Chronos archive - Berlin July 1945

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color film of Berlin after German surrender

Can Pets Glorify God? (#15 in a series)

Today, this blog is asking the question, "Can pets glorify God?" because, let's face it, glorifying God is a major theme in Heaven. In Revelation 4:8 we learn that there are four living creatures¹ whose purpose day and night is to declare, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" Additionally, in verses 10 and 11, John tells of twenty-four elders who worship saying, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created." And although the creatures and elders are an "elohim" class of spirit-beings and our pets are not, could they coexist in heaven?  It is a legitimate area for exploration; would our pets be able to contribute to the betterment of life in heaven as they contribute to the betterment of our life on Earth?


Here is the premise:  If God planned for our pets to join us in heaven, then He would have created them with  the ability to participate in Heaven's cultural lifestyle.  So today we are going to search for evidence that they will fit right in! 

Fortunately, that is pretty easy to find in scripture:

🗸 All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD ~ Psalm 145:10

🗸 Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion ~ Psalm 103:22

🗸 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD ~ Psalm 150:6

🗸 The beasts of the field will glorify Me ~ Isaiah 43:20

According to Psalm 148:10, wild animals, all cattle, small creatures, and flying birds are all capable of praising the Lord. In the poetry of this psalm, the word for "cattle" is set in contrast with "wild animals" and implies all domesticated animals, not just livestock. Practically any kind of pet you may have would fit within these parameters. But if you have fish and still need more reassurance than "all His works" because the "breath" and "field" qualifications make you edgy, then back up three verses and there is 148:7 which includes great sea creatures. 

Can we agree that pets meet this basic standard of being capable of praise and bringing Glory to God?   This is an indication that they could "be at home" in Heaven.

Now with that settled, let's revisit Psalm 145 because there is a subtle distinction that we need to make.  Remember that Hebrew poetry uses a lot of parallel construction. That is the case in Psalm 145:10.

All your works shall give thanks to you, O LORD, 
and all your saints shall bless you!

The "works," which include animal creation, praise at the level of giving thanks. The "saints" which are human spirits, praise at the level of blessing and worship. Jesus died for us; this results in an amplified level of praise. The human spirit can enter into true communicative worship; the animal soul can express an emotion of appreciation. Nothing in scripture hints that they "become one of us." Animals are still animals in heaven. They still fulfill the role that they were created to fulfill. They glorify God because all God's works were created for His glory. 

The animal creation did not rebel against God and need an atoning Savior; in that sense, they do not need to get "born again."  Yet they have suffered as a result of the fall and will require some sort of restoration. These scripture declarations in the Psalms indicate that God has made provision for that. 

Roman 8:19-21, which speaks of a coming restoration of creation, can be interpreted on several levels. I believe that at least one of those levels reflects back to animals of the original creation being put under man's dominion: 
"the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God, in hope that the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption"
What I am about to suggest I cannot show beyond speculation, but... 

Just as our pets are dependent upon us on Earth, they may—possibly—be dependent upon us for their future.  At some point, the question arises about the pets of non-believers; what sort of future would they have?  This can get wonky pretty fast, so I will put part of it in the footnotes.²  Romans 8:21 says that "creation looks forward to the day when it will join God's children in glorious freedom from death and decay (NLT)."  Our pets' future, if they are to live in our Heavenly mansion with us, still depend upon us to accept Jesus and become sons of God.

 


Footnotes

 ¹ Four Living Creatures - The King James uses the term "four beasts," but the text of Revelation describes them as each having with six wings that are full of eyes all around and within. This is close enough to the description of the seraphim in Isaiah's vision that we can surmise that if they are not seraphim, but a separate creation that totals four creatures, then they are probably in a "heavenly class" of spiritual beings even though their bodies have some animal-like attributes. They also resemble Ezekiel's description of cherubim. The Bible was written for men on Earth and does not give a lot of detail about different classes of heavenly beings. The purpose for mentioning them here is to emphasize that praise is constant around God's throne. 
Best-selling author Randy Alcorn has called the four living creatures a "striking example of animals praising God in heaven." He says, "even though they're highly intelligent and expressive, they're still animals; that's what Scripture calls them," based on the Septuagint's use of the word zoon. I respectfully disagree. Personally, I think they are a completely separate heavenly creation, that there was no Greek word that fully describes them, and that once he actually sees them, he will change his mind! The point that I wish to make in this blog is that our pets are compatible with the call to praise God.

² Pet Adoptions in Heaven.  I don't have a "proof" answer for this. You will need to study this out on your own as it goes beyond the scope of this series. But I think the answer, whatever it is, will be somewhat analogous to what happens to aborted babies, miscarriages, and small children who die without having a parent or close relative in Heaven. I have heard people who have researched that more than I have say that these babies and children can be adopted by believers in heaven. That they grow slowly into adulthood there. That God knows if their earth-parent will make it to Heaven some day, and when that is the case, then they are cared for in a heavenly "nursery" and not adopted but kept until their parent arrives. The procession of time is different than Earth's, and it all works out.  It is an interesting story. I cannot vouch for it, but it is a comforting thought. I would not be surprised if people who could not have pets on earth for some reason, (zoning regulations, allergies, work schedules, etc.) but wanted pets could similarly adopt them in heaven.

The Wisdom and Cynicism of Solomon (#14 in a series)

 Most people have heard of King Solomon, even if they don't know much about the Bible. He was famous for two things, (a) his wisdom, and (b) his financial wealth.  To a lesser degree, he was also known for his harem; more on that later.  Solomon was also the 17th of 19 sons of King David, not exactly a power position in line for succession to the throne, but he had a bit of help from his mom, and after having his brother Adonijah executed on a pretext, the rest, as they say, was history.


Most people are also familiar with some form of a Wishing Fable too: a genie in a bottle, a sprite at the bottom of a well, or perhaps a dryad in an oak tree, a golden lamp housing a djinn, Ryūjin the sea-dragon, fairy godmothers, or a leprechaun—if you can catch him.   While as children we fantasized about what wish we might make, only one man in the Bible ever had God pop the question.

In 1 Kings 3:5 we read:   The LORD appeared to Solomon one night in a dream and told him, "Ask me for whatever you want and I'll give it to you."

You can read the entire story in chapter 3, but a condensed version of his answer was:

    O LORD my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?"
I should point out that he wasn't a "little child" in the natural.  He was old enough to have made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. In that culture, referring to himself as a little child before the Lord was a sign of his humility and his respect for God. It is also worth noting that he called the Israelites "God's people," not "my subjects."  So he not only gave a good answer, but he answered with a good heart and a good attitude.

I will put God's reply from verses 11-14, in the footnotes below,¹ but God was quite pleased with that response!

So, how did Solomon know what to ask for in the first place? Simple. His father, King David, had taught him. We learn that in Proverbs 4:3-9.

    When I was a son to my father, Tender and the only son in the sight of my mother,
    Then he taught me and said to me, "Let your heart hold fast my words; Keep my commandments and live;
    Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.
    "Do not forsake her, and she will guard you; Love her, and she will watch over you.
    "The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding.
    "Prize her, and she will exalt you; She will honor you if you embrace her.
    "She will place on your head a garland of grace; She will present you with a crown of beauty."

His Dad had taught him the right answer!

Solomon eventually wrote portions of the Book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.  The reason that we are spending so much time looking at Solomon's life story is so that when he writes about animals and the meaning of life, we will have a frame of reference for putting it in context.  This is needed because the end of his life was not like the beginning—

Deuteronomy 17:16, 17 outlines three things a king must not do:

The king, moreover, must not (1) acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again."  He must not (2) take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.  He must not (3) accumulate large amounts of silver and gold for himself, the key being "for himself."

1.  To be clear, these horses mentioned in Deuteronomy are not pets. This verse is talking about a military buildup that exceeds the peacetime needs for readiness, and about returning to old paradigms for planning when no one is actually threatening to do you in.  Solomon amassed an army of 12,000 horsemen and 1,400 charioteers, far more that policing the borders would have required. And it wasn't an all-volunteer army either!  Solomon was drafting young men who did not want to be there and ruining their lives for no real purpose other than his own pride.

2.  Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines, so just as he had needlessly meddled in the lives of young men through conscription, he had also made nearly a thousand women little more than well-kept inmates. It is hard to imagine that he kept all their names and stories straight. Moreover, his wives included Hittites, Moabites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Ammorites. These were nations with which the Lord had forbidden intermarriage because it would introduce foreign gods that got their power from the demonic realm.

3.  God did not have a problem with Israel being a rich nation. God Himself had blessed Israel with precious metals. The problem here is that Solomon saw fit to bless himself. The King James phrases it this way in Deuteronomy 17:17, "neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold." But Solomon had centralized the national government, taking power away from and taxing the original tribal system that God had ordained.

God spared Solomon the full brunt of judgment for the sake of his father, David, but when Solomon died, the kingdom was shattered in two. So with this background in mind, let's look at some of the things Solomon had to say² about animals and the afterlife—

 16Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. 17I said to myself, "God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man," for a time for every matter and for every deed is there. 18I said to myself concerning the sons of men, "God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts." 19For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same. As one dies so dies the other; indeed, they all have the same breath and there is no advantage for man over beast, for all is vanity. 20All go to the same place. All came from the dust and all return to the dust. 21Who knows that the breath of man ascends upward and the breath of the beast descends downward to the earth?
— from Chapter 3 

Having said earlier in the chapter that there is a time and season for everything, Solomon begins to expand on the place of final Justice. As wise as Solomon may have been, Ecclesiastes does not contain the fullness of the Gospel. It offers no fully formed concept of resurrection. In fact, the phrase "under the sun" identifies a strictly physical Earth, and as such, it would be wrong to overly spiritualize this passage. If you look long enough, you will find some commentator who will make these verses fit just about any doctrine you wish! But here is my take on it:

18 - God tests men so that they are aware of their own mortality. Our earth-body is not significantly different than an animal's.
19 - Physical bodies on this current Earth are subject to death.
20 - Decomposition is a fact.
21 - Scientific observation of our physical world alone cannot answer where the spirit goes.

The distinction is made between the incorporeal breath and the corporeal flesh. The good news is that ruach, the Hebrew for breath, is used for both men and beasts, so even though the question is posed with one ascending and one descending, it is the same word—he is not calling the soul of man an apple and the souls of beasts oranges. This is a passage about mortality; it is not about immortality.

As a broader comparison, we can show that even within the set of mankind alone, there can be both upward and downward; compare with Proverbs 15:24: The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath. This both foreshadows the choice of eternal life offered in the Gospel and reflects the law's option of Deuteronomy 30:19, to choose life. 

Even though mankind's mortality was emphasized in verses 16-20, Solomon had referenced eternity earlier in Chapter 3.
3:11 - He (God) has also set eternity in their (men's) heart...
3:14 - I know that everything God does will remain forever;
Our present life on Earth should be viewed as a segment of something much bigger. To focus only on this present life is Pursuit of the Wind, cf Ecclesiastes 1:17.

By contrast, Solomon drops this doozie in 9:5, "the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for the memory of them is forgotten." This actually contradicts other verses in Ecclesiastes unless you realize that Solomon is sticking with a strict Earth-perspective here.  And most of this book does conform to that perspective as we are constantly reminded by phrasing such as "under the sun" and "vanity, all vanity." Instead of reading verse 5 as one sentence, it should probably be read as four lines of poetry because it is illustrating the vanity of earth-based perspective, not stating a literal fact. 

In chapter 12, the author goes all poetic with imagery³ of aging and death. Verse 7 offers this intriguing insight:  then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.  The conventional interpretation of that verse holds that the body decays back into elemental form and the spirit goes to God for judgment.  But the use of the word "return" opens a possibility that the spirit retreats back to a place of premortal existence or that we are fetched home again.

That concept contradicts what I was taught as a child: that all that we are began at conception and any preexistence is limited to God's thoughts and plans.  Yet, the more that I look into that mystery, the harder it has become to accept the dogmatic tenet that our inter-dimensional spirit has to play by the physicality rules of Earth.  Wouldn't the "in God's image" part of us exist in God?

Read carefully; don't add more to what I am saying.  Each unique human soul begins at conception because we must begin on Earth to be fully human. If it could occur some other way, then Jesus would not have had to have been born of Mary.⁴ But I have not found anything in scripture that would negate the "raw material" for our spirit from having existence in the spirit realm prior to joining up with our body at conception.  If you think you can find something, please put it in the notes below. 

This requires making a distinction between the spirit and soul, but Hebrews 4:12 does that—the Word of God pierces to the division of soul and spirit.  Man became a living soul when God breathed a spiritual element into the dust of earth elements.


Well, we are not going to solve that on-going mystery in this blog, but there are at least two parts of the issue that have a bearing on our pets-in-heaven question:
1.  Are we spirit that became a human soul at conception? Or are we a soul, originating at conception, who possesses a spirit that allows communication with God?
2.  Does God exist outside of time, or does time exist inside God?


In Summary...
  Solomon's cynicism that nearly swamps the reader of Ecclesiastes has to be held in context.  When the words seem hopeless and nihilistic, that is because he was writing poetry from a humanistic point of view; it is not about God's thoughts across eternity except in a few points of contrast.
   One of the major themes of Ecclesiastes is that man ought to be recognizing that God is far bigger and greater than our temporary existence. The book is not about heaven, but about earth's limitations.

Although we don't learn a lot here about pets going to heaven, we have discovered why two of the counter-arguments that pets do not go to heaven are invalid. (1) We learned that Solomon's statement about the fate of humans being like that of the animals was limited to the physical bodies made from the dust of the earth and that we should not try to extrapolate some spiritual-dimension meaning from his description of the physical dimension.  (2)  We learned that despite Solomon's reverse-psychology approach of calling life "vanity" and "meaningless," the theme of his poetry is advocating our pursuit of the Eternal God.

He ends on this note:
The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil. Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14 

We can be confident that in the end, God will "do the right thing" when it comes to pets in heaven. In the meantime, out-of-context verses in Ecclesiastes should not be used for "proof" that animals could not go to heaven. 


Footnotes

¹ 1 Kings 3:11-14   God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice, behold, I have done according to your words. Behold, I have given you a wise and discerning heart, so that there has been no one like you before you, nor shall one like you arise after you. “I have also given you what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there will not be any among the kings like you all your days. “If you walk in My ways, keeping My statutes and commandments, as your father David walked, then I will prolong your days.”

² Traditionally, Solomon is accepted as the author of Ecclesiastes.  This is based on the author identifying himself in 1:1 as the son of David, king in Jerusalem, and verse 1:12 where he says that he was king over Israel in Jerusalem. This title, "King over Israel in Jerusalem," is unique to this verse of scripture and Solomon is the only person it fits completely. His father ruled from Hebron at first, and the northern tribes of Israel broke away from Jerusalem after Solomon's death. 
   The author also calls himself the Koheleth (qoheleth), which can also mean a collector, but is often translated as 'preacher' in English Bibles. Several commentaries that I checked are not satisfied with that translation, and the one that I thought made the best argument suggested using "lecturer" as a better fit.  In today's Western culture which is so far removed from Solomon's Temple in both time and space, the word "preacher" can evoke the showmanship of a televangelist, whereas "lecturer" stays closer to the message. 

³ The Adam Clarke Commentary has a detailed interpretation of the imagery. He posits that almond blossoms in verse 5 are old men with white hair, and the silver cord in verse 6 is the medulla oblongata.  Here is a link for more.

⁴ This is, at least in one regard, an example of how to solve the logic problem of God making a rock so big that He could not lift it. Here was an area of authority that God had restricted Himself from occupying because He has given it exclusively to man. So God became man.   

Pets, Near Death Experiences, Dreams, and Visions of Heaven (#13 in a series)

Today's blog is all anecdotal evidence; these are stories in which the people telling them believe they are true.

I cannot prove or verify any of them. I cannot disprove them either.  Skeptics seem to find pleasure in dismissing these accounts with some psychological explanation, but at the end of the day, their "explanation" is simply another story that cannot be verified.  They are what they are. If they smell funky, toss them out of your mind. If they bring comfort, enjoy the moment. But the stories were all told with sincerity of faith.  All of the pets and owners had developed a love bond between them.  Some were seeking comfort, but for others assurance came unasked. There is nothing of value to be achieved by scoffing, so I ask only that you accept them at face value.

• A boy who was having an allergic reaction and beginning to lose consciousness suddenly found himself being pulled through a tunnel of light. He heard barking, and shortly he saw a dog he once had come running toward him. When they met, the dog jumped into his arms and began licking his face. He was surprised that the dog felt more real than ever, complete with smells and sounds. Soon other pets and people he knew who had passed on came to greet him. His next memory was of a hypodermic needle being withdrawn from his arm.

• A woman who was in cardiac arrest on the operating table was simultaneously having a vision of walking through a meadow on the outskirts of heaven. She was being escorted by an angel who was taking her to the Throne Room for an appointment. She noticed some animals playing at a short distance, and as soon as she focused her attention on them, they stopped and looked intently at her. She was told that they were looking to see if she was the loved one they were waiting for.  (She wasn't, and at her appointment she was told that she needed to to return to earth.)

• One woman tells of crying out to God after the death of her pet cat. She asked that He would take care of this for her because she was left with nothing but hurt. In her own words, "One night an Angel appeared to me, woke me by gently shaking my shoulder, and he was holding my cat in the same condition that I had found him in; but when I looked at the Angel, he smiled and my cat was looking right at me—no longer dead! My cat did his funny little call to me. The Angel smiled at me and they left. I will never fear for an animal again after God so graciously gave me this gift."

•  This report was posted on a website where people can record their testimonies of what God has done for them.

I know what Jesus did for me. I had a wonderful beautiful dog. His name was Cody. He was a big white dog. He had long white hair with a tail that looked like a fan his was so long. He was old and suffered from arthritis. I tested him with pain meds for a long time. The day came when the meds didn’t help anymore. He couldn’t stand up without help. So I did the hardest thing I had to do. I had him put to sleep. I grieved a long time. Then one day I was standing against a wall just looking at the sky and thinking about my mom. I thought mom is up there somewhere. Then all of sudden I saw the spirit of a big white dog running through the clouds. It was my Cody. God was so good to let me know Cody was there and he was able to run again. NO MORE ARTHRITIS PAIN!!! I know I’ll see him again. 

• A man had a dream about his recently deceased dog being in paradise. The dog first appeared as a light coming down a twisty path, but as it got closer he could see it more clearly, and it was panting as if it had been playing hard. He wondered about that only briefly because he soon saw another dog chasing after the first, the second dog was one he'd had 14 years before; his two pets had met and become friends with each other there in paradise! He saw that other animals lived in this paradise before his dream ended. When he woke up, he was left with the understanding that they will stay there until he gets to heaven, at which time he can come and take them to his new home.

•  The dog that a woman had grown up with and had been a family pet for over half of her life had finally succumbed to old age. She was praying, asking God for some sign of reassurance that He was in control of the situation so that she could more easily let go of her grief. The next night when she came home from work, she heard her dog bark a "welcome" as he often had done, but this time she felt the presence of the Spirit of the Lord and knew it was a "Until we meet again" bark. 

• A woman who had been asking God for 30 years if pets were in heaven was driving down a highway at sunset. She had a vision of Jesus in the clouds. By the time she safely pulled over, that part of the vision was gone, but she got her phone and took a picture of the remaining sunset. Her dog that had died a couple weeks earlier was in that picture in the cloud formation. She is convinced that was a loving answer to prayer.

• An elderly man had been concerned about his aging arthritic dog. He knew as the winter was coming on that it would be harder for his pet to get around, so he was trying to decide if the time had come to put his dog to sleep. One afternoon the man fell asleep in his recliner with the dog at his feet. During his nap, he dreamed of a shaft of light coming down from heaven, and his dog sprang up, frisky as a puppy, and bounded up the light as if it were as stairway. When the man woke up, he found that his dog had died in its sleep. The man believes that he saw into the spirit realm during his dream, and that his dog really is in heaven.


All these stories take a little bit of faith to believe—exactly what scripture says we need. In Mark 9:23 a man in need of Jesus' compassion got this answer: Then Jesus said to him, "'If You can? Everything is possible to the one who believes."

To quickly summarize, no one in these stories was "Seeking a Specific Sign." Some had asked God to heal their grieving hearts, but that is very different than dictating a certain sign. God had promised to meet your needs, not to perform on command.  Nothing in these stories conflicts with the nature of God, or with the Bible. The pets had been companions, not idols. Some of the pet owners had been unconscious, some were dreaming, and others fully awake and aware. Yet in each case, God was able to deliver a message of loving reassurance in a way that each person could receive.