I didn’t have any pets growing up. But before you shed a tear for my awful childhood (which was not awful whatsoever), you should probably know I didn’t have any pets not solely because my parents were tyrants, but because I’m allergic to everything with fur :( I wouldn’t even really consider myself much of an ‘animal person,’ honestly (go on, hate me!), but I do enjoy thinking deeply about animals, watching my daughter interact with our cows and chickens, and considering how animals fit into our worldview and theology. It was Thomas Aquinas (a medieval theologian) who suggested that a wrong view of creatures leads to a false conception of God, and can even lead people away from God. So if you ever find yourself reluctantly asking your pastor “will I ever see my pet again?!” in moments of grief or loss, know that your question is valid. Pets are a huge part of our hearts and lives, especially here in middle-class rural America. Yet, I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard a sermon on them before. Why? There are probably a few reasons, but one of the reasons you likely haven’t heard a sermon about animals lately is because for many years, humans have read and interpreted the Bible with quite an anthrocentric lens, which means that we tend to read Scripture focusing on humans as the center of the story. This isn’t surprising - as humans, we live pretty human-centered lives. And maybe we are the center of the story, but... what if it’s bigger than just us? We read humans into the center of the universe, without really giving a whole lot of thought to the nonhuman creation like animals or nature, even though Scripture (especially the Psalms) is full of stories and poems about animals and nature. When we read John 3:16 and hear “for God so loved the world…” we hear “for God so loved the people of the world.” Right? Just me? It isn’t wrong to suggest that God loves the people of the world, of course. But it also simply isn’t what the text says. God loves the world. After all, "the Earth is the Lord's and all that is in it" (Psalm 24). We think of humanity as being the main point of history, the apple of God’s eye, and the target of salvation. But if you have pets or care for animals, it’s my guess that you have wondered this question before, too: what about them? I think the Scriptures give us an overwhelming answer.
Here are a few things the Bible teaches us about Heaven, humans, and animals.
Humans are distinct from animals (but we’re not better than them).
In Genesis 1 we read the origin account of all of God’s creatures. It gives us a glimpse into what God’s people have believed about humans and animals for a very long time. On the sixth day, God fills the earth with animals and creates humans (both the same day).
What we observe about God’s interacting with animals -
God creates and blesses the animals,
tells them to multiply,
gives them the ability to create life,
declares them good,
and they are the first to have the honor of hearing God’s voice-
to name just a few things.
But what we also clearly read is that God doesn’t want to be just surrounded by good and beautiful birds and trees and seahorses and puppies and rainforests and waterfalls - He also creates humans.
The story in Genesis 1 suggests that humans are unique from the other creation in two main ways:
1. Humans are made in God’s "image and likeness." The text does not say this about the animals.
2. God gives the humans a very important job - to subdue the earth and rule it. (In Genesis 2 the wording is to “care for and cultivate” it).
For many centuries, theologians have tried to put their finger on exactly what it means that humans are made in God’s image and likeness. That can probably be unpacked elsewhere, but it is fundamental to understanding who we are. For right now, it’s safe to say that Genesis teaches us that humans are created with a little extra something, and the Bible calls it ‘image and likeness.’ Humans have a unique job to be God’s image and reflect His likeness to the world.
Although humans are distinct from animals, there is no reason to believe from the text that humans are better than animals, or that we are more valuable to God than His other creatures. We were both intricately formed and created by God to dwell together on the land that he created.
Humans get to choose (and they don’t do a great job)
As the story goes in Gen. 1-3, God takes a chance on the humans and delegates to them incredible authority and leadership over the world that he has just created. God entrusts to humans the care and cultivation and ordering of this creation that God loves and cares so very deeply for; His hope being that we would steward it with all the love and compassion and creativity of God (which is why He creates us in his likeness, so that we have the ability and capacity to do it well. We DO have the capacity to do it well, believe it or not)!
But because humans are, in fact, their own unique breed, with a little extra fluff/image of God/soul/likeness of God, they find that they have a free will - to do with whatever they please. Even though God gives them the ability, task, and calling to care for and co-rule the world with Him, it seems they have the opportunity to just…not. It's part of the extra 'something' that we're made with.
They can choose whether or not they worship their Creator or be in league with Him while leading this new world. And, well…you know how the story goes (Gen. 3-4).
We’d rather rule the world our own way. The actions of Adam and Eve (and mostly everyone to come after) say, “no, we’d rather be autonomous.”
While humans are messing things up, what is the rest of creation doing?
Humans are distinct from the rest of God’s creation. The text establishes that this is true, and we know it in our bones. We have a choice to surrender to God’s authority and leading. I believe that the rest of creation, because they aren’t made in the image and likeness that Gen. 1:27 mentions, does not have that choice. Animals and mountains and stars are already worshipping, whether they like it or not.
After all, this certainly tends to be the narrative of the Bible when it comes to the non-human creation. The Scripture seems to suggest, over and over, that all of creation is continuously praising God and obeys Him. As if to ask us, “and what are you doing?”
In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches on worry, using birds as an illustration. He essentially says, “the birds don’t worry, they trust me! Why are you worrying?”
Several Psalms suggest that the non-creation is worshipping God constantly (Psalm 19, Psalm 148), as if to ask the reader, “what about you?”
Isaiah begins his book by calling out the rebellious Israel: “Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth! For the Lord has spoken: “I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its master, the donkey its owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand” (Isaiah 1:1-3).
Jesus calms the sea and storms with a simple command. The disciples said, “Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him” (Luke 8:25).
God speaks - and the storm, the birds, the mountains - they listen. I’ll just be honest - sometimes God speaks and I don’t listen. I have that choice because I’m a human. I’m built a little different.
Humans’ choices affect the rest of creation.
So as the story goes and is still going, humans did not choose well. I sometimes do not choose well. We have failed quite epically at doing the job that God gave us in the Garden to care for creation. Today, millions of animals suffer because of how humans have chosen. And we have even twisted and used words of scripture to justify how badly we treat God’s creation.
Humans chose sin, and thus brokenness and pain enter the world. It affects everything like a disease. The earth groans in frustration because we have subjected it to decay and the bondage of sin (Romans 8:20-25).
But when things look like they are absolutely falling apart, Scripture says, God has a plan. And it starts to become part of the story that God’s people tell: God is going to send someone to save everything - to put it all right again!
Not just people long for the world to be made right again - all of creation longs to be saved as well. Trees, waters, pets, and humans alike long for the redemption of things. The good news indeed is that God did send His Son Jesus - not to condemn the world, or throw it in the trash, or burn it up - but to save it (John 3).
Jesus came to put the redemption plan in motion. God kept His promise in His son Jesus, who inaugurated a new way of life. Jesus’ Kingdom is coming now on earth as it is in heaven!
God is at work bringing Heaven to Earth.
So then, to answer the [clearly very simple] question, will my pet go to Heaven? We must first do some thinking about Heaven.
Unfortunately, the way that we often think of Heaven is not really very biblical at all. Most in the West are surprised to learn that we will likely not become wispy souls that float around the clouds forever with singing baby angels.
What the Bible does teach, honestly quite mysteriously, is that Heaven is the realm of God. The New Testament teaches that God is actively at work bringing Heaven to earth - that is, merging the spiritual realm of God and the physical realm of earth. It is all a bit mysterious, but for now we could just say that Heaven is going to look very much like what we see around us today - but understand: sooo much more, and sooo much better. God’s plan is not to destroy the incredible, good creation He has made. From the start, God’s plan was very much to SAVE and restore what He has created.
God is working to save ALL things.
For many years, western Christianity has been overly fascinated with the “human soul.” Likely, this is due to Plato and Aristotle’s influence. (Their philosophy was that the mind/reason/soul was what defined a person, and that all physical matter must be evil - only the spiritual and disembodied is good. But this is not at all what historic Christianity or Judaism teaches, and was considered heretical in the early Church.) Their influence, combined with our preoccupation with ourselves (anthrocentrism), has led us to a envision merely a sad shell of God’s scope of salvation. Somehow, the entire message of Christianity has become “God wants to save the human soul!” instead of the biblical “God is saving the world.“
The Bible teaches that salvation is for much more than just a ‘human soul.’
Colossians 1:19-20 says this, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
In Acts 3:19-21, Peter says, “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus. Heaven must receive him until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.”
Salvation in Christ is much bigger and deeper and wider than we can possibly imagine. God’s rescue plan is for the whole cosmos, not just a human soul. It’s for mountains and horses and caterpillars and dogs and spiders and clouds and rocks and trees and oceans and…even cats, though I shudder at the thought! :)
From the Flood to the Psalms to the Gospels to Revelation, God seems just as concerned with the salvation of animals as he is with the salvation of humankind. Psalm 36:5 says, “Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.”
Biblical Heaven is teeming with animals.
Here is the good news for today: The story the Bible is telling is not about “people or animals being evacuated from this world to Heaven when they die,” but it’s a story about a God who so deeply loves his good creation that he is actively at work restoring it to its original condition and more. A world with no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, no more sin. That is Heaven. There are so many wonderful prophesies about what it will be like when we experience Heaven with Jesus fully in charge as King. Here's one of them from Isaiah 11: “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain,for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Revelation tells us the end of the story. Granted, the whole book is full of imagery and metaphor, but I think it still seems to be true that animal creatures have a primary place around God’s throne. Revelation 5:13: “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” Will my pets be in Heaven? It would sure seem so to me. They’ll be right there, worshipping Jesus around the throne. Why? Because they don’t have a choice. You and I, however, do have a choice. Oh, that we would choose life! "I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself..." Deuteronomy 30:19 ><> Sarah
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