The Ascension
Submitted by jroberts on Mon, 2007-05-21 06:22.
Yesterday (or last Thursday), Liturgical Churches celebrated the Ascension; i.e., the point when 40 days after the Ressurection, Jesus ascended bodily into heaven. What do y'all think are the implications for that? Do you think of Jesus as still having His ressurected body? Do you think we'll have bodies in heaven?
Cremation and Christians
I am neither for nor against cremation for Christians, although in the past I was opposed to it. However, since there is no Scriptural prohibition against it, I think it should be a matter of choice. The telling point is this: whether one is cremated or buried, the body itself winds up in the same condition, dust (except of course, if buried the skeleton usually will remain for a much longer period). But apart from the skeleton, the bulk of our bodies returns from which it came, the dust of the earth. Do we think that it is anymore difficult for God to raise up a cremated body than a body that has decayed into dust six feet under? Of course not. So actually, it should be a matter of personal choice and belief.
With regards,
Lars.
P.S. This topic of cremation vs. burial has actually swerved way of course of the orignial question, don't you think? The Scriptures tell us,
“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
1 John 3:2, KJV.
And with the fact that the Scriptures call Jesus the "firstfruits" from the dead [1 Cor. 15:20,23], which means that He was the first of His Kind, with many more like Him to follow. Firstfruits was always the first gleaning of a crop or harvest, with the idea that it was the first of its kind taken in a harvest, with many more like it to follow.