This Christian Journey:

Do Pets Go To Heaven?

This letter was written in answer to a child's question.

Dear Matthew,  

Thank you for your letter.  Please excuse my delay in answering you, I was on vacation last week.   

To answer your question, do pets go to heaven? 

I must admit that this question is not clearly answered in the Bible. The Bible is the only book or authority that people have to answer questions about heaven and immortality.  All we can know about spiritual and eternal things is outlined in the Bible.  Anything not outlined in the Bible is but a mere guess and may or may not be true.   

So what can I show you from the Bible?  We know from the Bible that there is an eternal place called heaven.  Jesus said,  

John 14:1-3 ¹ Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. ² In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

From the Bible we learn that heaven is a Physical Place, a Perfect Place, and a Precious Place.  All who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior will one day live with Jesus in heaven for all eternity.  I personally am looking forward to this wonder place. 

We also discover in the Bible that there will be animals in heaven.  The Bible says, 

Isaiah 11:6-8 ⁶ The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. ⁷ And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. ⁸ And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.

Now, I must say that this passage probably refers more to the millennial kingdom than it does to heaven, but if there will be animals in the millennium then is would be hard to conceive of a New Heaven and New Earth without animals.  Notice also that these animals act in a new way, in eternity animals won’t kill each other.   

While the Bible never specifically says that pets go to heaven, I think that most people who have pets would like to think that they do.  The best I can suggest to you right now is that we will just have to wait until we get to heaven to find out.  The Bible is just not clear on this subject.  But whatever God does it will be good, it will be perfect and it will be acceptable. 

Home Page  -  Accept Jesus Now! -  Email