All Dogs and Heaven

Several years ago I had a prior coworker call me out of the blue. She had left the state, but she knew I was a Christian and she had my work number, so she called with a critical question. "When dogs die, do they go to heaven?" No, stop laughing. She sincerely thought it was critical. "Because if my dog doesn't go to heaven, I'm not sure I want to go."

The anecdote gives rise to a variety of possible considerations. Are you planning to go to heaven because you'll be happy or because you want to be with God? Is your ____ (fill in the blank with any earthly consideration) more important to you than God? And others, obviously. But this is Saturday and I typically try to keep Saturdays light, so here's another you may not have considered. What does the Bible say about animals in heaven?

Well, first, we know there will be horses. After all, John tells us quite often about seeing horses in heaven (Rev 6:2, 4, 5, 8; Rev 19:11, 19, 21). From the "four horsemen of the Apocalypse" to the rider called Faithful and True, horses play a part in heavenly things.

One of the well-known and even beloved verses from Scripture tells us, "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them" (Isa 11:6), so we have wolves and lambs, leopards and goats, calves and lions. Clearly there are animals.

Of course, the two most common questions are about cats and dogs because, after all, those are out two most common pets. Well, we can be absolutely certain that there will be cats in heaven because we know from Revelation 15:2 that there are harps in heaven and we'll have to make those harp strings somehow. As for dogs, I'm afraid the answer isn't quite as popular. As John describes heaven in its final glory (Rev 22), he assures us, "Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral ..." (Rev 22:15). Sorry, folks, dogs are outside heaven, not inside, even if the movies assure us that all dogs go to heaven.

Okay, none of this was intended to be serious and none of it should be construed as helpful in any way to the question of animals in heaven. For instance, I'm pretty sure that God can make harp strings without cats and I do know that the reference to "dogs" actually refers to the worst of sinners, not the animals itself. On the other hand, if you're one who won't be happy in heaven without your favorite pet, I think there are far more serious questions for you to consider than whether or not your pet will be in heaven.