Do Animals Accept Eternal Souls?

Who knows whether the spirit of human goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the world? – Ecclesiastes three:21

Human and Animals Are Not The Same

Animals do not accept souls such as we have. Considering animals take a consciousness which makes them different from plants, and because the Hebrew word nephesh in the Old Testament is used sometimes in reference to this characteristic of animals, some people would say that animals have souls. This would atomic number 82 to the belief that killing an animal for meat would be murder.

All the same, this is not then. They take a consciousness which makes them dissimilar from plants, but they do not accept souls like human beings, which go to Heaven or Hell when they die. When animals are buried, that is the cease of their life. When man is buried, this is not the case.

The Bible teaches the three parts of homo – body, spirit and soul – in 1 Thessalonians 5:28. Man is the simply creature or cosmos of God which has the ability to be saved if he will plow to the Lord Jesus. Animals do not accept the moral conscience which tells them they are sinners in need of forgiveness.

The Bible on occasion pictures animals every bit possessing souls. The Hebrew word nephesh is translated past the word "soul" 428 times in the Bible; but on two occasions it is rendered "beast" (Leviticus 24:28 and Genesis 2:nineteen). For this reason, we need to define the nature of human being and the nature of animals.

Man was created in the paradigm and likeness of God (Genesis 2:26-27). Therefore, human being is triune in nature–he possesses spirit, soul and torso. He is a trichotomous being. On the other paw, animals possess body and soul, simply not spirit. This would make them dichotomous beings.

Being dichotomous in nature, an fauna would take no sense of right or incorrect–no conscience. Therefore, even though he loves his main, and is loved past his main, and fifty-fifty though he may learn to "obey" his master, he would not be held accountable past God for his actions. The Lord gave human being "rule" over all animate being life (Genesis 1:26-28).

However, the Lord made provision for the intendance of animals (Genesis 9:9-10; Psalm 36:vi-1 Deuteronomy 25:4; Psalm 104). Even though animals are without a soul and we do have "dominion" over them, this doesn't mean we should e'er be intentionally calumniating to animals.

What the Bible Say About Animals and Eternity

The best reference to the final destiny of animals would be the passage found in Ecclesiastes 3. Discover the reference to "beasts" (Animals – all forms of animals) found in verses eighteen-22, and especially verse 21:

I said in my heart with regard to the children of human being that God is testing them that they may meet that they themselves are just beasts. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the aforementioned; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the aforementioned breath, and human has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. All go to i place. All are from the dust, and to grit all render. Who knows whether the spirit of homo goes upward and the spirit of the fauna goes down into the globe? So I saw that there is nothing meliorate than that a human should rejoice in his work, for that is his lot. Who can bring him to encounter what volition be afterward him?

At that place has been much debate through the years over this poesy. The well-nigh natural understanding of this poesy is equally a statement apropos how homo and animals differ–in soul or spirit, as discussed above.

The word translated "spirit" is the same Hebrew word ruach that is translated "breath" in verse 29. Solomon, in these verses, rightly identifies the essential departure betwixt the human soul and the soul of an brute. He is proverb in these verses that the soul of man returns to God when the breath of life (spirit of life) ceases. Nonetheless, the fauna was fabricated to derive its happiness and fulfillment from the globe.

In summary, considering the above, an animal would simply perish when it dies–and the spirit of the beast… "goes downwardly into the world" (Ecclesiastes 3:21).

Man has that 3rd element of a trichotomous being discussed to a higher place–spirit. At his decease, his spirit returns to God (Ecclesiastes 12:7). For man, it is either Heaven or Hell, depending on his own free choice to accept or refuse the Lord. For animals, information technology is simply a example of them returning to grit (12:seven).

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Dr. Elmer Towns is a college and seminary professor, an author of popular and scholarly works (the editor of two encyclopedias), a popular seminar lecturer, and dedicated worker in Dominicus school, and has developed over 20 resource packets for leadership education.His personal educational activity includes a B.S. from Northwestern College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a M.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, a Thursday.K. from Dallas Theological Seminary likewise in Dallas, a MRE from Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and a D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.He is co-founder of Freedom University, with Jerry Falwell, in 1971, and was the only total-time teacher in the offset yr of Freedom's beingness. Today, the Academy has over 11,400 students on campus with 39,000 in the Distance Learning Programme (now Liberty University Online), and he is the Dean of the School of Faith.Dr. Towns has given theological lectures and taught intensive seminars at over 50 theological seminaries in America and abroad. He holds visiting professorship rank in five seminaries. He has written over 2,000 reference and/or pop manufactures and received six honorary doctoral degrees. Four doctoral dissertations have analyzed his contribution to religious didactics and evangelism.