The burial customs of the ancient Jews reflected their belief in a physical resurrection from the dead. For example, because of their faith and hope in the coming Messianic seed, the patriarchs all wanted to be buried in the Promised Land. That’s why Abraham bought a cave and buried Sarah there. That is why Jacob and Joseph, while in Egypt, expressed their desire to have their remains transported back to Canaan to be buried there.

Since the Bible was written by Jews it naturally reflects their customs. Hence, David wrote in the Psalm that Jehovah would not forsake his soul in Sheol. (Obviously, a cremated soul would not “see corruption” in Sheol) And, of course, that prophetic Psalm was fulfilled in Christ, who was resurrected after being buried in the traditional Jewish way.

The only exception to the Jewish custom of burial was when Jehovah’s judicial decision called for a violator of the law to be burned with fire. For example, Leviticus 20:14 says: “And where a man takes a woman and her mother, it is loose conduct. They should burn him and them in the fire, in order that loose conduct may not continue in your midst.”

It is also noteworthy that during the time of Christ the Jews had the custom of tossing the dead bodies of criminals into a brimstone-smoldering dump called Gehenna; because they thought them unworthy of a resurrection, and hence a decent burial. Jesus used the perpetual fires of Gehenna as a symbol of everlasting death. So, it seems that cremation has a certain stigma attached to it.

As for causing a son or daughter to “pass through the fire,” as the Bible words it, that does not have reference to cremation. Instead, it is referring to the horrific practice of offering a living sacrifice to the demons—a human sacrifice. In order to procure a “blessing” from Baal and other phony gods, the Jews were seduced into offering them their own baby sons and daughters. Obviously, the demons were merely intent on making a mockery of the anticipated sacrifice of Jehovah’s own son, which of course was foreshadowed long before when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son—Isaac.

Jeremiah 32:35 makes it plain that “passing through the fire” meant a human offering to the demon-god Molech. It reads: “Furthermore, they built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, in order to make their sons and their daughters pass through the fire to Molech, a thing that I did not command them, neither did it come up into my heart to do this detestable thing, for the purpose of making Judah sin.”

But, even though the Jews did not practice cremation, there was no law against it. And even though Christians and Christendom have carried on Jewish burial customs to the present, there is nothing pagan about using cremation as a method of disposing of a corpse. The Egyptians were well known for both their embalming and mummification techniques to preserve the dead as well as their belief in an ongoing afterlife. Yet, just because the Egyptians preserved their dead in accord with their false notions about death does not necessarily make embalming or entombing a pagan custom.

While the Jews may have felt that they needed to preserve the dead in some specific location to perhaps help God out on resurrection day, ultimately Jehovah has the power to reclaim the dead no matter whether the corpse has been preserved to some degree or obliterated. That’s why Revelation pretty much covers all the bases when it says: “And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Hades gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds.”

So, whether a person has been buried in a memorial tomb, or perhaps buried at sea, or merely consumed by death in some other manner, the dead are not beyond ear-shot of Jehovah’s rousing wake-up call in the re-creation.

Jehovah’s Witnesses view the wealth of the organization as a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

For example, in the 60th chapter of Isaiah it says: “Raise your eyes all around and see! They have all of them been collected together; they have come to you. From far away your own sons keep coming, and your daughters who will be taken care of on the flank. At that time you will see and certainly become radiant, and your heart will actually quiver and expand, because to you the wealthiness of the sea will direct itself; the very resources of the nations will come to you. The heaving mass of camels itself will cover you, the young male camels of Midian and of Ephah. All those from Sheba—they will come. Gold and frankincense they will carry. And the praises of Jehovah they will announce. All the flocks of Kedar—they will be collected together to you.”

Even though the prophecy is couched in an ancient setting, there is no question but that the 60th chapter of Isaiah applies to the Christian organization and not literal Israel. And since the Watchtower applies this to itself since 1919, it is not at all unseemly to Jehovah’s Witnesses that the organization is prospering in accord with our present understanding of prophecy.