Lds Will I See My Pet Again

April 02, 2022 Post a Comment

After putting a beloved pet down, I began to wonder: what's the doctrine about animals and heaven?

I recall the first time I went to put a dog down. Her proper noun was Maggie. She was a beautiful, blackness Bully Dane with a dearest for life and eating socks. Only she was only 4 (barely middle-anile) when Wobbler syndrome necessitated we accept her to the vet.

And not come dwelling house.

I remember how the vet explained it wouldn't exist painful, that she'd simply migrate off and "become to sleep," similar and so many people say. I retrieve petting her softly, whispering her name, and wondering, after she was "gone," how she was still warm then, how long it would take for her to turn cold.

Maggie didn't get to come back to our domicile that mean solar day; I had never before hoped and then desperately that she had gone to another, more glorious home.

Practice All Dogs Go to Heaven?

You've doubtless heard someone in the church say it before: all dogs—in fact, all animals—go to heaven. It'south a comforting thought that can assist a pet owner, grieving the loss of a love companion. Just is it based in doctrine? Hither's what we know:

From the Scriptures

We acquire a few things near the nature of animate being life from the scriptures. For instance, we know that animals take "living souls" from God, who "breathed into them the breath of life" (see Moses 3:19).

We too learn that "not one hair, neither mote, shall be lost" from the plants and animals God has created (see Doctrine and Covenants 29:23-25). God has besides promised he "will make them to lie downwardly safely" in the last days (Hosea two:eighteen).

Perhaps almost moving, though, is establish in Jesus'due south teachings of the sparrows: "Are non five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?" (Luke 12:five). If the sparrows are not forgotten, why would God forget whatsoever other animal?

From Prophets and Apostles

Mod-twenty-four hours prophets have likewise spoken nearly animals in the eternities.

In particular, President Joseph Fielding Smith had a lot to say on the bailiwick. In his October 1928 briefing address, he said, "The animals, the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, as well as man, are to exist recreated, or renewed, through the resurrection, for they likewise are living souls."

He also wrote in Answers to Gospel Questions that "animals do have spirits and that through the redemption made by our Savior they volition come forth in the resurrection to enjoy the approving of immortal life."

In the August 1927 edition of the Improvement Era, Elder Orson F. Whitney shared, "the affirmative of the question 'Practice Animals Accept Souls?' is amply sustained by divine revelation." Speaking of the Prophet Joseph, he added, "Joseph Smith and then believed, or he would not have said. . . apropos his favorite equus caballus, when information technology died, that he expected to have information technology in Eternity."

That Joseph Smith believed in the conservancy of animals is substantiated by a argument he fabricated regarding brute life: "Says one, 'I cannot believe in the salvation of beasts.' Any homo who would tell you this could not be, would tell y'all that the revelations are not true. John heard the words of the beast giving glory to God, and understood them" (Documentary History of the Church building, vol. 5).

Well-known apostle and prominent gospel scholar Bruce R. McConkie was also of the stance that animals, and all forms of life, are eternal. "Animals, birds, fowls, fishes, plants, and all forms of life occupy an assigned sphere and play an eternal role in the peachy plan of creation, redemption, and salvation. They were all created every bit spirit entities in pre-being" (Mormon Doctrine, 1966).

From Other Sources

Simply beyond the scriptures and the prophets, one of my favorite LDS answers to this question comes from Blood brother Gerald E. Jones, who was the managing director of the Institute of Religion in Berkeley, California. In response to a question published in the March 1977 Ensign, he shared:

Do animals have spirits and are they resurrected? Yes. The Prophet Joseph Smith received information concerning the eternal status of animals. Answers to questions he posed are in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 77. He also spoke nearly the resurrection of animals in a sermon but did non expand on the subject. (History of the Church, 5:343.)

Doggie Heaven

At that place are plenty of other LDS sources that recount the importance of beast life, specially in regards to mankind's responsibleness as a steward for those lives. We are told that "a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast" (Proverbs 12:10), as reflected in the Police of Moses, which instructed the Israelites to avoid unduly straining or muzzling their animals (Deuteronomy 22:ten, 25:4).

But as far equally animals beingness resurrected and going to heaven? Personally, my feelings on the matter can be summed up by this quote, attributed to an unknown author: "Heaven is the identify where all the dogs y'all've always loved come to greet you."