How should understanding Bible truth affect the way Christian funerals are conducted?

THE air is filled with the sounds of grief. Mourners dressed in special black garments wail, frantically throwing themselves to the ground in sorrow. Dancers sway to the rhythm of pulsating music. Yet others are eating and celebrating with loud laughter and merrymaking. A few lie on the ground, intoxicated from the free flow of palm wine and beer. What is the occasion? In some parts of the world, these are typical features of a funeral where hundreds of people gather to say their farewells to the dead.

Many of Jehovah’s Witnesses live in communities where relatives and neighbors are highly superstitious and fearful of the dead. Millions of people believe that when someone dies, he becomes an ancestral spirit with the ability to help or harm the living. This belief is interwoven with numerous funeral customs. Of course, grieving over a person who has died is normal. On occasion, Jesus and his disciples mourned the death of loved ones. (John 11:33-35, 38; Acts 8:2; 9:39) Yet, at no time did they exhibit any of the extreme expressions of mourning that were common in their day. (Luke 23:27, 28; 1 Thess. 4:13) Why? One reason was that they knew the truth about death.

The Bible clearly states: ‘The living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all . . . Their love and their hate and their jealousy have already perished . . . There is no work nor devising nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol [mankind’s common grave], the place to which you are going.” (Eccl. 9:5, 6, 10) These inspired Bible verses make it clear that when someone dies, he is no longer conscious. He cannot think, feel, communicate, or comprehend anything.

How should understanding this important Bible truth affect the way Christian funerals are conducted?

Read the whole Watchtower article

Photo Credit: blmurch