Answer
The Bible does not give any explicit teaching on whether animals have souls or whether our pets will be in heaven. However, we can use general biblical principles to develop some clarity on the subject. We might be able to form an educated guess.
The Bible states that both man (Genesis 2:7) and animals (Genesis 1:30; 6:17; 7:15, 22) have the “breath of life”; that is, both man and animals are living beings. The primary difference between human beings and animals is that humanity is made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26–27), but animals are not. Being made in the image and likeness of God means that human beings are like God in some ways: they have a mind, emotion, and will; they are capable of reason and creativity; and they have a spiritual part that continues after death. If animals, including our pets, do have a soul or spirit (an immaterial aspect), it must therefore be of a different and lesser quality. This difference possibly means that animal souls do not continue in existence after death.
God created the animals as part of His “very good” creation (Genesis 1:31). Later, when it came time to rid the world of mankind’s wickedness through the global flood, God preserved the animal kingdom. They were important enough in God’s plan to issue this command to Noah: “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you” (Genesis 6:19). Of course, this doesn’t mean that our pets are in heaven, but it does show that God cares about animals and that a world without animals is contrary to His plan.
All of creation, including the animals, was affected by mankind’s fall and suffers because of our sin. But there is a promised restoration: “Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay” (Romans 8:20–21, NLT). One day, God’s creation will experience “freedom” and share in the glory of the children of God. Does this mean that animals who have died will be resurrected? Possibly, but the passage does not explicitly say that.
There will definitely be animals on earth during the millennial kingdom. Wolves, leopards, goats, cows, lions, bears, cobras, and vipers are all mentioned (Isaiah 11:6–8). No matter how dangerous some of those animals may be in today’s world, in the millennium, “they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:9; cf. 65:25). There is no reason why there could not be pets or animals on the new earth, too (Revelation 21:1).
It is impossible to say whether some of the animals mentioned as part of the kingdom might be the pets we had here on earth. We do know that God is just and that, when we get to heaven, we will find ourselves in complete agreement with His decision on this issue, whatever it may be.
