Ashes To Ashes, Dust To Dust

by Wayne Blank

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, but you can be sure that the absence of a body will make no difference to their salvation.

"Thou sowest not that body that shall be"

The apostle Paul plainly said that the body that we have in this life is not the body that we will have in the next life, whether we are resurrected as spirit at the return of Jesus Christ, or physically resurrected 1,000 years later (see When Will You Be Judged?).

"But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be" (1 Corinthians 15:35-37 KJV)

The first resurrection:

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, To Meet The Lord In The Air" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 KJV)

The second resurrection:

"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: Cremation will not affect anyone's resurrection or salvation, but when will being rendered into ashes be final? When will being rendered to ashes be the second death?
See "They Shall Be Ashes"

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