Pets are close companions of man; they are so much loving, obedient, and intelligent. Pets are named by their owners as though they are not animals but humans and man’s experience with them is so intriguing that he wishes the companionship lasts forever.
So great, is the pain of losing a pet. The pain is almost equal to losing a human being you have loved so much. This can be confirmed by a pet owner who recently lost his pet. He typed in the comment box of a Near Death Experience (NDE) group on Facebook that it would be better for him not to get to heaven than to get there and not reunite with his pet who just died.
First, it is important we note that heaven is a place of reunion. It is not a mystic dream realm as some might have portrayed it. It is actually a place like the earth which is habitable for humans. Jesus said he had to reunite with his Father. In John 20:17 (KJV) we read “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ASCEND UNTO MY Father, and your Father; and to my God and your God.”
If heaven is a place of reunion with loved ones, there is no doubt that pet owners who just lost their pets will reunite with them. Besides, countless NDEs indicate reunion with loved ones including pets.
If there shall be re-union with dead pets in heaven, are we saying that there is life beyond the grave for animals as well?
But in answering that question, we must note that animals were not created by God to die. They were created to live forever just as man was. The Bible says when God beheld EVERYTHING he had created including the animals, he said that it was good.
Genesis 1:31 (KJV) “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
Animals, being God in the sight of God, had no sin and should not have been dying and buried as it is with man. None of the animals ate the forbidden fruit, it was man and his wife that did. So, animals shouldn’t be dying. None of the animals disobeyed God, it was man that fell from the glory of God. Why are then animals dying?
The fall of man in Eden was a destructive incident and it brought a curse on all animals with the Serpent bearing most of these curses.
Genesis 3:14 (KJV) “And the LORD God said unto the serpent Because thou hast done this, thou art CURSED ABOVE ALL cattle, and above EVERY BEAST of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life”.
Animals began to die that moment man started dying and if God had a redemptive plan for man, would he not have also provided a redemption for animals who are currently bearing the consequence of the sin of the man created in the image of God?
In the Epistle of Apostle Paul to the Romans which has the redemptive work of God in Christ Jesus as one of its primary themes, we read that by the death of one man called Adam, all die and by the resurrection of one man called Jesus Christ. MUCH MORE shall be made alive. Animals are dying today as a result of man’s sin in Eden, they shall be made alive by the finished work of one man called Jesus Christ.
Moreover, it is also made plain in the Scriptures that animals shall be judged by God for their wild attitudes that involved human death.
Genesis 9:5 (KJV) “And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man’s brother will I require the life of man.”
The Bible Speaks Against Animal Cruelty
If animals were not important to God, the Bible would not have spoken against animal cruelty. In Proverbs 12:10 (KJV) the Bible says, “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”
It is the core duty of a man whom God has recognized to be righteous to regard the life of his animal.
The Bible tells us that animals depend on God for food and he has never failed them.
Matthew 6:26 (KJV) “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?”
The Bible also made it known that the apostles prohibited the strangling of animals among Christians.
Acts 15:20 (KJV) “But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.”
God cares for all animals including pets. They shall all be made alive on the last day.
