Heaven Is for Animals Too: Hope and Comfort for Believers and Skeptics - Softcover

Melinda Cerisano, Melinda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1491724218 ISBN 13: 9781491724217

Publisher: iUniverse, 2015

Synopsis

If you are an animal lover or if you have experienced the dreadful pain of losing a beloved pet, fasten your seatbelt, for this is a journey into the age-old controversy; do animals go to heaven? For almost a decade, Melinda Cerisano has devoted herself to the examination of one of the most famous pieces of literature to answer this question. You will be shocked to discover what the Bible reveals about the animal kingdom. You will discover how translations evolved, what heaven looks like, and who occupies the celestial kingdom. Do you really need to be made in God’s image to be admitted into heaven? Do animals have souls? Discover an interesting link between a main character of the Bible and the ancient practice of animal sacrifice. God does have a game plan for your pet in the afterlife. Not one sparrow is forgotten. When God created the animals, he said, “It is Good”. Enjoy a good read about how your pet is important to God and will not be forgotten after death. Discover God’s grace, God’s mercy, and the call to heaven. After all, Heaven Is for Animals Too.

About this title

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Heaven is for Animals Too

Hope and Comfort for Believers and Skeptics

By Melinda Cerisano, Steve. A. Roberts

iUniverse

Copyright © 2015 Melinda Cerisano
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-4917-2421-7

Contents

Preface, ix, 
Acknowledgments, xv, 
Introduction, xix, 
Chapter 1: The Loss, 3, 
Chapter 2: The True Meaning of Dominion, 13, 
Chapter 3: A Place on the Ark and the Laws of Noah, 29, 
Chapter 4: The Last Sacrificial Lamb, 47, 
Chapter 5: Animals Have Souls and Spirits—What Original Translation Reveals, 63, 
Chapter 6: A Free "Ticket to Ride", 89, 
Chapter 7: The Nature of Heaven, 115, 
Chapter 8: Celestial Beings, 139, 
Chapter 9: God's Animal Kingdom, 149, 
Epilogue, 177, 
Poem— Animals Not Forgotten, 185, 
Appendix A: Other Opinions, 187, 
Appendix B: Biblical Verses by Category, 189, 
Appendix C: Recommended Reading, 227, 
Bibliography, 231, 
Index, 243, 
Verse Index, 253, 

CHAPTER 1

THE LOSS

For the Lord thy God is a merciful God; he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them. —Deuteronomy 4:31 KJV

It is 2:00 a.m., and I awaken from a light, anxious sleep. Outside, fires are raging. Inside, Noel is coughing and gasping for air at my bedside. In a selfish way, I feel blessed that my dog is still with me tonight. I know it is close. Tears flow. I am agonizing over the decision process. Today? Tomorrow? When? Should the vet come to the house? He is only available on certain days. Noel needs to go out to the bathroom. I grab a flashlight. Her tumors are large and have grown aggressively within the last eight weeks. It started with a small bump on her leg. Now they are everywhere, from her lungs to her kidneys. Geez, she is only two years, eight months old. Are all German shepherds this susceptible to cancer? Her eyes are seriously bloodshot. She is exhausted by the simple act of breathing.

Outside, I see the orange glow of the fire in Camp Pendleton. I see the flames behind the mountain range that separates me from the marine base, a mere fourteen miles away. I am used to the routine activity of the base: the Hueys, the Cobras, the Black Hawks, the training exercises, the bombings. But this ... What is going on? There is no local news on the TV concerning this particular fire.

The horses? I only have a three-horse trailer, and I own four horses. I had better measure the side door of my horse trailer to see if one horse can fit into the tack room. I can't leave one horse behind. My husband is in Tokyo, and Southern California is riddled with fires. Evacuate?

Shoot. I can see with the beam of my flashlight that Noel is urinating solid-red blood. Her kidney tumor must have ruptured. Tears. Lord help her ... and me. Madness.

Have you lost your best friend? Have you experienced the anguish of losing a pet and the unconditional love that our animal companions bring to our lives? Bereavement can bring on intense, stifling emotions, and the feelings of loss can linger for a lifetime. When the storm clouds swoop over us in our time of loss, the thunder booms with frightening questions:

1) Does my pet have a soul?

2) Will my pet go to heaven?

3) Will I see my pet again in the afterlife?

4) What is my pet feeling as life on earth ceases? Is there pain?

5) If there is a God, where is he now?

Do animals have souls? In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. This is the first line of the Bible. Nineteen verses later, God made the animals. Whether or not you believe in the creation theory or whether you see this as illustrative, there is a relevant fact regarding animal souls. And did you notice that in Genesis 1:20–21, quoted at the start of the introduction, animals' souls are mentioned twice? What is significant in this verse set at the beginning of the Bible is that it is a direct interpretation from the original Hebrew. In the common English translations of the Bible that we have come to know today, the word "soul" has been left out completely. This is something we will examine in detail down the road.

The second and third questions listed above are, for many people who love animals, the big ones: will my pet be in heaven and will I see my pet again? We will soon see that pets are given spirits as well as souls. Their spirits/souls will be lifted up and returned to God. But when you experience the death of a pet, you may naturally start to wonder about death and your own mortality. When we die, do we sleep until the coming of Christ? Do we go in spirit to heaven? Is there a third possibility? Many of these questions that beg for answers during the time of loss are mysteries, but they are mysteries that we can dive into together. We will soon look at many mysteries of the Bible, from Genesis to the book of Revelation, the last and most exciting book of the Bible. It includes details about the end times and the defeat over evil. Rest assured that there are animals mentioned in this apocalyptic story as well. This futuristic event, when redemption begets heaven and eternity is reality, has been described by several Old and New Testament prophets. They clearly include the animals in these predictions.

So what does a pet feel, and does it experience pain when death comes? As I held my dying dog in my arms, as my fingertips felt the weak heartbeat lapse into silence, I certainly pondered where her essence was as she took her last breath. We know that animals are sentient beings, and sentient beings have understanding. As John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, said in Sermon 60:

What then is the barrier between men and brutes? ... It was not reason. Set aside that ambiguous term: exchange it for the plain word, understanding: and who can deny that the brutes have this? We may as well deny that they have sight or hearing.

I do not believe that anyone doubts whether animals feel joy, happiness, loneliness, hunger, shame, sadness, and pain. Because animals operate under instincts from God, their pain is not always obvious to us. The fact that animals are under instinct is actually an advantage in their case of inheriting eternity. When we look at man being the recipient of free will, accountability comes along with the responsibility of making a decision. Animals were not given free will, and therefore they are not under the same scrutiny that we humans are. Yes, they are under the earthly curses that we humans have lived with since the fall of Adam and the eating of the forbidden fruit. Yes, animals experience pain in their world. They hunt each other and eat flesh, also operating under the instinct or inclination that God gave them. This diff ers from us in that when they take their last breaths, their spirits and souls returns to God immediately. Our souls can do so also, but under diff erent conditions. However, God is the Creator. He made the heavens and the earth. Therefore, in the end, he has all the sovereignty over all that he made. Keep these thoughts in mind when questions about your animal's fate begin to haunt you.

The last question on the list can be perhaps the most perplexing one, depending on your faith and your beliefs about God and his nature. As you watch your pet pass away, it's hard not to wonder where God is or ask the related questions: who is God anyway, and does he even know my pet? In my opinion, God does know your pet and will not forget your pet—the pet that he created. He sends his spirit to life; he gathers his spirit from life. In the Bible, God tells us joyously about how great his creatures are.

Every covenant and blessing God made included the animals. You will see through the stories of Noah and Jesus that God is intimately connected to the animal kingdom and always has been. "Is there anything too hard for God? Does the clay tell the potter what to do? God will show mercy to whom God will show mercy." These are God's words. Animals are important to God, and he uses them for his purpose. As Dr. Humphrey Primatt, an Anglican clergyman from the 1700s, noted in A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals:

All who share with us the divine spark of conscious life, given by God at the creation, are our neighbors. All fall under the protection of the commandment to love them as we love ourselves.

Questioning the Nature of God

I don't know what your religious beliefs may be. As for who God is, and what he means to you, the answer will always reside in your heart, for your heart only. I can only say that if you have been left questioning the nature of God while suffering the loss of a pet, you will meet a God you can fall in love with: a God who loves all that he created.

Allow me to share with you something that made me smile regarding the challenge of understanding God's nature. It's an excerpt from Lee Strobel's book The Case for Faith:

Imagine a bear in a trap and a hunter who, out of sympathy, wants to liberate him. He tries to win the bear's confidence, but he can't do it, so he has to shoot the bear full of drugs. The bear, however, thinks this is an attack and that the hunter is trying to kill him. He doesn't realize that this is being done out of compassion. Then to get the bear out of the trap, the hunter has to push him further [sic] into the trap to release the tension on the spring. If the bear were semiconscious at that point, he would be more convinced that the hunter was his enemy who was out to cause him suffering and pain. But the bear would be wrong. He reaches this incorrect conclusion because he is not a human.

The analogy here is that the bear is a different species than the human and cannot see that the human is trying to be of some help. Is not God as different from us as we are from the bear? God is definitely not of the same species as we mere mortals. He is our maker. The vast difference in understanding between the bear and the human is smaller than the vastness between God and human. Therefore, God does not expect us to understand his ways completely as we read all the drama in the Bible.

I have come to believe that many of those who reject the notion of a loving God, a God who includes his animal kingdom in the afterlife, may be innocently placing God in a box. To suggest, as some theologians have, that animals are thought of by God as nothing more than furniture in the room seems to me to be a human-centered concept of God. As if we mere mortals can, with any accuracy, dictate what God is thinking ... Yet that is what often seems to happen when the topic of animals going to heaven is addressed in our culture. We seem to be unable to think outside the box, and we attach our thoughts to what God would think and then pass a judgment. But we do not know God's thoughts, as the Bible reminds us:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. —Isaiah 55:8–9 KJV

I simply cannot believe that a God of this magnitude is capable of creating a world full of beauty and life and then permanently destroying its parts, namely the animal kingdom, in the life hereafter, with his total sights on the human likeness alone. I wonder if those who believe God will reject the animals may be assuming that God has limited power. I suspect that they may be unable to think outside the box about God, and I am sure that God doesn't ever think "inside" the box!

The first chapter of the Bible sets us up to understand God's original intention. From the beginning, God teaches us about his idea of dominion. He provides dominion over us, and his first request to the human race is to be fruitful and multiply and to have dominion over the animals. At that point in time, the animals were man's only companions. So in the next chapter, as we examine God's introduction to us through the book of Genesis, let us look at how past behavior predicts future behavior. How does the beginning of time relate to the end of time? How does dominion today compare to the dominion of yesterday—the dominion God imagined? Fortunately, God is very clear about his future behavior, and it includes the animals.

Fire burned in the hills. It burned to exhaust what was left of my emotions. I did not have to evacuate that night. An act of God did not take my house. However, God did take Noel, my dog, who would never forsake me. How horrible is the pain, the heartache ... the loss.

CHAPTER 2

THE TRUE MEANING OF DOMINION

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over the whole earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth. —Genesis 1:26 DNT

We're going to begin our exploration by examining an often misunderstood and distorted term. I'm talking about the concept of "dominion." In one form or another, the idea of dominion usually crops up in discussions with those who would believe that animals do not go to heaven. "We have dominion over the animals," many people say. "God gave us dominion over them. He gave the animals to us." No, he gave us the responsibility to be good stewards over the animals. We are to exercise command as benevolent rulers over the animals. This command was given in a paradise environment.

The distinction between mankind owning the animals and mankind acting as leaders and rulers over the animals is a critical line in the sand. To me, the first assumption reflects an attitude that easily leads to a belief that we can do whatever we want with the animals. That's an alarming idea by itself, as it potentially opens the door to the justification of a world of suffering and cruelty to animals. It invites mankind to develop an arrogant, self-centered regard for the animals, despite the reality that they are a vital part of God's creation.

Most important for us to consider in our quest is where this attitude leads in relation to animals having a place in the afterlife. If we own them and have dominion over them, then that means animals are simply not as important as we are, right? They're just background players on the big stage of life on this planet. And as that line of thinking goes, if the animals are secondary figures to humans, they certainly do not belong in the same heaven that is intended for us. When they die, that's the end of the line for them. But they are God's, not ours! He decides whom he will have mercy over. We are just caretakers.

The line of thinking that the animals were made for us, or are ours to own, both scares and disturbs me. Where this conclusion goes astray is that it stems from a major misconception of dominion. What does the word "dominion" really mean? How does it relate to God's original plan for us—and for his animal kingdom? These questions demand answers. As you follow the trail of where these answers take us, you will gain a better understanding as to the nature of God and how he really feels about the animal kingdom. Note that the emphasis here is on how he feels about the animal kingdom, not how humans feel about the animal kingdom.

The journey to understanding the true meaning of "dominion" takes us back to the beginning of time. Yes, that means Adam and Eve. Remember how the God of the Christian and Jewish faith created the Garden of Eden as a perfect paradise? There was no sadness, terror, fear, or death. It was an environment of pure harmony, and it served as a reflection of God's nature. And let's not forget that the animals were included in this original picture of harmony! God placed the animals there as companions for Adam. Animals got along with one another, as well as with Adam, the keeper of Eden. And consider this: as you may or may not recall, this garden was a vegetarian garden. There was no eating of flesh.

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb producing seed that is on the whole earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree producing seed: it shall be food for you; and to every animal of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth on the earth, in which is a living soul, every green herb for food. And it was so. —Genesis 1:29–30 DNT

So Adam's relationship to the animals was such that he was not to eat them. They were to be his companions—his neighbors, if you will. God, of course, regards man in a higher status than the animals; however, he expects Adam to act responsibly. As we are told, Adam was given the privilege of naming the animals—an intimate move on God's part, I would say. Adam had been appointed steward of the animals.

And out of the ground Jehovah Elohim had formed every animal of the field and all fowl of the heavens, and brought [them] to Man, to see what he would call them; and whatever Man called each living soul, that was its name. —Genesis 2:19 DNT

This is an easy job so far. Here comes the catch ... God gave Adam one stipulation for this peaceful existence in the garden. One tree was forbidden.

... but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest of it thou shalt certainly die. —Genesis 2:17 DNT

Why did God put such a constraint on Adam and Eve, his two human occupants? Is this the first hint of the concept of "free will"? You bet it is! I suppose God could have created this garden and its perfect beings and just sat back and watched as nothing changed. That would be quite robotic—a garden of robots. God knew that he should give us choices. He also knew that evil could arise from our choices. Evil was birthed as the Bible describes, due to a group of fallen angels. The leader of this group is Lucifer, better known as Satan. God's design took into account this preexistence of evil, and he wanted us to do the right thing: to choose him.

Remembering the Nature of God

When God wanted Adam to do the right thing, to choose God, he was exhibiting his nature. Before we continue with the story of the Garden of Eden as it relates to the true meaning of dominion, allow me to off er a few further thoughts on God's nature while considering God's commitment to the animals.

The way the world exists today is not what God wanted, but it is by his design. He is omnipotent, which means he carries unlimited power, authority, or force. Let's think about this a moment. If God really created the planet, he is the intelligent designer.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Heaven is for Animals Too by Melinda Cerisano, Steve. A. Roberts. Copyright © 2015 Melinda Cerisano. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1491724218
• ISBN 13: 9781491724217
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288