God is not the least taxed by keeping every sub-nuclear particle in its place. Everything in the middle of the molecule moving, and the electrons—he's got them all in orbit, just like he has the planets in orbit. So the macro-world and micro-world are all managed by God.
I think the answer is that you should be a church member. But that's not even a clear word—what does "member" mean? The local church—not just the global church, but the local church—is a body. There's global membership in the body universal, and there's local membership in the body where I'm a finger or an eye or an ear or a foot.
Yes, I think it matters. But being wrong about doesn't mean that it's in the category of damnable sin and maybe not even in the category of sin at all. My bottom line answer is to follow in general the pattern of the Bible,
With every sin there are multiple levels of why it's offensive to God and to be avoided. The simplest is clearly to say the Bible says it is. And we should start there; and if we can go deeper, that's good. The question "Why would the Bible say that?" is multi-layered.
Not ultimately, but I don't ever counsel towards cremation. The biblical pattern is that burning your children is pagan and burying your loved ones is a sign that you believe in the resurrection.
I do, and I think there is a steady state, normal way to go about it. Occasionally you see a manifestation of demonic power that is so in your face and so possessive and controlling of a person's life that an extraordinary intervention and exorcism is called for.
You are in Christ Jesus and he fulfilled the law perfectly. He covered all your sins. Now, shall we sin that grace may abound? Paul says, "Dead men don't sin." If you've died to sin, how can you still live in it?
A person that doesn't believe he is a sinner can't be saved. If there is nothing to forgive, Jesus didn't do anything for me. If he didn't do anything for me, I'm not believing him for salvation.
My caution concerns making theology God instead of God God. Loving doing theology rather than loving God. Reformed people tend to be thoughtful. That is, they come to the Bible and they want to use their minds to make sense of it.
I want to say that there may be a time when you're calling God's judgment on somebody. But here's where I'm probably going to end up: Jesus said, "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Bless those who abuse you."
