First of all, when dealing with such matters as the resurrection and the like, there are a few scriptures that we need to keep in mind: 1) “With God ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!” (See Matthew 19:26) and 2) God created everything that exists out of nothing! He said, “Let there be light, and there was light!” We are dealing with a supernatural Being whose very word can bring worlds into existence.
Also, in considering those who have died, tens of thousands of Japanese citizens were vaporized when atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They weren’t merely cremated, they became a gaseous vapor in a millisecond after those bombs were detonated! That mushroom cloud one sees after a thermonuclear explosion is comprised of buildings, steel girders, railroad cars, asphalt roadways, concrete bridges and, yes, former human beings. That cloud then ascends miles upward into the stratosphere where the tradewinds carry it around the planet, depositing tiny, infinitesimal specks of ash into the oceans, onto the deserts, and, yes, into someone’s hair as they walk down the street five thousand miles from where the detonation occurred. Hence, the remains of a single individual so vaporized is strewn around the planet and quickly absorbed into the waters of the oceans and lakes, or mixed with the sands of some desert, and so on. Does this mean all hope of their being resurrected from the dead is gone? Of course not. As stated, “With God all things are possible!” God even asked one of his own prophets, “Is anything too hard for God?” The implication of that question being the answer, “Of course not.”
Millions of human bodies have been utterly and completely destroyed by being torn apart and EATEN by sharks, alligators, and a host of other wild animals. Thus, that human body is converted into muscle, bone, fur, excrement, etc. of the animal that has so consumed the unfortunate victim. When the remains of long sunken ships are discovered at the bottom of the ocean there are usually no human remains inside even though many of these vessels sank with all on board trapped deep inside the bowels of that ship. But, through passage of time, their bodies are utterly and completely consumed by various forms of sea life or the bacteria and various other elements found in both fresh and sea water.
In the 15th chapter of I Corinthians, the apostle Paul reminds us that what is placed in the grave is NOT what will be resurrected at the return of the Lord. He uses the analogy of how one plants a tiny seed in the ground, perhaps seed corn, but what comes forth out of the earth some time later is not that same seed but a marvelous corn stalk six feet high with a dozen or more golden ears of corn wrapped in green leaves and with a silky tassel attached at the end! He then says, so it is with the dead. A lifeless, corrupting, powerless body is interred in the earth, but an incorruptible, glorious, spirit body is brought forth at the last trump and the resurrection of the dead. (See I Corinthians 15:35-58). Of course, I speak of only the manner of resurrection enjoyed by redeemed children of God.
Christ’s Aged Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley