One more thing that God exposed to me that Christians believe and practiced in the Christian church for centuries that came out of paganism is the way in which the dead are treated for burial.
Nowhere in the scripture do we see a command to remove all the blood from a dead body, place it in a protective box, and place it in the ground after death.
Interestingly the belief that we must preserve the body because Christ cannot resurrect us if we are ashes in not only a lack of faith but fully pagan. The belief is that we are the ones who determine who God raises and it is based on the physical state of their bodies. So might it be that people who believe in this form of burial think that the fate of their salvation is based on the choices others make for them after they are dead?
The practice of visiting a person's grave after their death is also paganism. It is the belief that the person in that grave can see what you are doing and enjoy the flowers you bring, is tantamount to roaming spirits on the earth able to interact with those visiting their grave.
1 Corinthians 13:3 "And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing."
There is a tremendous lack of faith in those who believe they must remove all the blood from a person's body and couch it in extravagant caskets in order to preserve it so that God can resurrect it, is the same mentality of the pagan religions.
From my personal experience, more love was extended to the dead person at his funeral than was ever shown to him when he was alive. It is common for people to attend the funerals of people they haven't seen in 40 years to "say goodbye" as though they can hear us.
Then there is the thinking that we should be "buried" as Christ was. The ones saying such things are ignorant of the Bible. Christ was placed in a tomb, not under the ground with dirt thrown on top of Him. If someone wants to be buried as Christ was then they must find themselves a tomb for someone to place them in after their death.
By the way, another side note is that in the case of those who were buried in tombs in the days of Jesus Christ, the relatives waited for the decomposition of the body after which they would go in and gather the bones of their dead relative and place them in Ossuarrys, that is boxes to hold the bones after all the flesh has been rotted away.
If one wants to be buried the way Christ was then they should instruct those caring for their bodies after death to find a tomb and then months later after the flesh has fallen from their bones, gather them up and put them in a box. This was the Jewish custom of those days.
God never gave specific instructions on how to dispose of the dead, therefore we cannot adamantly make rules about it for anyone else. We also cannot judge someone who does not attend memorials or funerals. Each person must decide for themselves whether or not they will attend.
It might be that God wants us to go to those worldly gatherings to speak the gospel to someone. This would be a work of the Holy Spirit.
It also might be that someone does not attend these types of gatherings because they are personally obeying God in "coming out from among them."
Most funerals are not about God at all, they are gatherings to tell positive lies about someone based on paganism, to "don't speak ill of the dead" because the spirits might come after you.
At almost every funeral I have attended lies were told and some in the gathering spoke to the dead person as though they were in the crowd.
I have only had the enjoyment of a memorial gathering that was Christ-centered twice in my life. All the others were ritualistic and man-centered.
When someone visits a grave to speak to the dead they are practicing paganism. If we bring flowers to the grave we are practicing paganism, believing that somehow the person in that grave will enjoy those flowers.
This is a classic example of one of many things we have believed and were taught by churches that were not at all biblical, but man's traditions. The expectations were so high concerning burial that if someone was not in bondage to the church rules and did something different they were criticized as though they had gone against God.
This is what happens when people rely on the traditions of men more than seeking Christ for truth, the groups become rigid and judgmental about things God never commanded.
Never allow others to place you in bondage to their man-made paganistic practices especially if they take Scripture out of context to justify what God never said.
We are free to allow people to observe their beliefs without judging them just as we are free to obey God without caving into manipulation and intimidation to operate the way others think we should that is not Biblical.
Matthew 15:7-9 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘ These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”…"
Isaiah 29:13
"Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:"
Acts 5:28-30 "…28“ We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.” 29 But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men. 30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.…"
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