tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32788823.post3394685475808934910..comments2024-02-25T15:35:32.248-06:00Comments on One Eternal Day: "It is better to bury than to burn"Standfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18181764095358321088noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32788823.post-25004541364550056102009-04-13T10:28:00.000-05:002009-04-13T10:28:00.000-05:00It's about the symbolism. Symbolism is important -...It's about the symbolism. Symbolism is important - think of baptism. We do it by immersion, even though conversion would be just as real without the symbol.<BR/><BR/>I posted <A HREF="http://www.one-eternal-day.com/2007/01/godly-waste-of-christian-burial.html" REL="nofollow">something by Moore</A> on this subject once before. Here is a portion I didn't quote then:<BR/><BR/>"Of course God can resurrect a cremated Christian. He can also resurrect a Christian burned at the stake, or a Christian torn to pieces by lions in a Roman coliseum, or a Christian digested by a great white shark off the coast of Florida.<BR/><BR/>"But are funerals simply the way in which we dispose of remains? If so, graveyards are unnecessary, too. Why not simply toss the corpses of our loved ones into the local waste landfill?<BR/><BR/>"For Christians, burial is not the disposal of a thing. It is caring for a person. In burial, we’re reminded that the body is not a shell, a husk tossed aside by the “real” person, the soul within. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:6–8; Phil. 1:23), but the body that remains still belongs to someone, someone we love, someone who will reclaim it one day.<BR/><BR/>"Our father Abraham did not “dispose” of the “container” previously occupied by his loved one. Moses tells us that “Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan” (Gen. 23:19, emphasis mine). His burial of his wife, returning her to the dust from which she came, honored our foremother, in precise distinction from the shamefulness with which our God views the leaving of bodies to decompose publicly (Is. 5:25).<BR/><BR/>"The Gospel of John tells us that 'Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days' (John 11:17). The Holy Spirit chose to identify this body as Lazarus, communicating continuity with the very same person Jesus had loved before and would love again.<BR/><BR/>"After the crucifixion of Jesus, the Gospels present us with an example of devotion to Jesus in the way the women—and Joseph of Arimathea—minister to him, anointing him with spices, specifically anointing, Mark tells us, him and not just “his remains” (Mark 16:1), and wrapping him in a shroud. Why is Mary Magdalene so grieved when she finds the tomb to be empty? It is not that she doubts that a stolen body can be resurrected by God on the last day. It is instead that she sees violence done to the body of Jesus as violence done to him, dishonor done to his body as dishonor to him."Standfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18181764095358321088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32788823.post-18507822838465995062009-04-13T09:12:00.000-05:002009-04-13T09:12:00.000-05:00I have to admit, I don't get it. If "most people w...I have to admit, I don't get it. If "most people who hear the voice of Jesus on resurrection morning will have long before disintegrated into dust, through the natural process of decay. And anyway, it doesn't take any more Spirit dynamic to recompose ashes than to reactivate dead tissue." then why is it showing any less hope in the our future if we use cremation rather than burial?<BR/><BR/>For me it's very much a financial decision. I like the concept of the country song "Put me in a Hefty bag and and leave me by the curb." I will no longer be in that body. It is a shell that I will have shed, looking forward to receiving a new body in the new heaven and new earth.<BR/><BR/>As C.S. Lewis said, "You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body."House of Leojhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15848380162977635142noreply@blogger.com