Pastor John,
I have a question, mostly to clear out some of the Christianity crumbs that still linger in my mind. I loved today’s Random Thought and the clear answer it gave to a question in my heart, but it brought up another one for me.
What does it really mean when we say, “get us out of the grave”? If we are in Heaven or Paradise, why would we ever say that?
One reason this matters to me is that I intend to be cremated, but I still have a tiny, lingering fear that somehow it might be wrong. I know it sounds silly because I understand that this physical body isn’t going to rise up out of the ground and be used again, but that phrase “get us out of the grave” always pricks my heart when I hear it.
I asked Sister Willie how she felt about cremation, and she said it wasn’t something she came up with, and she is going to be buried. My mother drilled into us that cremation was a sin against God and that we would go to Hell if we did it. I just want to be free from worrying about that.
How does God feel about cremation, Pastor John? Are there any verses about it?
https://www.goingtojesus.com/gtj_thoughts.html?tname=rdt01-14
Beth
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Hi Beth.
First of all, cremation is NOT a sin against God. You can just lay that to rest. Actually, cremation is a shortcut to where a corpse is going anyway – to dirt. The Bible has nothing to say about cremation because there is nothing to say about it.
As for coming up out of the grave, that is a question many of us have had. It is puzzling, as you say, how we could be with the Lord after we die, as Paul said, and yet, he also said that dead saints will be caught up to meet the Lord when he comes. My father told us that when we die, we go to Paradise, as the Bible states, but that it is just our spirit that goes, not our body. That may explain the seeming contradiction.
Thanks for the questions. I hope that clears things up, at least a little.
Pastor John