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My father in law insisted that cremation was pagan and that if you were cremated your soul would not go to heaven.

So, I thought about it... and one day I asked him “if you were in a war and you got hit by a bomb or an artillery shell and you were blasted into tiny little pieces and burned in the searing hot temperatures of that bomb are you telling me that you wouldn’t go to heaven because you weren’t properly buried?” & “What about Sailors that are buried at Sea and whose remains are devoured by crabs and other scavengers of the sea and ultimately shat out?” And, “if we are prepared for burial in such a way as to cause the body to not decay naturally and in a false state of a state of preservation, would not that go against returning our bodies to dust or back to Earth and not allow the worm to do its job?” He had no answer but he stuck to his guns.

I have no idea where he came up with that.

As the Saints Go are not all believers all considered Saints? Or is the definition different for some denominations?

I comtemplate the worship (honoring) of saints, especially when I hear certain people talk about the writings of Paul. I think I have seen churches cross the line on Paul where he is venerated to the point where we are listening to what Paul says, we are reading what Paul wrote, we are thinking about how Paul put it down but, we don’t give the same thought to Jesus.

I look at some new charismatic denominations and it’s all about Paul there’s some Jesus filling in there but the bulk of the sermons, just as the bulk of the New Testament canonized is 70% Paul. There’s a lot of John in there too.

I try to stick really close to the red letter and I also look at what Christ used for examples in his talking with his disciples and the talking to those he interacted with everyday. And He used a lot of examples from the Old Testament yet, there are some denominations that say we are under a New Covenant in which completely dismisses the Old Testament.

There are some things in the Old Testament that are no longer valid? Did God lie to us the first time around? I don’t know, so I stick to a personal relationship and try my hardest to avoid dogmatic prattle.