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The Refiner's Fire used to feature an article from a Christian site called Rainbow Bridge to answer the question about whether or not animals go to heaven when they die. We have now updated our stance because our original argument was challenged linguistically by author and Aramaic scholar, Andrew Gabriel Roth.
Many people use the above scripture to try to show that the souls of animals will end up in heaven. However, a different picture emerges when Isaiah 11 is read in context, and we begin to see that this chapter isn't referring to eternity in Heaven but, rather, it refers to the Millenium when Yeshua reigns! Animals will certainly still be with us in the Millenium, but will they be in Heaven with us? Since the Scriptures don't say, one way or the other, we won't know until we get there....
Isaiah 11:
1 But a branch will emerge from the trunk of Yishai, a shoot will grow from his roots. 2 The Spirit of ADONAI will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, the Spirit of knowledge and fearing ADONAI 3 he will be inspired by fearing ADONAI. He will not judge by what his eyes see or decide by what his ears hear, 4 but he will judge the impoverished justly; he will decide fairly for the humble of the land. He will strike the land with a rod from his mouth and slay the wicked with a breath from his lips. 5 Justice will be the belt around his waist, faithfulness the sash around his hips.
6 The wolf will live with the lamb; the leopard lie down with the kid; calf, young lion and fattened lamb together, with a little child to lead them. 7 Cow and bear will feed together, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 An infant will play on a cobra's hole, a toddler put his hand in a viper's nest. 9 They will not hurt or destroy anywhere on my holy mountain, for the earth will be as full of the knowledge of ADONAI as water covering the sea.
10 On that day the root of Yishai, which stands as a banner for the peoples - the Goyim will seek him out, and the place where he rests will be glorious. 11 On that day Adonai will raise his hand again, a second time, to reclaim the remnant of his people who remain from Ashur, Egypt, Patros, Ethiopia, 'Eilam, Shin'ar, Hamat and the islands in the sea. 12 He will hoist a banner for the Goyim, assemble the dispersed of Isra'el, and gather the scattered of Y'hudah from the four corners of the earth.
13 Efrayim's jealousy will cease - those who harass Y'hudah will be cut off, Efrayim will stop envying Y'hudah, and Y'hudah will stop provoking Efrayim. 14 They will swoop down on the flank of the P'lishtim to the west. Together they will pillage the people to the east - they will put out their hand over Edom and Mo'av, and the people of 'Amon will obey them. 15 ADONAI will dry up the gulf of the Egyptian Sea. He will shake his hand over the [Euphrates] River to bring a scorching wind, dividing it into seven streams and enabling people to cross dryshod. 16 There will be a highway for the remnant of his people who are still left from Ashur, just as there was for Isra'el when he came out from the land of Egypt.
Comment from Andrew Gabriel Roth:
As a dog lover myself who is still not over the death of the family sheep dog in 1992, I hope you are right (that animals go to heaven when they die). However, I am not sure that you are. Your original study was very well written and put together in terms of Scripture, but there are some pieces missing.
I think it's important to delve into applications of ruach, nefesh, and another term that article didn't mention - NESHAMA. Let's delve into this a bit.
RUACH is also "wind/breath" and that is the hint. RUACH is the breath/life given by YHWH that animates all life. Therefore, all life has a ruach, even plants, although the Scripture doesn't specifically say plants have a ruach. There is no personality, emotion or memory in ruach. In Ecclesiastes all animals and humans go to the same grave and the ruach "returns to Elohim who gave it."
NEFESH is where our emotions, personality, memory reside. NEFESH is the result of the RUACH. Genesis 2:7 says YHWH breathed into Adam and Adam became a NEFESH CHAYYA. So, the ruach enters Adam and the result is he becomes a nephesh. I can't emphasize this point enough. The nefesh ("soul") is NOT a separate part of us as the pagans would say, "body and soul" - NO! Torah is emphatic that we are a soul ; not that we have a soul. When Y'shua says "my NEFESH is troubled to the point of death" he means that everything that makes him a human being with human memories and emotions is screaming in grief to the point where it wants to shut down, which is why he asks for the cup to pass from him. He is that exhausted, but then, if he wasn't, the sacrifice wouldn't work. To know what was coming, know you could avoid it and take it on anyway.
Now, animals do have NEFESH as well. When Noah is being told of the flood, YHWH says "all that have the NEFESH of life will perish" or words to that effect. Animals having a nefesh means they remember and have personalities, emotions. They bond with each other and with us. They may, in at least some cases, even have a sense of morality that exceeds our own. It is certain to my mind that what we see from our pets is far beyond their quest for food or that licking our hand is only for the salt. They love us and we love them. If they suffer, we mourn.
BUT - and this is the big but - they don't seem to have the third requirement that makes us truly human, and that is NESHAMA. Here is a part of an old teaching of mine on the subject, and I have highlighted the parts I really wanted to emphasize:
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NESHAMAH is a hard concept to define. It appears in Genesis 2:7 as "breath of life" and in Genesis 7:22 it is called this also, but connected in Hebrew as "NESHAMET RUACH KHAYIM" or "breath of the spirit of life". Since RUACH also means both "breath" and "spirit", I have looked at NESHAMAH as having some synonymous aspects with the RUACH but here is added as an extra clarification; i.e., that RUACH cannot mean "breath" here because NESHAMAH has that meaning, leaving only "spirit" as a viable reading for RUACH. In other words, to use a poor English example, take "lead" (metal) and "lead" (a verb, to be in front). I need context here to tell between them, and so if I add "The alchemists turned ___ into gold," now I know what is intended. Same with NESHAMAH in this passage.
In Deuteronomy 20:16, NESHAMAH stands in place of NEFESH as a synonym, "don't let a soul remain alive." Same thing in Joshua 10:40, 1:11,14, 1 Kings 15:29, Isaiah 57:16, Daniel 5:23, 10:17.
However, we have an interesting change in 2 Samuel 22:16 which is echoed in Psalm 18:15 (or 16, depending on your version):
The bed of the sea was exposed. The foundations of the world were laid bare by the mighty roaring of YHWH, at the blast of the MENESHAMAT RUACH of His nostrils.
Here we see NESHAMAH-RUACH again, almost as if we need NESHAMAH to be the power behind the spirit that gives life. Let's continue, because this word is rare, appearing only a total of 25 times so we can do them all:
In 1 Kings 17:17, NESHAMAH (without RUACH this time) appears solo and means "breath of life" also. Without this particular breath/NEHSMAH, death can only result,(Job 33:4). See also Job 4:9 for this, and compare it with the full term MENESHMAT-RUACH in 2 Samuel 22:16. In this case though (Job 4:9) the breath seems to come from outside, from YHWH, as a weapon, as opposed to internal breath of a person, which is how it is used in Job 26:4, but note there the implication that the breath does not belong to the person, even though it came from them. Such is stated quite directly in Job 32:8, WITH AN IMPORTANT ADDITION THAT THIS SPIRIT (NESHAMAH) GIVES UNDERSTANDING, I.E. IS A HIGHER SOUL. (This is getting closer to the definition you are looking for.) Such a part of the soul is also what YHWH uses to judge a man's worth (Proverbs 20:27). Isaiah 30:33 goes so far as to imply that the NESHAMAH is a way that YHWH inflicts punishment on the wicked, literally feeding the fires of hell.
In Job 27:3, NESHAMAH takes on as a synonym for NEFESH, coming from the perspective of "breath of life" in that case and NEFESH means "life" also (see Psalm 150:6, Isaiah 2:22).
However, turning to Job 34:14 we find the first bifurcation between RUACH and NESHAMAH (spirit and breath) as separate entities that can be called back to their owner, YHWH, resulting in death (Job 34:15). Interestingly enough, these same verses (and also Isaiah 42:5) tell us there is but ONE SPIRIT and ONE BREATH/NESHAMAH, that resides within humanity, i.e. that each of us have a "piece" in order to be alive. A creative aspect is implied a little later, in Job 37:10.
In short, with respect to man, NESHAMAH is a part of the RUACH that contains the spark of breath that gives life to the NEFESH. It is from the NESHAMAH that spiritual understanding from YHWH connects with man in his part of the soul, a transfer point, if you will. The NESHAMAH is not an occurrence of the divine nature though, even though in other passages it is used as an instrument of Yahweh’s judgment. It is simply the breath that, with respect to man, animates him and, when not talking about man, performs these other functions for YHWH.
In certain situations, as you have seen, it can be synonymous with both RUACH and NEFESH, but it also has aspects unique to itself.
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See the question is, is NESHAMA meant as a technical term in Deut. 20 to mean that "all that breathes" have a NESHAMA which includes animals? Most scholars I know of have concluded no. If the animals don't have a NESHAMA then, whatever other grace they have doesn't not translate through to a judgment/redemptive process. NESHAMA, even if applied to animals there (which I think is the only possible place) could be standing in as a synonym for NEFESH. In order for animals "to go to heaven" as you put it, this reference must be NESHAMA in its pure form applying as higher moral soul. I am not sure the Scripture does this. If I were pressed to be definitive and certain, I would say no. As it is, the situation probably just needs more study.
And finally, your article is not clear about the "how's and when's" of "going to heaven" generally. Ecclesiastes from a pshat (simple) level would say we all rest in Sheol until the last day. When the dead are raised at the end of time - and animals are nowhere mentioned in these resurrections - the ruach and nefesh are bodily raised and united, unless we are alive when Y'shua comes back and meet him in the air prior to death. (Rapture is not my thing though, so I am not trying to get into that). Instead, let me remind you of the preview of the righteous dead raised at the end of Matthew's Gospel and of Y'shua's warning that YHWH can destroy both body and nefesh in gehenna. To my mind, that suggests the reuniting and re-animation of ruach and nefesh leads to life in heaven, or destruction in the Lake of Fire.
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