Posted by:
RPackham
(
)
Date: July 10, 2020 02:46PM
Yes, but it's not just your pets. According to the prophets, ALL animals will be resurrected:
Prophet Joseph Smith:
John saw beings there [in heaven] of a thousand forms, that had been saved from ten thousand times ten thousand earths like this,-strange beasts of which we have no conception: all might be seen in heaven. The grand secret was to show John what there was in heaven. John learned that God glorified himself by saving all that his hands had made, whether beasts, fowls, fishes or men; and he will glorify himself with them. - HC 5:343-44
Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith:
Animals do have spirits and that through the redemption made by our Savior they will come forth in the resurrection, to enjoy the blessing of immortal life. - "Answers to Gospel Questions" Volume 2, Page 48
Apostle Bruce R. McConkie:
Nothing is more absolutely universal than the resurrection. Every living thing and being will be resurrected. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." (1 Cor. 15:22.)....
Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith (later President):
The Lord created all things for a purpose. Nothing has he created to be destroyed, but that all things might endure forever... The Lord intends to save, not only the earth and the heavens, not only man who dwells upon the earth, but all things which he has created. The animals, the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, as well as man, are to be re-created, or renewed, through the resurrection, for they too are living souls. - General Conference, October 1928
A number of questions immediately arise, of course.
If all animal life will be resurrected, then heaven will be populated not only with our pet dogs, our ponies, and the robins whose song we enjoy, but also the flies, the gnats, the bats, the rats, the tapeworms, the sharks, the amoebas, even the bacteria - all the millions of species, each with its millions of individuals that have existed since the beginning of life on earth. Does that really sound like a heaven where one would want to be?
Will the many chickens, hogs, steers, and trout whose parts have nourished me by passing through my digestive system receive "new bodies," or will their resurrected life be in a body reconstituted from that body which I and my table-mates partly utilized as energy and partly sent to the sewer system as waste?
Predatory animals by their very nature prey upon other animals. For them, "eternal felicity" would be to be able to continue their predation. But what about the "eternal felicity" of their prey? A shark is an efficient hunter and eater of flesh, as are most predatory animals. The alleged "Intelligent Designer" did a good job in designing a killing machine. Can a shark (or a lion, or an alligator) be a happy eater of foliage?
Of course I would perhaps like to have my beloved dogs in heaven with me, but over the years I have had quite a few. I wouldn't want that many dogs living with me here on earth - why would I want so many in heaven?
What about the dinosaurs, the wooly mammoths, who are very large? Will there be enough room in heaven for the billions of creatures that have wandered the earth during the millions of years since life began here (every thing that ever lived!)?
A Mormon's Ode To His Dinner
O leg of lamb, how glad I am
That you will live again!
When next we meet, you won't be meat,
So we'll be friends in Heav'n.
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Which kingdom of heaven will the animals be assigned to (the celestial, terrestrial, or telestial)? One would assume that pets will go with their former owner, wherever the owner ends up. But is that fair to the pets, to base their eternal placement on the actions of their owner? And what about non-domestic animals? Of course in the top kingdoms we would like pleasant animals such as songbirds. Will cockroaches all be sent to the lowest kingdom?