Beautiful! Thank you Ann77! Sorry for the delay, had to wait until I got my desktop back up and running--too small to read on an iphone!
I was so happy to read that Luther expects to see his dog in heaven. I certainly hope that my beloved kitties are there!
Oh, here's the text:
WILL ANIMALS, INCLUDING OUR PETS, LIVE AGAIN?
Christ proclaims from his throne on the New Earth: "Behold, I am making all things new (Revelation 21:5, ESV). It's not just people who will be re-newed but also the earth and "all things in it. Do "all things" include animals? Yes. Horses, cats, dogs, deer, dolphins, and squirrels-as well as the inanimate creation-will be beneficiaries of Christ's death and resurrection. Christ's emphasis isn't on making new things but on making old things new. It's not about inventing the unfamiliar but about restoring and enhancing new. It's not about the familiar. Jesus seems to be saying, "Il take all I made the first time, including people and nature and animals and the earth itself, and bring it back as new, fresh, and indestructible."
HOW CLOSELY ARE ANIMALS TIED TO OUR RESURRECTION?
Did Christ die for animals? Certainly not in the way he died for mankind. People are made in God's image, animals aren't. People sinned, animals didn't. Because animals didn't sin, they don't need a redeemer in the same way.
But in another sense, Christ died for animals indirectly because his death for humanity purchased redemption for what was brought down by humanity's sin, including animals. Romans 8 is explicit on this point: "The creation itself sin, will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groan-ing as in the pains ot childbirth.... We ourselves.. .groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for.. . the redemption of our bodies" (Romans 8:21-23).
This is a clear statement that our resurrection, the redemption of our bodies, will bring deliverance not only to us but also to the rest of creation, which has been groaning in its suffering. This seems to indicate that on the New Earth, after mankind's resurrection, animals who once suffered on the old Earth will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay. It God created a new race of humans on the New Earth -rather than raising the people who had lived on the old Earth-would it fulfill the promise in Romans 8 of redemption, deliverance, and resurrection? No. Why?
meaning, the people who are redeemed and resurrected into the
must be the same people who suffered in the old world. Otherwise, their long-suffering for redemption would go unmet. As goes mankind, so go the animal. Taken to its logical conclusions the parallel Paul makes between humans animals groaning, then at least some of those animals who suffered on.
Earth must be made whole on the New Earth.
It's not some abstract "animalkind" that cries out. The creatures that groan and cry out for their resurrection are specific suffering people and specific animals. They cry out for their deliverance, not another's.)I believe this suggests that God may remake certain animals that lived on the old Earth.
Many passages indicate that God will bring judgment on "men and animals" or "man and beast" because of mankind's sin (Exodus 9:22-25; Jeremiah 7:20; 21:6; Ezekiel 14:12-13, 17). God's blessings on the righteous include blessings not only on their children but also on the offspring of their animals (Deuteronomy 7:13-14; 28:1-4).
This fits the words anticipating Christ's coming: "And all flesh will see the salvation of God" (Luke 3:6, NASB). The Greek word translated "flesh" is sarx.
Some Bible versions translate this as "all people" or "all mankind," but the word is more inclusive. "All flesh includes animals. They too will behold and benefit from Christ's redemptive work.
Psalm 104 demonstrates God's intimate involvement with the lives of his animals and His purpose for them. The psalm speaks of birds, cattle, wild donkeys, rock badgers, and lions, saying "the earth is full of your creatures" (v. 24).
It speaks of "the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond num-ber-living things both large and small" (v. 25). It says, "These all look to you (v.27). Then the psalm writer adds, "When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust (v. 29). But then we' re told something amazing: "When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth (v. 30). The "they seems to refer to the animals who've died and returned to the dust. What does God mean that he sends his Spirit and creates them?
It appears that he's talking about re-creating animals after they've died. Why? To "renew the face of the earth." The same "they" who die are the "they who are created or re-created as part of the earth's renewal (Matthew 19:28).
(p. 397-398 from: Heaven: A Comprehensive Guide to Everything the Bible Says About Our Eternal Home - Clear Answers to 44 Real Questions About the Afterlife, Angels, Resurrection, and the Kingdom of God - by Randy Alcorn)
