Automatic Transcript Generated:
Speaker 1
Alright. So Gloria is asking, can Christians be cremated? Hi Gloria, I think that is a really great question and I think it’s very relevant. I do want to say I hope this is is not in relation to a loved one who maybe has passed away, but if it is, my heart goes out to you and my condolences go with you. They could be with you at this time. But when it comes to cremation, there’s really not anything in the Bible that says you cannot, you know, like it’s going to affect your Salvation in any way. There’s nothing in the Bible of anything of that sort. And actually, if you go to Genesis 319, just talking about after sin came into the world, we received a curse and death entered. And it reads in Genesis 319, God says to Adam, in the sweat of your face you shall eat till you return to the ground. For out of it you are taken, for dust you are, and dust you shall return. So when we pass away, it says Ecclesiastes. And I’ll show you more clearly later, that basically our breath or the breath of life, our spirit returns to God and our body is made of dust and it returns to the Earth.
Speaker 1
So once we die, those two things are separated. Like it reads in Genesis chapter two, verse seven, just talking about what we are, we are a living soul or a living being. If you want to read in Genesis chapter two, verse seven, it says, and the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the bread of life, and man became a living soul. So when we’re alive, we are those two things put together dust of the ground and breath of life. And together they make a living soul. And if you think about kind of how that works, if you think of like you have peanut butter and you have bread, now each of those things are fine on its own. But when you put them together, they make a sandwich, right? They make a totally different thing. Or like you have two oxygen and one height or two got to do chemistry, two hydrogen, one oxygen, you put them together, they make water. So just as those things together and only when they’re together make a completely new and different thing, but when they’re separated, they no longer make that thing.
Speaker 1
So like I said, when we die, our bodies go back to the dust. And so as far as being cremated or being buried, it really doesn’t matter because you’re going to end up being dust either way. Just cremation makes it happen a little faster. So our bodies are going to decompose. That’s how it works and how it goes, but it’s only in the new heavens and the new Earth, God says he gives us a new body. It doesn’t matter what happens to this old body. We’re done. Thank God and God will go as a new body that will never have disease or pain or suffering or any of those things that happen on the Earth. And so one last thing I do want to mention just as far as kind of when you think about passing away and your body now being basically the breath of life is separated from the body and God receives that spirit like it reads in Ecclesiastes, chapter twelve, verse seven. And so basically just God receives the spirit back, then the body goes back to the dust. And I want you to just know something and I hope it’s something of comfort to you.
Speaker 1
What it also reads in Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verse five, it says that basically the living know that they shall die, but the dead no, not anything, and they have no more reward for the memory of them is forgotten. So I hope that you have a sense of peace knowing that if you’ve lost anyone, they’re asleep, they’re resting in Jesus. They don’t have to know what’s going on in this Earth and all the pain and all the suffering. They don’t have any part of that until the resurrection. And you read about that very clearly in first Thessalonians four where basically it says if you go to one Thessalonians chapter four, and beginning in verse, I’m sorry if you read one Thessalonians four, verse 13, and it reads, but I do not want you to be ignorant, brother. And concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest your sorrows be as others who have no hope, thank God, we have hope in Jesus. Amen. As you keep going to the next verse it reads, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with him those who sleep in Jesus. So again, Paul is trying to comfort his people, saying, look, there’s a resurrection.
Speaker 1
And those who sleep in Jesus, they will be resurrected on the last day. And if you keep going in the chapter, it reads now in verse 15, for this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. So basically those who are alive when Jesus comes are not going to be going to heaven first. No, God is going to resurrect first those who are dead or asleep in Jesus. So they are sleeping until the coming of the Lord. And you see this clearly as the verses go on like it says in verse 16, for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of an Archangel and with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. So those who have died, who have passed away, they rise first. And it’s such a wonderful and beautiful hope that we have in Jesus that we then those in verse 17, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
Speaker 1
And so we shall ever be with the Lord. And so I just want to say that word of comfort to you, that it doesn’t matter what happens to our bodies on this Earth, whether when we’re living in it or after we die for cremated or buried. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that God has your name written in the book of life. And on the last day, whether we sleep or whether we are alive and remain, the last day is when God will scoop up his people and gather them all to heaven and we get to have our reward, which is to be in the presence of God and live forever with him. Jay or Wendy, do you have any other thoughts on that one?
Speaker 2
Yeah. So it’s interesting and I’m just looking at it right now. One Corinthians 1535, all starts off with, but someone will say, how are the dead raised up and what body do and with what body do they come? And so here Paul is like directly talking about this, and he says, foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be a mere grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain. What he’s saying is, for example, you plant a seed, do you get that seed again or does it grow up into something different? Is the seed totally different than the plant that comes out of it? And so he’s using this analogy about what our body is going to look like, and it keeps going and going and going. There’s all sorts of different types of bodies. It says verse 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption, it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory, it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power, it is sown in a natural body.
Speaker 2
It is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there’s a spiritual body. What we’re going to have on the resurrection could be totally different than the bodies as we understand it. We don’t need to be worried about where the molecules that make up our current body right now are going to go, because God is going to give us something that’s going to be totally different. And that’s what we could really look forward to. As Tina was saying.
Speaker 1
Amen, did you go down to verse 53 as well, where it says, this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality. And just like it says also in verse 54 of that chapter, so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal will have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass. The thing that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. So when again Jesus comes and we are resurrected that the mortal something that’s able to die will no longer be able to die because God will raise this up with those perfect bodies. And just like you’re saying, what does that mean for those who don’t understand that this corruptible is put on incorruption or this mortal is thrown immortality like what does that mean? Sure, because if you think of the word corrupt, that’s something that’s able to decay, right? That’s something that’s decaying or there’s a fault or there’s a problem in it, right? Yeah, exactly. There’s a fault and the fault that’s in us that’s causing us to die is sin, right? That’s the fault that’s corruption in us. So when Paul is saying that this corruptible will put on incorruption so basically we’re going to have a body and a mind that is free from sin and so we’re not having that like a drive or draw that we naturally have now to send.
Speaker 2
And then also yeah, your body is not going to you’re not going to have disease anymore. You’re not going to break bones anymore. You’re not going to have cavities in your teeth. It’s all going to be totally different. Maybe we’re going to be able to fly. Maybe we’ll be like the Angels when he says that it’s hard to know to what degree, right? But there’s probably going to be a lot of similarities there.
Speaker 1
I hope so. Yes. I’m saying mortal must put on immortality immortal meaning we all know we’re going to die. Like I said in Ecclesiastes, the living know that they shall die and every day we know that we’re decaying a little bit more every day sadly. But thank God there’s going to come a time when God is going to make all things new Just like he promises in his word in Revelation, Chapter 21, verse four it says And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall no more death neither sorrow no crying Neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away So thank God for his beautiful promises.
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