What Happened To Tonto?

by Wayne Blank

If you watched (if you were around back then) or watch (if you subscribe to some of the cable or satellite channels that run old TV shows) the 1950s program The Lone Ranger, you know that Tonto was the "Lone" Ranger's Indian ally and companion. Tonto was played by Jay Silverheels (he was born Harold J. Smith, but legally changed his name to his long-used "stage name" in the 1970s) who was born at an Indian reservation near Brantford, Ontario, about 30 miles from where I live. When he died in 1980, his body was cremated and the ashes were brought back from California and scattered over the Mohawk reservation where he was born.

What happened to Tonto? When the day comes, how will Jay Silverheels, and the great many other people all around the world who have been cremated over the centuries, be resurrected? Does it matter that they were cremated?

Ashes To Ashes, Dust To Dust

Jay Silverheels Throughout the Bible, people were routinely buried, not cremated. According to God's Word, that is the preferred method, when circumstances permit a choice. But it should be kept in mind that the bodies of those who are buried are also all eventually reduced to the indistinguishable earth elements from which man was created (see The Creation Of Man) - eventually, there is nothing left of their physical bodies. It should also be kept in mind that many of God's people over the centuries have been completely lost in fires (some deliberately, as martyrs), or vaporized in explosions, or eaten by lions or sharks etc. in which there remained no body - and you can be sure that the absence of a body will make no difference to their salvation.

So what will happen to Jay Silverheels when the time comes? He will be resurrected, along with every other human that has ever existed (for when, see the Fact Finder question below).

"And I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell [see Through The Gates Of Hell] delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works." Revelation 20:11-13 KJV)

Fact Finder: What happens when people die? When are people resurrected? When are people Judged by God?
See What Happens When You Die?, Resurrections and When Will You Be Judged?

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