Do dogs go to Heaven?
1. God loves dogs.
How do I know? He created them. He gave Adam responsible authority (Dominion) over dogs and other creatures, and authorized Adam to give names to them - names give meaning to creatures. Thus dogs, and all animals, are not meaningless creatures in the eyes of God.
God saved them during the Great Flood (if they were not saved in the Ark we would not have dogs today).
2. The Bible does NOT say that Dogs go to Heaven – OR Otherwise. The Bible (in order to be concise enough to be held in the hand, does NOT say many things about many things) is concerned about the need for Man to come into a worshipful, loving relationship with God, despite Man’s unworthiness and finiteness.
The Bible does NOT have ALL the answers to ALL questions – such as on science, culture AND the inclusion/exclusion of the Animal kingdom in Heaven. But the Bible has answers to the questions on Love, Life and Relationship with God.
(Isa 65:25 mentions animals in the Holy Mountain of God in the New Heavens and New Earth - many scholars take these animals to symbolize types of people - see preceding verses for context).
To go theologically into the topic of where dogs go when they die, we would have to also discuss whether other creatures too go to heaven - cats, germs!!, etc).
From the Bible alone, we do NOT know whether dogs go to heaven.
BUT, if we then conclude thus that dogs go to Hell, we also have NO Scriptural backing.
The Bible is silent. We can only seek to understand this issue from the point of how blessed we have been with our Pet Dogs.
3. God blessed Man with a Best Friend. Throughout history, the dog has been known as Man’s Best Friend – for good reasons: they protect, they hunt for Man, they provide good companionship to Man, etc.
The Bible Hero’s name, Caleb, is sometimes interpreted to mean “Dog” – although its deeper meaning is “Whole Heartedness”. Well, wholeheartedness seems to correctly describe the pet dogs that we all have had one time or another – the joys of playing with them when we were growing up; the faithfulness they show us throughout their relatively short life.
4. God is NOT a cruel God. He is NOT whimsical with the destiny of His creation and all that He has created. All things/creatures were created for a purpose. He has the Wisdom to Create, Sustain, Bless and bring to end of life ALL His beloved creatures.
BUT ONLY He fully understands the eternal side of His Creation and His Creatures.
We Humans are called, and required, to ONLY understand the day-to-day promptings He gives from Heaven on How to Live a Victorious Life of Faith, whether we know the answers to Life’s Questions or not.
Does my dog go to heaven after life on earth? I DON’T know.
I know that my dog goes back to my Loving Father in Heaven, Who is the Creator and Everlasting God. And that is sufficient for me.
3 comments:
is it a sin to put the dog to "sleep"?
well, i can't really answer your question. cos, i feel that it's not in our league to take another creature's life. but, sometimes we're helping the dog to end its suffering (for the dog's good and for us so that we won't see it suffering). right?
yeah.. thats why... same goes to euthanasia..
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