YOUR COMMENTS ON CREMATION
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THANK YOU to each of you who have responded to date. I appreciate hearing from you. So far, the only responses I have received are enerally supportive of cremation.
Aat the conclusion of these responses, I will offer to you Jewish law on this subject,
Pastor T. Elwood Long, retired N.C. Conference bishop. I thank you for the presentation regarding cremation. I am, along with other pastors, being asked to do more and more funerals in which the cremation of the body of the deceased is occurring.
While reading the article I am reminded that our bodies are the house we live in during our sojourn on earth. When I was first approached about the matter some years ago I found the idea of cremation as heinous. Yet, the more I ponder the matter I am reminded that many bodies are lost at sea to “Davy Jones Locker,” and bodies are torn to bits by plane crashes and burned in house fires, etc. I remember an old song among the many we sang long ago, “We’ll have a new body, praise the Lord, we’ll have a new life.”
I am not conclusive about the subject of cremation; however, I’ve had many parishioners across the years who have chosen this method…. God bless you greatly for addressing the subject of cremation.
Angie Wilkie, pastor’s wife. Thank you, Dr. Tunstall, for the article on cremation. I have worked in the funeral home business for nine years as a secretary. In those years, I have seen a substantial increase in cremation requests. When I first began work at the funeral home, we might have seven cremations a year. We have already had twenty-three this year. Some of the reasons you presented are true, especially the cost aspect.
I once had a friend call me in tears because she and her brothers were going to have to be responsible for funeral arrangements for their terminally ill brother who had no life insurance. She was so fearful of doing something unbiblical. I told her that as far as I knew, there was nothing in the Bible that directed us not to use cremation. She brought up references about not causing our children to pass through fire. I pointed out to her this passage had nothing to do with cremation. That was a form of idol worship in which children were sacrificed to false gods. I also pointed out that the cremation process reduces the body to ashes and dust, which is what eventually happens to a body anyway.
Thank you again for the article that I can pass on to others.
I am a member of the Cornerstone Conference, IPHC, and my husband is pastor of Christian View PH Church.
Elvio Canavesio, retired missionary. When the body is in the earth for hundreds and hundreds of years, that body has returned to dust. It takes a body about an hour and half, at over 1,500 degrees temperature to become dust. So, either cremated or buried, is it not the same?
Gary Petty, Misionary to Spain. Thank you. Very enlightening.
Bill Mickelsen, retired construction superintendent. I say it does not matter, for we came as dust; so shall we leave. Does it matter how we returned to dust?
Pastor Lonnie Burns. Dr. Frank, I had to do cremation with my mom and brother because the cost of burial was too high for me to pay. I did what I had to do.
Steve Perdue, Pastor. Thank you for the articles, Dr T. Love you brother!
Jewish Law on Cremation
By: Rabbi Naftali Silberberg
Originally published at http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/510874/jewish/Why-Does-Jewish-Law-Forbid-Cremation.htm
Jewish law is unequivocal that the dead must be buried in the earth.
As a deterrent measure, cremated remains are not interred in a Jewish cemetery. Furthermore, we are told that many of the traditional laws of mourning are not observed after the passing of an individual whose body was cremated.
Responsibility for the deceased’s proper burial lies with the next of kin. While ordinarily Jewish law requires the deceased’s children to go to great lengths to respect the departed’s wishes if someone requests to be cremated or buried in a manner which is not in accordance with Jewish tradition, we nevertheless provide him/her with a Jewish burial. It is believed that since the soul has now arrived to the World of Truth it surely sees the value of a proper Jewish burial, and thus administering a traditional Jewish burial is actually granting what the person truly wishes at the moment.
