For my second post in this series on the "questions no one told me I'd get asked in ministry" I'm thinking of an email I received years ago from a person in our congregation (whom we'll call Joe) whose beloved pet (a cat whom we'll call Felix) had died and they were wondering if animals had souls, and if so, whether or not Felix would go to heaven. It's actually a question that has come up since then a couple of times, but Joe's email was so touching and transparent, that I still remember it. Here's the answer I offered in response.
Hi Joe,
Your email raises some really big questions, and I don't really know how qualified I am to answer them, but I will suggest a few things.
I don't think that God would kill an animal as a sort of punishment for human sin. It is true that the creation on the whole is "out of whack" because of human sin generally, and it is true that death came into the world through sin, but I take this in a more general way of explaining why we live in a world where death is, and why it's so painful and hard to deal with. The connection that animals have with God, their Creator, is hard to understand, I think, and the Bible doesn't say much about it. But there are three things that you may find helpful:
1. In Psalms 104 it talks about God sending his Spirit and all the creatures are made, and then when he chooses to take away his Spirit they die, and I take this to mean that the specific life-cycles and times and days for the animals are in God's hand: he gives them life and and takes it back according to his own wisdom.
2. In Matthew 6 it talks about God taking care of the birds of the air, and in Matthew 10 it says that not one of the sparrows falls to the ground without God lovingly watching over it, which I take to mean that God has his loving eye on all the animals throughout their life-cycle.
3. Lastly, Psalm 145:9 says that the Lord has compassion on everything he has made (including, as I take it, little Felix). I take all of this together to mean that in birth and life and death, all of the animals are held in their Creator's loving hand.
As for the idea of animals having a soul, that one's a difficult question, too. Here's how I'd explain it (you can let me know if it's helpful): When God created the animals in the beginning, Genesis 1 says that he made them as "living creatures." The phrase in Hebrew is nephesh chay, and it refers specifically to the idea of "breathing"-- creatures with the breath of life (See Genesis 1:30). Then in Genesis 2, when it describes God making human beings, it uses the same term for us, nephesh chay. We were made "living creatures"-- creatures with the breath of life. There is, in other words, a connection, or a sort of "kinship" between human beings and the animals-- we both share in common the fact that God brought us to life with his "breath"-- his nephesh. Sometimes people use the word "spirit" for this, but I'll just call it your "breathing-ness"-- the fact that you're a living, breathing creature. You shared that in common with Felix-- he too was brought to life by God's breath of Life.
The idea of a soul specifically is more of a modern concept (or at least, a Greek Philosophical concept). In the Bible, the distinction it makes between humans and animals is not that one has a soul and the other doesn't, it's that humans were made "In the Image of God" and animals aren't. What makes you different from Felix is that God created you in his image, with a special call to "image" or "reflect" his love, life and grace to the rest of the creation. To the extent that the "Image of God" is your true self-- who you were made to be and what humans were created for-- you might call it your "soul," but I don't find that very helpful. I would think about it more as "the true Joe" that Jesus (who is the full Image of God) is bringing to light as he works on your life through his Spirit. Animals were not made in the Image of God, humans were. The idea of the Image of God is a very complex thing, and has a whole bunch of implications, but one of the things it means is that we are supposed to care for, nurture and tend to the rest of the creation (like your cat, for instance) on God's behalf. In other words: the reason you loved Felix so much is because you were made in the Image of God, and the care and tenderness you showed him was part of the Image of God coming out in you....
This brings me to the idea of "where do animals go when they die"?
I don't know. There is a mystery here, but I'll tell you what I told my kids when they asked me that after their hamster died:
1. God loves all his creatures and he promised he'd be loving to them all;
2. all of the things we love about our pets-- the sense of peace and comfort they bring, the friendship and warmth, and so on-- those things actually point us to God, who is the ultimate source of peace and comfort and friendship and warmth-- and when we get to heaven we will have all those things fully and completely in him; and
3. God promised to make "New Creation"-- that is, to heal and transform and make-new everything in this heaven and earth and make it into a new heaven and earth. We don't know much what that's gonna look like, but pretty much anytime it's mentioned in the Bible, there's animals in the picture: maybe not Felix specifically (who knows) but cats certainly.
I hope these thoughts help, and I will be keeping you in prayer.
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