What does the United Methodist Church teach concerning cremation?
Our Christian belief is that at the point of death, the soul ascends immediately to be with God. Regarding the body (the house in which the soul lived), Christians over the years have chosen either the way of the burial of the body in a casket or the way of cremation. In either case, the Biblical precept of ashes to ashes, dust to dust is realized. It is important to remember that the New Testament concept of the resurrection of the body refers not to the old body but a new one. Or, as the apostle Paul puts it: So it is with the resurrection of the dead, what is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.
