One question youth ministers hope they’re not asked: Do animals go to heaven?
You want to know the questions many youth pastors hope they don’t get asked?
You might think it’s possibly questions about homosexuality or abortion, or maybe transgenderism, or possibly about hell, why God lets people get cancer, or why God ordered the Israelites to violently drive out the Canaanites in Joshua’s day.
You’d probably be right about all those. Those are probably all at the top of some people’s lists of “questions I hope I never have to answer on the spot.” But the one that is also up there among the hard problems, the one that many youth ministers hope they’ll never be asked to answer, is the one in the title of this post: Do animals go to heaven?
You might think I’m joking. There’s no way that’s as serious a question as the hot-button cultural issues of today. But I kid you not. After conversations with many youth ministers, and my own experience, I can say that this is a question that shockingly often tends to produce hurt feelings and upset phone calls from parents.
There are probably two reasons for this: 1) It’s a question people aren’t afraid to ask. It’s not a sensitive topic that’s famous for generating political and theological debate, so every youth minister is almost certain to be asked, probably at least a couple times a year. Also, 2) Everyone has an emotional investment in it. Most teenagers haven’t gotten an abortion, most aren’t gay or transgender, and most have never gotten cancer. They might have family or friends who’ve experienced those things, but that’s not the same as personally experiencing it. But almost everyone has or has had a beloved pet, and if not that, most everyone has an affection for a certain type of animal.
So this is a question that youth ministers all have to learn to answer with honesty and tact — being faithful to the Bible, but also keeping in mind that many would be devastated at the prospect that their beloved pet won’t join them in heaven.
So what does the Bible say about it? Nothing, at least not directly. It wasn’t something people really thought of in those times. People pretty much saw animals as two things: food and labor. They didn’t have the luxury of thinking of animals as much more. They didn’t think of animals as little humans like we often do.
Does the Bible reflect that view? The Bible does make it clear that there’s a big difference between us and the animals: Only humans are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). What does that mean? That there’s a big difference on a spiritual level between humans and animals. That difference does not lie in our ability to have intelligent and rational thought, use language, or form societies. Some primates and birds are as intelligent as children, dolphins probably speak a form of language, and most animals form complex societies. The difference is that only humans reflect God’s nature at the spiritual level. Only humans have immaterial selves like God does. Only humans have the capacity to relate to God.
Not all would agree with that. Some might point to poetic passages like Psalm 150 where it says, “Everything that has breath, praise the LORD!” We could also point to passages where it’s said that God cares for and even communicates with animals (Psalm 147:9, Job 38:41, Deuteronomy 25:12, Psalm 36:6, or 1 Kings 17:4-6 when God commanded ravens to provide food for the prophet Elijah). However, I think the fact that God makes a clear hierarchy between humans and animals, giving humans permission to eat any and all animals (Genesis 9:3), and the fact that humans are not commanded to preach the gospel to animals, even the most intelligent ones, shows that humans are the ones God relates to on a spiritual level.
But, Scripture’s descriptions of heaven definitely indicate that there will be animals in heaven. Not only that, but the animals in heaven will be completely docile and not dangerous. Isaiah 65:25, which most people take to be a description of heaven, says, “‘The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,’ says the LORD.” Revelation 22:1-2, which is unquestionably a description of heaven, mentions a tree of life; if there are plants in heaven, it makes sense that there would be animals too. The question is, are these the same animals as those on earth?
The question is, in my opinion, unanswerable. Even if animals don’t have souls, God could raise and regenerate their bodies. CS Lewis even speculated that some animals would be raised to life by virtue of their relationship with their resurrected owners. One thing I think we do know about heaven is this: Heaven is not a place of loss. There is only one thing heaven will lack, and that is evil. That doesn’t mean heaven will have everything good that Earth has — there won’t be marriage in heaven — but just like the New Earth will be better than the Earth it replaces, whatever institutions and objects in heaven will be better than what they replace.
So if you want to believe you’ll be reunited with your pets in heaven, I don’t think you’re being unbiblical, nor do I think you’re giving yourself false hope. Of course, we need to keep in mind that the greatest thing about heaven is God himself — not anyone or anything we would be reunited with. We should not make idols out of people or pets, placing greater importance on them than on God. But heaven is a place of eternal and infinite gain, and we will not ever experience deprivation or hope unfulfilled. We will not lack anything that would bring us closer to God.
