Yes, Animals STILL Go To Heaven When They Die
4 Years ago, I posted the video below with notes and Scripture and have received 4 years of feedback via email and facebook. Of all those who sent me negative feedback, they all had 1 thing in common. None of those opposing views came from God's Written Word but instead came from self-imposed limitations of what God could/would do and hand-me-down traditional assumptions about the nature of Heaven. Never have I received an opposing view toward animals in heaven based upon what the Bible actually says.
For example, in one particular conversation, I had pointed out to the e-mailer that Jesus would return to Earth on a horse FROM HEAVEN and I asked, "How did that horse get to Heaven in the first place?" The e-mailer replied, "God probably created heavenly animals. The Bible doesn't say the horse Jesus will ride will be a resurrected horse that died on the earth" to which I replied, "What else could it be? Just because God could have created 'heavenly horses' doesn't mean that he has. There's no Scriptural record of that. That's an assumption on your part. The only record we have of God creating horses anywhere are the horses he created on the earth in Genesis Chapter 1 and then preserved through the flood of Noah. We know horses are here now, we know God created them and we know that they physically die like all other physical life. So when we see horses in Revelation coming from Heaven carrying Jesus and all the saints who have also previously died, what else are we to assume if we assume anything at all?"
God could have recreated new animals after the Great Flood but didn't. Instead, he chose to preserve the genetic line of every creature on earth that he had begun in Genesis 1. Why? Why not just let them die and make new animals? We arrogantly claim understanding when discussing why God wanted to preserve humans through the flood because 'we're important to God, we're made in His image' but hardly anyone ever stops to try to understand why he preserved the animals. God could have saved Noah a hundred years worth of work and ridicule if it had just been himself and his family that needed a lifeboat.
The whole point of the Biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation is correcting all that went wrong in the book of Genesis. Mankind falling into sin is not the only bad thing that happened in Genesis. The world became enslaved to the physics of linear time and death. When God created animals, he called it good. When he created the animals, he did not create them originally for food and clothing, even though we are presently given permission by God to consume animals for those needs, but this is only a temporary condition of human history before Jesus returns. This was not God's original idea, nor his ultimate plan.
Another quip I've been sent via email, is "Josh, I can't see God resurrecting every single animal that ever lived..." But why not? If God can create every single snail that ever lived, and every single dog and cat and hamster, then why can't he resurrect them? Why wouldn't he? Just because you don't think it's important, doesn't mean God doesn't think it's important? Death wasn't God's idea, it was Satan's. When God created the animals, he created them to be eternal, but then Satan brought us sin and death which is why Jesus called Satan a murderer from the beginning. So because you don't have a problem with a humans-only Heaven, you'll believe that God will let Satan get away with killing zillions of animals from Genesis to Revelation, animals which God called good, without a resurrection?
God's creation is God's creation!!! He didn't just set things up in motion and leave things to turn out come-what-may, with the exception of saving people's souls via the atonement of the cross. When Jesus went to the cross, it took back the rule of earth from Satan and placed it back into the hands of God. In Jesus' own words, he said, "Behold, I make all things new!" He didn't just say that he would make new things, but that he would make ALL THINGS NEW, as in the fallen earth and all parts of the creation. The blood of Jesus paid for ALL SIN and ALL OF IT'S CONSEQUENCES. That's what makes it such a tragedy for those who are lost without Christ because their sins are actually already covered by the transaction made at the cross!!! They just won't accept it.
But animals are part of the natural creation which God had to temporarily curse because of man's fall to sin. Do people really think God would let Satan win that one? So God spends 6000+ years creating all these millions of animals with souls, and keeps watch over all of them as Jesus said, only to let them perish into oblivion by Satan's design which God obviously wouldn't want because that's not the way he original made his creation? Really? Every single part of the creation is destined to be resurrected, every tree, every blade of grass, every atomic inch of physics with the exception of those human beings who have willfully rejected the free-ticket into this paradise provided by Jesus' own blood. That new resurrection is what is known in Scripture as "New Heavens and New Earth". The old will pass away, just as all of us will pass away, destined to be relocated.
The biggest assumption that I've been sent via email is that animals don't have souls. YES THEY DO ACCORDING TO GENESIS CHAPTER 1. I mentioned this in the video as well. You have to read Genesis 1 in the original Hebrew to see it, but it's in there. The same word for "living soul" for man was the same word given for "living thing" for the animals.
What an incredible opportunity for ministry that Christians have been throwing away due to traditional assumptions and heavenly here-say. Atheists and agnostics have actually come to Christ when they discovered that unlike what they've been told by Scripturally ignorant Christians, God really DOES love their dog, God really DOES love their cat, and Jesus paved the way for them to one day, be reunited with them again! It's amazing how fast people are willing to turn to the Lord once they finally understand what the human condition really is, what sin really is and how far reaching it's impact, what death really is, Who GOD REALLY IS and what God has already done and what he's going to do to straighten EVERYTHING out.
You wouldn't believe the heart breaking stories I've been emailed by people who are awake at night, crying endlessly, saturated in grief because they can't get over the loss of their dog or their cat without knowing where they are. They can't move on because they have that frightening thought that the friend they've lost has slipped into oblivion without any concern from God. They even feel embarrassed to ask anyone about it. They've lost a close friend in the form of a pet and aren't even allowed to grieve. They're told to shut-up and just get over it because it's a stupid animal and they should be more concerned over people. Some Christians even get angry whenever anyone contributes a dime toward helping a ministry that focuses on abused animals because, 'how could you throw away your money on that while a child is somewhere starving to death?' I suppose the good shepherds of Scripture, in which Jesus spoke kindly, should never have gone out to find their lost sheep, much less lay down his life for the sheep since the world was filled with widows and orphans who were so much more needful and so much more deserving than sheep? What kind of twisted thinking is this?
One poor fellow sent me an email who was afraid that since God became a man and died for the sins of man, that animals couldn't be included in the resurrection and he feared that his pet was suffering in hell. Another poor fellow (I'm not making this up) actually sent me an email just last week who was terrified that his dog was suffering in hell because his dog didn't have the time to repent of his sins before perishing a violent death. Can you imagine his fears and terror? Animals have nothing to repent of since Paul told us in Romans 8:20 that they are innocent! Not only are they innocent, but in that same chapter, Paul said from verses 18-23 that they are actually anticipating the resurrection!!
God created these animals to be our friends. That was their original purpose in creation. So those emotions are real and they are God-given, God-approved emotions. The fact that so many Christians today haven't even thought about an animal's place in God's design, or worse, that they falsely assume and regurgitate their erroneous views without considering the horrible pain it's causing to others who are suffering needlessly, is a travesty! It fulfills that painful prophecy about professing Christianity of the last days in which Paul warned Timothy that they would be "lovers of themselves and without natural affection." In other words, the love of an animal is Godly-created, natural affection. Cold indifference to animals, simply because they are not "superior created masterpieces of God like we humans made in God's image" are IS UNNATURAL AFFECTION.
If you haven't seen the video below, please watch it because it is filled Scripture and logically-drawn conclusions about where animals go when they die according to the Word of God, not the tradition of man.
For example, in one particular conversation, I had pointed out to the e-mailer that Jesus would return to Earth on a horse FROM HEAVEN and I asked, "How did that horse get to Heaven in the first place?" The e-mailer replied, "God probably created heavenly animals. The Bible doesn't say the horse Jesus will ride will be a resurrected horse that died on the earth" to which I replied, "What else could it be? Just because God could have created 'heavenly horses' doesn't mean that he has. There's no Scriptural record of that. That's an assumption on your part. The only record we have of God creating horses anywhere are the horses he created on the earth in Genesis Chapter 1 and then preserved through the flood of Noah. We know horses are here now, we know God created them and we know that they physically die like all other physical life. So when we see horses in Revelation coming from Heaven carrying Jesus and all the saints who have also previously died, what else are we to assume if we assume anything at all?"
God could have recreated new animals after the Great Flood but didn't. Instead, he chose to preserve the genetic line of every creature on earth that he had begun in Genesis 1. Why? Why not just let them die and make new animals? We arrogantly claim understanding when discussing why God wanted to preserve humans through the flood because 'we're important to God, we're made in His image' but hardly anyone ever stops to try to understand why he preserved the animals. God could have saved Noah a hundred years worth of work and ridicule if it had just been himself and his family that needed a lifeboat.
The whole point of the Biblical narrative from Genesis to Revelation is correcting all that went wrong in the book of Genesis. Mankind falling into sin is not the only bad thing that happened in Genesis. The world became enslaved to the physics of linear time and death. When God created animals, he called it good. When he created the animals, he did not create them originally for food and clothing, even though we are presently given permission by God to consume animals for those needs, but this is only a temporary condition of human history before Jesus returns. This was not God's original idea, nor his ultimate plan.
Another quip I've been sent via email, is "Josh, I can't see God resurrecting every single animal that ever lived..." But why not? If God can create every single snail that ever lived, and every single dog and cat and hamster, then why can't he resurrect them? Why wouldn't he? Just because you don't think it's important, doesn't mean God doesn't think it's important? Death wasn't God's idea, it was Satan's. When God created the animals, he created them to be eternal, but then Satan brought us sin and death which is why Jesus called Satan a murderer from the beginning. So because you don't have a problem with a humans-only Heaven, you'll believe that God will let Satan get away with killing zillions of animals from Genesis to Revelation, animals which God called good, without a resurrection?
God's creation is God's creation!!! He didn't just set things up in motion and leave things to turn out come-what-may, with the exception of saving people's souls via the atonement of the cross. When Jesus went to the cross, it took back the rule of earth from Satan and placed it back into the hands of God. In Jesus' own words, he said, "Behold, I make all things new!" He didn't just say that he would make new things, but that he would make ALL THINGS NEW, as in the fallen earth and all parts of the creation. The blood of Jesus paid for ALL SIN and ALL OF IT'S CONSEQUENCES. That's what makes it such a tragedy for those who are lost without Christ because their sins are actually already covered by the transaction made at the cross!!! They just won't accept it.
But animals are part of the natural creation which God had to temporarily curse because of man's fall to sin. Do people really think God would let Satan win that one? So God spends 6000+ years creating all these millions of animals with souls, and keeps watch over all of them as Jesus said, only to let them perish into oblivion by Satan's design which God obviously wouldn't want because that's not the way he original made his creation? Really? Every single part of the creation is destined to be resurrected, every tree, every blade of grass, every atomic inch of physics with the exception of those human beings who have willfully rejected the free-ticket into this paradise provided by Jesus' own blood. That new resurrection is what is known in Scripture as "New Heavens and New Earth". The old will pass away, just as all of us will pass away, destined to be relocated.
The biggest assumption that I've been sent via email is that animals don't have souls. YES THEY DO ACCORDING TO GENESIS CHAPTER 1. I mentioned this in the video as well. You have to read Genesis 1 in the original Hebrew to see it, but it's in there. The same word for "living soul" for man was the same word given for "living thing" for the animals.
What an incredible opportunity for ministry that Christians have been throwing away due to traditional assumptions and heavenly here-say. Atheists and agnostics have actually come to Christ when they discovered that unlike what they've been told by Scripturally ignorant Christians, God really DOES love their dog, God really DOES love their cat, and Jesus paved the way for them to one day, be reunited with them again! It's amazing how fast people are willing to turn to the Lord once they finally understand what the human condition really is, what sin really is and how far reaching it's impact, what death really is, Who GOD REALLY IS and what God has already done and what he's going to do to straighten EVERYTHING out.
You wouldn't believe the heart breaking stories I've been emailed by people who are awake at night, crying endlessly, saturated in grief because they can't get over the loss of their dog or their cat without knowing where they are. They can't move on because they have that frightening thought that the friend they've lost has slipped into oblivion without any concern from God. They even feel embarrassed to ask anyone about it. They've lost a close friend in the form of a pet and aren't even allowed to grieve. They're told to shut-up and just get over it because it's a stupid animal and they should be more concerned over people. Some Christians even get angry whenever anyone contributes a dime toward helping a ministry that focuses on abused animals because, 'how could you throw away your money on that while a child is somewhere starving to death?' I suppose the good shepherds of Scripture, in which Jesus spoke kindly, should never have gone out to find their lost sheep, much less lay down his life for the sheep since the world was filled with widows and orphans who were so much more needful and so much more deserving than sheep? What kind of twisted thinking is this?
One poor fellow sent me an email who was afraid that since God became a man and died for the sins of man, that animals couldn't be included in the resurrection and he feared that his pet was suffering in hell. Another poor fellow (I'm not making this up) actually sent me an email just last week who was terrified that his dog was suffering in hell because his dog didn't have the time to repent of his sins before perishing a violent death. Can you imagine his fears and terror? Animals have nothing to repent of since Paul told us in Romans 8:20 that they are innocent! Not only are they innocent, but in that same chapter, Paul said from verses 18-23 that they are actually anticipating the resurrection!!
God created these animals to be our friends. That was their original purpose in creation. So those emotions are real and they are God-given, God-approved emotions. The fact that so many Christians today haven't even thought about an animal's place in God's design, or worse, that they falsely assume and regurgitate their erroneous views without considering the horrible pain it's causing to others who are suffering needlessly, is a travesty! It fulfills that painful prophecy about professing Christianity of the last days in which Paul warned Timothy that they would be "lovers of themselves and without natural affection." In other words, the love of an animal is Godly-created, natural affection. Cold indifference to animals, simply because they are not "superior created masterpieces of God like we humans made in God's image" are IS UNNATURAL AFFECTION.
If you haven't seen the video below, please watch it because it is filled Scripture and logically-drawn conclusions about where animals go when they die according to the Word of God, not the tradition of man.
Why Is This So Hard ?
