On Pets in Heaven, Again

More thoughts on pets being in heaven:

I have again been reflecting quite a lot about loving someone or something, only to lose it. Some two and a half years ago I lost my wife due to cancer. The other day it was my Possum cat. She quite suddenly showed signs of being very ill, with blood tests proving it, so she had to be put down. The two losses are not identical of course, but there are similarities.

Just as one might ask whether it is worthwhile to remarry, one can ask whether it is worthwhile to get another pet. This old line comes to mind: ‘Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.’ But some folks, in order never to get hurt, will never love.

And that of course reminds us of a famous quote by C. S. Lewis from his important 1960 book, The Four Loves:

There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

He goes on to say this:

I believe that the most lawless and inordinate loves are less contrary to God’s will than a self-invited and self-protective lovelessness. It is like hiding the talent in a napkin and for much the same reason. ‘I knew thee that thou wert a hard man.’ Christ did not teach and suffer that we might become, even in the natural loves, more careful of our own happiness. If a man is not uncalculating towards the earthly beloveds whom he has seen, he is none the more likely to be so towards God whom he has not. We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armour. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it.

Two quick stories before moving on. As always, Possum slept on my bed with me. During her final days she was very lethargic and getting incontinent. I made a little water-proof bed to go on my bed so I did not have to do more loads of laundry. But she kept crawling out of it to be with me, so I had to put her back in it.

In the morning I was surprised to see her missing. I found her sitting on my computer chair. I took a pic of her and posted it on the social media with these words: ‘Maybe she was thinking of another article for me to write.’ Well, just a few hours after that she was taken to the vet and put down. And this is that article, I guess.

Secondly, just as a million ordinary familiar things would bring back memories of Averil after she passed, so too now with Possum cat. While walking along, out of the corner of my eye I noticed something on the floor so I side-stepped it so as not to step on Possum. Of course it was not her. Or looking out the window to see if she is ready to come back inside, and so on.

Six years ago I penned a piece on this question of heaven and whether we might find our pets there. That article generated a bit of interest. You can read it here: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2019/07/06/will-our-pets-be-with-us-in-heaven/

It of necessity was a bit speculative, since the overall biblical information about heaven is somewhat limited. But we can make some informed guesses as to what might happen in the next life with animals in general and pets in particular. So let me speak a bit more to this.

Books, pets, and more

Being a book lover, I often try to feature books when I write an article. When I penned my earlier piece on pets, I did offer a recommended book list at the end. But those were all books on heaven or the afterlife in a much more general sense.

However, when I recently shared that article again on the social media, and mentioned Possum’s passing, at least two people mentioned books they had read on this topic. I guess it had not occurred to me that entire books would be out there on the topic that I should be aware of.

But sure enough, when I looked around, I noted that there are in fact a number of books that exist discussing pets and heaven from a Christian point of view. Being rather weak-willed, I did end up purchasing the two volumes that had been recommended by friends. They are:

Gary Kurz, Cold Noses at the Pearly Gates. Citadel Press, 1997, 2008.

Dan Story, Will Dogs Chase Cats in Heaven? People, Pets, and Wild Animals in the Afterlife. Kingdom Come Publishing, 2016.

A few things can be said about these volumes. One, I am pleased to announce that the main sorts of things said in them are more or less what I had covered in my short article. So we are on the same page. But obviously a book can cover a lot more ground than an article, so let me discuss these volumes a bit further.

If I had to choose just one, I would favour Story’s book. It is shorter but deals more precisely with the issues. Being a Christian apologist, he is well placed to deal with various questions that arise here. In 176 pages he does a good job of covering all the bases.

The Kurz book is a hundred pages longer than Story’s. But a lot of it is more or less filler: humorous stories about animals, how to care for your pets, and so on. That is all good stuff, but does not directly deal with the main questions being asked here. But still, it is a useful book.

Obviously key biblical passages are discussed in both books (some of which I mentioned in my article, but not all – it was only a 1400-word piece!). Very important texts that have to be considered here include the following passages. Psalm 148 speaks to this, especially verses 7-10:

Praise the Lord from the earth,
    you great sea creatures and all deeps,
fire and hail, snow and mist,
    stormy wind fulfilling his word!

Mountains and all hills,
    fruit trees and all cedars!
Beasts and all livestock,
    creeping things and flying birds!

The idea that animals can somehow praise and worship God is clearly taught here. More on this text in a moment. And Revelation 5:11-14 says this:

Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice,

“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

Dan Story says this about such passages:

Several books in the Old Testament also portray animals praising God, especially the Psalms. In Psalm 150:6 (the last verse in the last Psalm), the Psalmist cries out for “everything that has breath [to] praise the LORD.” In fact, other Psalms make it clear that all of creation – not just humans, angels and animals – acknowledge and praise the Creator. (see Ps. 65:12-13; 69:34; 96:11-12; 103:22; 145:10).

 

That non-human life is revealed praising God on Earth and in Heaven further illustrates the continuity of animal life between our present Earth and the restored New Earth. It seems unlikely animals would be portrayed in Scripture praising God on Earth and in Heaven if God were going to exclude them from the joy and bliss of the future New Earth.

 

The most comprehensive Psalm, portraying animal life praising God is Psalm 148. Here rulers of nations, men, women, children, angels, and all of creation, both living and inanimate, are called upon to “Praise the Lord from the heavens” (1) and to “praise the Lord from the earth” (7) …. (pp. 100-101)

Of course he makes allowances for personification or metaphorical language being used for animals, trees and rocks and so on here, but in the next life some sort of communication with animals MAY be possible. He discusses this further in later chapters and then writes:

“Will this include some kind of verbal communication between humans and animals? Probably not, since animals will still be animals in Heaven without vocal cords. But will they still be able to communicate in an understandable way with God’s people? Perhaps they will.” (p. 141)

Both writers of course remind us of the clear differences between humans and animals. As fallen and sinful beings, people are in need of redemption. Animals are not. However, since both people and animals suffer from the effects of the Fall, both are tarnished and are now not what they were meant to be.

Just think of mosquito bites, or worse yet, snake bites or lion bites. The original creation of animals did not have these problems, and man and beast could get along quite nicely with each other. And animals were a part of God’s good plan for humanity. Says Kurz:

“Creatures we now refer to as animals were put in the garden to be with mankind. They were created before we were created. They were a forethought, not an afterthought. They were and remain important. God did not make them temporary creatures, but intended rather that they should live forever.” (p. 108)

And of course God ensured that they survived the flood. So God does seem to care greatly about animal life. We can say with certainty that animals WILL be found in the next life. Whether our particular pets will be found there is not as certain. But it could well be.

Postscript

Both books discuss the fact that some animals have human-like traits, such as fear, joy, affection, the ability to learn, memory and so on. In that sense we can say that some of the higher animals have souls (but not spirits). As one indication of memory, see this short and moving video of a dog being reunited with a human owner after being separated for eight months: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=839431375234922

And as a spiritual aside, I like to point out that videos like this can be used to speak about relations between God and humans. That is, they can portray the joy God has when he is reunited with a human (think of the Prodigal Son for example). Or, conversely, they can be used to reflect how we humans should react when we come into God’s presence.

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