Do Animals Go To Heaven?

In my book, Christopher’s Story: A Dog’s Walk Through John 3:16, I describe Christopher in Heaven greeting the loved ones he left behind on earth.

If you are one of those people who struggles to make small talk and you just don’t know what to say to someone you’ve just met– just ask if they think animals go to Heaven. You’ll definitely have something to talk about.

Ask a group of people and you’ll get mostly yesses. Very few no’s and quite a few in between that simply declare – well they better be there! The early church – many different denominations – believed that animals did not have souls and therefore could not go to Heaven. Pope Pius IV was the first pope to claim that animals were without souls. Pope John Paul II believed they did. In 2016, Pope Francis publicly

declared that animals indeed will be in Heaven.

Part of the problem is our view of Heaven. So many people picture it as a sterile place with solid gold [hard and cold] streets, a giant menacing throne and a bearded old man [God] sitting on it giving off a light so bright it blinds us. The souls of people who have died are turned into angels that do nothing but float around on clouds all day playing harps; bored and lethargic. Certainly not a place for animals.

But if you’re going to talk about God and Heaven and souls, then the only thing to do is go to the source. And that would be the Bible. I also recommend reading a book by Randy Alcorn simply called Heaven. He examines every reference in the Bible of the afterlife and presents a vibrant picture of an amazing, living and active place. And it’s filled with animals.

Alcorn’s book is over 500 pages long so there is a lot to say. I’m only going to touch on three things here.

What is Heaven? The Bible says that there is a Kingdom. It does have gold streets and a throne. But it also has a river, fruit trees, and animals. One day, God is going to take this earth which we have polluted and ultimately destroyed and He is going to restore it to the paradise He had originally intended it. He is going to set up His Kingdom here on that new earth and that will be Heaven.

The next bit of misinformation is whether animals have souls. In Genesis 1: 30, God declares that every living creature has the “breath of life” in them. This breath of life comes from God himself. In Genesis 2:7, God forms Adam and fills him with the breath of life. Not only does this bring him to life but it is also believed that this is where his soul comes from. The breath of life that God filled the animals with is the same exact words just a few paragraphs later that fills Adam.

But do the animals end up in Heaven? There are a lot of references to animals in Heaven. My favorite is Psalm 104. Look it up and read the whole thing. It starts out be describing many of the creatures that God has filled the earth with; land, air and sea.

Verse 24: How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

Then a few verses later in verse 29b - 30, it says something really interesting.

When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

To me, this may be a reference for when God creates the world all over again. I believe He will not create new animals for the regenerated earth. I believe He will bring back the animals He has already created and that is every single animal that we have known and loved.

What do you think?