Can animals’ reason and do they go to heaven?
Does the Bible address if animals go to heaven? Can animals reason according to the Bible? These are very debated issues with great arguments on each side. The evidence will show that animals can reason and there will be animals in heaven. Animals will be in heaven and can reason because animals have souls, they are depicted in heaven, and there are many examples of animals reasoning in the Bible.
Do animals have souls?
The Hebrew word for soul in the Old Testament is Nefesh it is used in many places some notable places are; Genesis 2:7 “man became a living soul”, Genesis 46:15,22,25 all state “all the souls…”, but the most important verses for proving animals having souls are; Genesis 1 animals are called Nefesh soul or living beings and in Deuteronomy 12:23 which states “Just be strong not to eat The-Blood, for The-Blood [is] The-Soul; and you shall not eat The-Soul with the flesh.”
Here the animal’s blood is called the Nefesh. This can also be translated to life, but it is the Hebrew word Nefesh which as showed earlier means soul. So, what is a soul? It is life. Also, why would God command the animals to worship him? Psalms 148:10 “Praise the Lord, you animals and all creatures, praise his name!”
Also Psalms 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” The word for breath here is again Nefesh which means soul. So let everything that has a soul praise the Lord. So animals have the breath of life which is a soul.
Do animals go to heaven?
The Bible never clearly states animals’ destiny after they die but many places in the Bible mention animals in heaven. In Isaiah 11 depicts imagery such as the wolf will live with the sheep and so on. Isaiah is describing Gods return and how he will restore the earth. In the Garden of Eden there were animals and when Jesus comes back he is going to restore the Garden of Eden.
Jesus is going to ride back on a white horse. Where does this horse come from if he is coming out of heaven? Revelation 5:13 depicts animals praising God in heaven. And many other places in the Bible depict the same imagery. So, animals are definitely in heaven but do earthly animals go to heaven when they die?
Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 3:19 “Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals.” Here the word for breath is not Nefesh but ruach which means spirit. So animals are said to have the same spirit as humans.
In Ecclesiastes 12:7 it tells us, "Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it." So, Solomon says that animals have spirits then claims that all spirits will return to God, this is of course after he claims that the fate of animals is the same as humans.
Now critics might bring up Ecclesiastes 3:21 which says, "Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” This isn't really an argument against animals going to heaven but maybe that we just don't know. But there are many things in scripture that we will never fully know for sure, but we have to reason to come to the most accurate conclusion.
The Bible never says or depicts animals not going to heaven. It in fact does the opposite here by saying humans have the same fate as animals. If animals praise God where would they go when they die?
God hears animals praise, demands them to praise him, says they have a soul, there are animals in heaven praising God, and God says that their fate are the same as humans. So, isn’t it most reasonable to assume that animals go to heaven?
Can Animals reason?
First, what is reason? Reason is defined in the Merriam Webster dictionary as; a statement offered in explanation or justification. Can animals justify what they do? Well humans can’t communicate with animals, so we’ll never know. But wait wouldn’t God know because he created them? So, let’s go to the Bible.
In Numbers 22 Balaam is riding his donkey and the donkey suddenly goes off the trail. Not once, not twice, but three times. After the third time God opens the donkey’s mouth (notice he does not speak for the donkey). The donkey then gave justification for what he did.
If God opened the mouth of the donkey could donkey’s once speak? This is very similar wording in various places of the Bible. A great example of this is in Mark 7:31-36, Jesus heals a deaf and mute man and the word he uses is Ephphatha which means be opened. This word is Aramaic however but the Hebrew word used in Numbers 22 is Patha which means “to open”. These words are very similar, this is because they use the same root word.
In Genesis 3 the serpent speaks to Eve giving her justification or reasons why she should eat the fruit for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This would be very strange if no other animals talked in the garden wouldn’t this have caught Eve off guard, but it is depicted as a normal occurrence.
In the synoptics the legion of Demons asks Jesus to cast themselves into the pigs.
Then Jesus allows them to possess the pigs, and the demons kill them all by jumping off a cliff and drowning. This shows that demons can physically effect animals not just humans. Why would they be able to affect animals and why would they want to if they could not reason or do anything important?
Counter arguments addressed
The biggest argument against all the points this paper has given is;
only humans are made in the image of God. This means we are the only beings that can reason, have a relationship with God, and know what is morally good and evil.
But is this a good argument? Does being made in the image of God make all other creations meaningless? If animals just die and return to dust what was the point of even creating them? Now critics might argue back that it was for men’s pleasure. But what about animals that kill humans and flies and mosquitoes who do nothing but annoy us?
So, did God merely create animals just to return to dust or did he create them to praise him? If he created them to praise him and he created them with souls, then why don’t they go to heaven?
Also, critics might bring up the fact that you must confess with your mouth and believe in your heart to
be saved (Romans 10:9). They will ask how can animals do this? The answer is very simple; when you truly praise God you are confessing with your mouth and believing in your heart. There is no other way to put it. No one can truly praise God without believing in him and when praising God you are confessing with your mouth.
Conclusion
“If it looks like a duck, acts like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck then maybe it’s a duck.” -Gordon Korman
If animals have souls, have spirits, all spirits go back to there maker, animals have the same destiny as humans, they praise God and are commanded to praise God, reason at some level, and are in heaven, then maybe they will go to heaven. They meet all the criteria unless it says somewhere in the Bible that only humans can go to heaven.
In Mark 16:15 it says “Go into all the world preach the gospel to every creature.” Why would it say this if heaven was only for humans? Animals can reason and most likely will be in heaven because they have souls, they are depicted in heaven, and lastly, they are shown reasoning in the Bible.