Do Animals Go to Heaven?

Of course that was the next question from the children.

Overall I am not sure about the theology of Guuideposts, but I'll be saying this at Spooky's funeral. I remember praying for Spooky in those awful moments of him looking into my eyes and begging God, who cares for the sparrow, to care for my cat.

Consider the story in Genesis of the very first covenant established between God and his people, made with Noah right after the flood. The clouds part and the world’s first rainbow appears. 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”—a strong suggestion that animals will not be excluded from his dealings with the world. (This passage was an inspiration for “Rainbow Bridge,” an anonymous poem that has become very popular on the internet. It describes how when people arrive at the gates of heaven, the first thing they will encounter is their deceased pets.)

Then there’s Luke 3:6. “All flesh shall see the salvation of God.” Or Mark 16:15—a passage well-loved by that great friend of animals, Saint Francis of Assisi. The risen Jesus tells the Apostles to go into the world and “preach the Gospel to every creature.” Jesus filled his teachings with references to animals. His promise in Matthew and Luke that not even a sparrow falls to earth without God’s knowing it subtly but 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.

What about the argument that runs: “Animals can’t go to heaven because the Bible says they don’t have souls”? 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.”

A funny thing happened when this term was translated into English. In most English versions of the Bible, different words are 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 created 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.

Of all the biblical passages that I ultimately discovered I could turn to for consolation, the most moving and compelling is the Old Testament’s single greatest passage prefiguring the Christian heaven—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.”

From Dennis Callen:

This is one subject the Bible is very clear about; death is an enemy of God. First Corinthians 15:26 emphasizes that, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” Did God create the animals to die? No! Definitely not! Death as an enemy is only a temporary interruption of His plan.

In Ecclesiastes 3:19-21 King Solomon states that man and beasts (animals) have this in common, they both have bodies that return to the dust of the earth and they both have a spirit that survives death. He goes on to say that he didn't know if the spirit of an animal went to a different place than the man's did. In anothe place in the Bible when man was created he is called a living soul (Genesis 2:7), whereas animals are called living creatures in the King James Version of the Bible. Further examination of the original language shows the same word used for man and animals. They are both living souls.

Revelation 19 portrays horses and airfowl

19:17 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God;

at the Apocalypse. In short, I don't know if Spooky will be joining me in the Presence of God, but I do know God cares for him. And in that I am comforted.