On the Christian View of Pets
Contributed by Gilbert Keith C.
To understand the Christian view of pets one must first understand the Christian view of animals and our relationship with them. “God made the animals of the earth according to their kind. . . and God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:25 NASB) this comes right before God makes humankind in His own image. After both man and woman are made God then gave them a purpose “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (1:28) and after he informed man and woman what they and the animals would be eating, called everything very good. What can be taken away from this? That mankind is separate from animals in both the purpose given and in being made in God’s image, and also that the animals are considered good, but that mankind, with their purpose and position fulfilled, is considered very good.
Now what is meant by rule over has been a point of theological discussion for some time, but the idea that seems most likely is that God would have us rule as he does, not as some famous kings who have ruled in history with wanton violence and exploitation. What are the attributes of God’s rulership then? Grace and mercy, an allowance of free will, providing for all, and justice and punishment when perversion occurs. How would this then carry over to our treatment of animals? Perhaps the greatest example would be in the common biblical symbol of a shepherd. A shepherd’s primary goal is to tend to the sheep, ensuring they are well fed and watered, and that they are kept safe from any predators that would consume them. They accomplish this task through their shepherds’ crook: a hook to pull on one end and a spike to drive forward with on the other, and by examining the grounds upon which the sheep graze looking out for things that may harm the sheep and removing them.
Now, after the world was broken by man’s rebellion and the Flood was sent and dissipated, God made the animals fear us at the same time that he allowed us to eat them (9:2-4). This shows that the fear of humans that we see wild animals performing is not part of the natural, created order, but is instead the result of rebellion against God. This is why the more docile animals flee, the moose stampede, and the bear’s maul. The world was forced into a state far away from that of how God designed it to be, and thus the animals and our relation to them has also been driven far away.
What we then see in domesticated animals is an overturning of this result of rebellion, at least in part, and only in rare instances or with particularly amicable species. Pets are a further step in that process, where we take particular interest in the well-being of one or more of these creatures to tend to them as we were supposed to from the beginning, to rule the dogs and cats as a shepherd, to rule the fish of the aquarium and the birds of the aviary as dim reflections of God who rules all. We are not required to take this special interest (there is no record of Jesus having a pet), it is neither sin if we don’t, nor a greater holiness if we do, but in its right place it is valuable and good. Having pets is like Eden looking into a steamed-up mirror, it does not give all the details, but you can see the rough outline of what once was.
Finally, there is the question of if our pets will join us in the afterlife? There is no indication of such a truth in scripture. The animals are as much a part of the material world as the plants and mountains, and Revelation 21 indicates that God is not saving any of this world, though he may remake certain parts of the new one to imitate what he once created. We need to balance our love with this seeming reality, the only thing clearly carrying over from this broken world to the new one is ourselves and our fellow Christians, so keep that in mind. Our pets, while a good thing, and a healthy thing, are not necessarily an immortal thing like your neighbor is.