Is It Okay for a Christian to Be Cremated?

Question:  I can not find anything in my bible study relating what is proper in burial of the believer.  Would cremation be allowed bibically?  Is there anything in the Bible that would forbid it?  This is a question that weighs heavy on my heart.

 

Answer:  You are right that the Bible does not say anything for or against cremation.  Because in the time of the early church it was a common pagan custom to cremate, the church at first only buried the dead.  Because we believe the body is important, and will be resurrected because it is so important, we believe it should not be viewed as a useless appendage to be done away with at death. 

But both burial and cremation can be done with this perspective in mind.  Based upon how long a body remains in a grave, it will be reduced to basic elements.  Those who have been buried at sea have perhaps eventually become food for marine animals and their DNA spread all over creation.   Neither burial nor cremation really preserves the body in any permanent way.

So a respectful ceremony acknowledging the meaning of death and the hope of resurrection can be done for a burial and for a cremation and God will be honored.  I am personally planning on being cremated as a way of saving expense for my family and with a full acknowledgement that it will take just as much of a miracle to resurrect my body as it will for the person buried at sea.  God is able to accomplish this.

Related Articles:

Good Question: Cremation Confusion

Is Preaching the Kingdom and the Gospel the Same Thing?

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Question:  What is the Kingdom of God mentioned in Luke 9?  It says, “When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick” (9:1,2).  Is it as simple as the Gospel?  The disciples would not know the gospel as Christ had not been Crucified yet.  I know the Kingdom of God is mentioned many times and I dont really know exactly what it is.

Answer:  It is not completely as simple as the gospel, but close.  The “gospel” means the good news and Jesus was preaching the good news of the kingdom, that is, that the kingdom was near and that you could enter it by being born again.  It was an invitation at once to submit to God and at the same time to find His forgiveness when you quit working to become more submissive and trusted Him to work in your life.  With the preaching of the kingdom by the King, Jesus, came numerous foretastes of the kingdom in the form of miracles.  In the kingdom all our sickness and sin will be done away with.  As Jesus introduced the kingdom he gave people a taste of what it would be like by healing their diseases, casting out demons and setting them free with forgiveness.  Another part of the kingdom promise (Jer 31) is a new heart to enable us to keep God’s laws.

Dealing with Pride

Question:  How can I best deal with pride in my life?  What are some ways I can develop humility? 

Answer:  Try spending the next 30 minutes absolutely quiet and without distractions.  Ask God to show you your heart, then begin to catalog the thoughts and feelings that well up.  No matter how disgusting or trivial they may be, write them down (keep a paper shredder handy for afterwards).  Ask God what He wants you to learn about yourself through this and record that.  Read the following Scriptures:  John 15:5; Luke 11:13; Psalm 103:13; 1 Corinthians 8:1-3; Philippians 2:1-11.  Meditate on these and ask God to show you where you are proud and self-centered instead of humble.

Submitting to Parents When You Are an Adult

Question:  How long should I submit to my parents? 

Answer:  As long as you are dependent upon them and living under their roof and are not capable of assuming an adult role in life.  Once you are able to do that you should not be in submission to your parents’ authority but respect it.  This means that you will honor them and their opinions and views on things, but make your own decisions as the head of a new household.  Moses called this “leaving father and mother” (Genesis 2:24).

Even if you are not starting a new household (i.e., getting married), you need to learn to live on your own and face the multiple decisions that come your way.  It is best, of course, to face them in light of God’s will for your life and with His wisdom.

Children, Obey Your Parents…Yeah, Right

Question:  How can I get my kids to submit to my authority the way God intended? 

Answer:  The best way is to model what you tell them to do, tell them in a firm but loving way, and as they are able to understand, tell them why it is important to obey what you are telling them. 

It is important for us to know why God’s laws are what they are (they are always designed for our greatest good) and it is important for our kids to understand why they are doing our laws, otherwise they do not become an internal ethic that drives their decisions throughout life, but merely a standard they do not understand or appreciate. 

Of course, if your kids do not submit they must face logical and reasonable consequences for their disobedience.  These should range from less to more severe depending on the attitude or severity of disobedience.  A couple of great books that might help in this process are Loving Obedience: Child Training Techniques that Work, by William Richardson, and Parenting Adolescents, by Kevin Huggins (my favorite parenting book of all time).

Should Spouses Submit to Each Other?

Question:  Why should I submit to my spouse or my spouse to me?  Shouldn’t it be 50/50? 

Answer:  I suppose it should be 100/100, but regardless of that, submission is really a matter of practicality.  There is a need to have someone who makes the final decision.  There is nothing wrong with the person who has that authority letting the one or ones under his or her authority be a part of that decision and even let them make the decision.  But the bottom line responsibility rests with the person in authority. 

It seems God has given husbands authority in their families, not because they are superior to their wives in decision making skills or intelligence or any other factor, but because that is how He chose it to be and it reflects our relationship to Him (Ephesians 5:22-33).  You would not expect your boss at work to be required to accept that his employees would get 50% of the say in whatever decisions are made (whatever that looks like).  He might choose to let employees make some of the decisions or weigh in on many of them.  That is good leadership.  But the ultimate responsibility lies with the boss as to what decisions are made and that might require doing something the employees don’t like, yet is for their good or the company’s good.  Authority is a serious responsibility before God and should be exercised in humble dependence on Him.

Related Articles

• A Wife’s Role Defined (pastoralcounselingsupportarticles.wordpress.com)
• A Servant’s Heart In the Home (pastoralcounselingsupportarticles.wordpress.com)
• The Husband’s Role Defined (pastoralcounselingsupportarticles.wordpress.com)

Responding to Our Authorities

Question:  If I don’t agree with my boss, who is not a believer, how do I humbly communicate a Christian principle to him if it is contrary to his desires in a particular situation? 

Answer:  There are two approaches you can take, the Daniel approach (Daniel 1) and the Apostles approach (Acts 4).  The Daniel approach would be to seek to understand what the boss is trying to accomplish with the procedure he is asking you to implement and then to offer an alternative (Christian) way of doing it as a test to see if it accomplishes the same or better results.  This approach works best when the authority does not have an ax to grind but is about bottom line results. 

The Apostles’ approach (Acts 4) would be to make it clear that you will not violate your own ethics even if it means losing your job.  If your employer values you he or she will have to make a choice about whether he or she values you or the outcome more.  This approach assumes that the authority is not only pragmatic but adamant about how to achieve the desired outcome and perhaps even militantly anti-Christian.

The Christian and Alcohol

Question:  I like to enjoy a beer or drink every once in a while, but many Christians don’t drink at all and it makes me wonder if I am sinning by drinking. 

Answer:  The Bible is very clear that drunkenness is a sin (Proverbs 20:1; 23:20,21, 29-35;31:4,5; Galatians 5:21; Ephesians 5:18, which associate drunkenness with poverty, injustice and poor decision making), but the Bible nowhere commends complete abstinence. 

It does teach that “the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17), meaning that if the indulgence of our freedom in these matters encourages another believer to violate his conscience and sin it is better to give up our freedoms.  Paul deals with this issue both in Romans 14 and at length in 1 Corinthians 8-10.  If my conscience doesn’t condemn me on an issue God has given no command on, I am free to follow my conscience.  If my conscience tells me it is wrong, even though God does not, for me it is as if I have sinned against God by sinning against my conscience and I should not do what my conscience condemns.  If my conscience becomes free at some point in this area, I can change my behavior. 

However, others who see me acting in a way that their own conscience condemns may, because of my example, think they should act that way, and they violate their own conscience.  I have become a negative example for them and encouraged them indirectly to sin.  This is less of an issue in other countries than it is in the United States because of our history of preaching against alcohol use and our era of failed prohibition.  Many Christians still believe it is wrong to drink any alcohol.

Related Articles

• Is it wrong to drink alcohol? (askthepastors.wordpress.com)

Spiritual Priorities: God first, spouse second…

Question:  How do you put work #3 and still get ahead? 

Answer:  Sometimes you don’t.  Generally speaking, when we find a way to make sure we are following the Lord first, and loving our families and giving them priority over work, we are both happier, better supported when we need to put in extra hours, and more successful at doing our jobs.  However, there will be times when putting God first and family second will cost us in our job.  If that seems unacceptable to us then we are not fully understanding what God has called us to do.  Our ultimate calling is to fulfill His great commission to the church (Matthew 28:19,20).  If our ultimate goal is to succeed in our jobs, we will find ourselves miserable failures after all.  God knows what we need.  He knows we don’t need to make our work number one.

Question:  It’s hard having my spouse put family second to God now that my spouse is a Christian. 

Answer:  It is sometimes hard to lose what seems to be the old way of doing things where you were number one to your spouse and didn’t have to compete for his or her attention.  Now that he or she is trying to follow the Lord you have to vie for his or her attention and he or she doesn’t always come at your beck and call.  This is not unlike having that first child and suddenly the baby is the focus of all a mother’s attention and energy.  It might be possible that adjustments need to be made so that your spouse is not devoting all his or her time to the Lord in a way that gives short-shrift to the family.  The best thing to do is to sit down and talk about each of your needs and openly discuss how you view the Scriptures addressing the issue of priorities, then working together to find a solution that meets everyone’s needs and fits Scripture.

Question:  If the kingdom of God is all important, why shouldn’t I give up my job and family and live completely for the kingdom? 

Answer:  Because you would be disobeying God’s direct commands (1 Thessalonians 4:11,12; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Ephesians 5:22-31).

Here are some exercises for Spiritual Growth…

1. Write down the things you want to accomplish in life.  This list should answer the question, “What do I value the most and the doing of it would leave the most significant impact on the world around me?”

2. Ask someone you trust to look through your list and help you evaluate it in light of Scripture.

3. Using your list, determine what aspects of your life you need to change in order to make the accomplishing of this list your priority.

4. Discuss with the meaningful people in your life how they would enjoy, struggle with or otherwise be impacted by the changes you are considering making.

5. Allow God to shape your thinking and give you conviction as to how to implement this list.

For further reading:

Ordering Your Private World, Gordon MacDonald

Questions About Personal Evangelism

Question:  I feel very uncomfortable sharing my faith with those I don’t know are Christians or not.  How do I get over this?

Answer:  I don’t know that you ever get over this.  You are facing someone with eternal issues at stake.  You are putting yourself out there as committed to a doctrine that most people find offensive.  You are risking being viewed as some fanatic for your beliefs.  You may draw persecution to yourself.  None of this should make you feel comfortable, but should instead drive you to God for help and courage.

Question:  Are there any icebreakers that seasoned Christians use?

Answer:  Yes.  Prayer for the Spirit’s wisdom is first, then looking for an entrance into conversation that can be steered toward spiritual things.  One helpful set of questions that can open doors for patient listening and potential sharing are: (1) Do you have any spiritual beliefs?  (2) Who is Jesus to you?  (3) Do you believe in a heaven or a hell?  (4) If you were to die tonight, do you think you would go to heaven or hell?  (5) If you were wrong about what you believe would you want to know it?

Another possibility is to ask the two diagnostic questions, (1) If you were to die tonight, do you know for sure that you would go to heaven? and (2) If you died and stood before God and He said, ‘Why should I let you into My heaven,’ what would you say?  Perhaps the greatest mistake we can make is thinking we have to share everything we believe every time we witness and destroy every wrong belief we hear in the person we are witnessing to.  Just asking the questions, or even just one of them, might be all God is calling you to do at the time.  Simply sharing what happened in your life might be all God is calling on you to do this time.

Question:  Why should I share my faith?  Isn’t it a personal decision to have a relationship with Christ?

Answer:  It is a personal decision to have a relationship with Christ, but the Bible tells us that those who don’t know Christ are ultimately unwilling to know the truth about Christ and will find all kinds of ways to deny the truth.  God commands us to speak the truth as we have opportunity in order to challenge the unwillingness of those who don’t know Christ.  If Jesus had not spoken to the woman who came to the well (John 4) she would not have moved toward spiritual things.

We also believe that if people don’t embrace Christ as rescuer, they won’t be rescued and will perish in eternal separation from God.  Taking an antibiotic to cure you of pneumonia is a personal decision, but if you didn’t realize you had pneumonia and that someone had an antibiotic, you would never make that personal decision, and the one who knew and had the cure would be guilty of withholding vital information.

Question:  What does Evangelical mean and what is the difference between an Evangelical and a Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran or other denomination?

Answer:  Evangelical normally means someone who holds to the authority of Scripture and its teaching that humans are lost forever unless they personally welcome God’s offer of life in Jesus Christ by renouncing their self-determination.  Evangelicals believe that it is their responsibility to share the message of life with all who don’t know it so that they may have a chance to gain eternal life.  Evangelical is not a denomination, but a Christian worldview.  A Methodist, Baptist or any other denominational Christian can be an Evangelical or not.

Question:  When should I use words to share Christ versus remaining quiet and letting my actions speak?

Answer:  Your actions should speak in every situation where you cannot speak or where the Spirit of God has not given you the prompting to speak.  But listening to the Spirit about speaking is your proper preparation and guide to speaking.

Question:  What are some practical ways to overcome the barrier of fear?

Answer:  Some suggestions…

(1) Become as practiced as you can at sharing your personal story in short or in more developed ways, (2) spend time praying for God’s prompting and wisdom for each opportunity you face, (3) become as knowledgeable as you can be about the essential elements of the gospel, and (4) do as much as you can with other Christians teaming up with you, or at least praying for you as you take opportunities for witness.

A Simple Outline For Sharing Your Personal Story of Faith

I.    How My Life Was Hopeless Before Christ
II.   How I Came to Know Christ as My Hope
III.  How My Life Is an Experience of Growing Hope Now

Books for further study:

Just a Walk Across the Room, Bill Hybels
Evangelism For the Faint-Hearted, Floyd Schneider
Permission Evangelism, Michael L. Simpson
Share Jesus Without Fear, William Fay and Linda Shepherd
Witnessing Without Fear, Bill Bright

God Space, Doug Pollock