Do Bad Cats go to Hell (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the

Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry. Today we don't want to compromise when it comes to our feelings and our facts.

I think it was Luther who said, I don't have this in front of me, so it just dropped the top of my head, and it won't be in Deutsch.

Feelings come and feelings go, and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the

Word of God, not else is worth believing. When we talk about the subject today, part two, do dogs go to heaven?

Do animals go to heaven? Do good dogs go to heaven? You need to make sure you submit your mind to the

Bible and not your feelings, because you feel like you want them to go. You're happy with the dog.

You're happy with your cats. You're happy with your ferrets, those kind of things.

And so remember, if you haven't listened to the last show about this, this is part two, and so we build upon the shows.

Don't ever forget that when it comes to pets, you should be thanking God that you have pets and that you can have a happy home where you can have a dog.

That's the goodness of God right there, that He would give you animals. We deserve hell, yet He gives unbelievers rain and pleasures and pets, and He gives believers the same thing and very much more,

Christ Jesus, His own Son. And so I saw the Eternal Earthbound Pets ad, and if you believe in a pre -tribulational rapture, then you for $110 sign up to have your animals taken care of when you are raptured.

And these atheists know how to make a buck. They're currently active in 24 states, and I don't blame them for trying to make some money from gullible

Christians. But what I do mind is the article that followed up that, and that was,

Do Pets Go to Heaven? By Jim Daly, posted on FocusOnlineCommunities .com.

Focus on the family, and they have an article, 11 -09 -2010,

Do Pets Go to Heaven? And I tried to talk a lot last time about men and women are made in the image and likeness of God.

Men and women, God breathed His soul into them. Men and women have a unique place in the economy of God.

Jesus Christ cloaked Himself with humanity, dogs and all other animals, while having some traits that we might attribute to men and women anthropomorphically.

It seems like they're sad, it seems like they're happy, blah, blah, blah. That we know that the

Bible teaches that animals have no self -awareness. They're like, they are unreasoning animals, according to 2

Peter chapter 2. They have instincts. And I'm happy for my dog.

You can pray for your dog all you want if it's hurt or in misery or suffering, but you can't pray for your dog to go to heaven, and you can't get to heaven expecting your dog going to be there, because you've got a low view of heaven.

You've got a low view of Christ. You've got a low view of your own sin. You've got a low view of grace. Jesus is going to be the one.

His fame is everything. We don't know much about heaven, but we do know it will be a place where Christ is the centerpiece.

Read Revelation chapter 4. Read Revelation chapter 5 and see what the worship of Jesus is like in heaven.

And so this article here, Do Pets Go to Heaven?, has quotes from Billy Graham and C .S.

Lewis and Hank Hanegraaff, three men that I'm sure have taught a lot of good things, but three men who are less than excellent theologians when it comes to this topic, especially—I was going to say especially—and what

I'm most concerned about are the comments in the blog roll. Now I've made myself a promise.

Mike, never comment on a blog roll. Never say, you know, Mike A. says, because you know what?

It hardly ever changes anyone's opinion. It's a waste of time. And I pretty much wasted my time as I read through probably several hundred comments about this,

Do Pets Go to Heaven? Now there were a few people that wrote good things, proper things, right things.

But most people, they let their emotions go. And so my emphasis today is, feelings must be second place.

They must be the caboose. You cannot let your feelings go. To take off on one of the new shows that's out,

Unstoppable, if you let your feelings lead you like an engine does a train, you are going to be unstoppable.

The problem is, truth is truth. There is presuppositional truth. And the truth of the matter is, you are to think biblically, truthfully first, and then you are to feel.

I want you to feel. I want you to have emotions of joy and love and all anger, even there's a righteous kind of anger.

But when I read these things on the Focus on the Family blog, now these don't indict Focus on the Family. I mean this,

I think the article indicts Focus on the Family. I think it's not that good of an article.

I don't think it's truthful. But these people that listen to Focus on the Family, I think it says a lot about them.

And frankly, if you let your feelings get out of hand, you're going to be writing things like this. So for the next 20 minutes,

I'm going to be reading some of these blog roll comments from Do All Dogs Go to Heaven, Do Good Dogs Go, Cats Never Go, whatever the name of the article is.

And I want you to just see how insane it is when you let your feelings take over. Now remember, we all do these kinds of things.

But when you see it in someone else, it's easier to identify. So now we'll identify it in others. And then we'll say,

Lord, help me to run my life based upon the Word of God, the unchanging objective standard truth that's outside of me.

Because when there's truth inside of you, it's affected by the fall. You're in trouble. So we need a religion, the only religion that has external truth, truth that's outside of us.

You need to read the B .B. Warfield article on mysticism. And he'll say there's only two kinds of religion, a religion that has truth from the inside and religion that has truth from the outside, and only

Christianity receives truth externally from God. So here are some comments from the blog roll, from the dog roll.

And I am just beside myself, Sherry M. This goes along with everything you would expect from a loving father, so I'm not surprised.

When it comes to dogs going to heaven, God is love, and so I'm not surprised. Steven J.

I think that animals will be in heaven now after the scriptures mentioned, but even before I read this blog, I thought they would be because it is written to go and preach the

Word to all living creatures. And also Jesus mentions for us to consider the birds of the sky and the lilies of the field that God provides for them.

So I agree, and I hope they're in heaven too. Well, see how they just distort things? For the most part,

I think focus on the family is listened to by women. And so for the most part, you'll have women writing here poorly and badly when it comes to theology.

But not all of them are women. Steven J. is wrong. Go preach the Word to all living creatures.

I believe he's trying to take Mark 16 .15. First of all, it's not in the text. It ends in 16 .8.

But second of all, if we're to go preach to all creatures, then we're supposed to go preach to the toads and the geckos, and the list goes on and on.

We are to preach to human beings. They have a sin problem. Animals are affected by the fall. They die. They would need to be redeemed to go to heaven because why have a sinful creature in God's holy heaven?

Well, you can't. But we are to preach the gospel, not to angels, not to animals, not to microbes, not to bacteria.

We're to preach the angels. We're to preach the gospel to human beings.

That's who we're supposed to preach the gospel to. And even when it comes to the birds of the sky and the lovelies of the field, when you look at that in Matthew 6,

Jesus is talking about if the Father cares for them by providing for them on earth, then how much more will he provide for his children?

So both of those ripped out of context. People let their feelings go. They don't know the Bible. S. Lewis Johnson is right.

The problem with American evangelicals is they don't know their Bibles. Sheryl says, why shouldn't pets go to heaven?

Not all will, just like not all people will go to heaven. So I guess if you're a good dog, you go to heaven.

If you're a bad dog, you go to hell. Dog hell. And if you're a good cat, you go to heaven.

You're a bad cat, you go to hell. This is dumb. Jodi says, I sure hope so. Now see that?

I don't mind. I sure hope so. That would be a dream of mine. Wouldn't that be wonderful? I don't mind that. And she says,

I miss my cat of 15 years that we lost just a few years ago to diabetes. She has always been there for me, and I hope to see her again.

Now see, I don't mind that. That's just wishful thinking. That's just, oh, I hope that'll happen. I miss my cat.

Sean M. It is my sincere hope that my fur kids will be there. If my Abba cares enough to count the hairs on my head, a very small, seemingly unimportant fact, how can the animals

I call my earthly treasure be of less importance? He cares for the smallest issues in our lives, and I don't consider the love and companionship of animals to be a small issue.

So with that logic, we leap to pets are in heaven. He goes on to say,

Sean M., I do know that if they aren't there, Father's version of heaven will make up for the loss, so that I'll have no sorrow.

But I do hold on to the following. By the way, that is correct so far. Eyes have not seen nor ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man the things which

God has prepared for those who love him. He says, 2 Corinthians 2 .9, that is 1 Corinthians 2 .9, and that has absolutely nothing to do with heaven.

It is true, heaven will, you can never make up heaven. You can never use words to express how great heaven will be.

That is true, but 1 Corinthians 2 .9 is talking about external revelation from the apostles.

Don't ever use that verse for heaven. That is not the author's intent for that verse. Jeff S.,

by the way, my name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and today I'm just showing you the insanity of letting your feelings go and then somehow thinking,

I love dogs, God loves me, animals are in heaven, et cetera.

Jeff S., I think we as sinners allow outside influences to take up much more of our precious time and thoughts than we should involving numerous unimportant subjects when compared to the question, is your name written on the scroll of eternal life?

I commend Jeff. Good job, Jeff S. That is exactly true.

If you're listening today and you're worried about your dog going to heaven, I've got a bigger question. Will you go to heaven? You must be perfect to get into heaven, eternally perfect, always perfect, forever perfect.

You fall short of that standard, believe me. You do not love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You do not love your neighbors yourself all the time, forever.

You are a lawbreaker, God's holy law, the royal law, the king's law, and you will have to pay for that.

Or since God is good and gracious and kind, he has given a substitute for all those that look away from themselves and look to the substitute who bears the sin for people looking to them.

He forgives their sins. And so good job, Jeff S. Angela, a little saddened that we hope our own pets will be there, but no one mentioned the animals that did not have a loving mom and dad that were abused, neglected, abandoned, and died a horrible and lonely death, either at a shelter or some other terrible place.

I hope that more than my own fur baby that is so loved and taken care of on earth, that the little ones who do not know love will have a second life in a perfect world.

Carol M. Revelation says, Behold, I make all things new. I guess all things are all things. There's one more faux pas when it comes to all always means exclusively all.

It never means relative all. It doesn't mean all kinds of, all sorts of, all manner of. See, all means all. I think that includes our pets that we love.

God can certainly do that if he wishes. God must love animals too. He makes so many of them with such delightful variety.

See how bits of truth are put in with bits of error? Carol M. Now we have

Dr. Vicki H., and we have a veterinarian in the house. As a veterinarian,

I ponder this question frequently. Well, you don't have to ponder it anymore because the scripture is clear. When clients ask my opinion,

I tell them the Bible is not 100 % clear, but I believe that our beloved pets will be in heaven. If I'm wrong and they're not there,

God has promised me no tears in heaven, so I won't miss them. Thanks for the well -written article. Well, the second part she said there is true, but why don't you just say love your animals while you can now and don't put them above human beings.

Michelle Z., my uncle, a born -again believer, died twice and came back. He walked with Jesus. He stepped on flowers that stood back up, saw painters painting in the air around him, and saw all of his pets.

They all greeted him when he arrived. He did not walk on streets of gold. My aunt attributes that to yelling at him that he better not walk on those streets of gold without him.

I believe he is telling the truth. I have no reason to not believe him. Well, I do because when

Paul said he went to heaven, he wasn't, and he actually did go to heaven in 2 Corinthians, he was not allowed to talk about what he saw, and he would not stoop down to this kind of spiritual shenanigans that say, you know, you stand on flowers, they pop back up, you paint in the air, and you see all your pets.

That sounds more like an emergent worship service than anything else, but I digress. I had a vision.

My uncle went to heaven. He came back. He died twice. Therefore, I have my theology based on my experience.

Welcome to modern evangelicalism. I saw this. I've been down to so -and -so.

I saw someone speak in tongues down in Uruguay. I went to Siberia, and they had some kind of special healing service.

I did this. I did that. We'll abandon the Word of God, and we'll get our theology based on experience.

Don't do that. Stephanie, I love the idea that my ferrets and my dog will be with me in heaven.

Why do I want to say something like John Lennon said, koo -koo, koo -joo? What does that mean?

Shall we see? I feel that if God created animals even before he created Eve, why wouldn't they be in heaven with us?

Well, first, let's forget Adam. And second of all, I don't really care what you feel, shall we see?

We have to submit ourselves to the Word of God. God is the creator. We are creatures. And he determines truth, and what he says goes.

Jacques R. Maybe it's Jackie. Maybe it's Jacques. I do believe that our beloved pets will be waiting for us in heaven.

God gave them to us to be our friends and to help us. And I also believe that they were not born into sin as humans were, thus their place will be in heaven also, right along with us.

I can't wait to see them and share in the great love of God with them in the great hereafter. Laura says,

Revelations has Jesus coming on a white horse. That would be Revelation. He's coming out of heaven for us.

So at least we know that there are animals in heaven. I personally believe that pets are a gift from God. Why wouldn't we be reunited in heaven?

If God wants to make animals in heaven, he can, but they're not going to be the same sin -tainted animals on the earth.

Sin not by their own conscience, but sin because the world is cursed. The world is tainted by sin.

We have tsunamis and earthquakes. We know animals have been affected by the fall. Why? Because they die.

I'm talking fast today, but it's all the coffee, I think. Pete's coffee, nothing but the best around here, no compromise.

Here's a good one. This is why she thinks dogs will be in heaven and animals will be in heaven.

I want to say this as sappily as I can. God doesn't waste love,

Bonnie says. Where's Pastor Steve when I need him? Hannah H.,

It seems at most, if not all, the great Christian teachers believe that animals will be in the eternal.

Romans 8 is pretty clear that all capitalized creature creation waits to be renewed. See where we go with this?

I mean, I don't know. It's like you have an idea in your mind. You want your animals to go to heaven, and then you'll try to find every single verse that somehow applies.

David P., I have recently been studying about 300 stories of people who have experienced clinical death.

You know where we're going here. Experience is going to dictate and go above spiritual data.

They were revived in their memories and had memories of being dead. Most of these people say they went to an indescribably wonderful place where God was, and that they were greeted by their dead relatives and friends.

Now, let me just make a comment here. Why is it that most people, when they have a near -death experience, operative word, near -death, that they have this white light, feels good, special place?

I don't hear too much agony, death, howls, shrieks, hell, torment. Why? Because their brain is oxygen -deprived, and they're seeing lights, and you don't die and then come back.

In two separate cases where the subject had never known anyone who had died, the subject reported being met by their deceased dog, which was very glad to see them.

I've been waiting. Oh, by the way, this guy went on to say,

David P., that they talked through telepathy, and he could read his dog's thoughts.

Well, friends, here we go. Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Animals and pets don't go to heaven.

Your animals have been tainted by the fall. You need to be more concerned about your human friends, neighbors, acquaintances.

They need to know the gospel. They need to hear it from you. And if you waste all your time thinking about, do dogs go to heaven, you are ignoring the

Great Commission. You are ignoring why you exist on earth. Thank God for your pets.

Feed them some puppy chow and be on with it. I'm reading on No Compromise Radio, focus on the family blog rule regarding pets being in heaven.

Now, see, we just, we spiral down. Lenora says, when we buried my kitty last year, she was 20 years old and five months.

That was hard. By the way, it was hard. I'm not against that. But you watch out of feelings is going to come so -called theology, but it's going to be wrong theology.

I searched and found a lot of scriptures, which I printed out and read at her little graveside. As I was reading all the scriptures about animals in the

Bible, though through my pain and tears, I was awestruck at the message God showed me.

And I think this is what we need to learn and continue to keep sight of from the precious creation he made and gave to us.

God loves all of his creation intensely, deeply, beyond anything any of us can even fathom.

But he loves you and I, I think she meant me, and all humankind 1 ,000 times, 1 ,000 times, 1 ,000 times more than his precious creation.

We are the epitome of his creation and he wants us to know how much he loves us. Well, that part is true.

That part is true. But the first part wasn't. David Pete, clearly dogs make it to heaven.

All you have to do is look at a basset hound in the eye to see they are profoundly sorry for their sins. Oh, well, at least we had some humor in the midst of all this dribble and drivel.

If pride goeth before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction, cats haven't got a prayer. Neither do mosquitoes, squirrels that eat from bird feeders, and any sea creatures that are commonly found in Chinese food.

They are clearly all the work of Satan. Well, at least we had some levity in all this.

Laura M., dogs go to heaven, period, quit wasting time trying to figure it out. Billy Graham said it best.

Okay. Okay, Pastor Laura. Beth said, well, here's my feeling.

Everything that is ever mentioned in the Bible and that we experience here on earth that God planned to give us joy will be in heaven to the max.

To name a few, music, dancing, worship, green pastures, green acres, sorry,

I added that, still waters, health and wholeness, family love, and yes, our beloved pets.

In heaven, though, they will all be house -trained and will not bark too much.

He can love a creature so unconditionally it gives God great joy. He loves them.

I mean, can you believe it? What have we come to? I don't even know why I'm wasting a radio show on this whole thing, except I'm flabbergasted.

How about this? Finally, here we have a lady telling us something good. We are all barking up the wrong tree.

We will see Jesus in heaven face -to -face and look straight into his eyes. As much as I love my pets and love my pests, they will all fade into insignificance when compared to the glory of God.

Preach it. Come on, Pastor Jan. Preach that. Rhonda, I believe that our loving

Father has many wonderful surprises in store for us in heaven. Like I tell my kids, the Bible doesn't tell us for sure if our pets will be in heaven, but I can't imagine a new heaven and a new earth without them.

All right, I think there will be wonderful surprises, and at least she's not telling her kids a fib.

Laurel says, it is human sin that precludes people from heaven. I don't believe that animals have the capacity to sin.

If an animal has not sinned, then why can't it be in heaven? Because it's been affected by the fall. That's why.

Laurel, you know how happy a dog gets when you arrive home. Imagine arriving in heaven and being greeted by all your dogs who have died.

What a royal greeting. More royal if you've in fact owned a Corgi. All right, let me give some love to Robin.

There's nothing in the Bible that says animals will be resurrected, nor is anything said about them being raptured.

When mankind was created, the breath of life was breathed into him so that he became a living soul. But nothing is mentioned about that same breath from God being breathed into animals.

So whether or not animals have a soul, it's not the same soul that Christ came and died on the cross for, she says.

More to the point, all animals, not just fur, be spot or fluffy, will die. Human affections will do nothing to save a pet or any animal more than bearing a child ensures salvation.

Okay, well, she did a pretty good job even though she couldn't write well. She couldn't write any good. Well, Laurie C.

says there's animals in heaven because let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Psalm 150, verse 6. We don't have a soul, we are a soul.

Okay, now we've got neoplatonic dualism. Laurie says, I too wonder how you could get animals to have souls.

From these verses, when children ask if their lost pet is in heaven, I say yes, with adults I say, I don't know. So Laurie says, when your kids ask you, lie, and when adults ask you, tell them the truth.

And then when your kids are older and you tell them about God, they'll say, well, that's a lie too. Why would you do that,

Laurie? Do not do that. My name's Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and we have fallen, how the mighty have fallen.

We've talked this whole day today about pets. Use your mind, don't use your feelings, and say to yourself if you bury a pet,

God, thank you for this animal. We really appreciate your goodness. You're just a good God. You give us all kinds of things, including the love of a pet.

But don't go farther than you're supposed to go. Don't go farther than the text goes.

You have an eternal soul, and you will stand before God one day. Animals don't have an eternal soul.

They don't even know that they're an animal. They don't have self -awareness. And so what you need to do is focus on what the

Bible says, Jesus is the one who makes heaven heaven. Not your animals, not your wife, not your friends, not your dad, not your kids.

Jesus is the star of heaven. Read Revelation chapter 4 and chapter 5, and don't read family blogs on focus on the family.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.