Do Pets Go To Heaven?

Do Pets Go to Heaven? ( In Memory Of Vickie)

You Bet They Do!

(And the Bible proves it)

 

One of the biggest questions that plague pet owners when they have lost a beloved pet is, “will I see my four-legged friend when I get to Heaven?”  Most folks want to believe they will, but are discouraged by theologians who doggedly maintain there is nothing Biblical to back this up; I disagree.

 

There is no particular passage in the Bible one can directly point to and say, “See?  It says it right here!”  However, there is substantial evidence that points to God’s love of animals and their place in the overall scheme of things.  One must simply gather the pieces together, and listen with your heart to what they say.

In the Book of Genesis,when God established a covenant with Noah right after the flood, God tells Noah that he is creating a covenant “with you, and with your descendants after you; and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth.”  God goes on to say that his covenant with “all flesh” shall never be “cut off”.  To me, this definitely states that animals will not be excluded from his dealings with the world.  His promise to Noah was not just to him and his descendents, but included all the animals on the ark. 

 

In Luke 3:6, it says “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.”  Not “all persons”, and not “all human beings”, but all flesh shall see the salvation of God.  Jesus referenced animals in many of his teachings.  His promise in Matthew and Luke that not even a sparrow falls to the earth without God’s knowing it powerfully suggests what every grieving pet owner feels; God refuses to forget a single one of his creatures, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

 

Okay.  Now let’s get to that old argument that “pets don’t have souls”, so they can’t go to heaven.  Norm Phelps points out in his book The Dominion of Love that the Hebrew term repeatedly used to describe animals in the Old Testament is nephesh chayah.  Chayah means “living,” while nephesh is the Hebrew term for the force that animates the bodywhat Phelps describes as “the whatever-it-is that makes a person or an animal a conscious, sentient individual.” 

 

Now, when this term was translated into English, different words were used to translate nephesh chayah depending on whether animals or people are being discussed.  In Genesis 1:21 and 24, for example, Phelps points out that nephesh chayah is translated as “living creature.”  But in Genesis 2:7, where the term refers to people, not animals, it’s translated as “living soul.”  The use of two different terms in the English translation completely blurs the fact that in the original Hebrew, no such distinction exists!

 

Why did the Bible’s English translators take such pains to use different terms for the souls of animals and people, when the Hebrew of the Old Testament repeatedly uses just one?  Probably because they were concerned not to contradict Genesis’ teaching that humans alone are crated in God’s image.  But to acknowledge that animals have souls isn’t to usurp the unique place of humans in God’s creation, as the original Hebrew makes clear enough.

 

    But the one passage that has always comforted me, and spoke volumes to my heart, was Isaiah’s vision of the Peaceable Kingdom:  “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”  Why would Isaiah, when he wanted to project the ultimate picture of heavenly fulfillment, choose to use animals to project this?  Because he knew what you and I already knowa world without animals would be a barren one.  And heaven just wouldn’t be heaven without those who gave us love and companionship in this life.

Submitted by:  Carol Foulkes

In Loving Memory of Vickie

1982-1999

 

Resources: Article by Ptolemy Tompkins, Senior Editor, "Guideposts".
Norm Phelps, Author, "The Dominion of Love".