All Dogs Go to Heaven
There’s an interesting philosophical muse that all dogs go to Heaven. If Disney says it and says it twice, I guess it must be valid… Not really. The Disney cartoons skewed my perspectives since I was exposed to them as a child. For example, hunting is murdering Bambi’s mother. Kept me from learning how to hunt. Hunting has always provided families with food. So, Fantasy Land isn’t where I find Truth as an adult. I prefer reality. I mean they don’t even mention where cats go!
Only one time in the Bible is the question posed as a philosophical question: “Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?” — Ecclesiastes 3:21, NIV. Yet, there are many other passages that make it obvious that there are animals in Heaven. https://theheavenguy.org/will-there-be-animals-and-pets-in-heaven
Like many other topics, however, people go well beyond facts. On anything and everything the thought process increasingly revolves around speculation, opinions, falsehoods, and worse, they are all knit together into disassociated webs of conspiracy, fomenting even more extreme mindsets than justified when anxieties first arose.
This pathetic state of affairs traverses all dynamics of our living: politics, religion, philosophy, social interaction, physical and psychological health. Even coffee klatches and Bible Study Groups are adversely affected. This latter concerns me more than the others, where Believers are not researching the very source of their Faith: the Bible. They have access to the Truth, but they do not trouble themselves with going to that extensive Library of Insight and Wisdom. So, more and more they go off on wild tangents and further and further away from the hard truths of the Bible. One being that as born again Believers we will have no troubles in this life. The Bible makes it very clear, in John 16:33, NIV — “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” No reason to be anxious. Yet, we will have hard troubles in this life. So, hold on to the Promise throughout. Believers are called to persevere: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” — James 1:2–5.
Then there is this smoking stench of nonsense: Everyone, all people, are going to heaven — no matter how they have chosen to live on this Earth. Really?!? So, Jesus died for nothing. There is no need for introspection. No need to repent of harmful thoughts and deeds. None of the Gospel matters. The whole Bible doesn’t matter. We have no responsibilities, because there are no consequences for what we think, say, or do.
The whole world is going sideways, because people’s actions are “wicked, bad, wrong, morally wrong, wrongful, immoral, sinful, ungodly, unholy, foul, vile, base, ignoble, dishonorable, corrupt, iniquitous, depraved, degenerate, villainous, nefarious, sinister, vicious, malicious, malevolent, demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, dark, black-hearted, monstrous, shocking, despicable, atrocious, heinous, odious, contemptible, horrible, execrable, lowdown, stinking, dirty, shady, warped, bent, crooked, dastardly, egregious, flagitious” ( Google’s Online Dictionary for “evil”) But sure!
“After all,” people say, “God is love!” Does anybody really believe the God who is a loving Father wants this mess to continue forever?
Well, Christians and anybody else reading this: 1 Corinthians 6:9–11
New Living Translation: “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people — none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
I know that I have fit into several of those categories. However, I also know that I have been made “right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
So, my thinking is that certainly no one is accountable to me, and I hold no personal grudges, nor judgmental thoughts toward anyone, and I do not reject their value as persons — intellectually or otherwise. Yet, “all dogs” don’t “go to Heaven.” Is that fortunately or unfortunately to you? I mean what kind of people do you want as forever neighbors?
Like many other people, I never thought of myself as an awful person. I didn’t think I did any harmful things to others. No changes necessary here! Never crossed my mind that my life was causing a stench. However, I was convicted of the harmfulness of my life. Now I realize it is not my Creation. Not my standards. Not my requisites. This is God’s world we are living in. It’s His house.
After some time and some convincing and some conviction by the Spirit of God, eventually, I made my choice, asking Jesus to forgive me and come in to take charge of my life. (Being in charge didn’t do me much good, and my advice to myself wasn’t very good, either.) Now, I suggest you eventually need to make your choice — the sooner the better. I, for one, would very much like to meet you in Eternity — with or without the cats and dogs!
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” — Romans 5:8, New International Version.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast.” — Ephesians 2:8, NIV.
