All dogs go to Heaven

I was recently 'challenged' about the statement by a 'dog lover' that dogs in fact have a soul and that they do go to Heaven. This troubled me to think and remember that there are people who sincerely believe this statement, or at least, should I say, want to believe this statement.

Instead of being rude or 'unkind', I thought I would explain why I do not believe that 'all dogs go to Heaven'. In fact, I want to explain why no animal can or does go to Heaven, contrary to what you may believe or do not believe or want to believe.

And before I begin, I might add that before I gave my life to Jesus, the thought of animals and dogs going to Heaven did cross my mind. In fact when one of my cats died when I was a young boy, I do member to this day, taking the cat and burying it, and then afterwords, making a cross out of branches, and placing it in the ground above where I buried the cat. Today, I realize that that was a waist of wood and time.

In the Bible it states in Romans 10; "But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame. (Romans 10:8-11 NKJV).

So why bring the Bible up in this instance? Well first off, if one is to call Hm or herself a Christian, then they believe not only in Christ, but also in the very book that mentions him as the son of God, the one and only, the Alpha and Omega (reference Revelation 1:17-18) the savior, the one who died on the cross for us (John 14:6 says "Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. John 14:6 NKJV). So if you do not believe in what I have already written and referenced in the Bible, it's ok, but, I would be so obliged to extend the offer for your to stop where you are at, call a family member or friend who is a Christian , and ask them to pray with you to accept Jesus into your heart. Or, you can simply pray right now, and say something like this, "Lord, I ask that you would forigive me for all of my sins against you, I ask that you would come into my heart, heal my heart, and be my Lord and be my savior! Thank you for saving me Lord, I love you, In Jesus name, Amen".

Now at this point, if you are still reading, you have either A) accepted Jesus into your heart, B) are in an argumentative spirit and desire to read this so that you can try to prove me wrong, or C) you are simply reading for pleasure because you really genuinely want to know the answer as to whether "All dogs go to Heaven". Either way, I am going to get right into this, and stop holding you in suspense, so that I can help you understand why I believe that dogs (or any animal) do not go to Heaven or even have a soul.

First and foremost, as you can read in the text from the Bible, we can clearly see that when someone accepts the Lord into there life, the Bible clearly states that they are referring to a person. For example it does not say, "...the word is in the animals heart and in the animals mind". No, it says clearly, "you", in other words, the person can read, and speak and pray. So the question is, can a dog speak, and can a dog read? The answer is no. Sure a dog can bark, see, even think to some extent, but it cannot speak in a voice or language, or can read.

Now you may be thinking, well, what about the people that cannot read, and cannot speak, how are they able to accept Jesus into there heart, and how are they able to go to Heaven? I will tell you. In the Bible it says, "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord , who has believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." (Romans 10:14-17 NKJV)

So, according to the Bible, those who do not hear the gospel (or read it), who do not accept Jesus into there hearts, the people cannot be saved, and therefore, obviously, a dog cannot accept Jesus into there heart, and therefore cannot go to Heaven.

Secondly, people say that animals may be equivalent to people. This is really an incorrect thought that more than likely stemmed from our way of thinking from other reasons I want to mention later on after this paragraph. Again, the Bible says in Genesis; "Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." (Genesis 1:26, 27 NKJV)

So a couple things we must observe from these verses, for one, God puts man (or woman) over the animals, over everything that is an animal, man (or woman) has dominion of them. Secondly, it says that God created man in His own image. It does not say that God created animals in His own image. So it is important to recognize that clearly, according to the Bible, God did not create man and animal as equal.

Now, if you are still reading, I want to applaud you, because that means you have not given up, and you have delt with my writing and way of thinking, but also must be intrigued for some reason or another. I would like to list some reasons why people more than likely think that dogs go to Heaven, or should I say, why people want dogs to go to Heaven.

First, if you have a dog and are a dog lover, you may be married or not, you may have a better relationship with your dog than your spouse or people in general. I personally think that that is really weird and unfortunately, that is the case with most people these days who have dogs. After all, it is said (not sure by whom), a dog is a man's best friend. Let us break apart that statement. Why is it that a dog can be a man or woman's best friend? Could it be because a dog does not know how to respond or talk? I mean, wouldn't our relationships be a whole lot better if the other person did not talk, and we were always right? I do not think so. I think it may be alot easier, but it wouldn't be called a relationship. You see there are some facts in life that we must come to the realization about. For one, in a relationship (between two people), you will get hurt. Regardless of how close that relationship is with the other person, but especially in a marriage, or let's say, an intimate relationship with a significant other. (Side note:  by the way, I, as a Christian, do not condone intimate relationships outside of marriage, that is, sexual relationships, and I further more want to mention that marriage is between a man and a woman, not same sex, it was Adam and Eve in the garden, not Adam and Steve, just saying, now this is another lesson from the Bible, for another time). 

So a person who says, "I love my dog more than my spouse" or "I love my dog more than people" are either in a bad relationship where they have not learned how to communicate properly, or more than likely are selfish in trying to get there own way, or used to be in a relationship (relationships) that ended very badly, and therefore are convinced that they cannot find anybody else to please them, according to what they want, and not what the other person wants. And I would say this, that a person in a relationship who is convinced that there dog is so much better than people, or that they love dogs more than people, lack trust in relationships in general, and simply trust a dog more than a person.  This could possibly be because the person that broke their heart could not be trusted as much as they trust their dog, after all, a dog is also said to be a "loyal friend".

Dog behavior:

Has anyone ever accidently allowed a dog to get out of there house who was not fixed, and then seen them meet another dog, whether female or male? The other week, I saw a small dog humping a poodle in broad day light on someone's lawn. I also know of my neighbors dog, who was pregnant, but died trying to have cats (that is right, you can only imagine what a cat was doing to that dog!, and yes, that is a true story!) 

And here in lies the problem and fact that dogs do not go to Heaven, or have a soul. How many people think it is ok to go from house to house and have sex with your neighbors and/or family members regardless of how old they are, and regardless of there sex? I hope not many, well in this day, people have allowed that to be the "norm", people having sex like dogs that is. Well, maybe not to that extreme, but at least some people think that having many sexual partners at one time is ok, and think that having sex outside of marriage is ok. Some people act like dogs and have sex with everything that walks, or they have sex with mm the opposite sex because they cannot keep there penis in there pants, or cannot keep there legs closed! That should not be the normal, and is completely unbiblical. And any person who thinks that the above behavior is appropriate or "ok", is either not saved (does not have a relationship with Jesus), is in the process of repentance, mentally ill or clinically declared as insane, or just plain stupid.

So I will conclude this long and necessary effort to explain why I do not (nor never will) believe that dogs (or any animal for this sake) have a soul, or go to Heaven by saying the following; if you still think that dogs go to Heaven, you either have a bad relationship (or had) with a significant other in the past, and want to believe that dogs go to Heaven; you are not saved yet, and do not understand the concept of who Jesus is, or you do not believe the fact that God has placed humans more important than animals, do not want to believe what I have spoken about because it goes against your thinking and what you want to believe which is not according to the Bible.

I hope you have enjoyed this story on "All dogs go to Heaven", and I look forward for your mind to change, for you to know Jesus, and for your relationships to be healed, and restored.