Name: Bill
Question: Is cremation okay with God?
Answer: Thank you for the question Bill.
Cremation is not a sin, and God certainly does not frown on it. I think we have to remember, the flesh is a very temporary thing. God is not concerned if someone is buried or if they are cremated.
You know why?
‘To be absent from the body, means we are present with the Lord.’
2 Corinthians 5:8
When we pass away, our spirit is released from the flesh. When we pass away, we are done with the flesh, our spirit will never return to it again.
Our flesh body simply served for a moment in time, a moment that provided our soul, our spirit the opportunity to decide if we were going to follow God or Satan. That’s it.
Man Was Created From Dust
Turn your Bible with me to,
Genesis 2:7
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
God was speaking of Adam here, but we know all of mankind was created from the earth as well.
Ecclesiastes 3:20
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Our flesh body is derived from dust, and when it passes away, it returns to dust.
Now think about cremation, what happens after that process is complete?
The flesh body returns to dust, just as if the body was placed into the dirt. No matter if the body is cremated or buried, the result is the same. The flesh body will return to the dust it was created from.
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The Flesh Is Remembered No More
I want to further the point, please turn with me to,
Psalms 103:14
For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
“Frame” means “form” or “conception”. God knows that He created us from dust. Remember that, our fleshly form is based on the dirt from the earth. It does not matter where our flesh body goes once our spirit departs from it.
Psalms 103:15-16
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
In one day, that beautiful flower was unseated from its place, now gone, it is no longer remembered. This verse really reminds me of ourselves.
We are like that flower. One day we will pass on. Even if someone puts together a fancy headstone for our flesh body, our spirit is still gone, and even that headstone as a memorial will fade away with time.
Here is our take away Bill, this is what is important to remember.
Ecclesiastes 12:7
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
When we pass away, our spirit does not die. The death of our flesh body simply releases our spirit from the flesh, this enables our spirit to return to our Heavenly Father who created it.
That is why Solomon would say,
‘Better is the day of death, than the day of one’s birth.’
Ecclesiastes 7:1
Summary
God explained to us, when our flesh body dies it returns to the dust it was created from. Further, God never explained how the body of a loved one should be destroyed. God left that up to us, but He provided comfort by letting us know our loved one’s spirit has returned to Him.
Understanding that, traditional funerals can be extremely expensive and incur financial hardships on families. I hope it is now clear, a family may choose to cremate the body of a deceased family member and do with the ashes as they please. Some keep the ashes, while some spread the ashes in the person’s favorite place. These are all acceptable to God.