Do Animals Go To Heaven Bible Verses

Exercise Animals Become to Heaven?

Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
2021 20 Oct

We know the scene; A child's beloved pet - a goldfish, hamster, or cat - suddenly dies. The family gathers effectually a make-shift grave to give their last adieu. Words of comfort are spoken to the grieving child. At some signal, the universal question is asked, "Did the animal go to heaven?"

It sounds like an like shooting fish in a barrel question to respond. Pop movies have ofttimes taken a stab at this topic. Pixar'southward award-winning movie Soul, for instance, clearly shows the soul of a cat on its style to the smashing beyond.But is this biblically accurate? Do animals go to sky?

This is a deeply theological question, i based on a variety of factors. What do we mean by "heaven"? How does one become to heaven? What volition we practise in heaven? These questions are natural. Even the Pharisees ask about the nature of heaven regarding a woman who married seven brothers (Matthew 22:25). When it comes to animals in heaven, nonetheless, the question is more than difficult to resolve. There are other factors to consider. Do animals have the capacity to answer to the saving message of the gospel? Is the animal soul equivalent to the soul of one made in God's prototype? If animals can go to heaven, does this mean an animal can go to hell?

To reply this question, we need to pair the biblical understanding of heaven with the biblical depiction of animals. It is simply equally we rightly sympathise these two elements that we can definitively, and confidently answer this intriguing question.

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woman with cat laying on chest pet family pet cuddling

What Does the Bible Say about Animals?

Animals are part of God's cosmos. They are non an later on-idea or a by-product of the fall. Animals are an expression of God's creativity and dearest. On the fifth and 6th days of creation, God intentionally creates "animals according to their kind" (Genesis 1:twenty-25). God so responds to the creation of animals in the same mode that God responds to all creative acts: God declares it good. Animals, therefore, are a office of God's good creation.

Not only does Scripture brand clear that God created animals, it as well testifies to God's loving care of animals. An animal'south life is under the eye of God. Jesus declares that no animal "falls apart from the Father'south volition" (Matthew 10:29). God provides for, and sustains, every living creature upon the earth. God declares "for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a one thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine" (Psalm l:ten-xi). Each fauna or insect is, in some way, a recipient of God'southward love.

While scripture has many things to say about God's care for animals, scripture does not nowadays animals in any domesticated mode. This is incredibly important. The aboriginal world saw animals as useful for one's livelihood or commercial enterprises. Just put, there are no "pets" in scripture. The merely possible reference to a domesticated fauna is found in two Samuel 12. When confronting David with this sin of adultery, the prophet Nathan speaks of a homo who "had nothing except one petty ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and information technology grew upwardly with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was similar a girl to him (12:three). This is the only reference to an animal beingness treated as a companion rather than a commodity. Yet fifty-fifty here, this but occurs in the context of a prophetic story. The aboriginal earth simply did not view animals in the aforementioned manner as nosotros do.

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Do Animals Go to Sky?

Where does this lead us in terms of whether animals become to heaven? We can say confidently that animals volition exist part of the new creation. Christ's redemption is expressed in the re-cosmos of all the created lodge. Every bit God'south kingdom is established upon the world, this volition undoubtedly involve the re-creation of the beast earth. Dogs, cats, rabbits, mosquitos, crocodiles, and spiders will roam the new earth, but every bit much as they do this one. Similarly, God's kingdom will as well involve the re-creation of copse, flowers, rocks, and brambles. All are remade.

Does this mean that our beloved cat "Fluffy", or our faithful companion "Rex", will come bounding toward us when nosotros arrive in heaven? Unfortunately, Scripture does not answer this question. This is because this question would never have crossed the minds of the biblical writers. Dogs, specifically, were understood to exist unclean scavengers. Scripture contains no positive reference to a dog. Thus, the thought of a dog being given a name, a bed, and a squeaky toy, would exist unthinkable to those in the ancient world.

Furthermore, in that location are questions regarding our individual pet's power to respond to God'due south grace or dearest. Does Fluffy live in an active relationship with the Lord? Can Rex choose to reject divine beloved? Do spiders sin? These questions all pertain to an creature'due south sense of spiritual personhood. Ultimately, while nosotros can assert that animals "co-ordinate to their kind" are remade in the new creation, nosotros have no reference to answer whether an creature contains the spirituality necessary for a personal response to the gospel.

What the Bible Says about Heaven

It tin be difficult to separate the biblical picture of heaven from the popular images provided by movies and television programs. Heaven is often imagined as a place of bright lights and pillowy clouds, where angels with harps provide an eternity of celestial dorsum-ground music. None of these images are establish in scripture. The Bible describes heaven in two primary ways.

Firstly, sky is divers by the presence of God. Of this the scriptures are clear. The Book of Revelation is maybe the principal source for this understanding. John's vision of heaven contains a movie of the throne of God, surrounded by a cracking multitude of people who bow downwardly in worship. John writes "And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Revelation vii:x). John'south picture is clear; heaven is the identify of ceaseless worship to the Lamb seated on the throne.

Does this worship involve animals? John does not say. John never mentions the presence of animals running down the gilt streets of the angelic city. While he does mention "4 living creatures" (Revelation iv:6-8), these creatures are clearly celestial in nature. Does this hateful nosotros can assume that animals are not present in the heaven?

Not necessarily. The second affair we need to know about heaven is that it involves the renewal of all cosmos. The images used to draw what heaven "looks like" hold an important theological function. Take the gem-laden imagery found in Revelation as an example (21:19-21). John'southward clarification is a picture of the heavenly Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem is just a foreshadow of the vivid kingdom of God, here depicted as a city adorned with the finest of jewels. Similarly, much of the biblical imagery of heaven heralds the reversal of fallen Eden. Just as God created Eden had a tree of life and expiry standing in the center, so too the heavenly urban center contains a tree in the center. The divergence, nonetheless, is that the leaves of the tree in the heavenly urban center provide healing, non condemnation (Revelation 22:two). God remakes the world.

Ultimately, John'south vision reaches its climax in the cosmos of a "new heaven, and a new world" (Revelation 21:ane). During his divine revelation, John witnesses the heavenly Jerusalem coming down and resting upon the earth. Heaven is not a mystical, ephemeral reality. It is a concrete one. God's kingdom is fully revealed in the act of re-cosmos. Every bit Paul writes, "all creation waits in eager expectation for the sons and daughters of God to exist revealed" (Romans 8:19). Scripture teaches that, equally the creation itself has been subject to the effects of sin, the result of Christ's redemption is a complete healing of all creation.

Eternal life isn't about living every bit disembodied spirits upon fluffy clouds. Scripture makes clear that we receive new bodies and live upon the new globe. Thus, when nosotros speak of heaven, nosotros are speaking about the reality of an eternity in the presence of God in the context of a renewed creation. This is what defines the Christian understanding of heaven.

One last word…

This, however, is non the end of the discussion. As mentioned above, at 1 point, the Pharisees approach Jesus with a question regarding a adult female who marries 7 brothers. They are, of class, attempting to trap Jesus with this theological riddle (Matthew 22:28). Their question: Whose wife will she exist in heaven, as she married all brothers? Jesus' response is instructive to our agreement of heaven. Jesus says "You are in fault because you practise not know the Scriptures or the ability of God. At the resurrection people will neither marry nor exist given in spousal relationship; they will be like the angels in sky. Simply nearly the resurrection of the expressionless—have you not read what God said to y'all, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is non the God of the dead but of the living" (Matthew 22:29-32).

The Pharisees are in error because they presume that sky is based on man principles and logic. Jesus points them, and us, abroad from human concerns regarding the inner workings of God's kingdom. Matters such as what sky looks similar, what we practice in sky, or who will be in sky, are beyond our concern. God's kingdom is always beyond our understanding and command. Heaven is nigh residing in the power and the love of God. This is to be our ultimate focus as, in the cease, this volition be the reality we bask for eternity.

Reverend Kyle Norman is the Rector of the Anglican Parish of Holy Cross in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has a doctorate in Spiritual Germination and is often asked to write or speak on the nature of the Christian customs, and the office of Spiritual disciplines in Christian life. His personal blog can be found here.