faq #12, do you believe animals have souls?

We're starting our second-to-last FAQ blog series this week with a question which many of us have wrestled with in a deeply personal way.  If you've ever loved a companion animal, or even admired another animal from any distance, and you share in the Christian hope of heaven, you can't help but wonder if you'll have a chance to see those animals again.  In fact, many of us find ourselves longing for that to be the case, we miss them so much, and can't imagine their unique personalities and the special relationship we had with them being lost forever.

I experienced the same intense longing when our beloved cat Bubba passed away almost two years ago.  His loss affected me so much that I put together a tribute to him spread out over several posts, which ended with "A Pet Grief Observed," where I shared the following from a personal journal:

I miss him everywhere I look in the house, and still cry the two times I've gone back to his grave.  I feel so sorry for having taken him for granted, especially in recent weeks and months before his condition started, and that I couldn't prevent his suffering or make him well.  And I feel such a hole, especially not knowing if God has taken him back to himself for us to meet again or not.  I so badly want to know if I'll see him again ...

God, it's hard to feel you in all of this.  I sometimes think you must have loved him more than we did.  I pray that this is true, even though I don't understand what happened to him, or to us.  I pray that his life which you so lovingly created, and gave to all of us as a gift, that you've taken it back to yourself, and that you will preserve him for us to reunite someday again.  I pray that he's loved, and cherished, and snuggled with, and cared for now ... please.

As those last lines were meant to communicate, I didn't know for sure whether that was the case, whether God had awakened Bubba back to life.  I desperately wanted and begged for that to be the case, but I also knew I couldn't claim a biblical certainty when Scripture doesn't provide one.  So I found myself hoping for God's grace, along the lines of this response from our FAQ page to the question of whether animals have souls:

Anyone who's ever known the pain of losing an animal finds themself wondering if they will ever see their beloved companions again.  And as Christians, many of us naturally long to be reunited with our animals in Heaven, and wonder if even farm animals and wildlife will be there.  While the Bible is clear that animals will be part of the new heaven and new earth, and free from death and suffering along with the rest of creation (see for instance Isaiah 65:17-25), it doesn't tell us whether individual animals will be restored to life.

As to whether animals have souls, it would be hard to improve on our friend Dean Ohlman of RBC Ministries' eloquent and thoroughly biblical response to the question.  He points to the use of the Hebrew word nephesh to describe animals, which indicates a conscious life source and is consistently translated as 'soul' throughout the Old Testament for humans.  But where Scripture promises eternal life for people who put their faith in Christ, it doesn't explicitly promise eternity for individual animals.  Though it seems fair to hope that God's grace might extend that far, as He knows and loves each of them.

We'll be sharing Dean's post again in full in a couple of days, along with other reflections on the unique pain and grief which accompany losing a companion animal, here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.  One or two of those entries may be by Christians who are confident they will see their lost pets again in heaven, as I know many of you are as well. 

Some of you may even be troubled that we would at all suggest otherwise.  In fact, if there's ever been a question of animals and faith which has generated consistent, though courteous, pushback from various friends of not one sparrow, it's been about whether we can know for certain whether individual animals will be waiting for us in heaven.  Please know we don't mean to offend you, or callously detract from your personal hope, in offering perspective on the ultimate fate of animals which doesn't share the same degree of certainty. 

Our only motivation is to be as faithful as we can be to God's word, as best we understand it, and to both the hope and silence it presents when it comes to the presence of animals in the afterlife.  In the process, we also hope to let our brothers and sisters in Christ know, who may be skeptical about any suggestion which would place animals on a similar plane as humans, that we consistently desire to honor Scripture and a biblical worldview when we speak about our calling to care for God's precious creatures.

(dog photo credit Gina Callaway/123rf.com, cat photo of Bubba)