On my property I have a graveyard. That graveyard holds the remains of beloved pets that our family had over the years. Each grave is surrounded by a ring of stones with one stone in the front being a large flat stone upon which each summer a memorial plaque is lovingly laid and a marker with the name of the pet is staked, declaring whose grave it is. We live up north where there are severe winters, so these plaques are packed away during the bad weather for preservation's sake. In the midst of the stones of each grave is some variety of a bleeding heart, representing the sorrow in losing that pet. The graves are surrounded by flowering bushes (rhododendron, azalea) flowering bulbs (tulips, daffodils), ferns, and some other perennials. Annuals are also placed there in the summertime. We loved our pets. They were members of our family, and not soon forgotten. This is our way of honoring the place they held in our lives. I tell all this so that people do not think that the information in this article comes from a place of not understanding the grief of losing a pet, but that in spite of that grief, I believe that God's Word is the final authority of truth, and even when that truth might not make me happy, it is still truth, and still must be accepted as such.
A subject that is very sensitive for some people, and most people prefer to have an opinion based not on Scripture but on desire, is the one of whether or not pets go to heaven. While adults may choose to believe this, it is more of an issue that people and even Christians want to endorse when a child loses a pet, because they don't want their child to suffer more grief than it already is suffering. So, most people take the path of least resistance and say that the pet will be in heaven waiting for them, for the truth is most often a very bitter pill.
Recently I was challenged with the question, “Do I believe pets go to heaven?” I've had this question before, and looked into it and have come to a conclusion as to what Scripture teaches, but when asked to look at a book that supposedly offers a Scriptural proof for pets being in heaven, I agreed to do so, because I do not think I am infallible when it comes to understanding Scripture, and like to see if someone can prove something which I have concluded is not Scriptural is in fact true. It sharpens my knowledge and forces me to revisit Scriptures on subjects to make sure my stance is a correct one. As such I dug into the Scriptures to study the subject again and read the book. This article is the result of all that research.
While the real question is, “Do pets have eternal souls and are a part of the resurrection?”, I need to really start with the following question. Are you sure YOU are going to heaven? Do you really know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord, or did you just repeat a prayer someone told you to say? If you do know the Lord, are you striving to live a holy life sanctified unto Him, keeping His commandments, giving yourself over to His will, rebuking and renouncing apostasy, studying to know true doctrine and rightly dividing the Word (as opposed to simply believing what someone tells you to believe), and enduring to the end? Because if you aren't doing these things, then you may possibly find yourself on the other side of the Lord saying, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” And if that were the case, would it matter if your pet were there or not?
Once you get past those questions, then we move on to, “Do pets go to heaven?” which is really the question, “Do animals have eternal spirits that get resurrected?” For some this question is crucial, more so than concerning the people in their lives. They can't imagine heaven without their beloved pets, while Uncle Joe was never liked, so....., but that question opens a far bigger door than people realize, for if a rule applies to one animal, it must apply to all animals - mammals, and insects, and birds, and fish, and reptiles, and even dinosaurs, because all animals are equal in God's eyes, whether they are in ours or not. Thus, we have to see what Scripture indicates on the matter. We cannot start with our supposition and look to try to make it be true. We must look to Scripture and accept what it says and take our belief from what it says. Many people prefer to interpret the Bible the first way, but God wants us to simply believe what He says, not try to make His Word say what they want to believe.
When God created the world, before He ever took the first step in Genesis 1:1, He knew what the end of it all would be - sin, death, destruction, and finally salvation and restoration, for God foreknew everything before the beginning. Isaiah 46:10 Everyone's name who is in the Book of Life has been there from before the foundation of the world. Rev. 13:8. Christ's sacrifice was determined before the foundation of the world. 1 Peter 1:20. So when creating it, God built into everything the needs of a world cursed by sin. For example, the animals that would become carnivores or omnivores have the appropriate teeth and digestive systems to accommodate that, even though they were all originally created to be herbivores. In Genesis, when God first created His creation, everything was perfect or untainted by sin. God looked at it all (including the heavenly creations) and said it was “good.” It was without sin, without curse, decay, and death. There is nothing in this statement that indicates that all of created things were made to be redeemed to eternal life after sin. We know the angels do not have redemption. Nor do they die physically. For them, sin is a permanent condition, as is the punishment. So there is nothing in the statement that everything was good to indicate that the redemption of creation (after sin) would mean the resurrection to life of all that had been created. If that were so, it would mean everything, the flora as well as fauna would come back to life, for plants are living things also. We learn from the rest of the Bible that man was to be redeemed from sin to be resurrected to either eternal life or eternal death, but the rest of creation is said to be made new. The curse will be lifted. That means that from that point on (once things are made new) those things which grow or are born will not suffer the curse of death and decay. It does not mean that every plant or creature that ever lived would come back to a resurrected life as man would.
When God created the world, He created everything that man (the focus and centerpiece of His creation) would need to exist and thrive. Everything was created for man. Even many of the angels serve God by ministering to mankind. That is why man was created last. Everything was made to be ready for man when God created His children. Everything in the earthly realm was created to fall under the dominion or ownership/stewardship of mankind. Everything was put under his control and was essentially his property to use for his benefit (but not to abuse). Man, unlike the rest of the material creation (the spiritual realm is not going to be addressed here, only our dimension) was created in the image of God, and as such was given free will to decide whether or not to obey God and maintain the relationship that he originally was created to have, or to disobey and be cut off from that relationship. The rest of creation was made subordinate to the decision of man, as it was his property under his dominion. His choices would affect the rest of creation. Nothing else had that spiritual connection to God as man did, nor the free will to keep or break it.
God had initially created man to live an immortal life in this body and provided the tree of life to make that happen. Animals would not die either, for death was the result of sin. The plants like trees would also most likely continue to grow, but whether the annual crops that we eat would have a life cycle is hard to say. As sin entered rather quickly (Eve did not have time to get pregnant, and that was the mandate to start right away filling the earth), I don't think there was time to find out. Note that immortality of the body was contingent upon eating from the tree of life. Without that life giving source, the body would eventually die, as it did when access to the tree was cut off. God deliberately created us that way, due to His foreknowledge. Men would live a long time, at the start, because the body was perfect at the beginning, and the environment was perfect, hence the long lives of the antediluvian world, but the body would eventually die.
Sometime after the seventh day when God rested and all was good, Adam and Eve sinned, which came at some point after that first week - Gen. 3:1-19. We do not know how long that was, however I believe Jewish tradition says it was on the tenth day, and that is why God put the Day of Atonement on that day in the original Hebrew calendar, because it was the day upon which Adam and Eve's sin was (temporarily) atoned for by the first sacrifice - Gen. 3:21. Also somewhere in between the seventh day when all was perfect in God's creation and the fall of Adam and Eve, Satan rebelled against God and took a full one third of the angels with him, as everything (including the creations of heaven) were still good on day seven. After the seventh day when God rested and all was good, sin had entered the heavenly realm, and was cast out to the earth. Hell was actually originally created for the angels, not man. - Matt. 25:41. Man just made it possible that he would partake of that same punishment by sinning against God also.
After Satan's fall, he decided to destroy God's earthly creation as well and tempted Eve to sin, Gen. 3:1-6, which she did. God knew in advance this would happen, so when He created it all, He created it to be able to die, so that sin would not be eternal as well. At the proper time (the first coming), mankind would be redeemed (1st promise of a redeemer - Gen. 3:15) and at the Second Coming, the rest of creation could be redeemed from the curse and Satan's control and made new to be perfect again – Rev. 21:1. We read in Revelation how there will be a new tree of life in New Jerusalem for the residents of that city to eat, and its leaves (not the fruit) will be for the healing of the nations during the millennium – Rev. 22:2. The millennial residents of earth cannot partake of the fruit and have eternal life in these bodies, but can be healed by its leaves. People will again live long lives during the millennium, as they did in the antediluvian world. The resurrected, however, will no longer be in mortal sinful bodies and will live forever and may eat of the tree of life.
To stay alive forever, Adam and Eve would have had to eat of the tree of life, but they hadn't had a chance to do so before they sinned, and God immediately barred them from ever being able to do so after. Death was a blessing, not a curse. Why do I say that? Because had we been trapped in this mortal, now sinful body, we would for all eternity be battling sin and disease and pain and all that goes with this sinful world - Romans 6:6. By dying, God freed our eternal spirit which depending on whether or not we have chosen Him as our Savior, will be resurrected to either eternal life with a new perfect body, or eternal death in the lake of fire. (Spiritual death is not a cessation of existence, but a permanent separation from God.) It was not just we who were saddled with this curse of death, the entire creation was. Everything would now die, regardless, because everything was created for man and man had ruined it.
The plants, the animals, everything would wear down and cease to exist at some point. The only reason that man is able to be resurrected is because God created man and only man, in his image and imbued man with both a soul and spirit, ones that inhabit a mortal body for now, but can live apart from that body, because our spirit is eternal, and our soul is also, because our spirit energizes it. Animals were created with souls only, not eternal spirits, so when the body of an animal dies, so does the soul, for it is not connected to an eternal spirit. So, what is the difference between a soul and the spirit?
People often wonder what it means to be created in God's image. Many have various ideas, but I think the one that I believe is the most important is that God is a triune being and He created us to be that also. A very simplistic explanation that really doesn't even touch the reality of the truth but helps to try to make it a little understandable is that God the Father is the one who makes the final decisions. It is His will that the Son and the Holy Spirit subordinate themselves to, even though both of the others are their own person with their own mind and will and are also God. The Father makes the decisions. The Son carries out that decision and the Spirit is the one whose power makes thing happen. An example of this is creation. God determined it (Gen. 1:1) Christ created (spoke it into existence John 1:3, John 1:1/Heb. 11:3) and the Holy Spirit moved (empowered or energized it – Gen. 1:2) to make it work. They are three, but are a unity, each carrying out their part. One cannot look upon God and live (Ex. 33:20), but Christ was the physical incarnation of God. He manifested as the Angel of God before His incarnation, having a meal with Abraham and even wrestling with Jacob, and then He took on a mortal physical human body, so He could be our kinsman redeemer. The Holy Spirit is the Ruach, the breath of life, the power, the One who is the energizer or life giver if you will. This is the part of God that indwells us when we become saved and reconnects us to God. He is our guide, our comforter, our conscience, among a myriad of other things.
Just as God is three in one, we are also. The soul is our consciousness, our mind or intelligence, our reason, our emotions, our personality, and our will. It is our soul or conscious mind, our reason, and our emotions that control all our decisions. It is that part of us that corresponds to the Father, as it is that part which makes the decisions. Whether a person is saved by Christ or rejects God, we all have souls or consciousness which continue after death, as we have spirits which keep it in existence through its life-giving force. The body is the physical incarnation which houses our soul and spirit. Our body was created to be able to die, so that our soul and spirit would not be trapped forever in a sinful and corrupt body. When we accept Christ and endure to the end, we will upon Christ's return get new incorruptible bodies with no sin. This is why man is resurrected.
It is the soul, the conscious mind that makes the decisions for us. This part of us corresponds to the position of the Father, as it is the one who makes the final decisions of our life. Our soul is influenced by the other two parts of our trinity– body and spirit, as both have their own will. Whether your spirit is alive (connected to God) or dead (disconnected from God) will influence the decisions your soul makes.
The body, a counterpart to the Son, also has its own will. That may sound new and strange to some, but it is what Scripture teaches. The flesh has a will of its own that we have to fight, because its will is sinful. It desires to sin. Why would we have to fight it, if it did not have the power to get us to obey its will? - Galatians 5:16-17. Just as Christ is subordinate (by choice) to the Father, we are told we are to subject or bring our body under the control of our will and spirit, since its nature is now to be sinful in its lusts and its choices -1Cor. 9:27. Paul spends much time in Romans discussing this problem – Romans 7:14-25. It cannot be redeemed. It can only be replaced – Romans 6:5. It is this sin and lusts of the flesh which our soul and spirit fight against.
Our spirit is that spiritual part of us that exists in and outside of this mortal realm, which can connect us to God and is our source of eternal existence through its eternal power. Our spirit is the ruach, the breath of life or power that sustains our existence. Spiritual death is not a cessation of existence, but a permanent separation from God. Our spirit is the counterpart to the Holy spirit, which is more than a source of power and life but is also a person with emotions and thoughts as well as the Father and Son. Once born again, our spirit, which is redeemed, chooses holiness, but it battles against the flesh which chooses sin, and the one who determines the outcome of the battle is the soul, the decision maker, the will.
Often, we know people who are not born again who still choose to make moral choices. They can do this because the conscious is also intelligent and analyzes and reasons out things as to outcomes, and their choice is decided by intelligence toward morality - the morality that God instills in every soul to know God's moral laws as being the best way for man to live, rather than by a born again. So, people can do what appears to be good, but not be born again.
All of this had to be gone over, so that we understand how we, and we alone are in the image of God and why we alone can only obtain entrance into heaven, by accepting Christ as our Savior. With that in mind, we can now look at animals in a truthful way. God created all living creatures with souls – the breath of life and a certain amount of intelligence or instincts and some with emotions. Animals aren't as advanced as man in this, but while they do not have what you would call self-awareness, they do have a consciousness that can think to some extent (some more than others), and some have simple emotions and wills which can be trained by repetition and reward to be subordinate to man's will, when they are properly trained. It is not so much that they are making willful choices by using intelligent reason when they behave as trained to respond, as much as by reason that they are programmed to react to certain triggers. Some can make simple choices, for instance, dogs may prefer one treat over another if offered a choice and really intelligent animals can reason some things out. They do not ever, though, make moral choices. That is because they do not understand morality. In this we can see that they do not have a relationship with God, for they do not understand good and evil. It is the spiritual side of us that enables us to do that. That is why Adam and Eve knew they had sinned. They had the knowledge of good and evil. Animals do not possess this, because they are not connected to God by the spirit.
This is one of the great differences between man and the animal world. We understand morality, because God built into us a moral compass, although evil people have the ability to easily override it, because they have a dead spirit. Animals are not self-aware as man is, nor aware of God as we are, or have a relationship with Him as we do, or understand good vs. evil, although they do have a certain awareness or can see into, in some cases, the spiritual world. And their intelligence runs the gamut from little to quite impressive. Many of the higher orders have simple emotions, as they can have affection for and mourn the loss of a master, if they are a pet. Most animals, however, simply live on instinct. It is built into them by God to react in certain ways to certain stimuli. This is simply a scientific fact about animals. This is the kind of soul that an animal has.
While God breathed a soul (as opposed to a spirit) into every living being, including the animals, He did not give animals eternal spirits. He did not give them a special connection to Him that required interaction and obedience. That is the part of us that truly makes us in the image of God and animals are not in the image of God. And because they do not have an eternal spirit, and cannot connect spiritually with God, their souls are not eternal either, for the life force they have is only the breath of life while their bodies live. Their souls die upon the death of their body. They were not created to have that kind of relationship with God that man has. They were created to be useful for man. Domestic cattle helped to till the ground, and still do even today in some places. Some were created to help keep the environment clean and the vegetation in check. Others had other purposes such as carrying burdens for man. But animals do not have eternal spirits that understand sin and morality. They can neither sin nor repent, nor do good nor evil. They are amoral. They do not even understand these concepts. That is because they were not created to have that kind of understanding of good and evil, or free will choice concerning God and sin and obedience. They were created for man's use, not to be in a relationship with God as man has. God deliberately did not create them like that, because He knew in advance that animals would have to be sacrificed as a temporary substitution until the real sacrifice of the Savior to cover man's sin. Not that animals ever really did cover their sin, but it acted as a reminder to everyone that a sacrifice would be required. Also in time, after the Flood, man would have to eat animals to survive, as the world needed time to restore the vegetation. God could not in good conscience offer creatures that had eternal spirits and souls for this cause, anymore than He asked for human sacrifice or could abide cannibalism. He made drinking blood, either of man or animal forbidden, because the life is in the blood. So to think that God would give animals eternal souls that could connect to him and die and be resurrected is to not understand God's plan for the world and salvation at all. They die, just as all things die, because man sinned, which tainted all of creation, as creation was made for man.
Now ask yourself the question. If some animals were to go to heaven, then would not some of them have to go to hell as well? Not all animals act in a good and gentle manner. If they do bad, which some do in our understanding of bad, then how could they go to heaven? But is it fair for them to go to hell when they have no understanding of evil or any way to repent of what we would consider bad behavior? And they weren't ever guilty of sin as God defines it. It was man who sinned. In all fairness, shouldn't bad animals be punished for things such as hurting people? Killing people? Clearly, we can see that God never intended for animals to have eternal spirits nor do they have to worry about where they will spend the afterlife.
And what if all animals were resurrected and went to heaven. Think about the multitude of animals that would mean. Unlike man, where most will go to hell, because broad is the path that leads to destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life, heaven would be overrun by animals. Imagine the number of flies alone, given how quickly they live and die and reproduce. And what about the problem of unclean animals? God did not accept them for sacrifice or food for the Israelites. God had a list of animals that He considered clean for sacrifices and those which He considered unclean. When He gave the law, He indicated what characteristics made for clean and unclean animals. One of the reasons for an animal being unclean is due to the fact that many of the animals and insects and such were created to be garbage cleaners. Something was needed to clean up the detritus that man and animals would leave behind, so animals have their garbage eaters to do that job, but that renders them unclean. Also it appears that carnivores and omnivores fall into this category, because they eat other animals with the blood. Among the unclean animals, along with animals such as camels, eagles, crustaceans, and pigs, were......(much to people's chagrin) canine and feline animals. The latter two in particular being omnivores. The domesticated version of those (dogs and cats) would not exist at the beginning of creation, as man has domesticated these particular breeds over the millennia to create what we now call pets. Why on earth, if God would not allow unclean animals to be sacrificed to Him on earth, would He allow unclean animals such as pigs to run loose in heaven? Yet some people have pigs as pets. Is there anything in the Bible that really makes anyone think that because they love an animal, that qualifies them for heaven (whether clean or unclean)? Why? Does that qualify anything else we love for heaven? Or are we to leave this world behind and not cling to the things of earth?
Given that God considers our dogs and cats unclean, there is no doubt that He would not want them in heaven any more than a pig or vulture. In fact, God has made it VERY clear that nothing that is unclean is allowed to enter into the presence of God. In Revelation 21:27 we are told about New Jerusalem and what will be allowed there to live in the presence of God. One of the stipulations is that “nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it,” Nothing that is unclean is allowed in heaven or New Jerusalem. Now right there, that should end the argument for good, because that would eliminate a whole lot of animals and insects from dying and going to heaven. And if they have an afterlife, they would have to go somewhere. Since the unclean animals are not acceptable in heaven, there is no other place to go other than hell. Is that fair? You can't have it both ways, that animals that are loved get into heaven, regardless of clean or unclean, simply because someone loved them, but all other animals (including clean but unloved ones?) go to hell? Does that even make any sense?
The fact that we have domesticated some unclean animals over the millennia, and have developed emotional attachments to them, does not change the fact of why they were created, and how God created them to be. One could love the sweet little lamb that was taken into the home for four days before it was sacrificed and eaten at the Passover meal, but it was still sacrificed and eaten. Would it not be akin to cannibalism to eat a creature with an eternal soul? Our emotion would not change the purposes for which God created the animal, no matter how cute and cuddly and adorable. Just as God hates human sacrifice, He would, if animals had eternal spirits, hate animal sacrifice, but instead He actually demanded it. And He mandated eating them as well.
So, what of the promises that He would redeem the earth as well as mankind? The promise was not to resurrect all the dead animals (or plants) that ever lived. The promise was to redeem and resurrect man (that accepted Christ) and redeem (lift the curse, make new, not resurrect) the world from the curse placed upon it when Adam sinned. The curse is lifted, so that from that point on going forward, the world is no longer under the curse of death. It doesn't reverse the curse in that every animal that ever lived will come back to life. It merely lifts it from that point on.
God has told us that we are to treat our animals with kindness, take care of them, and not abuse them. We are even allowed to love them. We are to be stewards over them, as they are part of his creation and living souls (while not eternal spirits). Their life here is all they get, so we need to remember that and treat them accordingly. We need to give them their best life, because this is all they have.
I believe this should answer the question as to whether or not pets go to heaven. While I would love to see my pets there as well, God's truth is God's truth and I accept God's truth. But in the interest of fairness, I need to continue, as the challenge I received was more than what I believe the Scriptures say on the matter.
Along with the challenge to answer the question of whether pets go to heaven, a book titled We Will See Our Pets in Heaven was recommended to me to try to change my mind on the subject. The idea being that this was a very Scriptural book that would show me how the Bible teaches that pets do go to heaven. As I try to be open minded, even when I really have very little hope that a real presentation of proof can be given, I got the book and read it. As I suspected, it was a book filled with wishful thinking and desires of itching ears, rather than Scriptural truth. People can twist Scripture to try to prove anything, but one must use good exegesis to see whether or not Scripture does actually teach something, or if it is just a person wanting what they want and trying to make it appear that God approves of what they want. I found the latter to be the case with this book. I will give a quick synopsis to show how this book presented the argument and why those arguments do not work.
At the front of the above-mentioned book the following verse is given with the argument that because God preserves beasts, it means they are resurrected.
Psalm 36:6 Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.
This verse is not talking about eternally preserving the souls of animals through resurrection. If we were to accept that preservation means that animals have eternal life, then all men must also have eternal life. (meaning life in heaven with God). But we know for a fact not all men do have eternal life. According to Scripture, most will have eternal death. Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
So let's take a look at the context of this verse offered as a proof of eternal life for animals. The first four verses of this Psalm talk about the evil man and his ways. Specifically, it is talking about the earthly man and his sinful ways. It has to do with life here on earth. So, if this cannot be referring to eternal life, which only comes through accepting Jesus as our Savior, then this cannot be speaking of eternal life for animals either. It is talking about our mortal lives. God can and does preserve our lives and the lives of animals in the tribulations of life as He deems fit. For instance, Noah and his family were not the only ones on the ark. So were two (and seven of the clean) of every animal. God preserved the animals' lives through the Flood. And He preserves the lives of many of them in other catastrophes like wildfires, lesser floods, earthquakes, hurricanes and etc. God watches over His creation and loves it all. This does not mean that animals or trees, or rocks have eternal life. That is making a leap of assumption based on nothing.
People desire a lot of things that God has not condoned, or things that simply are not realistic, and they often try to use the Bible to make their desires real by misinterpreting, or twisting, or changing what Scripture says. That does not change the truth. You can accept whatever you want to believe, and even try to support it with Scripture, but that isn't going to change the truth of what God says. If your mind is determined to accept what you want to believe, regardless of what God's Word says, then truth will not matter to you.
Arguments presented by the book will be italicized.
Chapter 1
When God created the heavens and earth, it was not his intention that any of his creation would suffer death and decay. This includes animals.
This is true. However, it is a straw man argument, as it is completely irrelevant. The question is not whether animals were not meant to die originally (neither was man), the question is whether or not animals were created in the image of God with eternal spirits. They were not. Had mankind not sinned, all would live in mortal bodies and would not die, however only man has a relationship with God on a spiritual level.
Animals were created before man.
Yes, so what? What does order of creation have to do with the question at hand. Again irrelevancy. When they were created has nothing to do with what they were created to be. God created the world and all it in for man. That is why He left man as the last creation, because man was the only thing created in His image.
God was pleased with His creation.
Again, this has nothing to do with whether or not animals have eternal spirits. It is avoiding the true point of the entire argument.
God never intended for us to eat animals.
No, He did not. But intention and reality are two different things. It is pointed out that they die because of the curse. Yes, they do, but again, this is a straw man argument that is irrelevant to animal's spiritual status. If anything, it argues against them having eternal spirits for God did mandate after the Flood that we eat animals. God knew before He created us that mankind would sin and that animals would first have to be killed for sacrifices, and second that they would eventually be eaten by man. And they would also eat each other. This was not an unknown fact to God. He would not create creatures with eternal spirits to be sacrificed for sin or eaten by man.
Chapter 2
Man sinned and fell and all of God's creation was cursed because of it.
Yes, it was. That has nothing to do with the subject of whether or not animals have eternal spirits. Again, a straw man argument.
Chapter 3
Animals are sinless and had to die although they did nothing wrong.
No, they are not sinless, they are amoral. They neither sin nor don't sin. They do what comes naturally to them by instinct. Sometimes that is to do heroic acts and sometimes it to kill people. Nether is holy or evil. Just instinct. They have no conscious thought of evil or sin or goodness or God. They have no superior intellect to understand God. They came under the curse, because they fell under man's dominion. They were given into his hands to use for man's benefit. The gospel is not for them. They do not deserve to have to be sacrificed, of course, but someone had to shed their blood. This was God's temporary fix in place to remind people of their sin and what the cost was for a Messiah in the future, who would have to sacrifice His blood and life to atone for their sins. He would not do this to creatures with eternal spirits for the sake of our sins. How unfair would that be? There is no defense for the position of animals go to heaven here.
Chapter 4
If God never intended for anything to die, isn't it reasonable to assume that God would allow his animals to be resurrected?
No. It is wishful thinking, but not reasonable to assume anything that is not taught in Scripture, and in fact the opposite is taught. Resurrection is for man alone. No verse in the Bible says that all of creation will be resurrected. It will no further be under the curse from that point forward, when it is redeemed, which ironically is actually what is taught in the verses provided by the author to try to show that animals would be resurrected. Those things that are born or those flora which grow will, from the point of the lifting of the curse and the creation of a new heaven and earth, no longer be under the curse to die, but those things that have gone before will not be resurrected. All thing are made new, not resurrected. Only man is resurrected. Did God bring back the animals from before the flood? No. That is why He had Noah take two (and seven of the clean) animals of each kind onto the ark. Because the others were killed in the flood. Whenever the Bible talks about resurrection is is only the resurrection of those who believe in Jesus as their Savior. That is the requirement. If God were going to resurrect all things, then wouldn't He resurrect the unbelievers to have a second chance? After all they will spend eternity in the lake of fire otherwise. But He does not. They are condemned. The animals simply cease to exist upon death. They have no afterlife.
Chapter 5
The story of Nathan telling David about the poor man with the lamb that was a pet, to make David judge himself about the Bathsheba issue is proof that the affection of a person for a pet is not evil.
Of course it isn't. Who said it was? What does our affection for them have to do with what God created them to be? Nothing. How would our affection bestow upon animals something that only God can give? It doesn't. Again, a straw man argument. We are to treat our animals with kindness and consideration. That is part of being a steward. And of course, since they do have limited intelligence and emotions, they can attach themselves to us as well. That is no proof of an afterlife. God may not mind our attachment to an animal, but it does not bestow upon them eternal life.
Chapter 6
God cares for even the sparrow that falls and does not forget them; therefore, they are resurrected.
Of course God cares about His creation. He cares about ALL of His creation. It's His after all. Does that mean He won't allow any person to go to hell, because He can't forget them? No. Clearly God's seeing all of what happens to His creation does not imply resurrection for all creation to go to heaven. It certainly doesn't for mankind. There is no reason to make that leap of assumption. It is taught otherwise in Scripture. I'm sure He doesn't like seeing what we do to the landscape with our littering, or our ugly buildings, but He did put all things (originally) under our dominion, and they are there for our use, so chopping down a tree for firewood may not improve the landscape and it may deprive an animal of their home, but we are allowed to do it for our use. Any desecration of God's original creation probably hurts Him, but that does not mean that He has given animals eternal spirits. Nor does God forget. He will remember all who abuse His creatures as well. That He mourns the death of even the little sparrow shows how much more He mourns man when He is lost to God. Does He forget those who go to hell? I doubt it. He mourns them, but they still don't make it into heaven. God's not forgetting or even mourning does not change the truth of the situation. These are only straw man arguments that have nothing to do with the real question. Do animals have eternal spirits that can gain salvation and a resurrection, and the answer is an emphatic, NO! The very verse quoted, that while God sees even the sparrow that falls, we are of much more value, proves that animals are not on the same par as man. We are created in God's image. We have the immortal spirit. They do not. Just because God does not miss one death of anything in His creation does not mean that He is going to take it to heaven. Every tree, every bush, every insect, every reptile? No.
Chapter 7
The Bible says that all creation praises God.
Yes, it does, but how does that prove that animals have eternal spirits? The planets praise God, they give off vibrations that create a type of song. They do so because they were created to do that. The plants do too. When attached to electrodes they have also been discovered to make music, beautiful music in fact from what I have listened to, because they were created to do so. They praise God in the way they were created to praise Him. We are told the very rocks would cry out to praise God if man wouldn't. Does that mean the planets, the plants, and the rocks go to heaven? No. Then why would animals be any different? Animals and plants are not men. Men are the only thing that can have salvation and eternal life. Christ became a kinsman redeemer, because only a kinsman can redeem someone. For animals to be redeemed, they would need a kinsman redeemer as well. An animal that is perfectly sinless that knowingly sacrifices itself for their lives. What a ludicrous and almost blasphemous suggestion. Nowhere does the Bible indicate it could happen. Man is the only thing allowed to be redeemed by resurrection. The rest of creation has a connection to God in a different way than man. Angels that fell have no second chance, no redemption. If God were to redeem someone other than man, surely it would be intelligent, immortal beings, would it not? Creation does respond to God, because it acknowledges its Creator in its own way, as it was made to do, but that is not the same as man's relationship with God where man has the free will and knowledge to CHOOSE to praise God. Creation just worships Him; it does not choose to worship Him. It is a completely different type of relationship.
Eve speaking to the serpent and Balaam's ass talking to him was an indication that animals once probably spoke.
First of all, Eve was not speaking to a snake as we know snakes. She spoke to The Serpent, meaning Satan in his original beautiful form, for he presented himself to her as an angel of light. He is a serpentine angel. Note that some of the angels (cherubim and seraphim) have animal faces as well as having faces like men. When God created the animal world He patterned many animals after the angels He had already created. We see the faces of the ox (domestic animals), the lion (wild animals), the eagle (birds) on some of these angels, and what is missing from heaven's scene is an angel representing reptiles and fish. Satan is also called a dragon. Clearly he was the cherub created to represent the missing animal from the heavenly lineup, something from the reptilian world. Eve was not speaking to an animal, she was speaking to Satan himself in his original form. As for Balaam's ass, which is also given as a reason to suspect that animals used to talk (shades of Narnia), that was a very special case in which God used the donkey to speak to Balaam. It was not a common occurrence, in fact it would appear this is the one and only occurrence, and while it appears that Balaam took this in stride, probably because he was a prophet of God and used to weird things, (God talked to Moses from a burning bush) it does not mean animals spoke, nor would their speaking prove that they have eternal spirits, since thinking animals once talked is clearly from the imagination, not the Bible or reality. All of these arguments are completely irrelevant to the main issue. And quite a leap of conjecture with no basis in Scripture.
Chapter 8
The following verse is misinterpreted by people to say animals don't go to heaven, but if one reads it differently, it can prove there is a Biblical basis for believing pets go to heaven.
Ecc. 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
The reasoning of the book's author on this verse is that since the writer is asking the question, the preacher doesn't know whether the spirit of the animal goes up or down, therefore we must conclude that it goes up based on the evidence already given in the author's book. What evidence? There has been no evidence, just a lot of wishful thinking and straw man arguments. How is a lack of evidence in one direction proof of evidence in the opposite direction?
When this verse was written, Christ had not come, the gospel was a mystery, and man did not go to heaven either. He went to Hades, either the Paradise side or the Hell side. Much was not known about the fate of man after death as much revelation was yet to come. The question merely poses the fact that there was much that man did not yet understand about the afterlife. It was not a statement of fact that animals go to heaven or a statement against it. It was a question posed out of lack of knowledge. It assumes they go down to the earth (grave) or have no afterlife, which we can now understand to be true. To say that this is misinterpreted and thus shows by assuming that ignorance proves the opposite and that animals go to heaven is an unwarranted assumption which does not agree with the rest of Scripture that we do have. One does not make an argument from someone else having a lack of knowledge.
1 Corinthians 15:44 says there is a natural body and a spiritual body, thus animals have a spiritual body, so must be resurrected.
The subject of 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection of man. Just man. There is no mention of animals, nor is there ever in Scripture any mention of anyone but man when discussing the resurrection. This is an example of trying to apply a verse that has nothing to do with the subject to the subject.
We are then told a lot of personal stories of the author's pets and how they had personalities. I'm sure it was cathartic for the author to share about his animals, but his love for his animals and their personalities being what they were proves nothing about Scripture. It merely demonstrates they were beloved pets. That's all. The Bible does not dispute that animals have personalities. That is part of their being, but that does not mean that a personality gets you into heaven. The soul or breath of life and consciousness is not the same as an eternal spirit that has a relationship with God. The author admits that the souls of animals are not like the souls of man, for we were made in the image of God. He knows the truth, but cannot admit to it. He asks why wouldn't God allow us to have our pets in heaven? The answer is, they were not created to have eternal life. Our desire should be in heaven for the companionship of God. God is the source of our happiness in heaven, not our pets. This is almost akin to putting the pet as an idol before God. God wants to be all we need and He should be.
Verses in Psalms 49 and Ecclesiastes 3 are misinterpreted to prove animals do not have eternal souls.
The author then spends time telling us that these verses are about laying up treasures for yourself in this life and beings selfish, and how there is nothing but vanity in that as we all die and return to dust as do the animals. This is true, that is what these verses teach, but it is not a source of proof of an eternal life for an animal either. The subject is the vanity of man and how we bring nothing into this world and leave without anything as well, so our lives should be spent in working on our relationship with God, as we do have eternal life, unlike the animals who return to dust.
Chapter 9
The author briefly discusses the word “forever.”
There is no relevance to the topic whatsoever.
Chapter 10
The Bible speaks of the angelic hosts using chariots with spiritual horses, and in Revelation where Christ and the saints ride horses coming down from heaven, so if there are horses, there must be every kind of animal. And if there is, there is a resurrection of animals.
Why must this be assumed? There is nothing in Scripture that would lead one to believe this. The horses are first of all, not of earthly origin as they clearly can fly through the heavens. There is nothing to indicate they have died and gone to heaven. They were created as spiritual horses (with wings maybe?) for the use of the angels for the sake of their job as military hosts that do battle. They weren't anyone's pets. This does not prove that pets are resurrected and go to heaven, nor that there are more than horses in heaven. It merely teaches us that God has horses for the use of transportation for the hosts of heaven to ride when they go to battle. That is all it teaches us.
Chapter 11
People have consciousness and can remember after they die. One can also assume our pets will remember us.
I agree that Scripture says we will remember. Nowhere does it say our pets will be there nor remember us. And we may remember our pets with fondness for a while, but it also says that God will create a new heaven and new earth and the former things will not be remembered or come into mind. The author interprets that as being the negative things will not be remembered, but I venture to say that with all eternity ahead of us to create new memories, the years we have sojourned on this earth will become a faded memory of the distant past, as we live in the splendor of New Jerusalem in the presence of God. The author then assumes animals will, due to the erroneous supposition he made that animals have eternal spirits (which they do not have), and being sinless (which they are neither sinners nor sinless), and therefore being resurrected (which they cannot be), will remember their masters for it wouldn't make sense that we could remember them, but they wouldn't remember us. This is wishful thinking taken to great lengths based upon nothing that Scripture teaches.
Chapter 12
Heaven is real.
No disagreement there. Yes, it is very real. So how does that prove that pets have eternal spirits? Again, this is totally off topic and irrelevant to the premise.
Chapter 13
Your pets are waiting you in heaven.
The author states this unequivocally as fact. Based upon what? I do not know, for this book certainly did not prove that from a Scriptural basis. It is wishful thinking, and if someone wants to think it, they are perfectly free to do so, but it cannot be proven by Scripture, and in fact to believe that animals are the same as man when it comes to the resurrection shows a lack of understanding of what salvation and the resurrection is all about. Scripture clearly states, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.” John 3:3. Animals are not born again.
C.S. Lewis has a quote that I use all the time. “In religion, as in war and everything else, comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort, you will not get either comfort or truth – only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with, and in the end, despair.” The truth is found in God's Word only when we seek out its truth. If you go to it seeking to affirm what you want to believe, you can make it say anything you want by manipulating it. Only when we are willing to accept the hard truths will we find true comfort in God's Word.
