By Alan
"All Dogs Go to Heaven" - The popular Don Bluth movie (no, it was not Disney) continued a long line of tales, cartoons, and stories that gave animals voices, personalities, and even alluded to having eternal souls. Do dogs go to Dog Heaven? Do cats go to Cat Heaven? Do Dogs chase cats in Dog heaven? That would make Dog heaven into a Cat Perdition.
Maybe heaven would be where all the animals hang out together with perfect peace.
We humans, (Americans in particular) have a special relationship with our dogs, cats, and other domesticated animals. Sometimes we love them more than our fellow man. We weep when we see a tragedy involving a pet, yet we're supposed to giggle when we see a human do something careless (but fatal) on TV.
We love them so, we sacrifice so much for them to live and thrive, and we grieve desperately when they are injured or succumb to the end of life like all other living things. Does that give us incentive to create a heavenly story end for our pets?
First some statements: This is a personal set of opinions, and while founded in some good research, there are great numbers of opinions on either side of the issue, and we have to hold onto things that unify, not divide. This is extraordinarily divisive.
We do not have straightforward biblical references that tell us outright the eternal fate of anything other than man. Something to consider is that while Man had to suffer the Fall from grace, animals did not. God could still walk in the Garden with the creatures He made, while Man is now denied that honor.
So even though animals never lost their favor with God, we know that God put Mankind above the animals, and slightly lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:5-9). But that doesn't give Man the permission for cruelty or misuse of God's creatures or God's creation, but he was to use them for their intended purposes.
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." (Genesis 1:26)
But, what if they did have eternal souls, and they were souls in need of rescue? We have interesting interpretations of the Great Commission:
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." (Mark 16:15)
St. Francis of Assisi took that Latin interpretation literally, and he preached to the birds of the air, attempting to convey of message of salvation to them.
[Personally, I think this phrasing was used because even with the worst human definitions of slavery or racism, it truly prevents anyone from changing the definition of "Man" to ignore different races. Humans are capable of that very thing.]
I believe that animals have no need of man's methods for salvation. This is the explanation that I use when telling our daughters why our dog doesn't go to church. Animals don't need to attend, because they are already in tune with God and his Creation. The animals, like all nature hold manifold witness to God and the presence of a great Designer. They follow his slightest commands, and they live out their lives. I believe that they receive a just reward. God is eminently fair to all creation.
"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care." (Matthew 10:29)
We do know that God will care for them. Does that mean a heaven? Only God knows, but being in God's care can't be bad.
This post is a participant in a blog carnival over at Peter Pollock's place.
After you finish here, be sure to go and check out what everyone else wrote on: Pets.