Bible Question: "I want to be cremated and my mother tells me the Bible says I have to be buried. Is there anything in the Bible forbidding cremation? If there is, I couldn't find it."

Bible Answer: You couldn't find anything about cremation because that word is not in the Bible. There is a lot about burial, with many of the Bible's characters being buried, including Jesus. Unlike the others, Jesus didn't stay buried, but arose.

Perhaps your mother is referring to some of the Old Testament prohibitions against a practice by worshippers of the false god Molech, which was offering a child as a living burnt offering.

There are many, many verses which specifically condemn such a hideous act, including Leviticus 18:21, "And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord."

What this and similar verses are saying is don't offer your children as living sacrifices on a fire to some strange god, as there is only one true God and He specifically says don't do it.

Abraham's test of faith when God told him to offer his only son Isaac on an altar as a burnt sacrifice is the only time God is involved in such a scenario. And I believe God told Abraham to do that to show him the difference between his faith in the one true God and the practices of the pagans he was living among.

And don't forget when Abraham was ready to offer Isaac, God stopped him and told him to offer instead a ram, whose horns were caught in a thicket. This is a perfect picture of Jesus, the lamb of God -- or the adult ram of God -- as the offering for sin.

As far as there being any prohibition against cremation, there is none I've seen and I've read through the Bible several times.

There is a verse in the Bible which says all the dead will be resurrected on the last day for the Great White Throne Judgment. "The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to their works," Revelation 20:13 says.

If the sea is going to give up its dead, then every sailor who was buried at sea or was blown to bits in naval battles will be resurrected. So I see no problem with God putting back together bodies that have been cremated if He can raise the dead at sea.

In the first resurrection, for believers in Christ, the Bible says graves will be opened. Surely it matters not whether the graves have bodies that have dissolved slowly into dust over many years or were first cremated and then buried as ashes.

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)