While theological perspectives suggest only humans possess souls and will experience Heaven in the traditional sense, Scripture and divine covenants indicate animals hold significant importance to God and may indeed be present in the...



I can’t remember the first time I was asked this question, but I do know one thing—it wasn’t the last:

“Is my dog in Heaven?”

Substitute cat for dog, the occasional parakeet, and any other fish or animal humans become attached to, and you have the great crucible of pastoral care and theology.

So… are they?

I’ll give you my answer, but first, this really is an issue. As the Washington Post recently reported:

Congregations and other spiritual and religious groups are increasingly offering grief programs for people who lost animals. Major theological groups such as the American Academy of Religion and the Society for Biblical Studies now have units devoted to “animal theology” research. That realm includes religious textual references and rituals about bonds between humans and animals, and the presence of religious-like behavior in animals, such as mourning rituals.

The percentage of Americans who say their pets are “part of their family” has jumped in the past two decades from about 80 to 97 percent, Pew Research found. In a 2023 poll, Pew found that 51 percent of pet owners said their animal was as much a family member as a human was.

Let’s begin with some theology. Only humans are made in the image of God and, as a result, only humans have a soul. This soul is what allows humans to respond to and relate with the living God. This status is unique within creation.

But animals do matter to God. Consider these words from God: “For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird on the mountains, and all the animals of the field are mine” (Psalm 50:10-11, NLT). And then there is the care extended to them via the Sabbath. In the book of Exodus, we read: “You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but on the seventh day you must stop working. This gives your ox and your donkey a chance to rest” (Exodus 23:12, NLT).

There’s a one-liner in the book of Deuteronomy that would be easy to overlook in terms of significance, but Sandra Richter, in her book Stewards of Eden, made me reflect on it anew. It reads, “You must not muzzle an ox to keep it from eating as it treads out the grain” (Deuteronomy 25:4, NLT). That doesn’t seem that significant until you realize that most of the original recipients of that direction were subsistence farmers. The five to seven pounds of grain that an ox could eat over the course of a single day of threshing were five to seven pounds of grain that a farmer could have sorely used. The temptation would have been to muzzle the ox, to prevent it from eating, to give it less food to do the bare minimum to keep it alive. To work it to death.

God said, “No.”

Benefit from the fruit of their labor, but treat them well and care for them well. And then, with the Great Flood involving Noah, don’t forget that while that was a great judgment on the world, He saved animals along with humans for the second chance that followed. It’s very clear that in the covenant that God made to never flood the world again, He didn’t make the covenant just with Noah and his family. He made the covenant with the animals.

So yes, animals matter to God. But will they be in Heaven? If the question is framed in such a way as to ask if animals have a soul akin to humans, and will they be saved as such, the answer is “No.” They neither have souls nor will they face eternity in Heaven or Hell based on their response to the cross-work of Christ.

But that still leaves whether they will be in Heaven as, well… animals. Here is the simplest answer I’ve learned to give: everything you need to be happy and content will be in Heaven. You may find that you are surprised at what that entails, but rest assured, that will be the reality of your situation. If that means animals, it means animals. And if we are to take the lion lying down with the lamb imagery literally, then yes, they will definitely be there.

So, as for Fido? Whether with you or not, you can rest assured of one other thing: … he matters to God.

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