What are you looking for in heaven?

Over the last few months I have found myself on the receiving end of a question that I did not know how to answer. The question, coming from a child, has left me wondering, more than once, what the answer is. And how best to give that answer. The question being asked is whether or not there will be animals in heaven. This question wasn’t posed as to whether or not animals go to heaven when they die but whether or not there are, or will be, animals in heaven.

I don’t wish to explore that topic but to look at it from a much different perspective. Anyone that has ever loved an animal has most likely either questioned whether or not animals are in heaven or else simply assured themselves that their beloved pet is in heaven. People do the same thing with their human loved ones. There is much consolation in the assurance that someone, or something, is in heaven and therefore it is much easier to simply console oneself with the belief that what or who they love is in heaven.

I have a family member that lived to a very old age. This family member did not believe in God, their description not mine,  for more than 9 decades, not counting whatever belief, if any, may have been there in childhood. In the final months of this person’s life he ‘became a believer’ and upon his death there was much rejoicing over his ‘salvation’. Family members took comfort in the fact that he had ‘become a believer’ before he died and that he was now spending eternity in heaven.

I do not know what the true condition of this man’s soul was. I loved him dearly and would like nothing more than to take comfort in the fact that he is now in heaven but the reality is that I just don’t know. I did not personally see his supposed salvation and even if I had I wouldn’t know. Does a change of belief on ones deathbed become a true conversion? Is that faith, grasped in the final days or hours, real? Is it a saving faith? I know Christ granted salvation to the man on the cross. I know that was faith attained in the final hours of life and it was a saving faith. So we know salvation can be given in the final hour of life. But I do not know if my loved one had true faith, faith unto salvation, if he was granted salvation in those final days or if the faith he grabbed onto was merely a profession, even a heartfelt one, that there is a God and he will one day be in heaven.

What I do know is that he took comfort in the faith he gained in those final days and that many loved ones are now taking comfort in the fact that he is supposedly in heaven.

But that is the same kind of comfort that many people take when they assure themselves that their pet is in heaven. It is a comfort based off their own emotions and not on Scripture. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say that a person is ‘in a better place’ or ‘in heaven’ upon death. It is the standard response to someone’s death. The person saying it may not have even known the person they speak of, they may have had no idea of the deceased person’s faith or beliefs and yet they give assurance that that person has ‘gone to glory’ or is ‘resting in the arms of Jesus’. These words are thrown around as if death is the measure that is used to determine whether or not a person is in heaven.

If you die…you go to heaven. If you’re alive on this earth…you’re not in heaven.

How wrong that train of thought is. And yet even those that profess a belief in Christ, claim to follow the Scriptures, often are the very people that are so casually tossing around these assurances.

Just the other day I received a letter from someone that was writing of a situation they are experiencing. This person wrote of how this bad experience is ‘hell’ on earth and ‘woe’ to those that find themselves in eternal hell.

Assuring a grief stricken person of their loved one’s salvation may seem to be the kinder thing to do but most of the time that person is much better acquainted with the beliefs of the deceased person than the comforter is. What if a ‘Christian’ assures someone that their loved one is in heaven while that loved one knows perfectly well that the deceased person had a deep hatred for the Lord? What message does that ‘Christian’ send to those that knew the deceased person? And how easy do they make it sound to gain entrance to heaven?

Today there is a big…trend?...of people treating their dogs as pets. I know an elderly lady that, when her health allowed her to, owned many, many, dogs. She called them her babies and her kids. She talked to them as if they were people and she treated them as if they were. Whenever she was among people that spoke of their children or grandchildren, she would join the conversation, and speak of her ‘babies’. Many times the people she spoke to assumed she was talking about human babies. Family members grew tired of hearing her speak of her ‘babies’ while often ignoring the grandchildren gathered around her.

This is not an unusual occurrence in our world today. So many people think of animals on the same terms that they think of people. We happen to own a few pets. These pets send me to the pet store on a regular basis. When I walk through the door of the pet store I can see the effects of people considering their pets to be their children. Right inside the pet store door, at two different pet stores, there are aisles of clothes designed for dogs. Fancy dresses, suits, even swim suits, are all there for the owner to buy. But it doesn’t stop there. The selection of toys for all manner of animals abounds, right down to holiday themes.

As with everything else, I know the Lord allows this for a reason. There is much idolatry that comes in when animals…or anything…come into things. Animals have a purpose in the lives of people but putting them on pedestals and worshipping them through our treatment of them is not that place.

Except…for many, it is.

And many of these people, people that baby talk animals, dress them in clothes, buy them nice beds, spend hundreds of dollars on treats and toys, are people that pay little attention to the person before them. And even less attention to the Lord. Do they, as they buy yet another dog dress for Foo-foo, think of the homeless man begging for money on the corner beside the pet store, or across town? Do they think, as they dress Foo-foo in that new dress, of the child going hungry next door?

I’m going to face reality and admit that we all spend money on things we don’t need to. Every last one of us. It isn’t the spending of money on the pets that I’m trying to point out but the mentality behind it. There are people that literally shop for their pets as if they are human. And they focus on their pets, often to the exclusion of people, even their own family.

Animals are given into our care and when we find ourselves in possession of them, for whatever reason. We should care for them and provide for their needs. I’m not suggesting otherwise. Animals do have feelings, they hunger, they thirst, they get cold, they feel pain. We should be good stewards of that which is entrusted to us. It isn’t caring for them that I’m disputing but the idea that we should treat them as if they are human, even going to extravagances for them, that I’m disputing.

Scripture tells us that the Lord is concerned with that which is spiritual in nature. Our Lord has an eternal plan that includes an eternity in heaven and hell for every single person that he creates. There is a plan for animals, just as there is for trees and grass and…all of creation…but that plan is not the same as it is for man. Animals are put here for a purpose, they play a part in the plan that the Lord has but they are not of eternal significance. They are not of the spiritual, just as trees, flowers, and the like are not.

When Scripture speaks of our souls, it never speaks of the souls of beasts but of the souls of men. Scripture does not tell us to spread the gospel to animals. It does not tell us that animals, unless given salvation, will spend an eternity in hell. In fact Scripture tells us nothing of the eternity of animals. Because it is not animals that the Lord is concerned about.

About once a month I receive a magazine in the mail from a creation institute. I’ve only received a handful of these magazines and have something of a like, dislike kind of interest in them. I do like what they speak of but often I find them writing articles for the purpose of selling something they have made, in fact, one entire magazine was nothing but ‘teasers’ for products they want you to buy. But in this magazine scientists weigh things of science against Genesis. I think this is wonderful. If only all of science was approached this way, in fact…if only all of life was approached this way, not in light of Genesis but in light of Scripture, all of Scripture.

And in light of all of Scripture we see that it is not the souls of animals but the souls of men that the Lord concerns himself with. And it is the souls of men that we should concern ourselves with. Animals are only a part of the creation that was put here for the use and enjoyment of men. They are a part of the creation.

I grew up in ‘church’ buildings and I grew up being told that, no, animals never go to heaven. I can’t remember anyone ever treating an animal like a child until the last decade or so. Maybe that was just the people I knew or maybe it was the times but this…need…to treat animals as humans seems to be fairly new. Gone are the days when animals were seen as a means of food or service to people. Today we have entire organizations dedicated to saving animals. I get emails from one such organization often. Again, I’m not saying animals don’t need our care. And some of them require the ‘help’ of people to save them from people that would eagerly kill all of their kind. But…there are those that would have us believe that we shouldn’t even eat animals because…of whatever their reasons are.

A relative told me of a conversation they had not all that long ago. In this conversation, this relative found themselves being told by a total stranger that they, my relative, should not eat meat. On and on this person went, getting onto my relative, about why meat should not be eaten. If I remember correctly my relative finally prevailed in the conversation with the simple statement of, ‘it tastes good.’ That was something this person apparently could not refute…I’m sure there are those that could. I’m not a vegetarian but I can think of a few responses to that one if you were arguing for vegetarianism.

But the very fact that someone felt that they had the right to get onto a total stranger about the foods they ate, to try and badger this person into not eating animal products, is but a single example of how far people have gone in putting animals in a place they should never be.

I wonder if the person that got onto my relative puts as much importance on their own soul as they do on why one shouldn’t eat (in their opinion) animals. I wonder if they spend half as much time thinking about where they will spend eternity as they do about who is eating what animal.

By the same token…do those that cater to their animal ‘babies’ worry over their own soul half as much as they worry over their animals? I have an account on a social media site. There’s a long story behind how I came to have that account and it is something of a mixed blessing. It never fails to amaze me and to make me want to shake my head when people post pictures of their lost animals. It isn’t the pictures of the animals, or even them asking people to keep a watch out for that animal that bothers me, it’s the…we’ve lost our baby stories. Some of these give long detailed information about the dogs personality, about their likes and dislikes, their eating habits and who knows what else. It’s just one more example of how far people go over their animals. And still I wonder…do they go that far for the Lord? For their own soul?

Chances are very good that these are the same people that would be talking about how ‘Fido’ is in a better place and how he’s ‘gone to heaven’. But let’s forget about ‘Fido’, do these same people know the Scriptures? Do they have a faith in the Lord that comes close to being a saving faith?

Chances are, unfortunately, no. People that put that much importance on their pets, so much so that they console themselves with the idea that their beloved animal is in heaven, are putting stock in their emotions. Their emotions are ruling their beliefs and not Scripture. It is those same emotions that make a person tell someone that their loved one is in heaven without having any idea if that loved one held any sort of belief in Christ.

Heaven feels good. Heaven is the place that everyone aspires to be when they die. Heaven may or may not be the heaven of Scripture but heaven is the utopia where everyone wants to spend eternity. And emotion says that if a person (or animal) has died than they must be in heaven, whatever their idea of heaven is, because the alternative is…well, there simply isn’t an alternative.

Most ‘church’ buildings no longer teach on hell, most preachers won’t speak the word hell for fear of offending someone. Most ‘Christians’ love their animals and want to believe they attain…salvation…or whatever one would call an animal going to heaven upon death. And most people want to believe that heaven can be reached by anyone, no matter what that person’s beliefs were, no matter how they lived their lives, no matter how they acted, or what kind of television programs or movies they watched. It’s the feel good, emotion based, belief system of our modern day.

I read something not all that long ago that said it is an abomination unto God to base our beliefs on our emotions. And yet that is exactly what the majority of ‘Christians’ today do. I once heard a preacher say that whatever part of the Bible makes you angry, that’s the part that you should spend your time in. And even that…is emotion based. If this part makes you angry…study it, learn from it. Because it makes you angry. Because of your anger you should read this part. Your anger. You. It’s all emotion based, all human based.

I have a relative that upon catching sight of ‘submit to your husband’ in Ephesians 5 shied away from that part quickly. There was an immediate denial in her reaction. Why? If Scripture says it… But that isn’t how this relative reacted. Here before my relative was the word of God. It is His instruction to us sure as if He stood before us and said ‘Thou shalt do this’ and yet my relative immediately shook her head and disregarded Scripture because she didn’t want to submit to her husband. That was her emotions, her reaction, causing her to respond the way she did. She started with self and went from there.

That is pretty much the basis of what is taught and lived by most people that profess a belief in Christ today. Even preachers go with what is human emotion based. They don’t say certain things because it might offend someone, they won’t read certain Scriptures or they change them because it might hurt someone’s feelings. Wives don’t submit to their husbands because…most of them probably don’t even know they’re supposed to but even if they do…they don’t want to. They believe that a simple prayer at most is all it takes to get into heaven because almost anyone has the time, even in their dying moment, to send up a quick prayer, and that caters to their need to believe that heaven is easily attained. And when heaven is easily attained through a quick prayer…why worry about whether or not you’re following Scripture? Why worry about Scripture at all?

I was recently told of someone that has supposedly done something beyond atrocious. And I was told that this person believes that they’re going to heaven when they die…despite the fact that they have no remorse for what they did. And what they did is enough to make anyone think that this person is probably far from any hope of salvation. I’m not implying I know the condition of this persons soul, that’s not for me to determine, what I’m saying is from a human standpoint this person is one of those people that we would tend to say isn’t going to heaven. And yet this person believes they are.

Why?

I don’t know the answer to that question. I do not know this person and in fact know only the very little I’ve been told of this person but I can make a guess as to why this person believes that they’re going to heaven when Scripture clearly says they aren’t. And yes, I can say that much. Whether this person will be given salvation or not, I do not know. But I do know that right now this person shows no remorse for what they’ve done and without remorse there is no repentance and Scripture says we are to repent and believe. That is the very gospel that Christ himself taught. Repent and believe.

Without those two things…can there be salvation?

And so here is a person that shows no signs of repentance and yet believes they are going to heaven. Why? Here is an example of what our emotion based religion has brought about. A false sense of…I hesitate to say salvation because a belief that one will go to heaven upon death does not mean they believe they have salvation, or even that they hold any belief in Christ. But this person despite a lack of repentance believes that they are going to heaven upon death. Because our society today pushes the belief that heaven is easily attained. At most we must say a prayer and…boom…our place in heaven is secure. It is a heaven where death is the only key needed to get through the door. Death of an animal. Death of a person. It matters not who, or what, dies, only that there is a death and then the ‘life’ is moved into heaven. Because the alternative is…well, there is no alternative. Hell almost does not exist even in ‘Christian’ circles.

I have even heard people say that if there aren’t animals in heaven they don’t want to go there. That might be a good thing because if they put that kind of stock in animals I have to wonder if they put enough stock in the Lord to get to heaven.

Who are they serving, if they can say they don’t want to go to heaven if there are no animals there, the Lord…or animals?

Years ago I babysat for a woman whose grandsons went to a Roman Catholic preschool. She invited us to go to a ‘blessing of the animals.’ I had never heard of such but soon learned that the priest was going to put a blessing on animals. I think many people consider animals a blessing, and they are, a blessing from the Lord. Where would we be without the animals he so graciously gave us? What would we eat without them? How would jobs that animals do get done? Even the companionship of an animal is a blessing but I hesitate to say that because so many take that companionship to extremes, putting animals on a level with people.

But people that look at animals with such high esteem are people that are approaching the Lord not as His creation themselves but they look to the God they believe will do what they want. And what do they want with a God that does not let their beloved pet into heaven? I heard someone say that they would do all they could to keep from running over an animal while they were driving, even at the expense of their own life. Now, this someone was a child and their thoughts on that may change by the time they can drive, but that very mentality is alive and well among many, many people. And it’s that mentality that lets them judge the Lord for how He treats His creation when it comes to the death and eternity…or not…of animals.

It’s about their feelings, their wants, their ideas. They start with them and look outward to the Lord. They say that the electric company smart meters send out signals in a fan shape from the meter. These meters start at the house, or pole, or whatever they’re connected to, and fan out from there, eventually getting a signal to the main electric grid…or whatever you call that…where the electric company can monitor your usage. That is much the way people look at ‘God’ today. They start with them and life, and their faith fans out from there. Here is me, what I want is how my faith goes from here, and somewhere in that fan shaped area is my ‘God’. But I’m going to heaven because I believe in God.

A professing ‘Christian’ spoke to me, not all that long ago, about the ‘me’ mentality of most ‘Christians’. This person spoke of how ‘Christians’ today want what they want and everything is about them. That is the same mentality that has overtaken America. Everything is always about self and what self wants, even to the point that there is no right or wrong unless self thinks it’s right or wrong.

There is a man that has a program, mostly online, where he goes out and speaks to people about what they believe and then refutes them with Scripture. I saw one of his shows where he questioned some men in their twenty’s. I don’t remember the majority of that show but I do remember him questioning them on right and wrong. One of the men wound up essentially telling him that there was no right or wrong, that something was only right, or wrong, if each individual believed that thing to be right or wrong and it may be exactly the opposite for someone else. That was a very scary concept. When there is no definition of right and wrong…what makes anything wrong? If it’s up to each individual person to decide if something is right or wrong…then everything is right and everything is wrong. There is no line in the sand that says this is wrong, do not do this.

But that very belief of what is and isn’t right and wrong is based in the ‘me’ mentality of today. It is because no one wants to offend anyone. It is because everything is based on self…and that basis is carried over into things of the Lord. Self chooses to believe. Self chooses which parts of Scripture to follow. Self chooses…whether or not they are going to heaven.

And when someone dies self can say they went to heaven because it’s what makes self feel better. And what self wants, self gets. Or so they think.

It is the belief that all of life, and how self relates to it, even in regards to eternity, is about how self feels or what self wants. This life is only about self and therefore eternity must be about self too.

Either life starts with the flesh…with self…and fans out from there. Or life starts with the Lord and fans out from there. The difference is in who or rather, Who, the focus is on. Is life about self and what self wants? Or is life about the Lord and self only fits into it. Who is at the head of the fan? Does each person stand at the head of the fan and look down on the Lord, and how He fits into their life? Or does the Lord sit at the head of the fan and look down on us and how we fit into His plan?

A perfect example of this is a discussion on marriage I recently had with my husband. We were talking of how there is no marriage in heaven. I plainly understand what the Scriptures say on this topic. I know that Scripture says that there is no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven (Luke 20:34-35). I know that. I understand that. But I wanted to take the thoughts a bit further. I wanted to push the limits, so to speak. Not because I was pushing Scripture but because I was pushing the conversation. I wanted to take it to the furthest point. And…admittedly…deep in my human heart I don’t like that my husband and I won’t be married in heaven. I want him for always. In eternity too.

And so I pushed that conversation further. Well…there is no marrying in heaven, so…what if we’re already married when we get to heaven? I know what Scripture says, I understand, but I wanted to take this as far as it would go, and my human heart did not want to admit that I can’t have my husband in eternity.

The answer to that question…the same thing Scripture says…there will be no marriage in heaven. We will not marry in heaven and we will not be married in heaven. I know that. I understand that.

Sometimes I ask my husband questions about Scripture and he thinks…you know this. Yes, some of it I do know, but sometimes I just need to hear him tell me the answer. And sometimes I just need to talk about something that my flesh is struggling with even if I understand what Scripture says.

But in the end…I turned loose of my thoughts about wanting my husband in eternity and just let it go at Scripture says we will not marry in heaven.

But my flesh wanted to…and did…say, but what if we arrive in heaven already married? And as my husband and I discussed that I let it go at ‘there is no marrying in heaven’ because that is what Scripture says, but my flesh wanted to ask, ‘so what happens if we both die at the same time, like in a car accident, and we arrive in heaven at the same moment’…will we still be married then? But I knew the answer and that was, Scripture tells us what will be and what won’t be and no matter what my flesh wants…I must accept what Scripture says.

But so many today don’t do that. So many would have gone with what they want to believe and would say that because they want to keep their husband for eternity then…they will be reunited in heaven. Because that is what they want to happen and so they make that reality for them.

I once knew someone that used to say, ‘in your reality’. That was a favorite statement of this person. It was often heard when you were around this person. Anytime someone said something that, I guess, went against what this person thought, they would say, ‘in your reality.’

But ‘your reality’ has become the standard for belief in the Lord today. It is all based on what each person wants. If this person wants animals in heaven…then there are animals in heaven. If this person wants wings when they get to heaven…then they will have wings in heaven. If this person wants… Well, it doesn’t matter what a person wants in heaven because whatever they want in heaven is what will be in heaven, including them, simply because they want it to be there.

Welcome to the reality of heaven according to the ‘me’ ‘Christianity.’

This reality is based not on Scripture but on human emotions. Many years ago someone told me to imagine the greatest life I could imagine, put everything in it that would make life perfect. Then they told me that heaven would be a million times better than that.

I guess, in some ways, that person was right, heaven will be better than anything we imagine. But it won’t be because we chose the greatest things in this earth and imagined them as heaven…we don’t get to pick and choose what we believe to be great in this temporal life and transfer it into our eternity so that heaven will be the wonderful thing we imagine it to be.

And we can’t place our loved ones…or our pets…in heaven just because we want them to be there.

Scripture does not tell us that animals go to heaven when they die, and it does not tell us that a person goes to heaven simply because their loved ones want them to be there.

And truly, how important are animals when compared with an eternity with Christ? When you stand before Christ will you care that the dog you owned when you were ten is in heaven? When you stand in heaven will you be searching for your cat or will you be looking for Christ?

And if it’s a long lost pet you think you’ll be looking for…you may want to do a bit of looking within your soul now, before you stand on the other side of death, because if it’s a pet you will be seeking in heaven…are you going to make it into heaven?