The Role Of Animals As Gods Creation
Despite the soullessness of animals, it is written that they do play a role in the earthly lives of humans. One of which is that they are to be livestock so that humans may sustain and have descendants from generation to generation.
I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you every living creature on earth .
Animals are also written to be preserved by humans and for this to be written, we should take care of them. They may not have souls like us and may not have the gift of salvation, but they depend on us humans to survive because they have been entrusted by God to us.
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals .
Part of us preserving animals is to make them close to us such as taking care of us, our dogs or cats, or our other pets.
Will There Be Animals In The The New Heaven And New Earth
And this now brings us to the real heart of this question.
As we all know, the final ending for us as Christians will be God the Father forming out a New Heaven and a New Earth after the 1000 year millennial reign of Jesus has ended. After that 1000 millennial reign has ended, God will then be forming out a New Heaven and New Earth, where He Himself will then be coming down upon our earth.
And when God the Father then comes down upon our earth, He will be bringing with Himself the city of the New Jerusalem which is up in heaven right now. And once He comes down upon our earth with both Himself and this new holy city, both He and Jesus will then rule our entire earth forever and ever from this New Jerusalem.
Evangelical Pastor Says Pets Will Join Their Owners In Heaven
In a question and answer session recorded by Charisma News, the popular Evangelical writer Randy Alcorn recently laid out his position that animals will be reunited with their owners on the other side of eternity. This is preposterous. The idea that because God created the animals for the current world does not mean they will be in the next. Alcorn addressed the issue stating our pets who have died on Earth will be reunited with us when God creates the new heaven and the new earth.
Alcorn also explained this was not his position for years but he recently changed his mind on the Bibles teaching regarding pets. Apparently, this change of heart is due to some emotional plea from someone who was just too attached to their pet in this life.
During a recorded Q&A, Alcorn gave an extended answer to the matter. Here is the response he provides:
Alcorns entire case is built on a few texts. First, Romans 8, about the whole creation groaning seeking the liberty of the sons of God, and second, the Genesis creation account. Of course, his favorite passages are from Isaiah 11 and 65.
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Do Animals Have Souls Do Animals Go To Heaven
Many of the articles I write come from questions I have been asked. The topic of this discourse was made possible by a woman who asked me: Will my pet go to heaven, too? Obviously she expected to get to that heavenly paradise and really wanted to meet her pet when the inevitable happened. She said that over the years, she had asked other religious leaders that question, but got varying answers, ranging from yes to no and everything in between. So, she asked, what do you think?
I can understand that she got varying answers. Even the Vatican cant seem to give a straight answer. Pope Benedict XVI insisted animals did not go to heaven, whereas Pope Paul VI said they did, stating that paradise is open to all of Gods creatures.1 I finally answered her and explained my own biblical opinions, but it took a while. The following thoughts, based upon research, are what I said, but hopefully better organized now, than when she asked that question and caught me off guard. Since some think Gods coming paradise is not in heaven, but here on a renewed earth2 where they will spend an everlasting life, maybe that question would be better restated as, Will animals have a chance for everlasting life, like we do?
Would It Be Heaven Without Fido
Would heaven be a wonderful place — would it truly be “paradise” — if our pets weren’t there? For many, the answer is “no” — and obviously, God knows this! Placing restrictions on what can or can’t be in heaven is a fruitless exercise, much like debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin; no one has brought back a report, and sooner or later we’re all going to find out anyway. In the interim, we are free to imagine whatever we choose.
However, there are many who feel that it is important to be “right” about everything, especially everything spiritual — that there is no room for spiritual “error.” These are the folks, I suspect, who argue most loudly and angrily against the concept of pets in heaven. And there are certainly many issues on which, for a Christian, there is no “wiggle room” for debate. Where the answer matters, the answer is given. If the answer is not given, then it is quite possible that the answer doesn’t really matter — i.e., there is no penalty for being “wrong.”
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There Will Be Animals In The Coming Millennium Kingdom
So not only does God put animals upon our earth at the time He created our earth and not only does God keep all of these animals upon our earth after Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden but now God is going to take it one more step further.
He is still going to allow animals to exist in the coming millennium kingdom where His Son Jesus will be ruling our entire earth from the city of Jerusalem. Here is the verse that will prove this to you:
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the nursing child shall play by the cobras hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the vipers den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Chances are, if there are going to be wolves, leopards, lambs, goats, calfs, lions, and cobra snakes in this coming millennium kingdom, then there are probably going to be a lot of the other animals that God has created in the past as well. And also notice that the wild animals existing in this coming kingdom will not be wild or attacking anyone like many of them do today.
Dogs In Heaven The Experts Speak
These questions have been asked by animal lovers for centuries, and even some heavy-hitting theologians have weighed in on the issue. According to many of them, yes, animals probably DO go to heaven.
C.S. Lewis, a well-known apologist for the Christian faith in the 1900s and author of the famous books The Chronicles of Narnia, is known for his assertion that animals would get to heaven through the relationship of their owners with God. Therefore, a Christian’s pets would be found in the new heaven because of their owner’s faith.
“The theory I am suggesting… makes God the centre of the universe and man the subordinate centre of terrestrial nature: the beasts are not co-ordinate with man, but subordinate to him, and their destiny is through and through related to his. And the derivative immortality suggested for them is not a mere amende or compensation: It is part and parcel of the new heaven and new earth, organically related to the whole suffering process of the world’s fall and redemption.” .
“I think God will have prepared everything for our perfect happiness. If it takes my dog being there , I believe he’ll be there.”
Rev. Billy Graham, often called “America’s Pastor”
But it’s understood that even brilliant minds such as Lewis, Graham, and Luther can be wrong, so what is the reasoning behind their belief that animals go to heaven?
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Bible Verses About Do Animals Go To Heaven
Bible verses related to Do Animals Go To Heaven from the King James Version by Relevance
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What The Bible Says About Animals
Lets take a look at the scriptures that relate to animals and what is said of them:
Ecclesiastes 3:18-21: As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.; Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath ; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?
Job 12:10 In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.
Genesis 9:9-10 I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with youthe birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with youevery living creature on earth.
Genesis 9:16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.
Genesis 1:30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the groundeverything that has the breath of life in itI give every green plant for food.
Luke 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.
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Do Animals Have Souls What The Bible Says
The soul is a concept used primarily by people of faith. It is the part of us that continues to live eternally after death. It animates the body and is the seat of consciousness and willpower. A body cannot live without a soul. It can also be described as energy which, according to modern physics, cannot be destroyed but can only change form.
The belief in a soul separates believers from atheists who deny its existence and consequently life after death. For them, life is solely related to the physical body even though that does not explain consciousness, why or how life, much less anything at all, exists. An illustration of this is when a new human being comes into existence at conception. Scientists can only observe and describe the process. The deeper questions lie outside the realm of scientific knowledge because humans cannot create life. We are only conduits for it. God is the Author of life and the eternal Creator of everything including physical laws.
The Bible speaks about the soul right away in Genesis. There are two creation accounts that some think are different stories while others believe that the second story is an elaboration of the first. Here I will focus on the second story in Genesis 2:7. It says, And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Animals are also part of the coming kingdom of God. Isaiah 11:6-9 says,
Do Animals Go To Heaven Bible Verses
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ECCLESIASTES 3:1921Verses in the Bible
- 19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
ECCLESIASTES 3:19In the BibleVerse Meaning
- 19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
- Revelation 21:2 Meaning
- 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
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Will We See Our Pets In Heaven
To answer the question, consider this story of the elderly widow whose beloved little dog died after fifteen faithful years. Distraught, she went to her pastor.
“Parson,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks, “The vicar said animals have no souls. My darling dog has died. Does that mean I wont see her again in heaven?”
“Madam,” said the old priest, “God, in his great love and wisdom has created heaven to be a place of perfect happiness. I am sure that if you need your little dog to complete your happiness, you will find her there.”
Do Animals Have Souls
For animals, their spirit seems to be merely an animating force rather than an eternal soul .
The Bible does teach that animals have souls , but are they the same as human souls? For animals, their spirit seems to be merely an animating force rather than an eternal soul .2 For mankind, the soul is the animating factor, plus the seat of logic and reason, emotion and conscience, and all the rest of the essence of a personand it is eternal.3
Consider that Old and New Testament Scripture also mentions the soul of God ; Jeremiah 12:7), which obviously cannot be speaking of physical life or breath. In both cases it is speaking of the emotion or feelings of God: sadness and love, respectively. And Matthew 26:38, Mark 14:34, and John 12:27 all record Jesus statements about the anguish of his soul in Gethsemane. And what did Jesus respond to the scribe who asked him which was the most important commandment? And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength . Jesus wasnt here teaching that we compartmentalize our love for God and separate it with each facet of our will, thought, and emotions, but he was emphasizing that every fiber of our being is to be engaged with loving God.
Though animals have nephesh and ruach , they were not created in the image of God, which means they do not have an eternal spirit, as humans do.
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Will Our Pets Be In Heaven
- M.A., English Composition, Illinois State University
- B.S., English Literature, Illinois State University
One of lifes greatest joys is having a pet. They bring so much happiness, companionship, and enjoyment that we cant imagine life without them. When we do lose a beloved pet, it is not unusual to grieve the loss just as deeply as we would for a human companion. Thus, many Christians wonder, “Do animals have souls? Will our pets be in heaven?”
Can Animals Be Saved
The Christian concept of heaven is inextricably linked with the concepts of salvation, redemption, and resurrection. Christians don’t believe that “going to heaven” happens automatically; it’s the result of conscious decisions made during one’s life. While the Bible is very specific about the requirements for human salvation, it says nothing about salvation for animals. This has led many to assume that, since animals cannot be “saved,” they cannot possibly go to heaven.
Another way to look at this question, however, is to recall why the Bible states that redemption is “necessary” for humans. It is because, in scriptural terms, humans are “fallen” beings. Humans have free will, and thus the ability to choose between good and evil. Humans can choose salvation , or choose to reject both.
Animals, however, have never “fallen” — and if one has not fallen, it is not at all clear that the intermediary step of “redemption” is necessary. Animals cannot “choose” between good and evil; when animals behave badly in our homes, it is generally because of a conflict between their God-given natures and our human requirements. Animals have no need to be saved because they are not considered “sinners.”
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