a Christian, to be absent from the body is to be present with the
Lord. Humans place far more
importance on physical life than God does. Jesus said in Luke 14 that
unless you hate your life you can't be His disciple, or learner. Jesus was
referring to one's physical life. Jesus said that He is the
resurrection and the life, and he who believes in Him will live even if he
dies (that is, experiences physical death). Jesus went on to say that
everyone who lives and continues to believe in Him will never
die. Now, depending on the size of
the corpse, there is, on average, several pounds of bone fragments
remaining By the way, cremated remains
are referred to by professionals as cremains. Cremains is short for
cremated remains. Cremains are not cremated remains of a person, but
rather the cremated remains of a person's ex-body. Cremation causes all the water
in a corpse to evaporate and burns up all the tissue and most, but not
all, of the bones. The typical human body is about 70% water. Cremation is merely a fast,
efficient and economical way of disposing of a corpse. Societies that impose strict
requirements for burial, such as burial in a coffin enclosed in a vault,
usually require that the burial of a corpse be done in an approved
cemetery where the dirt is relatively expensive. In some cases a small burial
plot costs more than several acres of land somewhere else. Now, concerning crematories in
modern societies, in the United States, for example, operating a crematory
is subject to laws within each state. The corpse is placed in a
gas-fired furnace and the temperature is usually adjusted to between 1,400
degrees and 1,800 degrees, Fahrenheit. There is virtually no visible
smoke that comes out of the chimney of a modern-day crematory. Likewise,
there is no detectable odor emitted. It usually takes only a couple
of hours for a dead body to be cremated. Then it takes about half an hour
for the bone fragments to cool before grinding them into small pieces. You should realize that most of
the modern funeral home concept is exploitive, and, to the Lord, most of the
products purchased for burial are a waste of His money that He entrusted
to you. Of course, this pertains to a
pre-arraigned burial of your ex-body or the ex-body of a loved one,
whether pre-arraigned or not. Today, in the year 2011, the
price of a typical low-cost burial in America can be $10,000, not counting
the cost of the cemetery dirt. Of course, a funeral home
director would be delighted to see $20,000, or more, spent and watch all
the merchandise be buried in the ground. The price of a typical
cremation in America is less than $2,000. Now, in First Corinthians 3,
Paul said that on the Day of Judgment each saved person's work will be
revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each
one's work. After the resurrection and
rapture of the saints, all of us will
pass through that unprecedented fire of the Great Paul said, if our work is
burned up we will suffer loss, but we will be saved, yet so as through
fire. Any loss of rewards by
Christians will be eternal. Every
saved person will pass through that
fire on the Last Day. In the Scriptures fire has some
bad connotations and some good
ones. On the Last Day, Jesus and the
angels will come in flames of fire. In Revelation 19:12 it says that Jesus' eyes are a flame of fire. After the resurrection and
rapture of the saints, the fire of the Great Cremation will burn up all
the chaff associated with individual Christians. In fact, the Bible says
in Hebrews 12:29 that God himself is a consuming fire. Exodus 3:2 says God appeared to
Moses in a blazing fire. Jesus said in Luke 12:49,
"I have come to cast fire
upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!" John the Baptizer, who baptized
with water, said that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. Jesus baptizes some Christians
with the Holy Spirit, and on the Last Day He will baptize all
the saints with fire. The Bible says in Matthew 3:12
that Jesus will gather the wheat into His barn, but He will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire. In Mark 9:49 Jesus said, everyone
will be salted with fire. David's ex-body, according to
the literal Greek, "saw corruption," which is rotting of the
corpse. In God's eyes, buried or entombed corpses become corrupted, unless
He miraculously prevents that, as with the corpse left by Jesus for three
days. Now, you need to understand a
little more about some of the ways in which God views dead bodies. God doesn't have as much
respect for corpses as man does. In Matthew 23:27, Jesus said
that tombs contain dead men's bones and all uncleanness. What Jesus was
alluding to was germs, disease, maggots, rotten flesh and so forth. In John 6:63 Jesus said the
flesh, or the body, "counts for nothing." Again, Jesus said the flesh, or
the body, "counts for nothing." In Numbers 14 you can read
about many ex-bodies of God's people that rotted in the desert. Those
corpses were not buried, nor were they cremated. In the Old Testament God
commanded the holiest men, such as those who took a Nazarite vow, not to
touch a corpse. In Leviticus 21, God said a
priest would defile and profane himself by touching any corpse other than
those that used to be the bodies of close relatives. In Numbers 19, God said to the
Israelites that any man who touches a corpse shall be unclean for seven
days. According to the Mosaic Law, if
a person had defiled himself by touching a corpse and was not ceremonially
cleansed he would remain unclean and be cut off from Israel. The point I am making here is
not that Christians, under the New Covenant, should never touch a corpse,
but that God doesn't view a corpse with the reverence that many Christians
do. Jesus' view of death and
disposal of corpses is perfect. Our Lord told one of His new
disciples to follow Him. The disciple said he needed to first go bury his
father. Jesus said to the new disciple to let the dead bury the dead. The
Lord had virtually no concern about the disciple's perceived need to take
care of the body in which his father once lived; and Jesus' view of
disposal of a corpse had nothing to do with the fact that the disciple's
father was spiritually dead in his trespasses and sins. It would not have made any
difference to Jesus if the disciple's father was saved. Jesus wanted the
new disciple to This is a very good example in
the Scriptures of what our priorities should be in regard to following
Jesus when He says to follow Him. This does not mean that we
shouldn't take care of the disposal of a corpse, but that our view of this
is not anywhere near the same as God's view. True wisdom is seeing things
the way God sees them and acting accordingly. There is nothing wrong with
disposing of the ex-body of a loved one by burial or
by cremation; but if Jesus tells us to do something else at that time we
should not hesitate to let others take care of the disposal of the corpse,
no matter what the relationship of the person was to us. This includes
father, mother, wife, husband and children. Some Christians think that
because the Lord judged some people by having their bodies burned up,
disposal of a Christian's ex-body by cremation is unacceptable to God. Many more people were judged by
God in the Great Flood, by plagues, and so forth, than by being burned. When God judged Ananias and
Saphira their ex-bodies were immediately buried; but it would be ludicrous
to believe that burial of corpses is a sign of God's judgment. Nowhere
in the entire Bible does God prohibit disposal of a corpse by cremation. There exists a relatively new
concept called "closure." The concept of closure is a modern one
and means something different to everyone who is aware of the concept. For some people closure comes
when they hear from the attending physician that a loved one just passed
away. For some people closure comes when they see the ex-body of a loved
one lying in a casket. For some people closure comes when they peek into
the urn to see the pulverized bone fragments. And, for some people closure
comes when they receive the life insurance check in the mail. If any of these things are
necessary for closure, then according to many cases recorded in the Bible
God denied many people their so-called necessary closure. God judged Ananias and his
ex-body was buried immediately without a funeral and without informing his
wife Saphira until after the corpse was buried. Then God judged Saphira
and her ex-body was buried immediately without a funeral and, doubtless,
without informing other family members beforehand. These are just a couple of many cases in the Bible in which people would have been denied what is now considered a necessary so-called "closure." Jesus revealed how
insignificant funerals are by saying, "Let the dead bury the
dead." As mentioned above, Jesus said that to a new disciple who,
before following Jesus, wanted to go bury the corpse left behind by his
father. Obviously, our loving Savior
doesn't think attending a funeral and so-called closure are necessary. In Ezekiel 24, God told Ezekiel
that He, was going to kill his wife, whom the prophet loved, and God
commanded Ezekiel not to mourn or weep over this. All that is really needed, if
anything, for so-called closure is accepting the reality that a loved one
has experienced physical death. Oftentimes, the issue with
survivors is not that they need to see a corpse or attend a funeral in
order to have so-called closure. The real issue with some survivors is
that they have unresolved problems with the one who is now gone. These problems may be guilt
feelings for having physically, emotionally, or in some other way hurt and
sinned against the one who is gone, without having made amends. Perhaps a survivor wants to get
rid of the guilt feelings by talking to the corpse and asking for
forgiveness for one or more sins. But the corpse isn't the person who once
inhabited it. The person who used to inhabit that corpse is not there. According to God, using a
particular method of disposal of the ex-body of a loved one, or even a
funeral or memorial service, is not necessary for what many people refer
to as closure. Have you ever wondered why so
many Christians are so concerned about what will happen to the corpse they
will leave behind, when they abuse and dishonor God with their body while
they are still in living in it? For example, many Christians
are gluttons and greatly over-eat, every day. Many Christians eat
excessive amounts of sugar and salt in junk food, and drinks. Some
Christians use tobacco, which has been proven to be harmful to the body. Many of these same Christians
want a nice casket and a waterproof vault in which to have their ex-body
buried. They would not even consider
having their ex-body cremated, because they think it would not be pleasing
to God. A mixed-up set of values, isn't
it? Many Christians treat a corpse
better and with more respect than they did the person who used to inhabit
it. Again, many Christians treat a
corpse better and with more respect than they did the person who used to
inhabit it. God doesn't want Christians to
put too much emphasis on the physical body---a living one or a dead one. Whether you request your
relatives or loved ones to bury or to cremate your ex-body after you
experience physical death, makes no difference to God. What does matter to God
concerning disposal of corpses is wasting His money on burial and funeral
expenses. It is not because God needs the
money --- He doesn't. God does not want His people to dishonor Him by the
way in which they use His money. The money that the Lord entrusts to you,
is not your money, anyway, it's His. You are only God's steward, or
manager, of the money in your possession. Even the King of kings and Lord
of lords' ex-body was not placed in a coffin; and the tomb in which His
ex-body Many people somehow think that
by spending a lot of money on a fancier casket, vault, headstone, and
flowers, they can compensate for their lack of love for that person while
he or she was still here. Likewise, many people give in
to the pressure of relatives and friends who are deceived by the customs
and social values of the society in which they live. Some people want others to
believe they loved the person by spending a lot of money to dispose of
that person's ex-body. Two things are sure about
this--- One, the person, whether in heaven or in hell, whose ex-body is
being disposed of, is not impressed, at all. He or she couldn't care less
what you do with the corpse or how much money you spend on a funeral, and
so forth. And two, God isn't impressed
with any of that, either. Would one of your last sins be
to instruct your family to violate God's command in Romans 13:8 to borrow
money to bury your ex-body in a casket and in a vault and in a cemetery
plot when they might be able to pay for the disposal of your ex-body by
cremation, without borrowing money? God's Word says in Romans 12:1
to offer your body as a living sacrifice. The illustration here is a
sacrifice to God that is consumed by fire on
an altar. Are you a living sacrifice to
God? Paul said, in Galatians 2:20,
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ
lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of
God." How about you?
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