Burial vs. Cremation | Which is Best for the Resurrection?

Funeral attendants lower a flower-covered coffin beside a graveside, next to a crematorium coffin. — A funeral service progresses from graveside burial to a solemn cremation ceremony.

In Western nations there are usually two options to dispose of the body after a love one has departed this world. Either burial of the whole body in the ground or cremation and storage of the ashes in an urn.

Ancient Israelites had the burial custom of placing their dead in tombs, neither burying nor burning the bodies. When the flesh of the bodies had decayed leaving only the bones, the bones were collected and placed into stone boxes called ossuaries. That is neither burial or cremation. But the end result is all molecules of the dead one’s body are gone except the bones.

As discussed in The Saints Who Were Resurrected After Jesus’ Death | Matthew 27:52-53 Explained there was an opening of the graves after Jesus’ death and a resurrection of many of the dead saints. But they waited until Jesus’ resurrection to leave their tombs and around walk in the city of Jerusalem. That meant that they had bodies again. Physical bodies that could walk around the city, and perhaps be recognised by people there.

Jesus, in His resurrection body, was recognisable, implying that those who are resurrected have a body that looks essentially like the old, but quite obviously renewed. The question here then is: Where do the molecules making up the new bodies come from?

I ask this because I have heard that some people claim the same molecules will be collected by God and assembled again. Some speak of the need to bury the body in the ground so that when the graves are opened, at the second coming of Christ, He can assemble them new bodies from all those elements found in the ground that came from their old bodies.

14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. 15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain to the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. 16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

1 Thessalonians 4:14-16 AKJV

Those in Jesus are the believers, the saints of God. To be asleep in this context means in the grave. The believers will receive the promise of eternal life and to live forever one needs an immortal body. Earthly bodies decay and die. So a new body is expected.

Now there is no mention of how or where the dead are asleep. Their molecules could have been scattered and obliterated. They might have been lost at sea and eaten by sharks or burned up in fire.

One thing is certain though, whether we be alive or dead at Christ’s coming we shall all be changed. That means that new immortal body.

51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?

1 Corinthians 15:51-56 AKJV

The dead shall be raised incorruptible. They will be given new bodies that are indestructible. So the physics and chemistry of those new bodies is different to the physics and chemistry of these present earthy bodies.

And believe me I know — I feel the full effects of the entropic decay of my present body. The catabolic forces of decay have been winning over the anabolic forces since I was a young man. We do all we can to provide the essential nutrients for the body to resist the effects of entropy but it is a losing battle. We eventually all die as our resilience against decay goes to zero. In the graves (Jesus called it paradise to the repentant man on the cross) we then wait for the resurrection.

Which is better for the resurrection? Being buried whole or cremated? Neither it turns out.

35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? 36 You fool, that which you sow is not quickened, except it die: 37 And that which you sow, you sow not that body that shall be, but bore grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38 But God gives it a body as it has pleased him, and to every seed his own body. 39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

1 Corinthians 15:35-40 AKJV

God will build us new body as it pleases Him. That means God chooses the design. Perhaps He uses His spiritual physics to give our new bodies the ability to travel in and out of the spiritual realm. They will be impervious to entropic decay, that is a fact.

However what is clear from this scriptural passage is that the bodies you might bury in the ground are not the same bodies that God will give the saints who die and are resurrected. The design of the new body will be totally new, and operate under new physics, but still will look essentially like it did as the original earthy body.

But what about Lazarus? He was revived, brought back from the dead.

The critical test is whether the raised person dies again. Every resuscitation — Lazarus (John 11:1–44), the widow of Zarephath’s son (1 Kings 17), the Shunammite’s son (2 Kings 4) — ended with the person eventually dying a second time. They were returned to ordinary mortal life in the same fallen, aging body.

Even in the modern world we read of “miraculous” resuscitations of people — near death experiences — who were clinically dead for significant periods of time, even hours in some cases. When resuscitated they are still in their decaying earthy bodies.

Resurrection, by contrast, involves a transformation into a new kind of body. The Apostle Paul describes this.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

1 Corinthians 15:42–44 AKJV

This is not the revival of a corpse but a metamorphosis into something qualitatively different.

Like my analogy to the real and imaginary numbers, the natural body is real now and the spiritual body is imaginary now, but on resurrection the spiritual body will be all that matters. Our bodies will be transformed into spiritual beings.

Jesus is the unique case where both terms apply: he was raised from the dead and resurrected in the fullest sense — the first to rise with a body that is recognizably his own yet radically transformed, never to die again. He is called the “firstfruits” (1 Corinthians 15:20) and “firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18), and his resurrection is the pattern and guarantee of what believers will experience at the final resurrection.

45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [Jesus Christ] was made a quickening [life-giving] spirit. 46 However, that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 50 Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption.

1 Corinthians 15:45–50 AKJV

It does not matter where your molecules end up after your death because your body is not you. Your soul was a unique creation of God which Christ will resurrect into a totally new spiritual body of His design.

At the gravesite we mourn the loss of our loved ones. That is right to do. But know this, they have passed on. They are not in the ground but wait in the grave “asleep” or wait in paradise for the general resurrection of the dead at Christ’s coming. At that time all will be resurrected, or changed if still alive, and brought before the throne of God in judgment.

12 And I saw the dead ones, the small ones and the great ones, standing before God. And books were opened. And another Book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead ones were judged out of the things written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead ones, the ones in it. And death and hell [Hades, a waiting place for departed souls, also called the grave] gave up the dead ones, the ones in them. And they were each one judged according to their works. 14 And death and hell were thrown into the Lake of Fire [Gehenna, place of eternal burning]. This is the second death. 15 And if anyone was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.

Revelation 20:12-15 KJ3

The grave and the sea gave up those who were dead. It doesn’t matter where you body lays, or where the molecules end up. It is the person whose name is not written in the Book of Life who is thrown into the Lake of Fire, the place of eternal judgment.

All the dead were sorted through and those who put their trust in Jesus Christ were taken to be with God in heaven. But those wicked ones, who rejected Christ and did not have their names written in the Book of Life, were sent into the Lake of Fire.

Make sure your name is written in the Book of Life!

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