They Will Be There!!!!!

In the past I have posted what I consider to be signs that animals will be in heaven and on the new earth with us.  Just a quick word for those who dont like religion, tomorrow we get back to collie antics. 🙂  But, for those of us who find this a important question I have the following  excerpt from the bible;

“Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us later. For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who His children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in 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. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us.” Romans 8:18-23

Now if ALL OF CREATION is looking forward to the day of Christ’s return why would they do so if it meant eternal destruction or eternal dissolution of their soul and body?  Coupled with all the references in the Bible of animals mentioned in the future end times I think we have another sign that they will be there with us.

Now, Martin Luther believed animals could be in heaven with us and John Calvin, who is not given to any sort of sentimentality in the area of the afterlife in Heaven on the new earth wrote the following about the above quote;

for all creatures shall be renewed in order to amplify it, and to render it illustrious.

 

However, just for food of thought…. God not only made covenants with humans he also made them with animals.  Now why would God make a covenant with animals if they are just soulless beings?  Some may have a explanation for that… but I am not buying it.  Here are a couple of quotes from the Bible…

“Behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.” Genesis 9:9-10

-and-

“And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.” Genesis 9:16

Now for those of the beautiful Catholic faith John Paul II said the following;

“the animals possess a soul and men
must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren”

Now animals committed no sin…. they just suffered from the fall of humanity and still do.  Humans were not given dominion over them to do as they please but to care and help them and yes use them for help in farming and for food sources but to do so in a humane way.  It is not a reward but a terrible responsibility for you see we are to care for them….. not beat them, kill them brutally for no reason or what have you, but to care for them.

Martin Luther said something that I think will haunt many ppl on the last day.

In one of his Sermons on Romans 8:18-22 Luther wrote in effect that on the last day animals will cry out against those who abused them…….

Think of it…. what a horrible responsibility….. not only for ourselves, our families and friends and other humans but also the animals in our charge…… not such a dominion thing after all is it?

In closing let me say that I’ve read Luther, Calvin, Jerome, Augustine, JPII, the Bible, the Confessions of almost every faith and I learned a lot.  But, none of these things written by the greatest minds of Christendom taught one-tenth as much as those loving collies eyes looking up at me of all my collies who taught me what true love is, what true forgiveness is, what patience is, what hope is, what charity is and above all what it is to be like God in our earthly walk.  To them I owe any success I have had in trying to live a decent life which they so aptly put me to shame in doing….

If in the end, I dont make it to heaven I do hope they are there…. for they deserve it… for they did no wrong, commited no sins and were victims like all animals of the fall of humanity.  Thank You God for bringing my collies into my life…..

-to all the collies past and present, but especially to my Lil’ Hallie who loves me so much more than I deserve and so happily is filling the shoes of those Giants who came before her……