Animals in Heaven

animals know something that mankind in his imperfection is inclined to forget.

not for men to save them.
for God.


we should not think more highly of ourselves than is proper.

Most of the time, nefesh reffers to other things. Only 1/3 of the uses of nefesh a
"Under the sun" portrays the 1st and 2nd heaven in a Jewish understanding.

You need to remember that Ecclesiastes is written from Solomon's experimental perspective called "under the sun" i.e. "in a world without God".
He uses the phrase "everything is meaningless" because that is the only conclusion one can come to if God doesn't exist.
So in a world "under the sun"......."they are but beasts".

But we do not live in such a reality. There is something above the sun, the heavens, where God's throne is. Therefore, we are not like the beasts

read the verse immediately preceding this one. Ecclesiastes 3:17. is he speaking in a godless paradigm? read verse 11. verse 14. is he speaking about a worldview with no God?

what you are repeating is a very superficial gloss of Ecclesiastes commonly used an an excuse to dismiss rather than to deal with the things written in it.

this word has come up in this discussion because of 6 consecutive uses of it within the space of a dozen paragraphs all having a very specific context: the creation of everything that has the breath of life on the earth. God calls both man and beast alike, 'living souls' - distinct from plants.

pointing at uses of this word chapters and books far removed from Genesis 1-2 is an intellectual cop-out on your part. i don't need to point out specific verses to you; you know well exactly what is at issue.

God says He knows every living creature ((Psalm 50:11)) and God has made His covenant with them:
He will also establish a new covenant with all the living creatures:

this day every animal in creation looks toward, 'groaning in expectation' having been subjected to frustration, not of themselves, but because of the sins of mankind.

It is used of the lower animals 4 times before it is used of man; out of the first 13 times in Genesis, it is used 10 times of the lower animals.

Nephesh in the Bible.

Excerpt:
The word nephesh occurs 754 times in the Hebrew Old Testament.

In the A.V. and R.V. it is translated "soul" 472 times, while in the other
282 places it is represented by forty-four different words or phrases.

Why would God prohibit beloved pets from joining the human family in heaven? Is God incapable of doing this? Does the bible specifically state that pets will not go to heaven when they die?

I have never met anyone that is perfect so by my estimation becoming perfect is certainly not a natural trait for humans. Rather than being perfect we were born with a sin nature so therefore, but for the grace of God, we are inclined to evil and not perfection.

Romans 8
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God;
20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

God didn't create us imperfect. Who we are as God intended is natural to us. What is unnatural to us is sin and death.

amen
That's why I call the other animals well, other animals

Are you positing that our likeness to God is not naturally human?

The supernatural work of God is to change the natural man into a spiritual one. We are perfected in Christ.



1 cor 2:14

Adam was created in the image of God. That is natural to humans but not the other animals. That is what I wrote. Also to be one with the Father as Jesus is one with the Father is our natural end.

John 1

Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

This passage is an excellent example of what is taught in 1 Cor 2:14:

But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The reference to the sons of men refers unto those who are born of male and female seeing that man is male/female. Even Jesus teaches in Matthew 19:4 that it was not man and woman, yet being the Son of man the mystery of the Woman should be understood from his statement in Matthew 23:9 about calling no man on earth your father.

However, there is no question that the LORD is the God of all flesh, as written in Jeremiah 32:27, "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh:..." and God is the God of all spirits of all flesh, but the LORD is the Father of all living souls. While it is written in Genesis 2:7, "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; ..." Yet the dust of the ground refers to the body of light in Genesis 1:1 that created the heaven and the earth.

And while it is not an incorrect interpretation that the breath is pnuema, (forced air, or breath/wind), it is an error to interpret the soul as being pneuma. This can be discerned the from Genesis 7:22, "All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died."

However, one can consider these two passages in 1 Kings 17;

17 And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.

and

24 And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in thy mouth is truth.

So to answer the question on whether there are animals in heaven, it is possible but the scriptures definitively reveal that the serpents won't be.

19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity. 20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Eccl 3:19-20