My Pet Challenge

[BeStill&Know]

Why!?! there's good ole Lassie with Jesus

hope you like this one.

 

[sunshineforJesus]

I don't know for sure but really hope so,It would be great to see all our furry friends in heaven some day.

 

[AV1611VET]

Why!?! there's good ole Lassie with Jesus View attachment 164671 hope you like this one.

Yes, indeed!

 

[[serious]]

Do animals go to Heaven?

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Jeremiah-4-25/

 

[The Mystical Way]

Heaven's an interesting concept; in heaven do believers expect to meet people they can't stand as well as those they love? how would that work?

I can't speak for anyone else, but yes, I would certainly expect to encounter, in Heaven, people I've found insufferable in this life. Why? Simple: just because someone's personality isn't compatible with mine or wreaks havoc on my brain chemistry in a way that makes me angry or whatever doesn't mean the Lord can't put them to good use in some other way that I'm not privy to. And in Heaven itself I'd be able get along perfectly fine with such a person, as though I'd never had any problems with them. Why? Because in Heaven, there is no sin and no unpleasant emotions, and because the Holy Spirit teaches the Truth and Christ is the Prince of Peace and therefore God would easily be able to mediate between us (me and whoever I had a problem with) by explaining to us why we'd always failed to get along and teaching us how we could fix the problem effortlessly and in a way that we could enjoy. That's why. So I don't worry about the fact that Heaven's going to include fellow believers of the sort that I sometimes wish I could smack upside the head, because it's already taken care of and won't be a problem by then.

 

[expos4ever]

Of course they do.They are part of Gods creation:

Romans 8:19-21 says "For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

Good choice of text. First, I suspect that we will not all agree on something that I believe is clearly Biblical: "heaven" is a temporary home. At the consummation of God's great programme of redemption, we will receive resurrection bodies - yes, bodies, just as the one Jesus has - and we will live in a transformed, redeemed, and perfected physical world.

It fascinates me how many Christians believe in a permanent state of disembodied existence after death despite the painfully clear teaching that we will be given resurrection bodies. Paul is really clear about this in 1 Corinthians 15 although, to be fair, we (westerners, anyway) get easily let astray by Platonic ideas about a disembodied "soul". But the Bible was not written by Platonists, it was written by Hebrews.

And I believe the cultural history is rather clear on this: the Jews simply did not have this model of a body "inhabited" by a consciousness-bearing soul; instead, they believed it was more or less impossible to disentangle the "personhood" from the body.

All of this to say: I would very much like to think positively and believe that God will indeed completely undo death - the enemy of His beloved creation - and restore animals to life as well.

As another poster has said - and as owner of a dog I love like I love a person - "heaven" would not be heaven without our beloved animal friends.

 

[BeStill&Know]

A Dog for Jesus

(Where dogs go when they die)

I wish someone had given Jesus a dog.
As loyal and loving as mine.
To sleep by His manger and gaze in His eyes
And adore Him for being divine.

As our Lord grew to manhood His faithful dog,
Would have followed Him all through the day.
While He preached to the crowds and made the sick well
And knelt in the garden to pray.
It is sad to remember that Christ went away.
To face death alone and apart.
With no tender dog following close behind,
To comfort its Master’s Heart.
And when Jesus rose on that Easter morn,
How happy He would have been,
As His dog kissed His hand and barked it’s delight,
For The One who died for all men.

Well, the Lord has a dog now, I just sent Him mine,
The old pal so dear to me.
And I smile through my tears on this first day alone,
Knowing they’re in eternity.
Day after day, the whole day through,
Wherever my road inclined,
Four feet said, “Wait, I’m coming with you!”
And trotted along behind.

– Rudyard Kipling

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

... in Heaven itself I'd be able get along perfectly fine with such a person, as though I'd never had any problems with them. Why? Because in Heaven, there is no sin and no unpleasant emotions, and because the Holy Spirit teaches the Truth and Christ is the Prince of Peace and therefore God would easily be able to mediate between us (me and whoever I had a problem with) by explaining to us why we'd always failed to get along and teaching us how we could fix the problem effortlessly and in a way that we could enjoy. That's why.

Thanks for that, it highlights the issue behind my question; the implication is that even the most annoying individuals, and even the most unpleasant (to you), would be different in Heaven - changed so they were more friendly and reasonable, more likable. This suggests that some of them would have been radically changed by reaching Heaven - possibly beyond what persuasion or mediation alone could achieve - for example, taking away all someone's unpleasant emotions will change (reduce?) them as a person; so it would only be right to get their explicit permission to do so (after all, some people find some unpleasant emotions can give rise to peasant emotions - as in nostalgia, or remembering a deceased loved one).

So it seems to me, that, in the version of heaven you describe, only people who can be persuaded or mediated into being tolerable to everyone else, and/or people who've explicitly agreed to lose their unpleasant emotions, can get into, or should be, in Heaven.

The alternative would be a Heaven where you might encounter someone you find intolerable, or their (or your) emotional repertoire might have been modified without your informed consent (informed because there are subtle implications - you wouldn't even be able to miss nostaliga)...

What do you think?

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

Humans can't be animals, because animals are living organisms that react to stimuli, that need air and food and water, to mate and reproduce, to...

Nevermind.

Just don't get 'em mad at ya. Orcas of the sea are interesting:

.

 

[GrowingSmaller]

If we follow our animal side with focus we will de-evolve. Into 'beasts of the field'.

If we focus on intellect, and mercy, there will be a selective pressure created by that culture. Ther'll be "micro evolution" into a more morally decent tribe.

I think we need to have a balance. Here on terra firma.

Freud may well say that heaven concepts reflect and help form the pshcyodynamics of the people. I would reckon.

A buddhist and hindu categorisation could be "tri loka" or the three worlds, of desire, of the form realm heavens where theres body but more purified enjoyments, and the formless realm heavens wherre people are in a non bodily state of trance like tranquility and bliss. A "spiritual heaven".

That would suggest meditation is top of the class for a Buddhist? In that context pets in heaven would be to hold us down to earthly attachments.

A Christian heaven would be the "new Jerusalem" but it would come only with the returning Christ. Although it is "already-not yet" according to some theologians, already because to some degree the Christain message and salvation history already has "transformative power" over the world we live in.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

Do animals go to Heaven?

A better question is do humans "go to Heaven"?

A Christian's future is physical restoration, not an ethereal existence in Heaven. A bodily resurrection is promised to those who trust in Christ. Christ's work is the complete restoration of all things, not just personal salvation. The entire creation has been cursed because of sin, and the entire creation will be put right - remade. Therefore, I would answer the OP in the affirmative. Yes, Fido & Fifi will be frolicking freely forever. . . on a new Earth.