Pet of the Year 2008
Posted on 07/26/2008 9:24:53 PM PDT by WilliamReading
Carolyn Sharp’s beloved greyhound Starr was 4 years old when she was diagnosed with a deadly form of cancer.
Sharp decided the two of them would stay together as long as Starr was not suffering too much. The greyhound received radiation treatments and pain patches for several months until the veterinarian told Sharp it was time to end it.
“When we went in for the last time, I held her in my arms for the comfort of both of us until she had left,” said Sharp, who lives in Overland Park. “I have still not really made peace with losing her so young.”
Eight years later she still doesn’t understand the “why.” But she is certain she’ll hold Starr again — in an afterlife.
“I believe I’ll have three cats and a whole bunch of dogs waiting for me,” Sharp said.
Is there an afterlife for animals? Or as a popular question puts it, “Do all dogs go to heaven?”
Jack Vinyardi of Kansas City, an ordained interfaith chaplain of pets, said he is asked that question all the time as he comforts people about to lose or who have lost a pet.
(Excerpt) Read more at kansascity.com ...
I dunno but I hope I meet this little gal I knew in Maracaibo 20 years ago....
(kidding..sorta)
The reason we are not more specific is because we don't know what's going to happen. But because God is a God of love, there is a very real possibility that there will be animals that we have as friends in heaven. Whether they are our own pets, that I don't know.
-Jerry B. Jenkins, co-author of the Left Behind book series.
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... what about the cockroach you stepped on last week?
First you should ask will I make it to heaven? What dose God say about you making it there?
Bet there's no heavy lifting in that racket.
” The most beloved companion I ever had (wife excepted for safety reasons of course) was my half blind Siamese. No dog or cat could have been more closely bonded with me. “
With me it was my Boston Terrier TOTO , who passed away on June 26th at the age of 11 and a half . He was my pet and sidekick . Miss him terribly .
Pet of the Year 2008
Let me first preface my answer that there is no one clear passage in Scripture either way. I base my own personal belief on several relevant passages and logic I see God has throughout Scripture.
Here goes.
God is a loving God. He loves all of His creation.
He created animals. He called them Good. At the end of all His work, before man sinned, everything was very good.
There was no death yet. Everything God made, He made to live. Death was a consequence on man’s sin, not designed into things by God.
Even after the fall, men did not eat animals, although some were sacrificed to God (symbolic for how God would sacrifice His own innocent son for us). Animals were not yet afraid of man, they had no reason to be, as God had not declared them to be food for man yet. This would occur after the flood.
God did not make animals (which He considered good) to live in a fallen world and suffer and die, and that would be the best existence they would ever hope to have. Living in constant fear of man and other predatory animals. I do not believe it is in God’s nature to create animals, who were also designed to live forever, but now being under the curse of a fallen world, experience death, and that’s it for them. They were designed to live forever. If man would not have sinned, they would not have had to live in a fallen, cursed world and experience death. We would not be eating them, nor other animals eating other animals today if man would not have fallen. His original design was life, life that didn’t temporally end.
Animals have a spirit in them, not like man’s but they have a spirit component to them. They have individual personalities and can express emotions and give and take affection. They were originally designed to live in harmony with man.
Further, there will be animals alive when Christ returns and sets things right again under His reign. These animals will not die. Why would all the animals that lived in the fallen world not get a chance to live again, but the ones alive at Christ’s return are lucky enough to be able to stay alive forever? It doesn’t make sense. It punishes all the animals unlucky enough to have been born in the fallen world simply because they were born then. It is arbitrary. It does not make sense.
The final reason is that we are told we will remember our lives now after we are dead. Christ says He will wipe away our tears and we will be happy. God made our animals for us to love. ANd we do. For some of us they are very precious and we care greatly for them. I remember in Samuel where Samuel tells David the story of the rich and poor man, where the poor man had a small lamb he loved, that he loved so much he treated it like a daughter, and the lamb ate from the man’s plate. To have memory of our pets and somehow be happy even though we will never see them again, and think that this is fair to them? It is a hard stretch to sit there and think they could only experience life in a broken world, only to eventually die and never to experience life without pain or death, that we will.
For these reasons, and for understanding that God does not make life to simply see it go back to dust and never exist again, seems to go against God’s own initial designs. Nothing was made to die. Man screwed it up. But since nothing was made to die, it does not seem to follow what I have learned about God from His word and His deeds, that these animals will not also come back to life, and experience life the way they were intended to.
I believe God does not create living things just so that they never come back. In His original creation, that is how things were planned to be. I don’t think animals are here just to teach us things, or to help us, but then vanish forever. I see no evidence in Scripture that supports such a narrow view of animals, God’s creation as well.
I believe we will see our pets again.
NO
I can’t imagine a place called Heaven wouldn’t have my dog.
Animals do not have souls. They will not have everlasting lives, whether in heaven or in hell as humans will.
As an aside, one of the key differences (IMHO) between Islam and Christianity is that Islam asserts that it has answers to *everything*. If you ask an imam a question on any topic he will readily spout off an answer. The Christian, on the other hand, will admit there are areas that God has not yet fully revealed or explained.
Well, thanks WD.
Who needs 72 virgins when I only need one of those.:)
If I get to heaven and my annoying cat Max is there, I’m leaving.
To quote your own tag line "With God all things are possible."
“Old Marines don’t get teary eyes, do they?”
The ones with a heart still do.
Well, then post 36 is for you. :)
God is love and mercy. Even the sparrow is taken care of.
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