Feb

10

Why Sushi will be in heaven

February 10, 2008 |

Posted by bcwb · Filed Under Salvation, General Discussion, Random thoughts 

This is my first ever blog entry! 

Yes Sushi will be in heaven; along with Blake, Halley, Onyx and Puff.I am talking about pets that I have had throughout my life. 

I would love to say that I am completely neutral on the subject of pets/animals in heaven but I am not. To be quite honest I want all my pets there and not one thread of me is embarrassed to say so. Kids will tell you their goldfish and gerbil are in heaven as well, and we all know children make the greatest philosophers.

Emotions are pure hell! On one hand the Holy Spirit will use emotions to indicate good or bad, fact or fiction. On the other hand they mislead us and steer us away from truth. My emotions tell me that animals will dwell in the life to come but that doesn’t mean I am correct. This nudges me to go further than ooey-gooey feelings to see if there is any real substance to hang my position on. 

First off let us not appeal to authority both sides have scholars on their list. As soon as I say Martin Luther, the anti group will put an equally qualified scholar against Luther.Unfortunately the same holds for Scripture as well. Neither campaign can lay hold to verses that firmly defend their position.Instead I would like to quote the distinguished Catholic philosopher Dr. Peter Kreeft when he says “Why not?” 

The antagonist (said lovingly) will often use two so-called powerful arguments against animals in the Kingdom:

1)   The bible doesn’t say animals have souls

2)   Jesus dies for humanity only 

The first argument is pure speculation at best. In fact it is a philosophical fallacy the Fallacy of the Consequent. It assumes a conclusion based on a premise. In this case it assumes that animals are soulless because the bible doesn’t say otherwise. But this is a pathetic position to cling to because there are millions of truths in the universe that are not mentioned in the bible. Anyway, when I read the earliest parts of Genesis I am not inclined to say animals don’t have souls. But let’s say the antagonist is correct that animals are soulless – so what! As humans we are preoccupied with the salvation of a soul because we have sinned and have turned away from God. Clearly animals don’t sin. As Dr. William Lane Craig has pointed out, “when a lion kills a zebra he isn’t murdering the zebra.” The lion’s act is a direct result of The Fall. In this case the zebra and lion are both victims of The Fall. 

I would like to go one step further in this. It is important to note that Jesus rose physically from the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, not spiritually. So to say “well animals don’t have souls” is hardly a handcuff on God’s wrists. 

What about number two. Well here again, the argument assumes that animals need a Savior. It assumes that there is guilt on the part of animals that needs cleansing and I am not willing to go there. Nowhere in Scripture is God angry at the animal world for disobedience or their idolatrous ways.  Not only that but Romans 8 seems to say all of creation was freed at the death and resurrection of Christ.Our antagonist friend says “what about the Noahdic Flood?” Here again, Scripture points only to the people being corrupt. For the second time in one book, animals suffer due to man’s disobedience. However, this is not a good position to come down on for my antagonist friend; because many scholars see the ark as having an eschatological/salvivic symbolism.Lastly, if he points to the notion of saving animals for food then it needs to be mentioned that every type of animal on the ark wasn’t edible. The ark was not a floating meat market! 

Those are just two arguments in mainstream that oppose my belief. There are many others but I don’t have the space to address them. 

There is a much bigger issue that needs looked at when discussing redemption. I think Christian’s hold the word redemption to only mean mankind. Granted we are God’s greatest creation but we are not his only creation. God created humans, the cosmos, the moral law and animals of the ground, air and sea. All of these suffered at The Fall and to say that Jesus came to only put humans to right is essentially saying that God will accept defeat on everything else. I find this totally bizarre!In essence God created “X”, “X” was ruined at the fall, but God isn’t interested in restoring and “X”, in fact God is quite content with letting “X” fall short of his original design. Take the words of N.T. Wright: 

“It starts with Genesis and ends with Revelation. And it is a story about a Creator and his cosmos. And a story about a cosmos that goes wrong; and how the Creator puts it to rights. It isn’t a story about the Creator saying “This nasty little world has rebelled. We’ll kick it into touch, and oh we’ll rescue a few people because it will be nice to have some company in my otherwise lonely heaven.” It is about God the Creator loving the world so much that he is sorting it out. But He is putting it to rights, that he is restoring it.”

 I am not concerned about “the how” of God’s plan. How will my pets and I be reunited, how will God house all these animals, where are they stored at right now? The questions are entertaining but answers are completely speculative.I was reading a document by someone who scoffed at the idea of pets in the afterlife and their reasoning was the image of a jungle in heaven. That was it! And they were serious!Their logic was structured on the notion that heaven would look like a jungle with tigers here, parrots there. As if Yahweh, who brought the universe, time, matter and energy into existence couldn’t bring order in heaven?? 

Why is it we are bothered by the deaths of animals? Why are we moved when we see gorillas being destroyed simply to have their hands cut-off and sold on the market? Or when we see an elephant killed for it’s ivory tusks? There is a part of us that is disturbed when we see a dog laying on the side of the road.

Remember Barbaro? Absolutely no one watching those events unfold at the 2006 Preakness was unmoved or smug.

But why? If these are nothing more than soulless sacks of life temporarily holding down a spot on earth for us to eat, own or see in the zoo, then why don’t ears of corn bother me when I see them wither in the summer sun? I work at a power plant and not once have I ever looked at a lump of coal and felt a tug in my heart knowing it was getting ready to be burned and cease its existence. 

Ahh, what about the fly that I kill with the flyswatter right? Why don’t my emotions stir when I destroy a pesky fly? This is brings me to my next statement that there is clearly a difference in our connectedness with animals. The plankton eaten off the bottom of the sea doesn’t have the same connection with us like the whale on the end of the harpoon. 

In case you are wondering; no I am not a vegetarian. I love a good steak any day of the week! But I do believe there is abuse in how much meat we eat. I plan on submitting another blog in the near future covering this subject. 

The Resurrection was the most wonderful event ever. The whole universe jumped for joy when the rock was rolled away. He rode in on a donkey, he’ll return on a horse and as far as I am concerned I will someday be permitted to see both of them. Unless of course the horse is apocalyptic imagery….. 

I want to close with this final exhortation from Peter Kreeft: 

Our pictures of Heaven simply do not move us; they are not moving pictures. It is this aesthetic failure rather than intellectual or moral failures in our pictures of Heaven and of God that threatens faith most potently today. Our pictures of Heaven are dull, platitudinous and syrupy; therefore, so is our faith, our hope, and our love of Heaven. It is surely a Satanic triumph of the first order to have taken the fascination out of a doctrine that must be either a fascinating lie or a fascinating fact. Even if people think of Heaven as a fascinating lie, they are at least fascinated with it, and that can spur further thinking, which can lead to belief. But if it’s dull, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a dull lie or a dull truth. Dullness, not doubt, is the strongest enemy of faith, just as indifference, not hate, is the strongest enemy of love. 


Comments

3 Comments so far

  1. JoanieD on February 11, 2008 6:59 am

    This is a wonderful post! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I and my husband would love to see our beloved kitty-cat, Furbish, again.

    Joanie D.

  2. vancemac on February 11, 2008 2:07 pm

    Thanks, I love that quote from Kreeft at the end. If God made us “in His image”, with all the things that we enjoy and take pleasure in, why would He entirely transform us into creatures entirely different, with different interests and pleasures and joys when we move on to the “new heavens and new earth”?

  3. bcwb on February 12, 2008 7:29 am

    JoanieD and Vancemac:

    Thanks for taking time to drop me a comment.

    Heaven is going to be so splendid and full of wonder and joy!
    My daughter just turned 2 and everything to her is exciting, fresh and new. From a helicopter to a squirrel flying from tree to tree.

    And just to think that the Kingdom has all that and more waiting to burst our hearts with joy.

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