Editors, TORCH AND TRUMPET
Gentlemen:
Mr. Verno has built an unusual argument for cremation in preference to burial on the grounds that burial requires both an unwarranted expenditure of funds and an unnecessary occupation of real estate. However, he has omitted to deal with another consideration which ought to be decisive for the believer in his rejection of cremation and insistence upon burial. It is the high and holy privilege of the believer to be united to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the vine and believers are the branches. He abides in them and they abide in him (John 15:4). This union with Christ lies at the foundation of the appropriation of all the benefits which Christ wrought for his own in his humiliation and exaltation. and in particular in his death and resurrection.
Union with Christ is not, however, dissolved at death. As to their spirits, believers at death are made perfect and are assembled with their Savior in the presence of the living God (Heb. 12:23). As to their bodies, the Apostle Paul says that they are fallen asleep in Christ, and being in Christ, at the resurrection they shall be raised again to life (l Cor. 15:18, 22; cf. Rom. 14:8, 9). Therefore the Heidelberg Catechism, Q. and A. 1, says that the believer’s comfort in life and in death is that with body and soul, he belongs to his faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Even more pointedly. the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. and A. 37, says, “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.”
The decisive consideration is that the bodies of believers belong to the Lord Jesus no less in death than they do in life. Therefore we have no more freedom to inflict violence upon them in death than we do in life. The death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord (Ps. 116:15), and the preciousness of the body is no more clearly advertised than in the reality of the final resurrection to life by the power of Christ.
The dissolution of the body in death must not lead us to discount the value of that body. The dissolution of the body is not a natural process which we are at liberty to hasten or delay at will. God has declared the dissolution of the body to be punishment which he inflicts upon sin (Gen. 3:19). In the case of the body as in every other way, judgment belongs to the Lord.
Similarly. it is not so much the expense involved, for example, in the excesses of embalming and in the provision of moisture-proof vaults which makes certain features of modern burial practice unacceptable for the Christian, but rather the implicit denial of God’s judgment that the dead shall return to the ground and to the dust from which they were taken. If as a genuine confession of true piety we are prepared to submit to this righteous judgment there should be no problem in the long run with a misappropriation of real estate. At the same time, burial is also an expression of confidence in God’s promise of resurrection.
The preceding considerations are also relevant when the body is given over for use by medical science. When the body has been examined and parts of it have been appropriated for various purposes, the body must still be disposed of. Christians should not leave the final disposition of what is precious in the sight of God in unknown hands. They should insist on assuming the obligation of laying the believer in the grave where he may rest until the resurrection of the last day.
Sincerely yours,
NORMAN SHEPHERD
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa.
Gentlemen:
Mr. Verno has built an unusual argument for cremation in preference to burial on the grounds that burial requires both an unwarranted expenditure of funds and an unnecessary occupation of real estate. However, he has omitted to deal with another consideration which ought to be decisive for the believer in his rejection of cremation and insistence upon burial. It is the high and holy privilege of the believer to be united to Jesus Christ. Jesus is the vine and believers are the branches. He abides in them and they abide in him (John 15:4). This union with Christ lies at the foundation of the appropriation of all the benefits which Christ wrought for his own in his humiliation and exaltation. and in particular in his death and resurrection.
Union with Christ is not, however, dissolved at death. As to their spirits, believers at death are made perfect and are assembled with their Savior in the presence of the living God (Heb. 12:23). As to their bodies, the Apostle Paul says that they are fallen asleep in Christ, and being in Christ, at the resurrection they shall be raised again to life (l Cor. 15:18, 22; cf. Rom. 14:8, 9). Therefore the Heidelberg Catechism, Q. and A. 1, says that the believer’s comfort in life and in death is that with body and soul, he belongs to his faithful Savior Jesus Christ. Even more pointedly. the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. and A. 37, says, “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory; and their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection.”
The decisive consideration is that the bodies of believers belong to the Lord Jesus no less in death than they do in life. Therefore we have no more freedom to inflict violence upon them in death than we do in life. The death of the saints is precious in the sight of the Lord (Ps. 116:15), and the preciousness of the body is no more clearly advertised than in the reality of the final resurrection to life by the power of Christ.
The dissolution of the body in death must not lead us to discount the value of that body. The dissolution of the body is not a natural process which we are at liberty to hasten or delay at will. God has declared the dissolution of the body to be punishment which he inflicts upon sin (Gen. 3:19). In the case of the body as in every other way, judgment belongs to the Lord.
Similarly. it is not so much the expense involved, for example, in the excesses of embalming and in the provision of moisture-proof vaults which makes certain features of modern burial practice unacceptable for the Christian, but rather the implicit denial of God’s judgment that the dead shall return to the ground and to the dust from which they were taken. If as a genuine confession of true piety we are prepared to submit to this righteous judgment there should be no problem in the long run with a misappropriation of real estate. At the same time, burial is also an expression of confidence in God’s promise of resurrection.
The preceding considerations are also relevant when the body is given over for use by medical science. When the body has been examined and parts of it have been appropriated for various purposes, the body must still be disposed of. Christians should not leave the final disposition of what is precious in the sight of God in unknown hands. They should insist on assuming the obligation of laying the believer in the grave where he may rest until the resurrection of the last day.
Sincerely yours,
NORMAN SHEPHERD
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa.