Does the Bible Prohibit Cremation? 1. Scripture says nothing about a required mode of burial for either believers or non-believers. However, burying the body was the standard practice among the Israelites in the Old Testament and Christians in the New (exceptions: 1 Sam. 31:8-13; Jos. 7:25). 2. Obviously any buried body will eventually decompose (Ecc. 12:7). So cremation isn’t a strange or wrong practice – it merely accelerates the natural process of oxidation. 3. The believer will one day receive a new body (1 Cor. 15:42-49; 1 Thes. 4:13-18; Job 19:25-26), thus the state of what remains of the old body is unimportant. 4. The imagery of Christ’s resurrection pictures burial and then a raising up from the dead (Rom. 6:3-5; 1 Cor. 15:3-4). Because of that, many Christians prefer burial to cremation to maintain a likeness to Christ's burial (although literally He was laid in state in a cave, not buried in the ground).