It’s a sad day as I write this. After being a loyal companion for 12 years, our good and faithful doggie, Daisy, became sick with cancer and had to be put to sleep. Strange the euphemisms we use for this. She is “Crossing over the Rainbow Bridge.” She is being “put to sleep” or “put down.” The mournful reality is that we killed because she was in considerable pain, and this was the most merciful thing we could do for her. But we don’t like to talk about it. People in general do not like to talk about death and are fond of using euphemisms for it. It is no different with our pets.

Daisy’s true owner and the one who loved her dearly, had never heard the term “Crossing over the Rainbow Bridge.” So I looked it up because I, too, was curious from where it came.

Elizabeth’s question came from another sad inquiry direct to me, wondering if dogs go to heaven. Well, why not? Certainly the amazing, erudite, and no-nonsense (he can not tolerate certain species of ignorant Thomists and others who reduce God to a monster by the thought of an eternal and never-ending place called “hell.” and he makes this fact quite clear in his acerbic statements toward them!) scholar, David Bentely Hart, thinks this idea is well within reason, given the idea that Apokatastasis means “restoration,” and more succinctly, the restoration of all things. (Acts 3:21 “whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.)

Such thinking, both of dogs going to heaven, and more broadly, that all men and women shall one day stand before God perfected, forgiven, and participating in the divine love, gives screaming dyspepsia to the large majority of Christians who prattle on blandly about “God’s love” and yet believe in a God who is more like Zeus than Jesus. Thomists such as Edward Feser, for whom I should pray because I despise both his writing and his overall approach to God and life, are in the

forefront of those having a bad case of the vapors over such joyous thoughts as seeing again those whom we have loved in this world, even if they have been the worst of unrepentant misfits. Mention in addition the possibility of animals in heaven and their dyspepsia becomes nuclear. It is a sight to behold how upset some folks can get over the idea of anyone else but “the elect,” or those in their little clique of doctrinally perfect believers, obtaining eternal felicity.

In doing my due diligence on the subject, I found this:

Randy Alcorn, the leading expert on the Christian afterlife and author of the bestseller, Heaven, believes that this extends to animals. He writes, “Horses, cats, dogs, deer, dolphins, and squirrels—as well as the inanimate creation—will be beneficiaries of Christ’s death and resurrection.”

Indeed, the Bible confirms there are animals in Heaven. Isaiah 11:6 describes several types (predator and prey) living in peace with one another “and a little child will lead them.” If God created animals for the Garden of Eden to give us a picture of His ideal place, He will surely include them in Heaven—God’s perfect new Eden! If these animals live in Heaven, there’s hope that our pets could be there too. Dr. Wendell Estep, retired pastor of First Baptist Church, said, “In Revelation 19:11, Jesus is riding on a white horse. So, if a horse is in Heaven—why not my dog ‘Tex?’” Another pastor proclaimed, “We often forget, God can do anything He wants to!”

Martin Luther, “Father of the Protestant Reformation” and founder of the Lutheran church, outlined, “In Paradise there was complete harmony between man and animals; one day again that harmony will be restored and all creation will be made anew.” New creation—man and animal—will live together in peace.

I think the real problem behind the thinking that our pets will not be in heaven – along with a vast number of other intelligent animals such as monkeys, pigs, giraffes, etc. – is that Christians have been programmed to disbelieve that Christ’s glorious Resurrection from death was an act that undid ALL the Pandora’s Box of curses that Adam unleashed in the Garden. (Romans 5:18 Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.) What Adam did to all, Christ undid for all.

It seems to me that salvation has become a uniquely individualized concept. It is just about ME, meaning that if others don’t repent, even through no fault of their own such as never hearing the Gospel or the name of Jesus, well, that’s just too bad for them, but they deserve it because they are God-haters. Now you may think this last statement to be an exaggeration, but I heard exactly these words one day many years ago after services at Emmanuel Baptist church, while engaged in a discussion of the lost in Africa and those who had never heard of Jesus. In retrospect, the sense I got from the person who made this a statement was a rather smug and self-assured justification. He had his salvation and that means that God sending other sinners to hell is perfectly fine with him. Perhaps I overstate this case, not being able to see his heart, but the way he said what he said, and the tone of voice, left me with that impression.

Perhaps this is why we are not converting the world. We serve a God who is loving beyond comprehension and proved it by leaving the glories of heaven to be spit upon, shamed, and killed in the most dreadful manner possible. That is love. That is real love. But instead of presenting Him as the Father who loves and will save and heal all His desperately sick children, bringing them home to share in His love, we present Him as the God of Thunder, the “Mighty Smiter,” a term Brad Jersak coined to describe how people, especially Christians, have seen God over the centuries. A God who is fierce Judge and Condemner, and who certainly will not do something as silly and useless as enhancing the joy of heaven by having us restored to union with not only our loved ones, but even the very pets we held dear to our hearts in this life.

She was a good doggie!