God spoke to us at the Word of Faith Fellowship that our memorial services are a time to encourage the family and friends in Jesus, giving praise to God for the person’s life. When faced with the finality of death, many times family members’ hearts are most open to hearing about God’s plan for their lives and their eternal destiny. Therefore, memorial services are a time for evangelistic outreach, presenting to those present God’s plan of salvation. By sharing the Scriptures pertaining to the rewards of eternal life to those who have been born again and have walked righteously in Christ Jesus, there is encouragement to surrender their lives to Christ. There is also the warning of eternal judgment to those who reject the Savior and who do not show forth the fruit of righteousness in their lives.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement), Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God. For just as Christ’s [own] sufferings fall to our lot [as they overflow upon His disciples, and we share and experience them] abundantly, so through Christ comfort (consolation and encouragement) is also [shared and experienced] abundantly by us. But if we are troubled (afflicted and distressed), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement) and [for your] salvation; and if we are comforted (consoled and encouraged), it is for your comfort (consolation and encouragement), which works [in you] when you patiently endure the same evils (misfortunes and calamities) that we also suffer and undergo.
II Corinthians 1:3-6
Now also we would not have you ignorant, brethren, about those who fall asleep [in death], that you may not grieve [for them] as the rest do who have no hope [beyond the grave]. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will also bring with Him through Jesus those who have fallen asleep [in death].
I Thessalonians 4:13-14
We believe it to be unscriptural to bring a dead body into the house of the Lord. God, through Moses made it very clear that to touch the body of a dead person was to be defiled in His presence (Leviticus 21:11-12; Numbers 6:6,11; 9:6-10; 19:11,16). We also believe it to be unscriptural to communicate with the dead (necromancy—Deuteronomy 18:11).
In Isaiah 8:19 God says: And when the people [instead of putting their trust in God] shall say to you, Consult for direction mediums and wizards who chirp and mutter, should not a people seek and consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? Verses 20-22 define the curses that will come upon those who do so.
We at the Word of Faith Fellowship believe according to these Scriptures that we are not to bring dead bodies into the sanctuary of God or talk to the dead or pray for the dead, which is necromancy.
We do not believe in cremation, which according to the Scriptures, is a pagan practice. Cremation of the dead in the Scriptures was reserved only for those who died under the judgment of God.
Cremation Scriptures
All the valiant men arose and went all night, and they took the bodies of Saul and his sons from the wall of Beth-shan and came to Jabesh and cremated them there. And they took their bones and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
I Samuel 31:12-13
And he who is taken with the devoted things shall be [killed and his body] burned with fire, he and all he has, because he has transgressed the covenant of the Lord and because he has done a shameful and wicked thing in Israel.
Joshua 7:15
The daughter of any priest who profanes herself by playing the harlot profanes her father; she shall be burned with fire [after being stoned].
Leviticus 21:9
He slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars and burned men’s bones upon them [to defile the places forever]. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
II Kings 23:20
And it shall come to pass that if there remain ten men in one house, they shall die [by the pestilence that comes with war]. And then a man’s uncle or kinsman, he who is to make a burning to cremate and dispose [of his pestilence-infected body], comes in to bring the bones out of the house.
Amos 6:9-10
Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Moab [descendants of Lot] and for four [for multiplied delinquencies], I will not reverse the punishment of it or revoke My word concerning it, because he burned the bones of the king of Edom [Esau’s descendant] into lime.
Amos 2:1
Josiah burned the bones of the [idolatrous] priests upon their altars, and so cleansed Judah and Jerusalem.
II Chronicles 34:5
