Hello,
I am very grateful to God for your web site. I am learning so much.
Is there any place in God’s word that says it’s wrong or okay to be cremated when you die? Does God care?
Thank you so much for your help.
B____
P. S. Years ago I was in the World Wide Church of God and also later studied Dr. Ernest Martin’s writings.

Hi B____,

Thank you for your question. I am so pleased to hear that you are learning from what you read.
You ask if it matters whether we are cremated when we die? The answer is, absolutely not! It matters not one whit what happens to these “clay vessels” when we die. It is foolish to spend lavishly upon that which is dust, perishing and is temporal.
I notice that you were once in the WWCG, as I was. The doctrine of the church, while I was in it, was that only the heathen ever considered burning their dead. While it was acknowledged that God could resurrect a cremated body, it was recommended that we not cremate and that we rather bury our dead and have a traditional funeral. There is certainly nothing in the scriptures which condemns having a traditional funeral, but neither is there anything that condemns cremation. Yes, Christ had a burial as opposed to a cremation, but that has nothing at all to do with whether cremation is a sin. The only sin in cremation is whether you are putting what you want ahead of what the family wants. If you cannot afford “the high cost of dying,” then there is certainly nothing in the word of God which prohibits the cremation of a dead human body which will soon be dust again. The manner of our burial has nothing at all to do with the resurrection of the dead. The only thing God is concerned with is the new creature we are becoming in Christ. Here is a verse that expresses this thought very clearly:

2Co 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we [ him] no more.
2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man [ be] in Christ, [ he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

The ‘new’ is the spirit, and that is all with which God is now concerned. I have written a letter on this subject which you can read at your leisure. Here is the link:
http:// www. iswasandwillbe. com/2005100511. php
God bless your desire to know Him and His son, for that is life eternal.

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike