Hi Mike,

It’s been a while since I have emailed you. Hope all is well. I am still struggling with this sovereignty issue, but I wanted to ask you a question. You say in an email entitled Are Animals Resurrected that “Having knowledge of salvation is equal to and only available via the remissions of sins. No animal yet born and to be born has EVER sinned. They cannot, so salvation is not something that they need.” I just thought that an animal killing another animal is murder, so therefore has it not sinned? I am wondering why I thought this, and could you clear this up for me? Will our animals be with us in heaven after death? Respond when you can please.

God be with you and yours.
S____
P. S. Also, if you have time could you give me a little bit on this sovereignty issue? I am hoping something you say will knock my beast off its throne, although all in God’s time, I know.

Hi S____,
It is good to hear from you.

I also struggled against the doctrine of God’s total sovereignty myself for over two years, after I was introduced to that concept, so I can identify with what you are going through. There are many, many letters on the web site concerning the sovereignty of God, but the most in depth paper is in the essential reading section, in the upper left corner of the home page. It is entitled After The Counsel of His Own Will. The message of that paper is the truth of Eph 1:11.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

God really is working all things. If it happens, be it good or evil, it was God who worked it. That is rank heresy to most Christians, but it is the very essence of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. God is working ALL THINGS after the counsel of His own will” and not after the counsel of our supposedly “free” will. Yes, we all have a will; that is not in question. But there is nothing at all “free” about anything we do. Every move we make is a caused move, and every thought we have is a caused thought. God caused Adam and Eve and the serpent to give an account of what they had done in the garden, but he did not hold them responsible for their actions. He had already prepared a sacrifice for Adam and all of Adam’s children “before the world began.”

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called [ us] with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

God always causes us to give an account of our sins, and when that is being done it sounds as if we did the evil of ourselves:

Isa 9:16  For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.

But what is the absolute truth of this matter? It is always the same.

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

It was the same with Joseph’s brothers who thought that selling Joseph was their own idea:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years [ hath] the famine [ been] in the land: and yet [ there are] five years, in the which [ there shall] neither [ be] earing nor harvest.

Joseph never denied what his brothers had done, but neither did he hold them responsible for those actions. Joseph was given to understand that God is working all things after the counsel of His own will. So what then is the absolute truth about who sent Joseph into Egypt? What do the scriptures say? On whom do the scriptures place the ultimate responsibility for the actions of Joseph’s brothers? Here is the absolute truth of that and every matter:

Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

I hope this all helps you to see that God really is working all things after the counsel of His own will:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Thank you for your question concerning animals. You ask if our beloved pets and animals will be with us in heaven.
Before I answer your question directly, I want you to know that there is no one on earth who loved his pets any more than I did as a child. I actually cried when we moved from the country into town and could not bring our Cocker Spaniel with us. I could relate many such events with other animals including almost coming to blows with two other boys in high school over their mistreatment of a dog. I have always been very quick to point out that the scriptures teach that a righteous man takes good care of his animals.

Pro 12:10  A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

Having said all of that, the fact of the matter is that God did not give us animals to place them in the same place as those in Adam. The exact opposite is true, and those who believe that animals are just as important, in the eyes of God as are those “in Adam,” are denying the need to destroy the beast within on a daily basis. The death of our flesh is a very real and concrete truth of scripture:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Christ died only for those “in Adam.” It is true that animals have spirits, just as those in Adam have a spirit. What is not true is that there is a resurrection of all animals.  God had Israel to kill thousands of animals for many long years, for the very purpose of showing us that the beast within was created in a marred vessel of clay which he intends to destroy. It is through the destruction of the beast that the sons of God are to be manifested. That is the very purpose for beasts. They, like all flesh, were designed as a temporary “corruptible” vessel of clay… fitted for destruction.”

Rom 9:20  Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Rom 9:21  Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Rom 9:22  What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Rom 9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

The very function of the beast kingdom is to demonstrate its temporal nature and the necessity for its destruction in order to produce the “manifestation of the sons of God.”

Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature [ Adam and all in Adam] waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Rom 8:20  For the creature [ Adam and those in Adam] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected [ the same] in hope,
Rom 8:21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

Nowhere is any animal, clean or unclean, which is not “in Adam,” ever referred to as “the children of God.” They are rather referred to as “dumb” animals, and “brute beasts.”

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

So what do the scriptures teach concerning animals? I hope this all helps you to see that if you have a beast you are to ‘regard the state of your beast.’ No man of God will ever be accused of being cruel to the animals in His charge.

Pro 12:10  A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

The very purpose for beasts us to teach us what is God’s attitude towards all flesh.

Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

So too, ought we to “nourish and cherish” our own flesh, as long as we are in this flesh. But we are never to allow ourselves to get so close to our flesh that we cannot let go of our flesh and exchange it for a body of spirit:

1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48  As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

As hard as it may be to conceive of at this time, the day is coming when all of our pets will be recognized for the training instruments that they and our own physical bodies are. No man of God will ever fail to place the life of a fellow human far above the lives of all beasts combined. Neither will any man of God ever be guilty of placing animals on the same plane as “the sons of God.”

Rather, He will consider all animals to be but the “brute beasts” which they are. They are not endowed with a conscience or the ability to “obey God and keep his commandments” which is the very definition of love:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Animal loyalty is a wonderful and admirable characteristic from which many humans can learn, but those instincts ought never to be confused with the love of God. Nothing could be further from the truth.
I hope this answers your questions concerning the right Biblical approach to the place of animals in the plan and in the words of God.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike