Russell Moore recently blogged about cremation. As one who has been largely indifferent about cremation vs. burial I found it very informative and helpful.
He is biblical through and through. His thoughts in Touchstone were particularly good.
After some comments on my post about funeral planning, I became interested in why Christians might reject cremation. Dr. Moore answers my questions and then some.
I think I may be amending my funeral plans to include a desire to be buried. There is something to the beauty of following suit with Christ (namely that we are buried like Christ and resurrected like him on the last day) that is hard to resist. It’s not that God can’t raise cremated remains. Of course He can. But when the opportunity to imitate the biblical model is presented, I think I’ll take it.
Dr. Moore fleshes out his arguments in the Touchstone article very well and in Christianity Today. Worth reading.
Abigail,
What a thoughtful and beautiful post! Pastor Moore articulates a Christian position beautifully. The Biblical metaphor proclaiming death as ‘sleeping in Christ’ wonderfully proclaims our blessed hope. Committing a body to the ground acknowledges our sleep of death, a temporary state until Jesus comes and we join Him in glory.
Dad
Thanks for bringing my attention to this article. I have always been adverse to cremation but had no articulation for my objection.
Kim B
Love it! Thanks for the articles. Good food for thought and a better articulation for me as well.
Can’t wait to have some good conversation around the family table 🙂
I agree with Dr. Moore. Burial is another opportunity to display the hope of the Gospel.
I had read Dr. Moore’s thoughts on cremation a few years ago, as his article was in Southern Seminary’s magazine (my husband is a graduate), and really became convinced of why we should be buried after reading it. I tried to convince my grandmother, who was a believer, that she should not be cremated (she was near death), but she was determined to be cremated. She said Christ could raise her ashes, and while I agree that is true, I still believe the hope that is symbolized in burial is so important.
Great post. For those who still think that burial has to be expensive, we should remember that in our Lord’s day burial occurred without a coffin and after the body decomposed the remains were placed in a small “bone” box. Then the “place where they laid him” was usually used for the next family member.