What Does the Bible say About Cremation? Should Christians be Cremated?

Most Christians through the centuries have wanted their bodies to be buried after death with a ceremony that proclaims the message of resurrection. This bodily burial has come to be known as “a Christian burial.”

The Bible does not give any specific teaching about cremation. It is interesting to note that in 2 Kings 23:16-20, burning human bones on an altar desecrated the altar. At the same time, the Old Testament law nowhere commands that a deceased human body not be burned, nor does it attach any curse or judgment on someone who is cremated.

Cremation was practiced in biblical times, but it was not commonly practiced by the Israelites or by New Testament believers. In the cultures of Bible times, burial in a tomb, cave, or in the ground was the common way to dispose of a human body.

Is cremation something a Christian can consider? Again, there is no explicit scriptural command against cremation. Some believers object to the practice of cremation on the basis it does not recognize that one day God will resurrect our bodies and re-unite them with our soul/spirit.

However, the fact that a body has been cremated does not make it any more difficult for God to resurrect that body. The bodies of Christians who died a thousand years ago have, by now, completely turned into dust. This will in no way prevent God from being able to resurrect their bodies. (Jeremiah 32:27  Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?)

The method used to dispose of a body is not nearly as important as the truth behind the concept of Christian burial: that the body is no longer housing the person who has died. Paul describes our bodies as “tents,” that is, temporary abodes. “Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands” (II Cor. 5:1). When Jesus returns, Christians will be raised to life, and our bodies will be transformed to glorified, eternal bodies.

While the Bible doesn’t specifically give instructions on how a body should be handled after death, it does provide this interesting information. It involves a telling story of the impending death and burial of Jesus!

Matthew 26:6-7 Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, 7. There came unto him a woman having an alabaster box of very precious ointment, and poured it on his head, as he sat at meat.

Matthew 26:12 For in that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial.

This story is important for several reasons, but among the particulars is the details of Jesus literal burial, and the fact that Almighty God, the Father of Christ, surely had complete oversight in the death and burial of Jesus, just as certainly as he had providential oversight in his miraculous birth!

For our consideration, Jesus was Buried in a borrowed (Jesus was poor too) tomb! 

Darrell G. Young