Cremation Text?

I have studied on the rightness or wrongness of cremation for Christians. I have generally leaned strongly towards my not being cremated, but have not condemned fellow believers who allow for cremation. Today I am not so sure it is always wrong. It is still what I prefer, but leave the decision with my wife if I die before she dies. If she feels she needs the money, she has my permission to have me cremated. If she goes first, I will try to make arrangements for a burial.

Today I was musing upon the subject of decay and how it is an effect of sin and I meditated some upon these words of James the Lord's brother:

"Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days." (James 5: 3 nkjv)

So what is meant by "eat (or consume) your flesh like fire"? The word "flesh" is plural in the Greek. In either case it is a reference to the death and decomposition of the physical body and its parts, both skin and bones. Interesting is the fact that James used a simile to describe the rot, decay, corrosion, decomposition, of the flesh parts of our being that is like the rust and decay of metals, like silver and gold (although they do not rust, they do degrade over time, though more slowly). Everything is returning to dust and ashes. That is the law of our condemnation as a race of beings.

Flesh will be eaten away by fire in the same way that corrosion eats away gold and silver. In the destruction of treasures the selfish and unbelieving rich of the earth see depicted their own death and decay in the earth. That is the message of James. In other words, a corroding rust similarly seizes them and their physical being, and will eat away their flesh till they become once again dust and ashes.

So, I think the words "consume away their flesh as by fire" means they become ashes just like what is burned in fire becomes ashes. The difference is that decomposition of the flesh, or changing into dust and ashes, takes much time, being a slow process, but cremation occurs quickly, especially in today's ovens. In either case, whether by normal decay, or by cremation, you still become dust and ashes. One is by fast time and the other by slow time.

Decomposition and decay are having the same effect upon the physical world, and upon the lifeless bodies of animals and vegetation, as being cremated or thoroughly burned in the fire. That is what James, to my mind, is affirming by his simile. If it is not, then I pray someone helps me to understand the text accurately.

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" is solidly based on Scripture. Genesis 3:19 reads, 

“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:19; See also 2: 7) 

In Ecclesiastes 3:20, Solomon declared, 

“All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.” (Ecclesiastes 3: 20)

So, whether by slow decomposition (by burying the body in the ground) or by cremation, we still return to ashes and to dust.

Also, God will have no problem resurrecting ashes. If he could make man originally from dust and ashes, he certainly won't have any difficulty taking ashes that were once human and making them human bodies once again.