Should Christians Cremate? What the Bible Says About Cremation

Our family cat Buttercup is a hunter par excellence. Almost daily she deposits a kill on our back porch, be it a mouse, bird, mole, squirrel, chipmunk, or even rabbit. (I have joked with my wife that we don’t need a dog, we already have a watch-cat, and she is fierce!) When I regard Buttercup’s latest offering, I often instruct one of our boys to go and dispose of it in the woods. Nature tells us that it is not right to leave a corpse out in the open.

But how best to do so, particularly when it is a person? A loved one?

In what follows, I will cover some of the history behind this debate and explore what the Bible says about both cremation and burial. I will argue that only burial gives specific witness to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body.

What is cremation?

Cremation is a process that uses intense heat (1400–1800 °F) to incinerate a body. After the body has been vaporized and reduced to bone fragments, these fragments are then pulverized into a sand-like powder. The final step involves placing the “cremains” in a container and returning them to the surviving family.

The word “cremate” is actually a sanitized version of the crass “burning a corpse.”

What is the history of cremation?

Early Christianity

While there were a few exceptions (notably the Hebrews), cremation was a common practice in the ancient world. That rapidly changed, however, with the spread of Christianity in the Roman empire. As Francis Schaeffer explains, “Gradually Christianity came to Roman Avenches. We know this by studying the cemetery of that time—the Romans burned their dead, the Christians buried theirs.”¹ In some respects, the care with which early Christians disposed of their dead through the burial process would not have gone unnoticed in the pagan world.

The vast majority of the Church Fathers had an unfavorable view of cremation. Early Christians often went to enormous lengths to ensure that their dead received proper burial, fighting for burial rites even in the midst of Roman persecution. Likewise, there was little debate in the medieval church: Cremation was championed by pagan societies and religions such as Hinduism.

Recent history

It was not until the late nineteenth century that cremation came into view once again. In 1874, the first cremation society in England was formed. In 1876, the first cremation in America took place. In 1877, cremation in Italy was legalized. From these early successes, cremation slowly gained traction in the ensuing decades. It is noteworthy that the growing legitimacy of the practice happened in tandem with assaults upon the Christian faith from secular philosophy, scientific materialism, and an increasingly liberal church.

In 1963, the Vatican lifted its historic ban on cremation. Many Protestant denominations followed by publicly expressing openness to the practice. A consensus started to emerge among evangelical Christians that since the Bible nowhere explicitly condemns cremation, it is not a sin and thus permissible.

Cremation has now become the mode of choice for disposing of the remains of the deceased. In 1960, just 3.6 percent of American corpses were cremated. Today, the number is 63 percent. By 2040, that figure will probably be around 78 percent.

For most of the last two thousand years, burial was the standard practice in the Western world. Why the change? For many, it is economic. Cremation is generally less expensive. A friend of mine, living in a large city on the West Coast, where space is at a premium, told me that burial didn’t even occur to his parents as an option. It is far too expensive. In densely populated countries like Japan, the cremation rate is already 99 percent. Additionally, we live in an increasingly secular culture. People are more inclined to trade in pragmatic rather than religious considerations.

Modern reception

While at one time, cremation was considered strange and even pagan, today it is normative, and Christians have largely followed the trend. Having officiated many funerals over the past twenty years as a minister, I have watched more and more Christians opt for cremation over burial.

A blog post by John MacArthur represents the common pro-cremation argument:

Obviously any buried body will eventually decompose (Eccles. 12:7). So cremation isn’t a strange or wrong practice—it merely accelerates the natural process of oxidation. The believer will one day receive a new body, thus the state of what remains of the old body is unimportant.

He adds,

What we need to focus on as Christians is not how to dispose of our earthly bodies, but that one day new bodies will be fashioned for us like our Lord’s glorious resurrection body.

These arguments have been convincing, and now most see the question of burial or cremation within the realm of Christian freedom. Since the Bible is largely neutral on the subject, we must leave it to the individual or the family to decide for themselves—so goes the thinking.

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What does the Bible say about cremation?

Having traced some of the history of cremation, we now turn our attention to Scripture itself.

Burning bodies

While the Bible contains dozens of references to God’s people burying their dead, references to cremation are scant. Nonetheless, in Old Testament Israel, we find that burning bodies by fire was a sign of God’s judgment. Consider the following examples:

• Under Mosaic law, fire was prescribed as judgment for sexual transgressions: “If a man takes a woman and her mother also, it is depravity; he and they shall be burned with fire, that there may be no depravity among you” (Lev 20:14).
• Similarly, a priest’s daughter who profaned herself through sexual immorality “shall be burned with fire” (Lev 21:9).
• In a clear pronouncement of God’s judgment, Achan and his family were executed for stealing items from Jericho that were under the divine ban. The Lord turned from his “burning anger” only after they were stoned and burned with fire (Josh 7:25–26).
• After the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, offered “strange” fire that the Lord had not authorized, “fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord” (Lev 10:1–2).
• Likewise, fire came out from the Lord and consumed 250 men who offered incense in rebellion against his appointed leadership (Num 16:35).
• On another occasion, when the Israelites were complaining before the Lord, “the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some outlying parts of the camp” (Num 11:1).

Perhaps the most well-known “cremation” account follows the deaths of Saul and Jonathan after they were mutilated by the Philistines (1 Sam 31:8-13). The men of Jabesh-gilead captured the bodies and burned them before burying their bones. There is debate regarding the original Hebrew of this passage, and at best, this event was descriptive, not prescriptive. It is likely that this was an attempt to protect the bodies of Saul and Jonathan from suffering further dishonor.

Burying bodies

What about burial?

On dozens of occasions, burial is referenced in Scripture as the appropriate means of dealing with the dead. The first burial in the Bible was in Genesis 23, where Abraham took great pains to ensure his wife, Sarah, was properly buried. Abraham was later buried in this same cave (Gen 25:10). Several more burials are recorded in Genesis (Gen 35:19, 29; 49:31; 50:14). It is particularly instructive that God himself buried Moses (Deut 34:5–6). In the New Testament, notable examples include John the Baptist (Mark 6:29) and Stephen (Acts 8:2).

Some may be surprised to learn that Ananias and Sapphira were given proper burial after God struck them down for their deceit (Acts 5:1–11). Yet this is consistent with the arc of Scripture, given that even a criminal who was put to death was afforded the right to be buried under Old Testament law (Deut 21:22–23).

The most famous example in the Bible was undoubtedly Jesus’s burial. The Apostle John records how Joseph of Arimathea, with the help of Nicodemus, prepared Jesus’s body with seventy-five pounds of myrrh and aloes before laying him in a tomb (John 19:38–42). Looking back a few decades later, Paul declared,

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Cor 15:3–4)

From its infancy, the church has held these three climactic events—Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection—at the center of our faith and profession.

From this brief biblical survey, we can begin to see why many Christians through the ages might have favored burial over cremation.

How does burial witness to our faith?

Although the Bible nowhere commands burial or prohibits cremation, the following reasons support burial as a Christian preference.

Their central idea: Burial offers compelling testimony to the Christian doctrine of the resurrection of the body. In the same way that Jesus was raised to life on the third day, every Christian has the firm conviction that one day they will be raised with Christ to see him face to face. Burial proclaims such a hope in the resurrection of the dead.

1. The sacredness of the body

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible has an overwhelmingly positive view of the body. Every person is created in the image of God (Gen 1:27). Paul says of Christians, “Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit … so glorify God in your body” (1 Cor 6:19–20). Jesus promises believers that he will return in glory not so that they will eternally dwell in the “higher realm of the soul,” but to wipe away every tear and gain ultimate victory over death through the resurrection of the body (Rev 21:4).

God did not create humanity as disembodied souls. Rather, he made us a composite of soul and body and called us to live in such a way that honors him with our bodies (Eph 5:3–5). Christians do not view the body as just a shell or container for the soul. Likewise, we should not view a corpse as “mere tissue” to be disposed of in an efficient manner. At least in some sense, that body is still a person (John 20:13).

There is an obvious violence that happens in cremation that forgoes our normal care for the body. Thus, one could argue that cremation devalues the goodness of the body.

When I was eight years old, a neighbor accidentally ran over our dog. That summer day, my dad took us kids and we helped dig a grave for Duke on the edge of our property, complete with a grave marker. How Dad handled this, including the care he showed our beloved dog, greatly aided the grieving process. I can only imagine how traumatized I would have been had he taken Duke and burned his body.

What you believe about the body will inevitably affect how you treat the body, in life and in death (Phil 1:20).

2. The body as buried seed

The Bible is rich with imagery, some of which contributes to this discussion. Jesus said, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). In a word, his death ushers in life.

Paul picked up on this teaching when saying,

What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain. … So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Cor 15:36–37, 42–44)

In accord with sowing a seed, burying a body holds the hope of something better—much better!—arriving later. As Donald Howard explains, only burial makes sense of these verses. “Burning simply cannot fit into the analogy. Seed is not burned to germinate; it is sown into the ground. Burial of the body is an expression of faith in its later being raised in the same likeness.”²

3. Christian death as “sleep”

A common expression used to designate burial places is “cemetery,” meaning, “sleeping place.” This is fitting given that the Bible frequently uses sleep as a figure of speech for physical death (Ps 13:3; Dan 12:2; John 11:11–14; Acts 7:60; 1 Cor 15:18).

Christians have traditionally understood that when a loved one is “laid to rest,” they “sleep” in expectation of one day “waking” for the resurrection (1 Thess 4:15–16). There is a sense in which the dead in Christ are not simply dead—not annihilated—but, like Jairus’s daughter, they are “sleeping,” awaiting their resurrection (Luke 8:52–55).

4. The Bible’s use of fire

Fire is a remarkable element with countless uses (just try to imagine a world without fire). When it comes to how the Bible uses the imagery of fire, it can point to different things like purification through trials (Mal 3:2–3) and a sign of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:3).

But far and away the most common sign for fire is God’s wrath and judgment. Jesus warned of the “hell of fire” (Matt 5:22) and the “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43). The use of fire to consume the body is viewed in Scripture as a sign of contempt, whether here on earth through the burning of bodies or in the afterlife in the “lake of fire” (Rev 20:15).

In sum, the general direction of the Bible would seem to discourage cremation and favor burial as the proper means for treating our dead.

What about those already cremated?

Does cremation mean that a person can’t be raised? Will they somehow be ineligible for the resurrection? If a body is incinerated, how could it possibly be resurrected? But all bodies eventually disintegrate, including those that are buried.

God is God. Nothing is too difficult for him (Jer 32:17). For any resurrection to happen, a great miracle must occur, and we can all trust God to sort out the details. In the same way that our Lord can raise the bodies of countless martyrs who were burned at the stake or fed to the lions, so too your cremated loved one who trusted Christ. There is no need to fear.

The choice of burial or cremation is not about how best to facilitate the resurrection but what best symbolizes and testifies to our Christian hope.

The choice of burial or cremation is not about how best to facilitate the resurrection. That is God’s prerogative. The choice is about what best symbolizes and testifies to our Christian hope in the power of the gospel and the resurrection of the body. People are watching you and, believe it or not, you can have enormous influence simply by your faith in Christ. That influence extends to how you die. Paul declared, “as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now and always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Phil 1:20; emphasis mine).

Conclusion

The way that we deal with bodies after death should aim to honor Christ. It should reflect the Christian’s deep hope in the resurrection. “As death is the last opportunity any of us will have to testify to God’s truth, what is more fitting than that our passing should focus on the unique and distinctive doctrine of the resurrection of the body?”³

The people of God have always had a forward-looking faith. They knew that they were citizens of a “better country” (Heb 11:16; Phil 3:20). Joseph even gave instruction that his bones should not remain buried in Egypt. Why? He was convinced that a much better inheritance awaited him and all God’s people (Gen 50:25; Exod 13:19; Josh 24:32; Heb 11:22).

In a joyful yet sorrowful way, burial testifies to that hope in the resurrection when body and spirit will be reunited. Death does not have the final word (Rom 8:38; 1 Cor 15:55–57). Amen!

Share your thoughts

How does the Bible inform cremation practices? Join us in the Word by Word group to share your thoughts.

Daniel Stegeman’s suggested resources

• Howard, Donald W. Burial or Cremation: Does It Matter? Banner of Truth Trust, 2001.
• Jones, David W. “To Bury or Burn? Toward an Ethic of Cremation.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 53, no. 2 (2010): 335–47.

Related content

• What Is Christian Ethics? How Scripture Shapes Our Moral Lives
• You Are Your Body: Human Beings as Embodied Persons
• He Is Risen—So What? 20 Things Jesus’s Resurrection Accomplished
• Bioethics from Embryo to Deathbed: Right, Wrong, and Healthcare
• What Does It Mean to Be Human? Theological Anthropology

1. Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (Crossway, 1976), 13.
2. Donald Howard, Burial or Cremation: Does It Matter? (Banner of Truth, 2001), 11.
3. Howard, Burial or Cremation, 28.