Concerning "life", Dr. Wikipedia says there are six different forms of life on Earth:
"A diverse array of living organisms can be found in the biosphere of Earth, and the properties common to these organisms—plants, animals, fungi, protists, archaea, and bacteria—are a carbon- and water-based cellular form with complex organization and heritable genetic information."
I do not argue with whoever is pulling the strings on Wikipedia, at least on this particular bit of information. It must be a very impressive, long list of doctorates. But since he only lists six forms of life, on Earth, I must add the one he forgot to mention .... himself. Humanity, the seventh form, is by far the most important and for whom the other six were created, by the Creator of all, for human benefit. Since I don't think Wikipedia got it's information from Him ... God, I must point out that God may, indeed, list those lower forms of life under the classification of "animals" or "plants", but certainly not "human". Since God doesn't mention them, I will assume they were not within His area of concern or He didn't want to worry us with fungus and bacteria. For simple clarity, I will only refer to animal, plant and human.
During God's work of creation ... "work?" He actually "spoke" it all into existence when He said, "Let there be". Anyway, during the time of earth's creation or maybe recreation, God created light, plant life, animal life and then, His climatic creation of human life, "in His own image and likeness." Before sin came, man's occupation was to "dress and keep the garden", but, evidently, without the hard labor it required after he sinned. Originally, at that time, neither man nor animals killed or ate each other. After man sinned, and the curse was put upon humanity, and the entire earth, even the plants and animals were ill affected by it. Because of sin, Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, their work was made hard, child birth became difficult, plants lost their perfection, and animals, generally, became wild and self-protective.
The fact that God created a wide variety of plants and loaded many of them with delicious fruit or vegetables, and even various medicines, including aspirin, tells us that He has a very special interest in His plant kingdom.
We also know that God has concern for the welfare and life of His animal kingdom. "A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast." Prov.12:10. God demonstrated their value, to Him, by enlisting them as blood sacrifices, burnt and sin offerings, typifying, in the Old Testament, the future sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, on the cross. Animals have an immense value to the human race in various, innumerable ways, one of which is companionship; and in the case of our poodle, Shadow, a lot of humor. Nothing makes us laugh more. My wife, Bettie, and I, laugh at him at least a dozen times, every day, each, which is an entertainment blessing we could not pay for. He is a sweet presence in our home which we will sorely miss, when he dies. He is getting close to that time. I know many of you also have pets you love.
Now, let me propose a possibility, in answer to my title question, "Will there be animals in heaven ?" First, let me emphasize ... The Revelation says, 14 times, that there are "beasts" in heaven, four of them.
If God saw fit to symbolize, and differentiate, the Old Testament Saints and New Testament Saints as twenty four elders (Rev.4:4), in heaven; the twelve names of the of the twelve tribes written on the twelve gates (Rev.21:12), and the names of the twelve Apostles written on the twelve foundations (Rev.21:14), and if He chose to plant the tree of life, in heaven, possibly representing His entire plant kingdom, then couldn't it be that the four beasts (Rev.4:6) are also symbolic and representative of God's animal kingdom? I can think of no other reason "beasts", of any kind, would be in heaven when He already has angels, Old Testament Saints ("friends of the Groom"), and New Testament Saints (Bride of the Groom) His church. (Jn.3:29). So why are there"beasts" in heaven?
If, in fact, the four beasts are representative of God's animal kingdom, then it could be that you will see your pet reflected in one of those four beasts ... in some supernatural way. Since it is not revealed exactly what these four beasts represent, my suggestion is only my own conclusion and not necessarily so. I personally think that when birds sing, they are worshiping God and when animals do what He created them to do, before the curse tainted us all, they are worshiping God. The "four beasts" certainly do that .... and apparently, only that. Why "beasts"?
The fact that there are definitely four beasts in heaven, who worship God, has some mysterious and yet unexplained deeper meaning. I think I know what it is. RB
Here are a couple of examples of something only God could have put in animals.
This Panda and comment are from the Facebook of my friends, Flo and B.J. Cox:
Following an earthquake in Japan, this terrified giant panda grabs the leg of a policeman for comfort.
Animals feel fear too. Knowing that animals feel pain and fear is enough of a reason to change the way we treat and think about them.
And This was recently filmed by a family on their sailboat off the CA coast.
Do Not miss the video.RB
1 comment:
I remember asking you this question when I was a child, Papa :) Love you!
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