Pets in Heaven?

um there we go good to see you tonight good to have you here in the house at north lake and for those of you online it is good to have you with us tonight as well i believe our topic tonight is uh do pets go to heaven and i was going to try and show a clip of all dogs go to heaven but i don't know if that quite lines up with what we are looking at tonight so we're going to let scripture kind of help divide rightly divide our thoughts around that one thing i am assured of though and i'm assured of that because it tells us in scripture that christ is going away to prepare a place for us you can look that up in john 14 and see that christ himself has told us that he is going to prepare a place for us and that is enough to get us up on our feet and to sing to him this evening so let's do that let's stand together and sing when we all get to heaven seeing the wondrous love of jesus seeing his mercy and his grace in the mansion's bride and blessed he'll prepare for us a place when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see jesus we'll sing and shout the victory let us then be true and faithful trusting serving every day just one glimpse of him and glory will the toils of life repay when we all get to heaven what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see jesus we'll sing and shout the victory onward to the prize be for us soon his beauty will behold soon the pearly gates will open we shall tread the streets of gold when we all get to have and what a day of rejoicing that will be when we all see jesus we'll sing and shout the victory amen let's pray together father we thank you for this time you've allowed us to come and gather together in your name and so father whether we're gathered here in the building or we're gathered with folks watching online i know where two or more are gathered you were in our midst and so tonight father as you are in our midst may you work in our hearts and prepare us for a chance again to open your word and prepare us for a message that comes from you one that we we may not think about often but one again i'm sure that will help us grow in our walk and help us learn how we can continue to rightly divide the word of truth and study so tonight may we be reassured that uh regardless of our thoughts around uh pets go to heaven may we be assured that those of us that have put our faith and trust in you that you have gone to prepare a place for us and so father tonight we have a lot of rejoicing we can do in that fact and we have a chance to share that with others so i pray as those opportunities come up you would help give us the strength and courage to step out in faith and to share the good news of the gospel share our own personal testimony of how christ has changed us and made us better for the glory of god the father and thy name we pray amen well thank you derek for another great song selection tonight as we begin this study if you have your bibles please open to genesis and leave them open because we will finish up in revelation tonight as we try to explore this topic uh that came to us if you've already been to the blog you know what we're talking about uh going to be exploring the questions will our pets go to heaven this year came from an email from arkansas but apparently a lot of people have thought about this question i haven't seen this much excitement about one of my blogs since flat earth so anyhow we're we're looking forward to this study tonight apparently some people do strongly believe that our pets will be in heaven uh remember reading the obituary for august 6 in the atlanta journal constitution published in june 30th of 2008 at athens georgia it says this was a funeral complete with real tears august 6 the university of georgia's beloved bulldog mascot was treated to every dignity and death afforded the most respected of human beings the body of the dog was flown to athens from savannah along with the masters family in the university airplane his entry into the stadium which was accompanied by the song the battle ham of the bulldog nation which is played before georgia football games paul bears charles seiler and his main handler charles saw his main handler waldo terrell university of georgia's groundskeeper moved the kennel placed it at the foot of a granite marble mausoleum where ugga's five predecessors are buried dignitaries included university of georgia president michael adams who made opening remarks then reverend claude mcbride of athens a baptist preacher and former football team chaplain presided he offered words of gratitude and appreciation to the siler family and a long prayer which he ended with sikkim ugga woof woof amen numerous flower arrangements mostly of roses white and red carnations adorned the memorial plot in the southwest corner of the stadium included was a flower arrangement from tusk the razorback southwest razorback mascot from university arkansas which that begged a question too does that mean hogs are also going to be in heaven or will they just be barbecue but anyway lauren smith the executive secretary of the georgia bulldog clubs of america said he received several phone calls on ugga's behalf one was from johnny rouse jr whose father the former georgia great by the same name who passed away just a week earlier smith said he told them tell the seller's family that daddy will walk ugga every day in heaven so the question is what do you think will our pets go to heaven the poll said yes was 20 percent no 55 percent and 25 were undecided for those who didn't check the poll lately it looks like we also had a georgia tech fan weighed in and and he's pretty sure that no georgia bulldogs will be in heavens [Applause] i wonder who that was horace well for those of you who want your animals in heaven we got good news tonight according to the late tbn preacher dr jack van impe you will see your furry or feathered friends again in heaven this is the leading line in the introduction to the book he wrote called animals in heaven he goes on explore this exciting truth taught by 12 of the greatest christian theologians you will see and hear the exact spine tingling statements from the pens of men like dr john walford who was a former president of dallas theological seminary the evangelist dr billy graham radio preacher dr j vernon mcgee dr john calvin founder of presbyterianism dr w.a criswell past pastor of first baptist church dallas texas and also president of southern baptist convention at one time and also dr ed henson professor of theology at liberty university and many others i mean that's quite a lineup there of name dropping well anyway van impe joined several internet websites dedicated to proving that you will see your pets in heaven and they usually use the following verses so if you have your bibles open just follow along with me and we will see how these verses work out the first one that's supposed to be a proof that pres that pets may go to heaven is genesis chapter 1 and verse 30 and it reads also to every beast of the earth to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the earth in which there is life that's not the full verse but that's where they want you to stop right there and look at that word life the hebrew word for life there is nefish which is also translated soul in some places and living being in other places and of course they make the case then do the beasts of the earth have souls and if they have souls does that not mean that they have immortality and what have we told you about interpretation always start with context what is the context the context is verses 27 and 28 where we find out that what human beings are made in the image of god not the beast of the earth so the s the image of god that gives human beings immortality um so and that's what gives them dominion over the animals so again if you rip any verse or portion of a verse out of its context then you can pretty much make it say anything you want to so anyway genesis 1 30 is not terribly convincing to me the next passage that they go to is ecclesiastes it's after the psalms in my bible psalm proverbs ecclesiastes chapter 3 and verse 19. ecclesiastes 3 19 for what happens to the sons of men also happens to animals one thing befalls them as one dies so dies the other in other words both animals and humans die surely they all have one breath man has no advantage over animals for all is vanity all go to one place all are from the dust and all return to dust who knows the spirit of the sons of man which goes upward and the spirit of the animal which goes down into the earth how do you know that the spirit of a man goes up and the spirit of the animals go down that's what it's asking and so they say there it is there's no difference because the bible says so there's no difference between the spirit of man and of the animals and again what we say we need to look at when we do interpretation like that is context what is the context of ecclesiastes especially in the early part here is ecclesiastes is written from the viewpoint of a disillusioned man who does not know god living under the sun trying to find meaning and he doesn't find meaning for the first parts of this of this book here he doesn't find meaning at all all he finds is vanity remember everything that he sees under the sun is vanity matter of fact he's got to get all the way to chapter 12 before he meets god and then all of a sudden he finds a meaning in his life so again the context of that would not be a definitive solution to this it would simply be this man asking questions how do i know that animals go down into the earth and a man can rise and he's asking a question he's not answering the question all right for our next scripture we go to isaiah chapter 65. isaiah chapter 65 and verse 17 for behold i create new heavens and a new earth then look on down to verse 25 the wolf and the lamb shall feed together the lion shall eat straw like the ox and the dust shall be the serpent's food they shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains says the lord and again the context here of these animals in this place of the context is in the thousand year reign of jesus christ on the earth if you remember when we've been studying prophecy after this life is over and the lord jesus comes back he will rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years and then after that we'll enter a whole new eternal era with a new heaven a new earth that we read about in revelation 21 and 22 so again what we're talking about here is not heaven we're talking about the millennial rain thousand-year reign of jesus christ on the earth and that's when you'll see the lamb and the lion laying down together the wolf and the lamb and and those references to animals there again he quotes billy graham but billy graham doesn't really help him make the case here billy graham says when it comes to will there be animals in heaven he said god has a special reason and place for each of his created beings animals too have a purpose in god's creation man as the highest order of creation has been given dominion over the animal kingdom and of course he refers to genesis 1. we believe that animals were intended for man's enjoyment and use the bible itself does not indicate that there is life after death for animals apparently you overlooked that sentence it may be that god's purpose for animals is fulfilled on earth however if animals would make us happier in heaven surely there will be a place for them there again that's hypothetical he said if god wants you to have an animal there he'll put you an animal there but he's already said the bible does not say that he does some interpreters have called attention to isaiah's description of the peace of god future kingdom where he says the wolf and the lamb will feed together again we've already talked about that the context the context of that is the thousand years reign of jesus christ on earth not in heaven so anyhow that one doesn't seem to work as well so let's go to romans now new testament romans chapter 8 and verse 19. i'm reading this from new living translation for all creation is waiting eagerly for the future day when god will reveal who his children really are against his will everything on earth was subjected to god's curse all creation anticipates the day when it will join god's children and glorious freedom from death and decay for we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time okay it's a wonderful passage of scripture again talking about when jesus christ comes back the second time and he will usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth and he will rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years and that's what he's talking about then the curse will be removed and all the things that we're having to deal with that's called sin will be removed when jesus christ is king of kings and lord of lords on this earth but anyhow here's where he enters the theologians jack van impe enters these theologians he mentioned earlier of course martin luther founder of the lutheran church says in paradise there was complete harmony between man and animals and one day again that harmony will be restored all creation will be made new as christ will be all and in all and again we don't argue with martin luther but again he's talking about the millennial reign of christ he's not talking about heaven as we think of in revelation chapter 21 and 22. he also mentioned john calvin founder of the presbyterian or reformed church who said condemnation of mankind is imprinted on the heavens and on the earth and on all creatures it also appears to what excel in glory the sons of god shall be exalted for all creatures will be renewed not partakers of the same glory but according to their nature will be participate participators of a better condition for god will restore a perfect state in the world now fallen together with mankind and again same thing i said about martin luther he's talking about the thousand-year reign of christ when the curse will be removed and again animals and human beings will all get along together when jesus christ becomes king of kings and lord of lords on the earth the third one he mentioned was john wesley founder of the methodist church he writes will even the brute creation always remain in this deplorable or sinful condition he said god forbid that we would affirm this yea or even entertain such a thought while the whole creation groaneth together whether man attend or not their groans enter into the ears of him that made them in other words god hears the groans of his creatures while his creatures travail together in pain he knows their pain and is bringing them near and near to the birth which will be accomplished in its season he seeth that earnest expectation wherewith the whole animated creation waiteth for the final manifestation of the sons of god in which they themselves will be delivered into the glorious liberty of the children of god behold i make all things new and again it's the same as we said for luther and for calvin he's talking about the thousand year reign of christ on the earth not the eternal kingdom of heaven that we read about at the end of revelation all right you ready for another first corinthians chapter 15. and this one's kind of bizarre as far as trying to figure out how animals fit into this but beginning verse 47 says the first man was of the earth made of dust the second man is the lord from heaven of course jesus christ as a man of dust so also those who are made of dust and as of the heavenly man so also are those who are heavenly and as we have borne the image of the man of dust we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man jesus christ now this i say brethren that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god nor does corruption inherit incorruption behold i tell you a mystery we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye the last trumpet the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised incorruptible and we shall all be changed for this corruptable must have put on incorruption the immortal must put on immortality so when the corruptable is put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory oh death where is your sting oh grave where is your mem your victory so we sing victory in jesus thanks be to god who gives us a victory through our lord jesus christ to this these verses jack van impe quotes dr john uh walvard who was a past president of dallas theological seminary known as a very conservative seminary back in the day when he was the president there he writes that this is the greatest prophetic genius of the 20th century and he says our pets will be raised from the dead at the rapture i got to tell you i could not independently verify that i could not find where john walvard ever said anything like that he mentions the context in chapter 15 if you look back to verse 39 i believe it is that all flesh is not the same flesh but there is one flesh of men another flesh of animals and other flesh and i don't know maybe because he's telling man starts off in the flesh just like animals have flesh that somehow know that they will be involved in the rapture but that's a big leap there now first corinthians 15 50 tells us flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven uh children of the first adam must be transformed by the second adam if you intend to enter the eternal kingdom of heaven that's why jesus told us in john 3 3 most assuredly i say unto you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of god and of course there's no scripture in there where animals can be born again so therefore i think that one falls away now did i tell you we're going to revelation we covered the whole bible tonight revelation chapter 4 and verse 6. and i'll go ahead and tell you before we get here this one's kind of a stretch too revelation chapter 4 verse 6 behold the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal in the midst of the throne around the throne there were four living creatures full of eyes front and back the first living creature was like a lion the second living creature like a calf the third living creature had the face of a man and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle and then he goes goes on with that well jack van impe says that j vernon mcgee the author of through the bible series many of you may have that commentary uh he makes an astounding claims about the four beasts who praise god he says for those four living creatures the lion represents the wild beast the calf represents domesticated beasts the eagles represents the birds man of course represents the head of creation he said no mention of fish no more sea no reptiles no serpent would be in who introduced sin at the beginning in genesis so i guess serpents don't get to go to heaven anyhow he he took that as all these representatives of life on earth praising god as some kind of proof that animals would be in heaven and then chapter 5 verse 13 and 14 talks about how these four creatures worship and he says you see every animal creature of god joins in the universal worship of him both in heaven and in earth again in the new earth there will obviously be animals but nowhere in the bible does it say that we will know specific animals from this life there may be dogs on the new earth the thousand year reign of christ the millennium but nowhere in the bible does it say that dogs will be in heaven or that my dog from my childhood fluffy will be up there so again there may be some kind of animals on earth during the thousand year reign but there is no promise that the dogs that we have known of course some of the dogs i've known it wouldn't be heaven if they were there but nevertheless we we did have we did have one favorite dog when i was a kid named fluffy and there's nothing in the bible that says that he will be there let me conclude this section by quoting john macarthur who by the way jack van impe did not quote him and he says our pets are precious to us and sometimes it's difficult to imagine heaven without them one canadian broadcaster even wrote i was quite shaken by this revelation that my dog won't be in heaven an after-world that deprived me of my dog seemed to be less than heaven macarthur says though we appreciate that man from canada's attachment to his pet we have to look to the bible for answers to the question of animals in heaven obviously the bible doesn't give us a direct answer but it does provide information about heaven and animals to guide us to better informed decisions and of course he goes on to describe how the bible uh shows us that people are unique beings on the earth we're created in the image of god we've been given dominion over the animal world he also goes into the fact that human beings because of the being an image of god uh have decisions to make about our relationship to the lord god and that determines whether we enter a place called heaven or whether we spend eternity in a place called hail he goes on then to say that animals don't have a moral dimension to their existence they don't sin against god and cannot understand the good news about jesus dogs cannot become christians animals are not spiritual beings like humans are so animals do not go to heaven in the way that human beings do by believing in jesus and by gaining eternal life he said it doesn't mean that there will be no animal interaction in the future and again he quotes isaiah 11 and isaiah 65 but when you get to the new heaven and new earth in revelation 21 22 there's no mention of animals at all at that point but he goes on to say since the bible doesn't see the way we just have to trust god who will provide everything we need to find happiness in heaven so that's the end of that section but how do we wrap this up how's danny going to wrap this thing up tonight well is we've already pretty well made the point through all these scriptures is that if we're rightly dividing the word of truth there is no evidence from the bible that ugga six from the university of georgia or fluffy from my childhood or anybody else's dog will be in heaven i know it's easy to get attached to our dogs and cats and canaries and iguanas and other things that people make pets and i know they bring us companionship even to the point of calling them like we do about dogs man's best friend by the way i checked it out where'd that saying come from and it was first recorded by frederick the great of persia of prussia so for those of you who didn't know that that's where a man's best friend came from is uh prussia well anyway the bible teaches us that we should be kind to our pets we should be good to our animals proverbs 12 10 says a righteous man regards the life of his animal but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel i read that early on my father read that to me and told me that we shouldn't mistreat our animals we should not be cruel and we should be kind to animals and our pet animals can bring us lots of joy but you know what the bible teaches us when it comes to heaven we actually have much higher priorities than this when we all get to heaven our focus will not be on trying to find fido the dog or felix the cat the number one attraction in heaven will be jesus christ being in the presence of our lord and savior jesus christ and after that the second thing that we'll be most excited about again will not be looking for our animals we'll be looking for people who we helped get to heaven through sharing our testimony and you say now danny where did you find that well paul writes about this in first thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 19. he says what is our hope what is our joy what is our crown of rejoicing you wondered how you get crowns in heaven he says how do we get these crowns that we're going to have is it not even you in the presence of our lord jesus christ at his coming for you are our glory and our joy so paul had led these thessalonians believers to faith in christ and so what he looked forward to seeing in heaven was not some animal that he had known as a child he was looking forward to these thessalonian believers that he had led to faith in jesus christ he said you're going to be my glory you're going to be my joy you're going to be my crown of rejoicing and that's what people who we help lead to the lord and again we need i think we need to spend some time thinking about that you know the earlier generation our ancestors uh particularly of our ancestors who were here in america they were more surrounded by animals than we are today and they seem to understand this concept that we need to spend our lives not so much worried about whether animals make it to heaven but whether the people that we meet will make it to heaven that was their emphasis you gotta remember in the 1800s about 90 percent of the population of america lived on farms today that is less than one percent i know you know you may have a few animals around but i'm talking about making your living farming where you're out there doing it only less than one percent also in the 1800s there was more a lot more bible reading and not much tv watching how many of you know they want the tv in the 1800s what did they do with themselves well some of them read the bible so even though people were surrounded by animals we have one or two animals and we fall in love with them those folks live with horses cows pigs goats chickens dogs cats you name it and they but they were more concerned with soul-winning other human beings than they were worrying about their pets they were concerned about leading people to faith in jesus christ leading people to heaven when they thought about heaven they were really not concerned about their animals being there they were concerned is will my loved ones be there will my neighbors be there will my friends be there to let you know the hymn book has changed we don't sing too many hymns like they used to sing back in the good old revival times back in the 1800s they had songs like bringing in the sheaves bringing the sheaves was based on psalm 126 5 those who sow in tears shall reap enjoy he who continually goes forth weeping bearing precious seed for sowing shall doubtless come again rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him and again most of us since any but about one percent of us lives on a farm anymore we don't understand harvest time but harvest time back in the day you cut down stalks of wheat in the field you bound them into bundles and that was called a sheaf some are about this big around and you'd use one of those pieces of wheat straw in order to tie that thing together and you'd stack them in the field and then you would gather them into the barns so that you would have bread to survive the winter and so bringing in the sheaves was a song to remind people that one of these days there's going to be a great soul harvest at the second coming of jesus christ and we will rejoice when we get to heaven and we'll see people who we helped get there because we were soul winners because we told them about the lord jesus christ and we encourage them to put their faith and trust in him and so in the old 1956 baptist hymnals not in the new one i don't think they sung bringing in the sheaves especially at revival time because back in the day when you had a revival you'd go out and try to find all your lost friends and neighbors invite them to church so they could hear the gospel being shared because we were concerned about their souls we wanted to make sure that when they died and back in those days we didn't have as much medicine and emergency rooms and hospitals and all that good stuff then and people died for a lot of reasons back then and you didn't want to see your soul go out into eternity without being saved and so at revival time that was one of the standby songs that you could that you would hear sung i even remember when i was a little boy going forth with weeping sowing for the master though the lost sustained our spirit often grieves in other words it's frustrating because not everybody listens to us not everybody will want to come to church and hear the gospel being preached so sometimes we grieve but when our weeping's over he will bid us welcome jesus said is and we shall come rejoicing bringing in the sheep how many of you ever heard that song before yeah that used to be a regular old revival standby also these earlier generations of baptists took the idea of soul winning so seriously that they even sung a soul a song about how ashamed they would be if they spent their entire life down here on earth and had never won a single soul to jesus christ how many baptists do you think worries about that today i've spent a whole lifetime down here on earth and i've never led a soul to jesus christ so another one of those revival songs that they would sing is oh you saints or rousby earnest up and work while yet his day before the night of death or take thee strive for souls while you still may must i go and empty-handed must i meet my savior so not one soul with which to greet him must i empty handed go can you imagine a modern day church singing a guilt trip song like that where we actually sit there and say you know what if i stay here and be accountable for myself i haven't done much as far as gathering those sheaves to take people into the kingdom of heaven with me you know i think our priorities are out of line in this country i'm not picking on people who have pets i'm not picking on people who love their pets i'm just reminding us of what we recently studied on a sunday morning that is about priorities what seek ye first the kingdom of god and his righteousness i think we've lost our priorities if we worry more about our dog going to heaven than we do about getting people to heaven i did a little research and found out that americans all of us together generate about 12.3 trillion dollars a year in income i also found out that of that 12.3 trillion dollars we spend 40 billion dollars on pet food but we only spend 11 billion dollars on foreign missions did y'all did you all hear that right 40 billion dollars on pet food about 10 billion dollars on foreign missions and i hope that does not mean that we're four times more concerned about our pets than we are about lost humanity but if that is the case let me ask what do you think it would take to bring revival back to america where we're actually worried about souls again what would it take to get christians concerned about people's souls it agrees me to think about this but you know the last time i actually saw parents in the altar weeping for their lost children late 1960s i was just a little boy an 18 year old boys were being drafted and were going and dying in vietnam and mom and dad wanted to make sure before he left here that his soul was saved if he didn't come back now maybe i was wrong because maybe you can find another time since then where you've seen folks seriously concerned about souls will it take another major war to get us worried about souls again so maybe a better question for the evening is consider not whether dogs or cats will go to heaven but will my parents go to heaven will my spouse go to heaven well my son will my daughter well my neighbor well my co-worker have ever asked my co-worker that i've worked 15 years with if he was sure if today was his day to die that he's ready to meet the lord let's pray our father we thank you for all the blessings of life for providing us the sunshine of a new day so we can look around and see the beautiful world that you've created we thank you lord for providing for our needs the necessities of life food clothing and shelter and yes lord we also thank you for the animals that you provided that have become our pets that bring us great pleasure and lord while we enjoy these pleasures you give us lord help us to be thankful for your blessings but also to be faithful to accomplish your purpose for why you had us born on this earth to start with lord help us help us to get into your word and to get your kingdom perspective your heavenly perspective to start looking at the world the way that you see the world lord let our hearts be broken with the things that break your heart and we know that your heart is broken for lost humanity which is why you sent your son jesus christ into the world to seek and save that which is lost lord help us to get on that agenda too we pray this in jesus name amen

Channel: Northlake Baptist Church

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Length: 37min 7sec (2227 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 11 2021