Pets in Heaven? We Studied Way Too Hard for This One

The question behind the question

Somewhere at this very moment, a child is asking whether their dog is in heaven. And the adult answering--whether for Sadie the Dog or Luna the Cat--is mostly guessing. And for pastors this is an FAQ.

Back in 2014, the front page of the New York Times was about the Pope's words to a grieving boy...telling him his dog was waiting for him in heaven. The media. went. crazy...but as it later turned out...the pope didn't actually say that. This news wildfire came down to a very human thing — a wish.

Respected polling bodies found that 48% of Americans expect to see their pets again someday. For those who own pets, that number jumps to 59%. Online, you'll find plenty of simplistic answers — a quick yes...because we think it should be so, or a flat no because they say animals don't have souls or we're leaving Earth behind and animals along with it.

Why this question matters

When we stop and see the people asking...this isn't a silly question at all. And it deserves a researched, thoughtful answer. This is for both innocent children and the adult who spent fifteen years with a beloved creature who greeted them every morning, became family to them, and comforted them on the hardest nights of their life. The Bible actually says a LOT MORE about pets with respect to Heaven--or more precisely--the Eternal State than most think.

But at the same time, it also says a lot less than anything that would allow for simplistic yes's or no's. At the time of writing, our small human team has hit 37 book reads on Heaven and researched 500+ sources...This, so we can hand you a more rigorous answer than any one public figure's take. And do it in Kainos fashion: easy to understand, nuanced...and fast.

Start with the picture of the future

Here's the first move, and it's a big one. Most people ask "will I see my dog again?" while picturing heaven as a disembodied, spiritual, up-in-the-clouds place. Souls, music, and light. No dirt, physical bodies, or things resembling Earth. If that's the picture, animals don't really belong there.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions about the Bible. We assume the story ends with us going up to Heaven. But in Scripture, up is the middle of the story — the end is Heaven coming down and renewing earth. And we think we have to choose Heaven OR Earth when God's plan is quote "a new heaven and a new earth"--both reconciled, redeemed, and united at the end of time. If this sounds new, that's okay. We've got two other short videos on each. For now, know that much of what you already believe about Heaven is probably true. There's just more earthly, or New Creation--elements to it than you may have known before.

Animals and souls

Now let's talk animals and souls. You've probably heard someone say "animals don't have souls." That sounds biblical, but the instinct comes from the Greeks — not the Bible.

One of the most influential figures of all Western civilization--Aristotle--ranked souls in tiers — plants, then animals, then humans — and taught that the animal kind simply dies with the body. Next we have Augustine. He's a legendary early Christian leader who deserves real respect. He has a background in philosophy and a now-dead religion that treated the physical world as bad. He lands with Aristotle and carries these assumptions to the center of the church. Then the most prominent Christian figure of the Middle Ages...and one of Aristotle's biggest fans — Thomas Aquinas — ran with this view. But the Hebrew Bible runs the other direction. nephesh — typically translated "soul" — is the same word behind the words "living creature."

What nephesh does—and does not—settle

And here's the part we should consider: Genesis calls the animals nephesh before humans. See it in Genesis 1. The sea, the birds, the land animals — each one is nephesh chayyah, translated "living creatures." Then in chapter 2, quote "the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a nephesh chayyah."

Some translations render it "living being" in one place and "living creature" in another, which can obscure that its the same exact Hebrew word being used for both. This nephesh point also shouldn't be overstated though, because it doesn't necessarily point to an immortal spirit that persists after a physical body dies. The lesson we can take away is that neither animals NOR humans coast into eternity simply on the strength of "having a soul or not", as people broadly think.

Survival — for any nephesh — is something God does. It has a name. Resurrection. So now our question isn't "does a dog have the right kind of soul-stuff?" It's "will God choose to raise this nephesh chayyah?"

The image of God and creation

Also, hold your horses if you're worried humans and animals are starting to sound too similar. Because now it's time to talk about the image of God. Many historical figures have defined the image of God by how they found us different from animals — usually reason or intellect. But lately, Christianity as a whole has been shifting strongly toward defining the image of God not in terms of some trait we have but who we are:

We are God's representatives, set in creation to reflect his character and carry out his will and rule. Notice how the very verse that introduces the imago dei hands us responsibility over all the animals.

God’s covenant with living creatures

Next: Did you know that one of the major covenants of the Bible is between God...and animals?"

Professor Michael Vlach points this out from Genesis 9:

"Behold, I now establish my covenant with you, and with your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth...every living thing upon the earth." And it doesn't stop with Noah. Many centuries later God speaks through the prophet Hosea...and promises another covenant. A future one. And he reaches back for the same creation language — quote "a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground."

Wow. So in the first, we see a promise of preservation--God says he won't flood the earth again. Here, we see an even bigger one--a promise of total peace. The prophet Isaiah famously speaks of the wolf living with the lamb, the lion eating straw like an ox, and a "nursing infant" who can play safely by the den of a cobra. And when Isaiah returns to this vision in chapter 65, he plants it explicitly inside "a new heavens and a new earth" — the phrase that Peter and Revelation later call back to.

There's an honest debate here we won't gloss over though: is this lion literal or a picture of reconciliation? Careful people arrive at both--plus we'll quickly say that nothing in this video depends on a particular millenium view, if that means anything to you. And it keeps going.

In Jonah here's something you probably missed, God says "And should I not pity Nineveh...in which there are more than a 120,000 people...and also many animals?" Jesus says not one sparrow — sold five for a couple of pennies — is forgotten by God. The Psalms have God feeding every living creature, and in Psalm 148 the sea creatures, the wild animals, the mountains and stars, livestock, and birds are all drafted into the choir — humans get just a couple of verses. This spectacular choir worships with or without us notes Richard Middleton.

So they have inherent, not merely instrumental value to God. Paul takes it further still — in what many call the summit of his greatest letter, Romans 8, he says the "whole creation" was "subjected to futility". It was dragged into death and decay it never chose or was responsible for when humanity rebelled against its Maker. And ever since, it's been "groaning as in the pains of childbirth," wanting to see the new creation birthed that will be "set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God."

Notice what Paul just did. He's connecting the suffering of creation to the sin of humans then also seeming to link their liberation to God adopting us and redeeming our bodies. What a passage.

What C. S. Lewis suggests

Now let's stop at the most famous Christian author of the 1900s — C.S. Lewis. He suggests that an animal doesn't live again on its own strength — but through its master. So dogs of resurrected humans would be treated differently from dogs generally. He locates a pet's identity more so in relationship. A resurrected human retains their memories and personality. This can include a strong bond with a dog. So if the bond is raised, the creature inside the bond is raised.

Lewis makes sure to disclaimer things as speculative. But he does finally give us some payoff here. And to the less pro-animals in the Eternal State he gives a bit of a mic drop quote: "[The] silence of Scripture on animal immortality would be fatal only if Christian revelation were meant as a system answering every question. But it is nothing of the sort."

The Bible does have a silence that all serious views should acknowledge, but it cuts against both the confident nos and the confident yeses. And where his argument runs out, his imagination finishes it — in Narnia. At the end of the series, the characters step into the new world, and here's the kicker: it isn't some foreign heaven.

It's Narnia — deeper, more solid, more itself. And the climactic line is given to a unicorn — an animal — who cries: "I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here... The reason why we loved the old Narnia is that it sometimes looked a little like this. Come further up, come further in!"

How hopeful can we be?

So where does all this leave us as we wrap up? Some views are better than others, but there's a spread of legit ones.

A range of Christian hope

Let's picture a slider from hesitant to bold. At the most cautious end sits a view we must reject outright. We call it: Escape Earth-ism. It's often held without people realizing it, quietly discounting Earth, creation, our bodies, art, our jobs and chores...really everything that feels too physical — and pins just about everything on escaping for Heaven.

The second view to throw out we'll coin as the Cuteness View. It's what most people today ultimately hold and it basically comes down to "my dog will be in heaven because I want it to be true, and it comforts me." While we're sympathetic to grief, both these views are missing the grounded and physical resurrection hope of the Bible.

One step up we call the "Poof" View: animals are gone forever. These people tend to read Scripture's silence as more of a statement. They're right that God doesn't need animals to make us supremely happy.

And here's the gut-check: if you prefer God's gifts over the Giver Himself...is being with the Giver forever what you even desire? Next — the New-Earth-Natives view. Animals are tightly linked to Earth. Notably, God puts them on it before humans. So if Earth is renewed as the Bible seems to be saying, animals should be too. But these people believe it's animals categorically. Like dogs or cats. Not Sadie or Luna.

Next — the "It Wouldn't Surprise Me" view. It knows the disclaimers and the lack of clear answers, but has a clear hopeful lean. Joni Eareckson Tada writes about her pet schnauzer, Scrappy quote “If God brings our pets back to life, it wouldn’t surprise me,” she said. “It would be just like him [and his] character . . . Exorbitant. Excessive. Extravagant in grace after grace. Of all the dazzling discoveries and ecstatic pleasures heaven will hold for us, the potential of seeing Scrappy would be pure whimsy—utterly, joyfully, surprisingly superfluous.” Her vision is fun. And Joni is catching something beautiful about God here.

That said, some Christians--often those God wired a little more black-and-white--bristle at the dreaminess of a Tada or a Lewis, feeling like these speculative, optimistic tilts distract from more important things. Fair enough. Now on the boldest end, we'll call it the Everything-Good-Comes-Back View: Every creature--every nephesh--raised to life and restored to an ultimate, glorious purpose. Notice the word carrying weight there: good. Nobody in this camp thinks bad stuff gets carried over.

Back in 1782, John Wesley—the founder of Methodism—preached a whole sermon on it: animals had it better before the Fall, humanity dragged them down into predator and prey and pain they never earned, so the restoration has to run the other way and lift them back up. Scholar Christopher Southgate makes it specific — the starving pelican chick, shoved from the nest deserves a world where it finally gets to flourish. It's a pleasant thought, though others will balk at the sheer scale of resurrecting and custom-fitting for every animal that ever lived.

What we can say with confidence

We'll leave you with this. We humans are quick to assume we know best what a good God should be doing — taking matters better left as mysteries and painting our own assumptions, disguised as doctrine. So be careful assuming either what God should do or... the options he's choosing between.

By now, we hope you see there are deep wells of Biblical hope regarding a new creation and God's love for animals, despite the fact that the Bible ultimately doesn't give a clear answer--especially for specific animals like our pets. Christians believe God is good. Just. Merciful. And He abundantly pours out life. He's the only one that can carry these mysteries, and it's a good thing it's not up to us. God himself will be the best part of the New Creation. Whether he decides to have dogs as a category...or Sadie in particular...is just icing on top. Kainos exists to create delightful gifts for tired servant leaders and to promote a deeper, more charitable, united, and conscious global church. If you've enjoyed this, please subscribe and share to aid us toward this mission.