Cremation - ok or not?

[1to3]

So it looks like the majority here are in favor of cremation.

I was raised to believe that a dead body should be respectfully buried and not burned.

And so i am more personally inclined to desire to be buried where my parents and grandparents are buried in the same cemetery plot that my late father purchased for our family.

 

About embalming procedures. Yes as O.o mentioned they are quite gross. and yes, if i can help it, I will make a mention that I do not desire my body further toyed around with or cut up so to place those embalming materials  into me and to just close my casket and have me buried, as quickly as possible.

 

A couple of years back , in the winter of December 25 2009, I had to care for the arrangements of a Jewish man I had befriended for a couple of years. This person i do believe God placed in my life for a certain time and purpose. That purpose was all about HIM.

In any event this person -Eddy- 73 yres of age, had no family anymore. He was born Jewish. When he fell ill he had no family to care for him and so i took it upon myself to see be there for him and see that he get a proper burial.

Because this person did not have a lot of money, I was thinking of having Eddy cremated for around $600.00 dollars and his ashes buried in the country place where i live. However because this man was Jewish, the Jewish social services were alerted from hospital staff  , got hold  that i was planning on having my Jewish friend cremated and went out of their way to contact me and meet with me to tell me that a Jewish person is never cremated and that the Jewish people have certain protocols of burial for their own.

They told me that even though this man was basically poor when he died,that they look after their own and that they would even cover the cost of the burial and to just give them the governments $2500.00 dollars coverage that every person here in the country where i live, is allocated upon death for the coverage of their funeral expense.

So Eddy got a proper funeral and also a beautiful stone where he is buried. I was even able to dedicate the burial stone as Eddy would have wished with the scripture verse found in Hosea 6:6 For I delight in Mercy rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

In the end of things, I believe Gods hands were involved in how Eddy got his final resting place on earth as in heaven.  Eddyreceived a proper Jewish funeral, and got to be buried in the same Jewish cemetery as his parents and had a proper dignified place of burial.

I believe God placed Eddy in my life for a specific time and purpose. in the time that i had met Eddy, it all worked out so well that  I was able to take the time to spend with him reading the bible and torah and re-aquainting him with his Jewish roots and also brought him to having faith & believing Christ Jesus as our personal Messiah and savior. My faith also strengthened in having met Eddy.

So to conclude, the Jewish protocol of burial is taken very seriously and they certainly to not think it is a good idea to cremate.

I think the Catholic also have the same regards as the Jews do towards burial protocol.

In any event, there needs to be a respectful way for the burial of the deceased , that I find in today's society, it is becoming something regarded as less important than it once was.

I am grateful that my father, mother , grand-parents are buried in the same family burial plot. Many times I have gone to the cemetery as a place of silent reflection. I am grateful that this opportunity of burial was available.

Its unfortunate that in many countries they are making even the burial of loved ones such a business that most people look to the most economical means of disposing of their loved ones. there was a time when burring a body whole and complete in a wooden casket in a allocated cemetery for the dead was a very respectful way of  laying to rest a body. 

I am one that feels this way was one of the more respectful ways of burial.

When I have a dead animal here in the country where i live. my first instinct has always been to bury them in a respectful way under the earth. The thought was never to burn them but to just to quietly bury them back in the earth and letting nature take its proper course, in nourishing back the earth .

Just to say for me its seams as a more respectful and natural cycle of life to bury a deceased body instead of having it incinerated.

 

Edited August 20, 2017 by 1to3

[Neighbor]

1 hour ago, OldCoot said:

You are kidding, right?  Very few metal coffins of fallen soldiers, did the families actually view the body, or rather, pieces of the body left after being hit by an RPG or burned beyond recognition in a personnel carrier that struck a mine.  Those corpses could have easily been cremated and placed in a coffin and returned.  It was bad enough to have to pick up the pieces of these individuals where they died, it is irrational to assert that several weeks later, the family is viewing those actual remains.   It was the flag draped coffin that the family saw and that offered solace to the family, not the actual body.  In some cases, all that was in that coffin was a foot, an arm, or the head.   All that was left of the individual after being killed on the battlefield and placed in a bag.   Embalming was rarely done.  The bag and tag were placed in the metal coffin and sealed.  Viet Nam was my time in uniform.  

Yes, there were military facilities in Quam and Hawaii that did embalming, even some facilities in country.  But most coffins went from VN straight to the continental U.S.  Very few in Graves Registration did anything related to embalming.  Mostly just confirmation of the identity of the individual and processing of paperwork and coffin for transport.  

I will concede that the funeral home industry has gotten local and state governments in their pocket and make it so the regulatory climate is such that funeral services have become cash cow for many.  And it has restricted the people's ability to deal with their dead in a way that is simple and cost effective.  There are many who live in rural areas, that burying their dead family members on family property would be viable.  We did it that way for much of the history of the nation.  But that is not a option due to statutes in many areas.  And all the requirements imposed on people for burying their dead where it is allowed.  Vaults must be used for instance, inflating the cost of a funeral.  By the time it is all done, it is not uncommon for a typical funeral cost to rival the purchase of a compact car.   Especially so if the body is transported across state lines.  At least the wife and I already have purchased plots in a small, rural cemetery at a very low cost and we have standing directives that cremation be done almost immediately.  No embalming, no family viewing, etc.  Just straight to the barbecue pit, or as soon as possible after an autopsy if that is required by government.  

Never had a closed casket required for a single casualty . But that is enough about it. I was, in my discussion, more interested in the idea  that cremation can be as little a cost as $800 today, based upon my experiences with the subject where I was signing the agreements as a consumer. Also  that  as a former employee of a large Cemetery /Mortuary,  there is a bit of an error made when one tries to dismiss the need to recognize the hurt and the grief by not going through some sort of ritual process. The process is healing  to the hurting survivors.

I had so many people come back or come in for the first time one or two years later after a death where they had not done anything but have the remains cremated and then scattered without ceremony. They had grief they could not control. I would listen, share and suggest ways they could begin to heal, most involved no cost nor any purchase of anything that had to do with the business I represented. We also offered to include their loved one's name in a  memorial service we would have every two months as a ritual of dealing with grief at our facility for which there was no cost nor any obligation.

It is just that  most people cannot easily let go, mark the time, go through a process of grief, and then recover to wellness themselves, without being  formal in a disipline about doing so.

One formality is to make a memorial  and place it somewhere. Doesn't have to be at a cemetery. One family I still remember; the teen age son made a bronze memorial similar to the ones we sold. I gave him the specs and he worked it out with a school shop teacher and actually got it done. His mom decided to purchase what we call a partial property along a contour of our cemetery land for a very modest fee $125 including a vase for flowers that the lawn mowers can work around. He placed the bronze memorial a concrete base himself. That became their way of handling their need. Now the bronze memorial he made did not quite meet our cemetery's specs and standards, but it was a honest effort of some great amount of work on the son's part. So I just wrote on all our records the work is approved and I made no charge for endowment care fee, with the approval of my own bosses.

Only had one family actually make  a casket for their father's funeral. I loved that they did that together! They even lined it in a what looked like Penelton  plaid shirt material because that is what  their dad liked for shirts. They thought it through and worked together, made it  in two days time and we had a open casket viewing  followed by a church funeral service.  For them it was  to honor. I declare that I knew it also helped them with  a ritual of getting through to a healing for them too.

Most people are not cynical. They simply need to know what they may do and get some help in doing  what they decide. Then be left to do that. Fact as far as I know there still is no requirement for a funeral director nor a cemetery at all, but most people have no idea nor do they want to,  of how to legally fulfill the sanitation requirements of handling human remains, even cremated ones. Most don't want to get death certificates burial or cremation permits themselves- but they could, far as I know they still can.

 

[Neighbor]

12 minutes ago, 1to3 said:

So it looks like the majority here are in favor of cremation.

I was raised to believe that a dead body should be respectfully berried and not burned.

and so i am more personally inclined to desire to be buried where my parents and grandparents are buried in the same cemetery plot that my late father purchased for our family.

about  embalming procedures. Yes as O.o mentioned they are quite gross. and yes, if i can help it, I will make a mention that I do not desire my body further cut up so to place those embalming materials  into me and to just close my casket and have me buried, as quickly as possible.

 

A couple of years back , in december 25 2009, I had to care for the arrangements of a Jewish man I had befriended for a couple of years. This person i do believe God placed in my life for a certain time and purpose. that purpose was all about HIM.

In any event this person -Eddy- 72 yres of age, had no family anymore was born Jewish. when he fell ill he had no family to care for him and so i took it upon myself to see that he get a proper burial.

Because this person did not have a lot of money, I was thinking of having Eddy cremated for around $600.00 dollars and his ashes buried in the country place where i live. However because this man was Jewish, the Jewish social services were alerted from hospital staff , got hold  that i was planning on having my Jewish friend cremated and went out of their way to tell me that a Jewish person is never cremated and that the Jewish people have certain protocols of burial  for their own.

They told me that they would even cover the cost of the burial and to just give them the governments $2500.00 dollars coverage that every person here in the country where i live, is allocated upon death for the coverage of their funeral expense.

So Eddy got a proper funeral and also a beautiful stone where he is buried. I was even able to dedicate the stone as Eddy would have wished with the scripture verse found in Hosea 6:6 For I delight in mercy rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

In the end of things, I believe Gods hands were involved in how Eddy got his final resting place on earth as in heaven.  Eddy Got a proper Jewish funeral, got buried  in the same Jewish cemetery as his parents and had a proper dignified place of burial.

I believed god place me in Eddy in my life for a specific time and purpose. Through meeting Eddy, I had the time to spend with him reading the bible and torah and re-aquainting him with his Jewish roots and also brought him to having faith & believing Christ Jesus as our personal Messiah and savior.

So to conclude, the Jewish protocol of burial is taken very seriously and they certainly to not think it is a good idea to cremate.

I think the Catholics also took the same regards as the Jew do to burial protocol.

In ant event their needs to be a respectful way to burial for the deceased , that I find in today's society becoming something regarded as less important than  it once was.

I am grateful that my father, mother , grand-parents are buried in the same family burial plot. Many times I have gone to the cemetery as a place of silent reflection. I am grateful that this opportunity of burial was available.

Its unfortunate that in many countries they are making even the burial of loved ones such a business that most people look to the most economical means of disposing of their loved ones. there was a time when burring a body whole and complete in a wooden casket in a allocated cemetery for the dead was a very respectful way of  laying to rest a body. 

I am one that feels this way was one of the more respectful ways of burial.

When I have a dead animal here in the country where i live. my first instinct has always to bury then in a respectful way under the earth.The thought was never to burn them but to just to quietly bury them back in the earth and letting nature take its proper course, in nourishing back the earth .

Just to say for me its seams more respectful to bury a body instead of having it incinerated.

 

Hi, nice explanation and reasoning.

Had the privileg eof helping establish a Jewish cemetery within our own cemetery. ndyes ther ee were  Catholic cemeteries. I had a hand in busting their hold on their memeber sand getting priest to be able to come to  secular cemeteries the bless the burial sigh of individual catholics.  We also had special arrangements with a Greek Othodox Group and  a Korean Christin group ( that was some fun with the language barrier and cultural differences. Our toughest was working with the influx into our area of th eMuslims, but we did it and between them and th eJewish community  deciding to work with us we had to expand our staff and have the cemetery open to burials seven days a week every week. Our grounds crews superintendent was most unhappy with that burden, but he did it diligently and the crews got use dot receiving triple time pay for their Sunday efforts.

 There is a huge learning curve and much accommodation required to serve a community filled with as many as 30 or more cultural variances and religious needs.in a large city today. It took my personal time for two years to work out having a Jewish cemetery. The congregation had been working on it for 48 years before I joined their effort. And then I had to convince  the one Roman Catholic  member of the non profit cemetery ownership to go along with it. 

I believe that the body that rises is to be a new spiritual body, despite the many  drawings and video clips and even movies that tend to depict the earthly flesh body lifting. 

That old body of flesh  is corruptible in every aspect of it. I sure hope it isn't "reconstituted". Geesh, to spend eternity in this, oh my, no please Lord no.

[AlexDofTX]

On 7/7/2017 at 8:55 PM, missmuffet said:

The bible is silent on cremation. If the body is cremated it will not make a difference in God resurrecting the body. It is a matter of personal preference.

Actually, there is one example of cremation in the Bible.  After Saul committed suicide, the Philistines cut off his head and took his body to Philistia. There they mocked Saul and desecrated the body.  Some offended Israelis, sneaked into Philistia and stole the body brought it back to Israel and burned the body so no one could desecrate it even by digging it up again.  King David rewarded those Israelis and commended them for their actions.

[AlexDofTX]

On 7/7/2017 at 4:53 PM, Sunshine 5 said:

I have seriously thought about being cremated when I die.  I have no husband, my children have their own families, my parents will be buried together so if I am buried (should I remain single at that time) I will be placed in a hole in a plot by myself.  My desire is to be cremated and let the children decide what they want to do with this old earthly body.  My mother (91) is not very happy about this decision.  I have asked several pastors their opinion about cremation and no one can give me an answer whether it go against biblical doctrine or not.  I would really like some imput on this.  

My mother-in-law just died in a horrible car accident.  My wife and brother-in-law have agreed to cremate the body since in California it costs $30,000 to bury her.  As others have already pointed out, so many have died in such ways that the body could not be retrieved.  But that is irrelevant to God.  Burial was based upon the idea of making it easier for the resurrection of the body, but that is nonsense.  It even smacks of paganism, in my mind.  Consider the elaborate effort of the Egyptians to embalm and preserver the body of the Pharoahs, for example. Because of this, my wife and I have agreed on cremation as well, unless we are raptured first.

[frienduff thaylorde]

3 hours ago, Heleadethme said:

For some reason, I've never been comfortable with the idea of cremation......nor autopsy for that matter......told my family when I go to please bury me in a simple wooden box, if possible, no embalming necessary, and no autopsy (unless it has to be done by law).  The living sometimes want to visit a graveside to honour the memory of a person and if it helps their grief etc, that's fine with me.  As far as the bible goes, since pagans burned their dead......and God's people did not because of looking forward to a resurrection, then that's good enough reason for me to forego cremation too.  It might not matter.....as others are saying things happen to bodies due to war or accidents.....but then again when we have a choice, if there's any doubt about it at all I would rather err on the side of caution so to speak.

 

Well sister , then if I die first ................bury me at sea , just fill me up with rocks and let me sink.  And all the money saved, my last desire is give it to the poor

they will need it to eat , I wont .    If I come up to Canada and die in your back yard.  just bury me their and no need to let anyone know.

and again my last request will be,   just spend some of your money on the poor they will need it to eat .

You be blessed sister.  However as we all know...........one heck of a heavy tribulation ,which will result in many of our deaths is on the way.

Guess uncle same and the world govt can just do with our bodies as they will.   and LORD forgive them all .  

[Heleadethme]

1 hour ago, frienduff thaylorde said:

Well sister , then if I die first ................bury me at sea , just fill me up with rocks and let me sink.  And all the money saved, my last desire is give it to the poor

they will need it to eat , I wont .    If I come up to Canada and die in your back yard.  just bury me their and no need to let anyone know.

and again my last request will be,   just spend some of your money on the poor they will need it to eat .

You be blessed sister.  However as we all know...........one heck of a heavy tribulation ,which will result in many of our deaths is on the way.

Guess uncle same and the world govt can just do with our bodies as they will.   and LORD forgive them all .  

Well frienduff.....I don't think the law would allow us to bury you in our little backyard, there are rules about those sorts of things, bro.   But we would do  our best for you, I can promise you that.  I think it is good in the sight of God to treat the dead properly, since we all are made in the image of God.  Not excessive, but just simple with a little care and respect would not be out of order.......we are something a little more than a sack of old meat to toss out like garbage......and the poor we will always have with us.  But as you say, we don't always get a say, though God is always watching over us and knows exactly where we will be come resurrection day...thankfully!

[frienduff thaylorde]

1 hour ago, Heleadethme said:

Well frienduff.....I don't think the law would allow us to bury you in our little backyard, there are rules about those sorts of things, bro.   But we would do  our best for you, I can promise you that.  I think it is good in the sight of God to treat the dead properly, since we all are made in the image of God.  Not excessive, but just simple with a little care and respect would not be out of order.......we are something a little more than a sack of old meat to toss out like garbage......and the poor we will always have with us.  But as you say, we don't always get a say, though God is always watching over us and knows exactly where we will be come resurrection day...thankfully!

Yeah like the part where they lamented Stephen and men carried him to the burial.   I know.   I do have one request though sister.   If I am up their at the end

when yall bury me , just say.............here lies the upmost wicked thing........yet Grace came and changed his heart.  And please don't let none pray to me.

I was just total wicked before GOD came and drew me, and if he had taken away HIS HOLY SPIRIT all I would have been was evil.

IT TRULY was ONLY the GOODNESS of GOD that changed me..........its the only goodness I have , the only righteousness I have and it instructs me to walk righteously.

And to warn , rebuke correct and just do all for the sakes of the others.    Even if it means total isolation and hatred from the world.......still I had sooner

be hated by all, if it means only ONE heard and repented.  my desire is not for where anyone will spend vacation , nor money, nor the five steps dung pile of the better self etc

ITs simply where one spends eternity.......and lets face it..................budda cant save, allah cant save , our own mind cannot save us , no good works can save us

no interfaith will save a soul...........in fact all who go under the all inclusive interfaith mindset and repents not.............their end is perdition.  for it leads them to the son of perditoin

and all who follow that Spirit and those people.............will end in perdtion.    This world did nothing but lie to me , heck I lied to myself and did all sorts of evil.

ONLY GOD saves.......and HE SENT THE SON , not allah , not man, not any other...........JESUS.    So , its highly likely I will be dead at the hands of those I only desired life for .

But its also just as likely I could survive to the end...........ITS THE LORDS WILL BE DONE I SAY.  and may souls be saved.

[Heleadethme]

Amen brother......and Jesus anointed for burial.  His will be done, amen.

[Heleadethme]

On 8/20/2017 at 2:37 PM, frienduff thaylorde said:

Well sister , then if I die first ................bury me at sea , just fill me up with rocks and let me sink.  And all the money saved, my last desire is give it to the poor

they will need it to eat , I wont .    If I come up to Canada and die in your back yard.  just bury me their and no need to let anyone know.

and again my last request will be,   just spend some of your money on the poor they will need it to eat .

You be blessed sister.  However as we all know...........one heck of a heavy tribulation ,which will result in many of our deaths is on the way.

Guess uncle same and the world govt can just do with our bodies as they will.   and LORD forgive them all .  

Just want to say brother, your point is well-taken.........about not being extravagant as the world tends to be, but keep it simple and let any surplus be given to the poor.  It's the way we should live as well as die, amen.  The Lord was showing me another aspect, just about being respectful of the dead......the body of Jesus was treated properly and buried properly, and God knowing there was to be a resurrection of it.  The extravagance of the alabastor box and perfume was because He was God and worthy of it........we do not need to anoint our dead extravagantly or do anything in an expensive way.  Extravagance is the world's way.....and I believe that is the point you were making, and to that I say amen.