Cremation has no impact on whether one goes to Heaven

Religion Columnist

A long-time friend passed away recently and for reasons not germane to this article, and without regard to whatever her or her family’s plans were, she had to be cremated. Because of that and in addition to their loss, a couple of factors brought considerable concern to some of her family. I never realized how serious or prevalent the issues mentioned below were. Consequently, that’s what this article is about.

First, they wondered if, having been cremated, she’d be allowed in heaven because her body was no longer intact to be resurrected when Jesus returns (Matthew 24:30-31). When people die, their spirit, which is eternal, leaves their body, which isn’t eternal, and returns to God to whom it belongs (Ecclesiastes 12:7). As we say, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Philippians 1:20-23).

The body doesn’t even need to be intact to enter heaven. Note Jesus’ teaching about separating ourselves from sin to avoid hell (the only alternative is heaven) by removing body parts and throwing them away (Matthew 5:27-30). We can comfort Christians who are bereaved over this matter with the words of 1 Corinthians 15:35-57. Our bodies are perishable, but when Jesus comes back, everyone will be raised with an imperishable body to stand before God to be judged based on what they did while in the earthly body (see I Corinthians 15:42 and 38; Revelation 20:11-15).

A second concern was about the fire of the cremation and, as best as I could tell, its connection with hell. Be assured, there is an everlasting fire in hell where those who do not submit to God will spend eternity having their imperishable body tormented (Matthew 25:41-46; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10; Mark 10:42-49). Christians who remain faithful to God need not worry about that (Revelation 2:10-11).

Regarding the fire of cremation, many Christians in the early church actually died by the fire of persecution. This had no impact on their eternal fate and Peter and Paul even followed up on Jesus’ statement that every person will be tested with fire (usually not literally, but literally in some cases – 1 Peter 1:3-7; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15). Paul even said that in facing the flames we could bring about some good for God’s glory if we surrendered ourselves out of love for him (1 Corinthians 13:3).

These are the words I’d like to use to comfort my friend’s family because she passed away and I look forward to being able to. Basically, the cause of death and what becomes of our body will have little or no effect on our eternal reward as Christians (Hebrews 11:32-40). We need not be concerned about the dead. God will take care of them. We’re to look out for the less fortunate on earth fixing our eyes on Jesus and looking forward to his return (Matthew 25:31-40; Hebrews 12:1-3; 2 Timothy 4:-8).

Are you looking forward to Jesus’ return? We all need to plan for his return.

Leonard Lauriault is a member of the Church of Christ in Logan. Contact him at [email protected]