Will You See Your Pets Again in Heaven Lds

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

I remember the first time I went to put a domestic dog down. Her name was Maggie. She was a beautiful, black Cracking Dane with a love for life and eating socks. But she was but 4 (barely middle-aged) when Wobbler syndrome necessitated we take her to the vet.

And not come home.

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

Maggie didn't get to come back to our domicile that day; I had never earlier hoped so desperately that she had gone to another, more glorious home.

Practise All Dogs Become to Heaven?

You've doubtless heard someone in the church building say information technology earlier: all dogs—in fact, all animals—go to heaven. It's a comforting idea that can aid a pet owner, grieving the loss of a beloved companion. But is it based in doctrine? Hither'southward what we know:

From the Scriptures

We learn a few things about the nature of animal life from the scriptures. For case, we know that animals have "living souls" from God, who "breathed into them the breath of life" (run into Moses 3:19).

We also learn that "non ane hair, neither mote, shall be lost" from the plants and animals God has created (see Doctrine and Covenants 29:23-25). God has likewise promised he "volition brand them to lie down safely" in the last days (Hosea 2:18).

Mayhap most moving, though, is found in Jesus's teachings of the sparrows: "Are non v sparrows sold for two farthings, and not ane of them is forgotten earlier God?" (Luke 12:5). If the sparrows are non forgotten, why would God forget whatever other animate being?

From Prophets and Apostles

Modern-mean solar day prophets accept also spoken about animals in the eternities.

In item, President Joseph Fielding Smith had a lot to say on the subject. In his October 1928 briefing address, he said, "The animals, the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, every bit well every bit man, are to be recreated, or renewed, through the resurrection, for they too are living souls."

He as well wrote in Answers to Gospel Questions that "animals do have spirits and that through the redemption made by our Savior they volition come up forth in the resurrection to bask the approval of immortal life."

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

That Joseph Smith believed in the salvation of animals is substantiated past a statement he made regarding animal life: "Says one, 'I cannot believe in the salvation of beasts.' Whatsoever man who would tell you this could not exist, would tell you 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, vol. five).

Well-known apostle and prominent gospel scholar Bruce R. McConkie was also of the opinion 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 keen programme of creation, redemption, and salvation. They were all created as spirit entities in pre-being" (Mormon Doctrine, 1966).

From Other Sources

Only beyond the scriptures and the prophets, ane of my favorite LDS answers to this question comes from Brother Gerald Due east. Jones, who was the director of the Institute of Faith in Berkeley, California. In response to a question published in the March 1977 Ensign, he shared:

Do animals accept spirits and are they resurrected? Yep. The Prophet Joseph Smith received information concerning the eternal status of animals. Answers to questions he posed are in the Doctrine and Covenants, department 77. He also spoke about the resurrection of animals in a sermon merely did not expand on the bailiwick. (History of the Church, 5:343.)

Doggie Heaven

At that place are plenty of other LDS sources that recount the importance of animal life, particularly in regards to mankind's responsibility as a steward for those lives. We are told that "a righteous human being regardeth the life of his brute" (Proverbs 12:10), equally reflected in the Constabulary of Moses, which instructed the Israelites to avoid unduly straining or muzzling their animals (Deuteronomy 22:10, 25:four).

Simply as far as animals beingness resurrected and going to sky? Personally, my feelings on the matter can exist summed upwards by this quote, attributed to an unknown writer: "Heaven is the identify where all the dogs you've e'er loved come to greet you."