Is cremation allowed in Christianity

Answer 1

Some opinions from the community

• Speaking as a Catholic cremation is now accepted however if the deceased has requested a burial mass in the church the body must be brought to the church for the mass and then cremation may be done after that mass has taken place the ashes of the deceased must be buried in a cemetery and not strewn, lets say, on a beach or on the ocean...

• The Eastern Orthodox Church does not allow cremation. The Church from the earliest times practiced burial of the dead, as the Roman catacombs reveal. Christ resurrected the bodies of many people during His ministry on earth (such as Lazarus) and His disciples also performed many miracles and even resurrected the dead (Acts 9:36-41). So the Church views cremation as a mockery of Christ and His Apostles who resurrected human bodies, not ashes. During the great earthquake that happened immediately after Christ's death on the Cross, the graves opened up and the bodies of the saints were raised from the dead (Matthew 27:51-54). Cremation has also been the custom of most atheists and the pagan religions, which do not believe in resurrection, and that is another reason why the Christian Church has always been against it.

Answer2: The Scriptures do not present any basic objection to the practice of cremation.

There are Biblical accounts relating that the bodies or bones of dead people were burned. (Josh. 7:25; 2 Chron. 34:4, 5) We can see this from the account of the death of King Saul and his three sons. The four of them died battling the Philistines. One of the sons was Jonathan, the good friend and loyal supporter of David. When valiant Israelites living in Jabesh-gilead learned what had happened, they recovered the four bodies, burned them, and then buried the bones. David later praised those Israelites for their actions.

The Scriptural hope for the dead is the resurrection-God's restoration of the person to life. Whether a dead person is cremated or not, Jehovah is not limited in his ability to restore the person to life with a new body. The three faithful Hebrews who faced death in a fiery furnace as ordered by King Nebuchadnezzar did not need to fear that if they were thus destroyed, God could not resurrect them. (Dan. 3:16-18) That was also true of faithful servants of Jehovah who faced death and subsequent cremation in Nazi concentration camps. Various loyal servants of God have perished in explosions or in other ways that left no trace of their remains. Still, their resurrection is assured.-Rev. 20:13. Jehovah does not have to reassemble a person's former body in order to resurrect him. That is shown by God's resurrecting anointed Christians to heavenly life. Like Jesus, who was "made alive in the spirit," anointed Christians are resurrected as the same person but with a spiritual body. No part of their former physical body accompanies them to heaven.-1 Pet. 3:18; 1 Cor. 15:42-53; 1 John 3:2.

Our hope in the resurrection rests, not on what might be done with the physical corpse, but on faith in God's ability and desire to fulfill his promises. (Acts 24:15) Granted, we may not fully comprehend how God has performed the miracle of resurrection on past occasions or how he will do so in the future. Still, we put our trust in Jehovah. He has provided "a guarantee" by resurrecting Jesus.-Acts 17:31; Luke 24:2, 3.

Christians do well to take into consideration social norms, local sentiments, and legal requirements regarding the disposition of dead bodies. (2 Cor. 6:3, 4) Then, whether the body of a deceased person is to be cremated or not is a personal or family decision. Watchtower magazine 6/15/2014

Answer 2

No, they are not allowed to cremate after death. They should be buried. It is the same practice as in Christianity and Judaism.

Answer 3

For most Christian sects it is not a problem.

Answer 4

I have never heard of this sentiment, and I am fairly sure that there is no mention of cremation being negative in The Bible.

Answer 5

Yes.