Do All Dogs Go To Heaven? New Books Seem To Think So

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Will animals be ‘saved’?

Reluctance to the idea of animals in heaven persists in some Christian circles. Last year, Franciscan Friar Jack Wintz published the book, “Will I See My Dog in Heaven?” This year, he answered his own question with a new book, “I Will See You in Heaven.”

Taking inspiration from his order’s founder, St. Francis of Assisi, who’s also the patron saint of animals, Wintz presents biblical evidence for the inclusion of animals in heaven.

In the book of Genesis, he writes, both humans and animals live in peaceful harmony–“a wonderful and insightful glimpse of the paradise that is to come,” he writes.

“It makes sense to me, therefore, that the same loving creator who arranged for these animals … to enjoy happiness in the original Garden would not want to exclude them from the final paradise,” he writes.

Wintz, who lives in Cincinnati, also found inspiration from the New Testament, saying that “Jesus delighted using images from nature.” It’s all evidence that suggests “the gospel message will have a saving impact upon the whole family of creation, and not simply on the human family.”
 
A Franciscan. Go figure.

Anyway, I’m willing to bet the same author denies that anyone goes to hell, including animals.

If knowing God as he is in himself is what heaven is all about, then what rationale is there for animals to be there? Unless perhaps they would exist for our sake.
 
Didn’t God make the animals first?

I don’t know for sure who will be in Heaven but I can’t see any reason to think that they wouldn’t be.
 
Though some animal activist see us as being equal to animals they have no souls and thus will not be a part of heaven.
 
I do not think this is an issue the Church has ever official pronounced on, or needed to. Animals are not needed in heaven. I know St. Thomas considered their soul temporary.
 
Father William Most, a very learned theologian who died several years ago, answered this exact question: ALL living things have souls - only man has an eternal soul.

A soul is what animates someone or something, thus separating them from the inanimate.

As someone said above, unless God ordains that pets be allowed into heaven (and we have no way of knowing), then the “proofs” suggest that pets do not exist in heaven.

Besides: if heaven is the eternal contemplation of God in the face, something so beautiful and wonderful (hence, the phrase, “beatific vision”) why would we want to step away from that vision and go play fetch with a dog?
 
There’s a big, big difference between Heaven, and the post-general resurrection and judgment “new heaven and new earth”. All the Peaceable Kingdom stuff is about the times after the Last Judgment.

Of course, God could have dogs in heaven if he felt like it; but it makes a lot more theological sense to focus on the new heaven and new earth and new Jerusalem stuff instead, when you’re talking about animals; that’s scriptural.

However, since most people have been taught that Heaven is all there is, after death, you would have to explain things very carefully to make sense to them.
 
Ahimsa said:
Will animals be ‘saved’?

Reluctance to the idea of animals in heaven persists in some Christian circles. Last year, Franciscan Friar Jack Wintz published the book, “Will I See My Dog in Heaven?” This year, he answered his own question with a new book, “I Will See You in Heaven.”

Taking inspiration from his order’s founder, St. Francis of Assisi, who’s also the patron saint of animals, Wintz presents biblical evidence for the inclusion of animals in heaven.

In the book of Genesis, he writes, both humans and animals live in peaceful harmony–“a wonderful and insightful glimpse of the paradise that is to come,” he writes.

“It makes sense to me, therefore, that the same loving creator who arranged for these animals … to enjoy happiness in the original Garden would not want to exclude them from the final paradise,” he writes.

Wintz, who lives in Cincinnati, also found inspiration from the New Testament, saying that “Jesus delighted using images from nature.” It’s all evidence that suggests “the gospel message will have a saving impact upon the whole family of creation, and not simply on the human family.”
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How many more threads will we have on this topic??!!

The Church teaching is very clear and unambiguous on this.
ONLY HUMANS have a supernatural end, i.e. we have immortal souls and after death we will be forever saved or in Hell.
Animals do NOT have a supernatural end. Therefore they and their mortal souls simply cease to exist when they die.
There are no animals in Heaven.
 
There are many arguments pointing out the difference between mortal & eternal souls.

No one has ever seen a soul. But we are sure that it exists.
Some of us are absolutely sure that God gave a soul to each of His creations.
But most feel the need to define different types of souls.
A sort of “my soul is better than your soul”.

I choose to go with the “I don’t know” school of thought. It is simple. It is honest.
God never told us the details of heaven.
I feel no need to make up an answer to unanswerable questions.

I have come to realize that the animals I know & have known are my guardian angels.
They have taught me much about God, about me, about others.
I am a more complete human because of the animals God has sent to help me.

I have absolutely no doubt that they will be in heaven - along with all the other angels.

Go with love, Go with God
 
My vote is to the guy who said “if dogs don’t go to Heaven I want to go where they go”.
 
Salvatore123 said:
Jade,

And what if that place is “nowhere”?
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nowhere is not a place - heaven can and will only be found in and by that which is seeking it so first find that which is seeking it for it cannot be found outside that which seeks it - imho - twinc
 
thistle said:
How many more threads will we have on this topic??!!

The Church teaching is very clear and unambiguous on this.
ONLY HUMANS have a supernatural end, i.e. we have immortal souls and after death we will be forever saved or in Hell.
Animals do NOT have a supernatural end. Therefore they and their mortal souls simply cease to exist when they die.
There are no animals in Heaven.
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Code: 
At what Church Councils was this defined?   When was this "unambiguous" declaration made.  If it is so definite, surely it is in the Catechism.  Here is what the Catholic faith teaches about animals.
usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art7.shtml#2417
The seventh commandment enjoins respect for the integrity of creation. Animals, like plants and inanimate beings, are by nature destined for the common good of past, present, and future humanity. Use of the mineral, vegetable, and animal resources of the universe cannot be divorced from respect for moral imperatives. Man’s dominion over inanimate and other living beings granted by the Creator is not absolute; it is limited by concern for the quality of life of his neighbor, including generations to come; it requires a religious respect for the integrity of creation
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Nothing is in this about their eternal destination. Does anyone have any Church teaching on this subject? By that I meant teaching from a reigning Pope or Church Council.
 
Apollos said:
A Franciscan. Go figure.

Anyway, I’m willing to bet the same author denies that anyone goes to hell, including animals.

If knowing God as he is in himself is what heaven is all about, then what rationale is there for animals to be there? Unless perhaps they would exist for our sake.
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of course for our sake for God sake - but of course only that which and those we love will be in our heaven,even though we may not be in their heaven or even in heaven imho - unto each his mother beach -btw recommended small paperback ISBN 0-553-81564-4 A Travel Guide to Heaven by Anthony DeStefano - twinc
 
Apollos said:
Nicea I (325) dogmatically defined that Jesus was incarnated for the salvation of men as opposed to angels or animals.
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That is some evidence, for sure, although it does not address the issue. If anything, it throws a little bit of an odd spin on it mentioning animals along with men and angels. There are still many possibilities.
  1. Animals are beyond redemption
  2. Redemption can not apply because animals cease to exist on death
  3. Animals have other redemption
  4. Animals have no need of redepmption.
 
all this because we have phony ideas of where heaven is or what it is like - could it just possibly be"within you" as stated by Jesus.So lets ask and seek and ,hopefully ,find whereabouts this within you is - did any of you dream of dogs or loved ones and never once doubted,whilst dreaming that they were really and truly present but only doubted on awakening but what if you do not awake or had not woken - so were now is your heaven or hell to be found that you have created in love or hate -any comments - twinc
 
pnewton said:
That is some evidence, for sure, although it does not address the issue. If anything, it throws a little bit of an odd spin on it mentioning animals along with men and angels. There are still many possibilities.
  1. Animals are beyond redemption
  2. Redemption can not apply because animals cease to exist on death
  3. Animals have other redemption
  4. Animals have no need of redepmption.
Click to expand...
That the souls of animals are mortal is already known from human reason. Animal souls are not substances like ours are, and, lacking an intellectual principle, they arise instead from their bodies instead of being individually created by God.

Because the souls of animals depend on their bodies, they don’t really have free will; and not being self-subsistent, they cease to exist upon death of the body.

Therefore sin, which is an act of free will, and also redemption, which presupposes immortality at least of the soul, simply do not apply to them.

Therefore there will be no animals in heaven and there will be no heaven for animals.
 
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