pets soul Do pets & animals go to heaven & do they have souls?

[Your Brother In Christ]

What Do you Think?

 

[kwikphilly]

Quote

But do animals possess souls? And if they do, is their soul the same as a human soul? That is to say, is it immortal—will it eventually inhabit either heaven or hell?

The English word “soul” derives from a number of different words in the Old and New Testaments and is used in the Bible in a variety of ways. First, it is employed as a synonym for a living, breathing person. Moses wrote: “All the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls” (Exodus 1:5; cf. Deuteronomy 10:22). In legal matters also, the word soul was used to denote any individual. The Lord told Moses: “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, ‘If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done’ ” (Leviticus 4:2). When Jacob was speaking of himself in Genesis 49:6, he used the expression, “O my soul”—which meant simply “me.” In each of these instances, actual people—individually or collectively—were under discussion.

Second, the word soul can be used to describe the physical form of life that both men and animals possess and that ceases to exist at death. In their Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Brown, Driver, and Briggs noted that the word “soul” (Hebrew nephesh) often is employed to mean “life principle” (1907, p. 659). In Genesis 1:20,24,30, God spoke of the nephesh hayyah—literally “soul breathers” or “life breathers” (often translated as “living creatures” or “life”—cf. Leviticus 11:10). The writer of Proverbs observed in regard to animals: “A righteous man regardeth the life (nephesh) of his beast; but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (12:10). Hebrew scholar Hugo McCord therefore suggested:

Then the translators realized that the first meaning of nephesh is “breath,” and so Genesis 1:20,24,30 and Genesis 2:7 all fit together in understanding Moses as saying that all animals and man too are breathers. Breathers, coupled with hayyah, “living,” the translators thought, would be well translated, in the case of animals, as “living creatures,” and in the case of man as a “living being” (1995, 23[1]:87-88).

http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=582

Good question..................................?

[missmuffet]

There is no indication in the Bible that our pets go to heaven. I think there will be animals in heaven just not our pets.

[Deborah_]

Whether or not animals have souls is irrelevant, in my view. The whole of creation is going to be redeemed - which includes animals, surely?

I believe that our pets will be with us in the afterlife (not necessarily in Heaven, but in the new earth). I have Biblical reasons for believing this, although I would accept that the evidence is not conclusive.

My argument is too long to post here, but if you are interested, follow this link:

https://deborahsbiblestudies.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/do-our-pets-go-to-heaven/

[kwikphilly]

Gods Word doesn't say they don't either,when I sit quietly & read the Bible aloud for my little pets to hear I imagine they know our Creator,not as "Father but as Creator,Almighty God"

Quote

All creatures on earth,
you obey his commands,
    so come praise the Lord!

⁸ Sea monsters and the deep sea,
fire and hail,
snow and frost,
    and every stormy wind,
    come praise the Lord!

⁹ All mountains and hills,
    fruit trees and cedars,
¹⁰ every wild and tame animal,
all reptiles and birds,
    come praise the Lord!

Psalm 148:7-10

Let everything that has breath in it,Praise the Lord!    Me & my house serve the Lord!      I just don't know for sure but will find out one day!

[Retrobyter]

On 2/14/2017 at 6:45 PM, Your Brother In Christ said:

What Do you Think?

 

Shalom, Your Brother in Christ.

Actually, you need first to understand what a "soul" is. Let's go back to Genesis 2:7:

Genesis 2:7 (KJV)

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The Hebrew of this verse reads thus:

B'reeshiyt 2:7 (Masoretic text)

7 Vayiytser YHWH Elohiym et haa'aadaam aafaar min haa'adaamaah vayipah b'apaayow nishmat hayiym vayhiy haa'aadaam l-nefesh chayaah:

7 Vayiytser = And-formed
YHWH = YHWH; the LORD
Elohiym = God
et = (next word is the direct object)
haa'aadaam = the-man
aafaar = of-dust
min = from
haa'adaamaah = the-ground
vayipah = and-puffed
b'apaayow = in-his-nostrils
nishmat = a-puff
chayiym = of-life
vayhiy = and-became
haa'aadaam  = the-man
l-nefesh = to-a-breathing-creature
chayaah: = living:

The noun "nefesh" is listed in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance as such:

5315 nephesh (nefesh) (neh'-fesh). From naphash; properly, a breathing creature, i.e. Animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental) -- any, appetite, beast, body, breath, creature, X dead(-ly), desire, X (dis-)contented, X fish, ghost, + greedy, he, heart(-y), (hath, X jeopardy of) life (X in jeopardy), lust, man, me, mind, mortally, one, own, person, pleasure, (her-, him-, my-, thy-)self, them (your)-selves, + slay, soul, + tablet, they, thing, (X she) will, X would have it.

And the verb form is ...

5314 naaphash (naafash) (naw-fash'). A primitive root; to breathe; passively, to be breathed upon, i.e. (figuratively) refreshed (as if by a current of air) -- (be) refresh selves (-ed).

And, this word, nefesh, is used of animals in the Hebrew of Genesis 1:20, 21, 24, and 30:

Genesis 1:20-31 (KJV)

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. 23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. 29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

So, this word, nefesh translated as "soul" in Genesis 2:7, was used also of animals. Therefore animals too are "living air-breathing creatures" or "souls," although not all sea creatures, like true fish, qualify as "air-breathing."

So, in the video, the answer to the first question, "NO," was wrong.

Edited June 3, 2018 by Retrobyter

[Guest shiloh357]

No, animals do not have souls and no they do not go to Heaven.  

[George]

However, we can rejoice in the fact in the Kingdom -- we'll be able to play with Lions!    And Kids will be able to play with Snakes without any fear! 

Isa 11:6  The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. 
Isa 11:7  The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. 
Isa 11:8  The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.