The Bible does not directly deal with this subject. The main things that we see that may possibly relate are the great respect there is for the human body. Our bodies are called the "temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 6:19). In the Old Testament the burial places played great significance. And the burning of human bodies was only done in pagan sacrifice. Here is a partial transcription from Pastor Hayford's teaching (tape #2266), "Deliverance For Body and Soul." Here he briefly comments on cremation. "The body is very temporary, but it is very important. So important that the Bible calls it a temple. Don’t ever take your body without sobriety or seriousness. It is a worship center for the Living God…. "God places great value on the body…. "Somebody wrote me a letter not long ago and asked what I thought about cremation. And I told him there wasn’t any portion of the Bible that prohibited it, but that historically, throughout all the history of Christianity, there’s been a disposition not to go the direction of cremation. The reason isn’t because God is unable at the Resurrection to reproduce the person...(Because it’s a new body anyway -- He’s quite capable of doing that) that isn’t the problem. And the problem isn’t because God would somehow necessarily be displeased, per say. But there’s something about cremation that tends to make a statement of saying, ‘this that has been a temple of the Holy Spirit of God somehow is burnt to the ground,’ as it were. And I think that it makes an unintended...(and if anyone’s participated in there being a cremation, I don’t want you to be...if you had a loved one cremated after they died, well, I don’t want you to feel at all condemned for what I’m going to say because things that we say [do] when we don’t understand, the Lord covers that. But I’m talking to people who still have decision like that to make.) "In the case of a believer, that [the body] has been the temple of the Holy Spirit. And, while it’s a decaying temple (and then, now, a dead one), it’s not a matter of attempting to enshrine it as though we were mummifying bodies to try and somehow protract life and memory by so frail a means. But it’s simply a matter of acknowledging that it has been a point of reverence for a person who once lived there and it was a place of worship to the living God. "I won’t elaborate that anymore and I didn’t plan to say it anyway. I hope it doesn’t create any confusion. It’s intended to shed light. But the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit." |
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Resources: 1.) "Deliverance For Body and Soul" 2.) "The Spirit Filled Life Bible" [Checkout] |
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