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THE GOSPEL OBSERVER
"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations...teaching
them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you
always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:19,20).
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March 19, 2000
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Cremation
by Kent E. Heaton, Sr.
It is hard to imagine what Adam and Eve went
through when they found their second son was dead. The
record only tells us that she bore another son whom they
called Seth: ``For God has appointed another seed for me
instead of Abel, whom Cain killed'' (Genesis 4:25). As death
has been a part of man's existence, so has the action of the
final disposition of the body. The first burial that is
recorded is the ``burial at sea'' performed by God in the
great flood (Genesis 6).
On man's part, burial was a common practice.
Numerous places in scripture mention burial as a mode of
disposing of the body when death occurred. Notable burials
include Abraham seeking a place to bury Sarah (Genesis 23).
Joseph promised to fulfill his father's request not to bury
him in Egypt--''So his sons did for him just as he had
commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of
Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of
Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the
field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place.
And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to
Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to
bury his father'' (Genesis 50:12-14).
The ceremonies of disposal of the body vary from
culture to culture. The word ``funeral'' comes from an old
Sanskrit word of northern India which means ``smoke.'' Many
of the customs of disposal of the body are connected with
geography (need to bury above ground), theology
(Indonesians of the island of Bali make a life-sized image of
a scared bull to hold the coffin of the dead person--during
the funeral, the bull and its contents will be carefully
burned), necessity (burial at sea) or traditions of culture
(the Viking dead were placed in their boats, which were set
on fire and pushed out to sea).
The process of disposing of the body at death is not
given as a law in the word of God. As there are many
examples of burial there are a few examples of what is
defined as cremation. Cremation is the act of destroying the
body by fire. The method used today is to place the body
and casket in a special furnace where they are subjected to
a heat of from 2,000 - 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The bones
are reduced to ashes.
There are examples of ``cremation'' in the Bible. In
Joshua 7, we find ``Joshua, and all Israel with him, took
Achan the son of Zerah, the silver, the garment, the wedge
of gold, his sons, his daughters, his oxen, his donkeys, his
sheep, his tent, and all that he had, and they brought them
to the Valley of Achor. And Joshua said, `Why have you
troubled us? The LORD will trouble you this day.' So all
Israel stoned him with stones; and they burned them with
fire after they had stoned them with stones. Then they
raised over him a great heap of stones, still there to this
day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of His anger.
Therefore the name of that place has been called the Valley
of Achor to this day'' (Joshua 7:24-26).
Following the death of King Saul (by his own hand),
``All the valiant men arose and traveled all night, and took
the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall
of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh and burned them
there. Then they took their bones and buried them under
the tamarisk tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days'' (1
Samuel 31:12,13). In this case the bones were not completely
consumed with fire as even later, ``David went and took the
bones of Saul, and the bones of Jonathan his son, from the
men of Jabesh Gilead who had stolen them from the street of
Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hung them up, after
the Philistines had struck down Saul in Gilboa. So he
brought up the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his
son from there; and they gathered the bones of those who
had been hanged. They buried the bones of Saul and
Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zelah, in the
tomb of Kish his father. So they performed all that the king
commanded. And after that God heeded the prayer for the
land'' (2 Samuel 21:12-14).
Josiah, King in Judah, ``Took away all the shrines of
the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the
kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger; and
he did to them according to all the deeds he had done in
Bethel. He executed all the priests of the high places who
were there, on the altars, and burned men's bones on them;
and he returned to Jerusalem'' (2 Kings 23:19,20).
Under the Law of Moses, certain sins were punished
with the burning of the body. ``And if a man take a wife
and her mother, it is wickedness: they shall be burnt with
fire, both he and they; that there be no wickedness among
you'' (Leviticus 20:14). ``And the daughter of any priest, if
she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth
her father: she shall be burnt with fire'' (Leviticus 21:9). In
the story of Judah and Tamar (Genesis 38), when Judah was
told that Tamar had played the harlot and was with child,
Judah said: ``Bring her out and let her be burned.'' These
are specific examples of ``cremation'' being used as the
penalty for sin.
During the days of the Babylonian captivity, fire was
used as the means of execution as seen with Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-Nego. ``And whoso falleth not down and
worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a
burning fiery furnace'' (Daniel 3:6). The Babylonians used
fire in contrast to the Persians who used animals to punish
criminals. ``And the king commanded, and they brought
those men which had accused Daniel, and they cast them
into the den of lions, them, their children, and their wives;
and the lions had the mastery of them, and brake all their
bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the
den'' (Daniel 6:24).
The act of cremation is not a sin. Sin is defined in 1
John 3:4 as ``Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also
the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.'' God does
not have in His law a place that makes the act of cremation
a violation of His law. To burn the body is a personal choice
that can be made by anyone who desires to do so (in
accordance with civil law).
The problem with cremation that many feel is not in
association with the law of God but rather the personal
attachments given the body. This is a natural course of
man's makeup. The reason for marble monuments is to
remind ourselves of the outward person that we know and
love. As Christians we recognize the importance is not the
outward man but the inward man. We know that our fleshly
bodies will grow corrupt and decay to return to the dust.
What we look forward too is the eternal body that will never
decay or die. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, ``And fear not
them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:
but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and
body in hell.'' The focus of our lives should not be
grounded upon the outward man but what will become of us
when we stand before God.
The disposal of the body at death is not relevant to
our eternal salvation. ``For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens'' (2 Corinthians 5:1). Whether we are buried above
ground, below ground, at sea or burned with fire, our soul
is what matters. The disposal of the body is left to our own
desires and wishes in accordance with the law of the land.
We look forward to our ``new'' body!
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Purity in Doctrine
(Part 2 of 2)
by Jeff S. Smith
Fellowship and Impure Doctrine
The propagation of false doctrine, if unchecked, will
eventually sever a man's fellowship with God. The church at
Pergamos numbered Nicolaitans in her fellowship, for which
Jesus rebuked them and promised to fight against them with
the sword of his mouth (Rev. 2:15-16). Thyatira had a
Jezebel deceiving its members while operating as a part of
that church and Jesus promised to cast her in a sickbed of
tribulation (Rev. 2:20-22). Paul marked two teachers of
error, Hymenaeus and Philetus, for espousing an impure
doctrine regarding Christ's resurrection (II Tim. 2:17-18). He
had the courage to expose the hypocrisy of Peter and
Barnabas when they practiced the impure doctrine of the
Judaizers in Antioch (Gal. 2:11-21), whom he claimed had
become estranged from Christ and fallen from grace (Gal.
5:4).
If I am obligated to sever fellowship with one
practicing false doctrine, am I not obligated also to sever
fellowship with the one teaching it (Eph. 5:11-12, Romans
16:17-18)? If Paul demands I withdraw myself from a brother
who engages in sexual immorality with his father's wife,
would I not also be commanded to withdraw myself from one
who taught this was permissible and tolerable (I Cor. 5)?
Am I obligated to withdraw myself from those living in
``adulterous marriages'' but continue in fellowship with the
one who taught that couple to wed without concern? It can
only be a respect of persons that leads one to come to such
a conclusion. The deceiver's reputation protects him while
the deceived get the shaft. Did the deceiver deceive
intentionally? When the ox is in the ditch, the purity of the
farmer's intentions in pushing him will not rescue him. If
the souls of men are really so important to us, they will
take precedent over a judgment of intentions and yearning
for peace with the deceiver.
Both the teacher and the taught are responsible for
this sin and this error. ``Again, when a righteous man turns
from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a
stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you did
not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his
righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered;
but his blood I will require at your hand'' (Ezek. 3:20). Paul
told the Ephesian pastors that he was ``innocent of the
blood of all men'' for he had not shunned to declare the
whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26-27).
Sometimes that stumbling block is a preacher who
knows better but says nothing, claiming isolationism,
community standards or some other excuse. Sometimes that
stumbling block is a preacher or elder who gives no
warning in order to protect the reputation and camaraderie
of a revered soldier of the cross (I Cor. 4:6). One man's
reputation is preserved at any cost, while a hundred men's
souls perish in ignorance, without a peep from the
shepherds (Heb. 13:17) and watchers (II Tim. 4:5). When
impure doctrine is tolerated, impure religion will surely
follow and the spots and wrinkles upon Christ's bride will
render her unrecognizable in time.
Concerning the error of Hymenaeus and Philetus, Paul
notes that their impure doctrine would spread like cancer
and overthrow the faith of the deceived. In his letter to
Timothy, Paul was attempting to identify and excise the
cancerous lesion from the body and prevent its spread and
corruption. Let God be thanked for such an apostolic
example of love for the redeemed and the pure wisdom from
above.
Conclusion
How many preachers will examine their own hands in
the day of reckoning and observe the ``blood'' of souls
condemned, in part, because they uttered not a word of
warning or were too reluctant to declare the whole counsel
of God to someone presumptuously deemed unlikely to
submit? One is reminded of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth,
desperately trying to remove the bloodstains of a guilty
conscience, when he considers the tardy reflections of a
preacher who failed to proclaim the word boldly as he ought
(Eph. 6:20).
In a work called ``Hope,'' William Cowper (1731-1800)
wrote ``And diff'ring judgements serve but to declare / That
truth lies somewhere, if we knew but where.'' Concerning
matters of the faith, the Holy Spirit told us just where to
look for truth, the oracles of God (1 Peter 4:11). Now, we
must go about declaring that truth without respect to
persons, convenience, or ecumenical peace.
Impure doctrine--speaking smooth things to satisfy an
ungodly yearning for guilt assuagement rather than true
redemption--both hinders the spread of the glad tidings of
Christ and leads to a severance of fellowship with God and
brethren. Tolerating impure doctrine is a deal with the
devil, a willingness to exchange everlasting peace with God
for a temporary peace on Earth among men. Woe unto both
those who propagate and those who tolerate the cancer of
impure doctrine.
-- The Watchman Magazine, July 1998
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NEWS & NOTES
I will be preaching March 26 in Louisville, Kentucky,
for the Birchwood church of Christ. If you live in that area,
we would love to see you. The morning worship begins at 9.
If everything works out well, I will begin preaching
in Avondale, Pennsylvania, April 2 (the first day of Daylight
Savings Time). Be sure to stop in and see us, if you ever
happen to be in that part of the country. We would be glad
to have you.
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Tri-State
CHURCH OF CHRIST
1314 Montgomery Avenue, Ashland, Kentucky 41101
Sunday: 10:00 A.M. Bible class
10:50 A.M. Worship
5:00 P.M. Worship
Wednesday: 7:30 P.M. Bible study
evangelist/editor: Tom Edwards (606) 325-9742
e-mail: tedwards@zoomnet.net
Gospel Observer web site: http://www.zoomnet.net/~tedwards/go
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