Woodrow Kroll: Well, remember, the Bible says that the body will be reconstituted, re-put together. And God has the capability of reconstituting ashes just the way He has the capability of reconstituting dust. I think is not: Can God do it? The issue is: What's appropriate for the Christian.
Quite frankly, the Bible doesn't even address the question of cremation. It does say in the Old Testament that the enemies of Israel cremated their own and Israel did not. Many have taken that to understand that the Bible does not give a sanction for cremation.
But if you're talking about God's ability to take a cremated Christian and reassemble that body, I don't think God has a problem doing that.
Now you may want to question whether that's something you want to do, but God doesn't have a problem making your body again.
Woodrow Kroll: Let me back up from resurrection to talk about that because there are many resurrections mentioned in the Bible. And there are the resurrections of those who are living saints during the period of the New Testament. 1 Thessalonians 4 talks about that--sometimes called the Rapture of the Church.
But these Old Testament saints, who are awaiting resurrection, have to be kept somewhere and most people would believe that it's here in Abraham's bosom. This is a resting place of souls before resurrection occurs.
Now remember, when a person dies--whether they lived in Abraham's day, in Jesus' day or today--when a person dies, the soul is separated from the body. That's what "death" is. The body goes into the ground; the soul, for us today, goes immediately to be with the Lord. But in the Old Testament, that wasn't true because that's before Calvary.
So that soul went to this resting place--Abraham's bosom. The day will come, though, that out of Abraham's bosom will come these souls and up from the ground will come these bodies and they will be reunited as will be taken to heaven (those who know the Lord as Savior), be taken to heaven and enjoy the same privileges you and I enjoy throughout all eternity.
On the other hand, those we've just talked about--those who do not know the Lord as Savior--their souls are waiting as well in this place called "Hades." Their soul and their body will once again be reunited, but it will be reunited at the Great White Throne Judgment where they will then be cast into eternity without Christ--without God, forever.
It's a very complicated thing, but if you follow it carefully through the scripture, God always keeps His promises to those who believe Him.
Woodrow Kroll: Hades and Hell are not the same thing. So today there is no one in Hell. They are in Hades awaiting the Day of Judgment and remember, when we get ...we'll get to this before the end of our study...when we get to Revelation and the Great White Throne Judgment, it says "death and Hades gave up their dead and they were cast into the Lake of Fire" (portions of Revelation 20: 13,14). That is Hell.
So Hades and Hell should not be equated. Hades is simply a place of dead people awaiting the judgment of God.
