Part Fifteen:  Will Pets and Other Animals inhabiting the New Earth Bring Glory to God?

When all is said and done, when all the evidence that confirms our pets and other animals will join God’s People on the New Earth is analyzed, it hinges totally on the selfless, astonishing, miraculous work of Jesus Christ. As we saw in Part Ten, animals are not fallen but “cursed” due to human sin—the “Fall.” They do not need a Savior, as does Humanity. Nevertheless, if animals are blessed with eternal resurrected bodies, it too will depend entirely on the redeeming work of Jesus Christ for the glory of God (see Part Ten). The Apostle Paul also wrote that Jesus reconciled “all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross” (Emphasis mine; Col. 1:20).

When Jesus returns to Earth at the end of this age to establish His Eternal Kingdom, His work of redemption will encompass the whole of creation (see Part Ten). Heaven and Earth will become one, and nature’s curse will be removed forever (Rev. 22:3). This heavenly New Earth will be the old earth redeemed, renewed, and restored to its original, unspoiled, uncorrupted, pristine state—as God created it to be. The late theologian Anthony Hoekema said it well: “The work of Christ . . . is not just to save certain individuals, not even to save an innumerable throng of blood-bought people. The total work of Christ is nothing less than to redeem this entire creation from the effects of sin. That purpose will not be accomplished until God has ushered in the new earth, until Paradise Lost has become Paradise Regained.” (Quoted in Randy Alcorn, Heaven, 104)

I’m confident the pets we loved and enjoyed in this life and who served us faithfully, the Wild animals that make the wilderness wild, and the domesticated animals, whose suffering the human race is often responsible for (see Part Nine), will spend eternity with God’s people on the redeemed New Earth. None of this would happen unless it brings Glory to God who Created and finds joy in them (see, for example, Psalms, 50: 10-11, 104: 24-31).

For people like me, who relish walks in the wilderness with dog companions, who are thrilled to observe nature’s wild inhabitants, who dream of the day when we can scratch between the ears of lions and wolves, nap in the shadow of grizzly bears, race across meadows with deer and antelope, and perhaps even soar into the heights with eagles and hawks—such a future promise of a New Earth is indescribably exciting to anticipate. I, for one, look forward to it with eager anticipation!

This concludes my blog series on “What Does the Bible Say about Pets and Wild Animals in Heaven?”  If you found it encouraging, helpful, and fun to read, I hope you’ll consider my more in-depth study in my book Will Dogs Chase Cats in Heaven? People, Pets, and Wild Animals in the Afterlife.

Next week I’ll begin a new, five-part blog series based on an article I wrote for the Christian Research Journal in 2020. It answers in the affirmative—and explains how—apologetics can go beyond evidence for Christianity to proof of Christianity.