Elisha's Axhead- Will Our Pets Join Us is Heaven?

I have been both a dog owner and a widower. I have over the course of my life grieved both the loss of  a wife and more than one dog. As difficult as my grief experiences have been I have gotten over them. I can cope with tragedy. I can live contentedly, happily without either dog or wife. That realization in no way diminishes my grief for my first wife, my love for my present wife or my present dog. I love dogs! I hope to have one near me until I die. I am certain I will see my late wife as well as my present one after I die, but  I am not so sure about the dogs. My grief experiences have also given me compassion for those who suffer loss. As a chaplain I deal everyday with the bereaved. The one thing I have learned is supporting and being with grieving people helps them overcome. Offering them baseless assurances or false hopes provides little comfort. People get very emotional over what will happen to their beloved pets after they die.

Our bond with our pets is very strong. In fantasy and popular culture the afterlife is merely a reflection and a continuation of this life. Fantasy films such as Disney's ALL DOGS GO TO HEAVEN are built on a premise that "happy-go-lucky" pets will go to heaven. Popular Christian literature teaches much the same. On his website the popular Christian author of the book HEAVEN, Randy Alcorn claims that the Bible teaches that our household pets will be re-created after death so they can be with us in heaven. He asserts that God provides for our happiness in heaven. It is a  place where our happiness is so important to God we he could never deny us our pets. What about the pets of those who go to hell, what happens to them? Where did Adolph Hitler's Blondi go when she died? Is the eternal destiny of animals dependent on the spiritual condition of their owners. Poor Blondi. How unfair! How ludicrous!

Alcorn looks at heaven from a human point of view. The danger in that perspective is that it leads to comparing God to man. They humanize God. Oh his web page Alcorn answers questions about what heaven might be like, extrapolating a conclusion about heaven in contrast to what we know about earth.   While citing a plethora of references to animals in the millennial kingdom which Jesus will establish on earth after his return, he cites no references explaining what happens to animals living contemporaneously with us in time and space after they die. Since the Bible refers to animals in its descriptions of heaven, he postulates our pets will be re-created for us there. Poor Blondi want join Adolf like the other dogs, or, on second thought, will he join Adolph? Although we recognize with Alcorn that the scripture speaks of animals in the millennial kingdom, Alcorn provides no theological or biblical evidence that animals in the millennial kingdom are re-created from the present state.

Alcorn provides no theological or biblical or theological evidence that animals in the millennial kingdom are resurrected from the present state.

(Who cares about the Bible or theology, he's trying to sell books!)  His premise that heaven exists to "make us happy" assigns human motives to God, making God subservient to man, making man equal to God.

Alcorn's  view of heaven is seriously flawed. The scripture says, we come into the world with nothing and we go out with nothing. (We don't go out with our pets, nor are the waiting for us when we get there.) I loved the 2000 Chevrolet Blazer I drove for several years. I loved it! I loved driving the car. I loved being in the car. I miss it to this day. Sometimes I think about how nice that car was. It was perfect. It improved my quality of life and contributed to my happiness. I've never been as happier with a car. Even though it would make me very happy I do not expect to drive a spiritual version of my 2000 blazer in heaven. Heaven is not a place where God serves my every needs and desire. Heaven is a dimension where we need neither, spouse, children, pets or anything to make us happy. As the author of Ecclesiastes says fearing God is the chief end of man and brings satisfaction. Heaven is where we will be satisfied in the worship and wonder of God not in the gratification and pleasure we get from our pets. So the basis for Alcorn's conclusion that Fido will join the faithful in glory is specious. Alcorn's eschatology is based on wishful thinking, not the Bible.

The confusion comes as much from our misconceptions about heaven and humanity as it does about living things. We must first ask what is heaven and do animals belong there? We know very little about heaven. Some assume that the Garden of Eden was heaven. We can only speculate about what would have happened in Eden had man not sinned. The Bible does not tell us. No where are we told whether Eden was eternal, or whether it was a perfect precursor to a greater eternal reality. It was a wonderful place but it was on earth and heaven seems to be in another dimension. As the old chorus goes "Heaven is a wonderful place filled with glory and grace." We only have glimpses of what it will be like there. The book of Revelation has the closest we come to a definition. "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.' " (Revelation 21:3) God is heaven's object; and its subject. It is for Him and about Him. His dwelling place is with us, not ours with him. He dwells with them, not they with him. They are his people; he is not there's." We will be eternal guests or tenants in His home. We will not be residents in a community over which he presides as a co-resident manager like an eternal mayor or home owner association president.We will be subjects in the court of a benevolent King. The relationship unequal. Heaven is where God satisfies the covenant he made with his Son to make him an eternal people for himself (Psalm 2). It is for His glory not our gratification. Notice the vision of heaven continues. "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall their be mourning nor crying, no pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."

What former things have passed away? The former things that have been corrupted and broken by sin have passed away. The things that caused us sorrow and pain in life that were made defective by sin are to be wiped away. God is going to create a new planet where the affects of sin are gone. We will be redeemed (Romans 8:18-25). Our happiness is the product of our eternal worship of God, but God is not the arbiter of our happiness. This passage disparages the idea that God brings anything back from the prior dimension. He wipes away what remains of the fallen world, including its animals. The few references to animals in the eternal state give us no information about how they got there, or even whether those references are literal or symbolic. In fact the animals on earth belong to the corrupted earth  (Revelation 22:15) The Bible dispels the notion that God or the angels are busy building us mansions where all our physical spiritual and emotional wants are fulfilled (Sorry no iPads). Heaven will be a wonderful place filled with glory and grace-- His, not ours. We will be spending eternity for His pleasure, not the other way around. He does not call us to heaven to meet our every need. Heaven is not an aggrandized version of earth. It's not an alternate universe or dimension where all the problems of this life are fixed. It is so much more!Heaven is where man fulfills his created purpose of radiating the image of God in relationship with him.

Since heaven is about relationship with God the question of whether animals go to heaven with their masters has to do with the created purpose of animals just as it does the created purpose of men. As I examine the issue of the eternal destiny of animals I believe humans and animals have a different eternal destinies, because they were created in a different eternal relationship with God. Men and women are created in the image of God for his glory. Men were given dominion over animals. That is while human's were created in God's image for His glory, animals were created to serve man. Although animals may well be present in the millennial kingdom and the eternal state, there is no reason to assume those animals in heaven had a prior existence with us on earth? Scripture teaches that animals present in the fallen world are not created  in the image of God: they are products of the fallen world system and will not pass into the next dimension with us. When they die, they decay and are gone. This is not what I want to believe. I would love to see my beloved Buttons or Cleopatra again, but the preponderance of evidence in the scripture belies any belief our pets will join us in heaven.The scripture is clear that animals have a different relationship with God than men. Th are not eternal beings:

[18] I said in my heart with regard to the children of man that God is testing them that they may see that they themselves are but beasts. [19] For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. [20] All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. [21] Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth? (Ecclesiastes 3:18–21 ESV)

Man was created for eternity and finds contentment in his work when he finds connection with his eternal purpose. In verse 15-22 he speaks to the injustices and toils of the fallen world. In the fallen world man has no advantage over the animals in the next life. God has set eternity in man's heart -- he has eternal relationship with him--, but he has no eternal relationship with animals. When they die; they are gone, annihilated. The creation account supports this view. At the end of the fifth day God looks at his creation and pronounces it good (Genesis 1:25). Although creation is good. God is not finished. There is a work beyond that good creation-- separate from it. What he has created is an expression of his great power and glory, but there is something more to create. He then makes a final, more glorious and wholly distinct act of creation. He creates man in his image, in relationship with God, and makes man the co regent of the planet (Genesis 1: 26-31). Man is in a distinct position and role before God and is both superior to creation and its superintendent. When Adam sins creation is corrupted. It becomes futile in bondage to sin (Romans 8:20-21). 

[1] But all this I laid to heart, examining it all, how the righteous and the wise and their deeds are in the hand of God. Whether it is love or hate, man does not know; both are before him. [2] It is the same for all, since the same event happens to the righteous and the wicked, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the unclean, to him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As the good one is, so is the sinner, and he who swears is as he who shuns an oath. [3] This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that the same event happens to all. Also, the hearts of the children of man are full of evil, and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead. [4] But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. [5] For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. [6] Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 9:1–6 ESV)

All of creation is corrupt. Both animals and humans return to dust. Some would argue that since the covenant with Noah (Genesis 9:11 &12) included animals that God will deliver animals from the consequences of sin. The Noahic covenant establishes a means for   God to have a relationship with humanity despite its sin in advance of his redemption of it. It was not a covenant that leads to salvation. It merely established principles under which man would live, though fallen, until the final judgment. It merely protects the human race animals and plants from a perpetual cycle of destruction by God's wrath.  God promised to never again judge the whole world in the way he had. God would dispel judgment on individual natures and people, but never again would he judge the whole world this way. This was a covenant about how God would relate to fallen man prion to the completion of his  redemptive work. It was  a promise of redemption for Noah' his family but not for the animals. They were included to be food for the human race and to repopulate the earth. It really provides no answers about what happens to animals after they die. To imply that animals are re-created because of the Noahic covenant implies that they have a soulish or spiritual dimension.  Although God's image is revealed in his creation, his nature is only present in human beings. Man is part of a higher order he is protected from final destruction, but animals are not.  Noah is commanded to kill and eat animals, but defines humans as sacred Genesis 9: 1-7. Animals can be killed and eaten, because they are of the earth, not created in the image of God. They are temporal not eternal. 

God distinguishes between the nature of man and animals under Noahic covenant when he allows Noah to kill and eat animals, but defines humans as sacred Genesis 9: 1-7. Animals can be killed and eaten, because they are of the earth, not created in the image of God. They are not eternal.

Psalm 49 makes clear that only humans have an eternal hope. We live in a world where "those who cheat me surround me." Good deeds often go unrewarded in this life and evil doers prosper. The fallen world gives an advantage to the corrupt. The world is neither just nor fair. The Psalm assures us justice and redemption comes in the next life. In death all are made equal. Man has no ability to redeem himself, and to pay the price for his own sin:

Truly no man can ransom another,

or give to God the price of his life,

for the ransom of their life is costly

that he should live on forever

and can never suffice, and never see the pit.

(Psalm 49:7-9 ESV)

This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;

yet after them people approve of their boasts. Selah

death shall be their shepherd,

Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol; and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.

(Psalm 49:13-14 ESV)

Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.

Here is the defining verse. What could be clearer? " The upright rule over the fools in Sheol." Humans are saved, redeemed, but those who place foolish confidence in themselves "have no place to dwell" they are like the sheep who are "appointed to Sheol." Sheol is a general term for the place of the dead. Sometimes it is seen as positive blissful place, sometimes as a place of condemnation. Here the context is that it is a place distinct from the destiny of the righteous. Sheep are appointed to the place of the dead. Animals and unredeemed men and women have no eternal hope:

For he sees that even the wise die;

the fool and the stupid alike must perish

and leave their wealth to others.

their dwelling places to all generations,

Their graves are their homes forever,

Man in his pomp will not remain;

though they called lands by their own names. he is like the beasts that perish.

(Psalm 49:10-12 ESV)

Those who depend on their own pomp and abilities to get them to heaven will "perish" like the beasts.

According to this Psalm those who depend on their own abilities and pomp and wealth to gain them an advantage in this life have no advantage in the next. No one can accomplish enough to pay for their own sin. The ones who have the advantage are those who have nothing on their own to depend other that his redeeming work. When the Psalm attempts to define the hopelessness of the unbeliever it says that one who depend on his own work is no better than the animals who perish, who dwell in Sheol. No passage could be clearer-- one of the consequences of sin in the fallen world is the corruption and ultimate annihilation of the animal kingdom.

No other interpretation of this text makes any since. Animals are not moral beings. They do not chose to sin, nor can they chose to be saved. They live and die as victims of sins corruption.

There may be animals in the millennial kingdom, as there may be in heaven. However, those animals will not be our re-created pets. They are creatures made for that dimensions like the angels were. So what assurance do we offer those grieving the loss of pets. 

Grieving people need time to express their shock and emotional loss. They need help adjusting to the new realities the situation presents. False hopes unrealistic assurances offer them little. Death confronts all of us with the certainty and reality of sin's consequence. Death illustrates the destructive power of sin in the world and their lives. The death of an animal shows the world is broken, corrupt, unfair and unjust. Even a child can understand that bad things happen. What you tell the grieving person be they, 4, 40 or 80 is that while sin destroys life; there is a hope, of redemption from the futility of life on this planet. They will die themselves someday just like their poor animal and will either end up like their pet or be redeemed. The answer to those grieving the loss of a pet is repentance and faith to avoid the same or worse fate. We have a hope "the upright shall rule over them in the morning." There is a morning to those who trust in the only One who can pay a price sufficient for their sins. The comfort to those who have lost a pet is not that their pet shall live again, but that their redeemer lives:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

(Job 19:25 ESV)