Pet Heaven

Yesterday morning, in the adult Bible class at Queen Way, a comment was made in jest about "Pet Heaven" that elicited quite a few laughs not only in the Bible class, but also later during my sermon. And yet for many, the question of whether or not animals live on in the afterlife is not a joke. I remember as a child the movie "All Dogs Go to Heaven," which I'm sure reflected truth in the eyes of many viewers. Some have become so attached to a pet, or to animals in general, that they see in animals human characteristics, thus concluding that animals must also have an eternal soul.

And all of these thoughts were further enhanced by a recent reading of the following excerpt from the book of Ecclesiastes, written by the great King Solomon of old:

"For what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals; one thing befalls them: as one dies, so dies the other. Surely, they all have one breath; man has no advantage over animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust. Who knows the spirit of the sons of men, which goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, which goes down to the earth?" (Eccl. 3:19-21).

Upon reading this text, one might initially assume that man is not so different from animals after all. If man has an eternal soul, then animals also have an eternal soul. OR...if animals do NOT have an eternal soul, neither does man. Solomon does seem to place animals and mankind on the same plane, doesn't he?

I remember a conversation I had with a fellow Christian about eight years ago in which he argued that when Jesus commands us to "preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15), that He was literally commanding us to preach the gospel to animals as well as humans. This individual didn't cite the passage in Ecclesiastes as further evidence of "Pet Heaven," but perhaps he could have built an even more convincing case had he done so.

However, Solomon's point in Ecclesiastes is not that both animals and mankind have an eternal spirit, or that mankind has absolutely no advantage after death. Rather, Solomon very clearly is referring to the physical aspect of death. In that sense, man has no advantage. Just as all animals will die, so also will all men die. Just as all animals will eventually return to the dust, so also will all men return to the dust.

It is at this point in our brief study where it is important to take into account the whole context of Scripture. Back in Genesis 1-3, we find the account of creation. On day five of creation, God created the birds and fish (Gen. 1:20-23) and on day six, God created all other animals (Gen. 1:24-25). But of all the lifeforms that God created, man was given something very special...

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in Our image, according to our Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the air" (Gen. 1:26).

As much as we love our pets, this quality wasn't attributed to animals. Indeed, mankind is the pinnacle of God's creation; we are unique among all lifeforms on earth. How so? Because only we are made in the image of God, and because God is a spirit (John 4:24), we are unique from animals in that we have an eternal spirit. This point is confirmed by the countless references to heaven and to hell throughout the word of God. When we die, we are NOT "dead like Rover, dead all over." Like Rover, our physical body returns to the dust (Gen. 3:19), but our eternal body lives on.

Yes, we are physical beings, and in that sense, we have no advantage over animals. That's Solomon's point in Ecclesiastes 3. But unlike animals, we have an ETERNAL spirit that guarantees life and consciousness after death. Even Solomon makes this distinction when he says that our spirit goes upward while the animal goes down into the earth. Or as he says in Ecclesiastes 12:5-7, our spirit returns "to God who have it."

Animals serve a great purpose here on this earth, and pets certainly serve a great purpose in many individual's lives. They often provide us with companionship and devotion that is hard to find even among our fellow humans. Even still, there is no Pet Heaven...at least not that I find in God's word.

Besides, even though you might be able to preach the gospel to your cat, I don't think it's going to take too kindly to being baptized for the remission of its sins.