Expert: Pastor Kimberly Lemler - 6/4/2008

Question
Why would it make one feel creepy to go in a garage with an urn of cremains and not creepy to go to a cemetary?  In my study of it I find people try to make many things cultural into Biblical to justify their personal opinions.(dress, hair, customs, beliefs, etc.) Hebrew's in Egypt probably mumified their dead. Many feel God can't resurrect a cremated person. I am confident he is able. From dust Adam was made. In enough time even a preserved corpse will again be dust. Perhaps some peoples aversion to it is comparing it to burning in Hell. I have yet to hear or find anything Biblically or definitively convincing to God's opinion.  As Christians we are not bound to the keeping the customs of the Jewish. One thing for sure, people are funny and and they need to be loved.

Answer
Hi John,

 The only question I see in your note is asking if it makes one "feel creepy to go in a garage with an urn of cremains and not creepy to go to a cemetary."   I have gone into a garage with an urn full of remains and it was creepy to me. Why? I think in my spirit I felt it was not normal.  I grew up across the street from a beautiful, large cemetary and was perfectly at peace when I would take walks there. I guess it depends on the person...

Some factors which favor burial:
-God selected burial at Moses' death (Deuteronomy 34:6).  
-Most of the reference to burning of a body in the Bible are    instances of:  punishment for criminal acts, punishment for improper behavior, killings by Pagans, or destruction of idols and evil material.  
-St. Paul appears to favor burial. In 1 Corinthians 15:35-44, he discusses how God will raise the decomposed body of a believer. The symbolism used is that of planting a seed and having new life rise from the decaying seed.
-The Christian church has advocated burial since its inception. They reserved burning for Witches and other heretics. They exterminated hundreds of thousands of them, mainly during the 15th to 18th centuries.
-Cremation can be an aid to murderers. Once a body has been cremated, it cannot be exhumed and analyzed for poisons.

Pastor Kim