A colleague sent me a note the other day, more of a joke than anything, about a business that promises to take care of your pet after the Rapture.
But it’s no joke. It’s a real for-profit enterprise.
The company, Eternal Earth Bound Pets, USA, was started by a consortium of atheists. From their website:
“Q: Is this a joke? A: No. This is a serious offer to our Christian friends who believe in the Second Coming and honestly care about the future of their pets after the Rapture occurs.”
They charge $110 per house and promise to place your animal with those left behind. They claim it’s “The next best thing to pet salvation in a Post Rapture World.”
But what if cats and dogs aren’t left behind…what if our pets go to Heaven?
It’s a question with no clear biblical answer, but I suspect a lot of people have their own opinion.
I’m not so sure; my wife, Jean, thinks they do. She isn’t alone.
A man once asked Dr. Billy Graham whether his dog would go to heaven. The great evangelist answered:
“God will prepare everything for our perfect happiness in heaven, and if it takes my dog being there, I believe he’ll be there.”
Hank Hanegraff, otherwise known as “The Bible Answerman”, considered the question through the prism of the Scriptures:
“First, the Garden of Eden was populated by animals, thus there is a precedent for believing that Eden restored will also be populated by animals. Furthermore, the Scriptures –from first to last– suggest that animals have souls. Both Moses in Genesis and John in Revelation communicate that the Creator endowed animals with souls (see Gen. 1:20, 24; Rev. 8:9) Throughout the history of the church, the classic understanding of living things has included the doctrine that animals, as well as humans, have souls.”
C.S. Lewis had an opinion, too.
“It seems to me possible,” he once wrote, “that certain animals may have immortality, not in themselves, but in the immortality of their masters.”
Popular author Randy Alcorn reflected on the topic in his owns writings on heaven. Mr. Alcorn believes that Romans 8:18-22 may speak to this topic when it says “all creation” suffers because of human sin and longs for deliverance that will come with our resurrection. It may well be that “all creation” includes animals. At the time when God’s people are raised from the dead, creation will experience what it longs for. It will be “set free from bondage to decay” (Rom 8:21).
He concludes that if animals on this Earth will experience life without suffering on the new Earth, it seems possible that some of those animals could well be our pets.
The book of Isaiah (11:6-9) offers a stirring image of what Heaven will be like, and it does suggest there will be animals, all living in beautiful and peaceful coexistence.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling[a] together; and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.
Martin Luther, the great reformer of the Christian faith, seemed to think our dogs would be with us in heaven. “Be thou comforted, little dog,” he once said. “Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.”
But what do you think?
Do dogs and cats go to heaven?
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Monica says
-God is good. ‘Nuff said!
Lynn Ledford says
-I have a Doberman that’s like my child. So naturally I have asked God this question many times. I think the Rapture of His Church is close at hand. I can’t imagine just disappearing from my Dobermans life. He would be devastated!
Then one day I was mindlessly scrolling social media when I saw an ad for a picture. It was of a picture of a nail scarred hand reaching into a window toward a small dog. My heart jumped in my throat! I think God was showing me His answer thru this picture. I don’t know know the exact how, but I think there will be a special place when the Rapture comes for all the pets of Christs people. After all, Christ expects us to be good stewards of our animals. So how could we expect anything less from HIM!
Lois Bacon says
-I believe all creatures will go to heaven
and be on the new earth. God loves
them or he wouldn’t have save them in the ark. He created them first and they were at a lot of big events in the Bible.
This is what I believe. Can’t wait to see
them all including my pets.
Randy says
-I have been greatly distressed lately, thinking i would be raptured, but my dear pets, whom God has given into my care, would be left behind wondering where I’ve gone, looking out the window for me to return…but i never will. You said above:
Both Moses in Genesis and John in Revelation communicate that the Creator endowed animals with souls (see Gen. 1:20, 24; Rev. 8:9) …
Gen. 1.20, 24 – “And God said, ‘Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth…” 24 – “And God said, ‘Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds….”
Rev. 8.9 – a third of the living creatures in the sea died…
I don’t really see the “endowed animals with souls” anywhere there…but i also know that thinking about the rapture should not cause me distress. And i cannot imagine I will be raptured, but then frantically running around saying “Where’s my Little Baby Runty?, Where’s Annie, and Jephi? Smoky?” Sooo… 🙂
Randall A Hulse says
-This question about animals has perplexed me for awhile. Is the Rainbow Bridge a animals version of Heaven, or just a place made up by mankind to ease suffering of loss? Animals seem to be much more innocent than mankind is by far. Given that its our souls alone that enter Heaven, will we have the ability to see, hear, taste, touch, etc? I hate to think animals are nothing more than Earths creatures and hope that they too experience glory of Heaven with us!!