Subject: will there be animals in heaven |
Bible Note: Hi, Bear... In theology the condition of man after death and prior to the resurrection is called the interim state. It is an abnormal condition, which will be corrected in the New Earth (see Revelation 21). Isaiah is speaking of this full restoration of creation in Isaiah 65. There is nothing explicit in Scripture that would indicate that animals continue to exist after death and certainly nothing at all about their being part of the resurrection. In your example relative to the white horse mentioned twice in Revelation -- even assuming we take all the animal references in that apocalypic work as literal beasts -- we certainly have nothing whatsoever to suggest that it was a horse that was once alive on the earth only to have gone to heaven after death. I sympathize with your love of animals. I hope that your love of the truth will be even greater. The things that God reveals to us in His Word are what we build our understanding upon (Deuteronomy 29:29), but we do not want to add things that are not there (Revelation 22:18-19). I rather suspect that what the future holds in Christ will be so utterly delightful, incredible, and wonderous that the things we hold as treasures in this temporal world will fade into utter unimportance (1 Corinthians 2:9). In Him, Doc |