Faith

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Recently I was given an article by Michael Mountain titled “Animals in Religion”. It is gratifying to find kindred spirits in the world who share beliefs in some of the important, yet misunderstood aspects of the scriptures. His view of modern attitudes toward creation and the non-human animals was absolutely right on. I am a Christian writer and I published a book called “Will I See Fido in Heaven?” over 11 years ago. It was one of the first two books written by non-theologians on the subject of animal immortality in the United States. I knew I had to name the book “Fido”, but I really didn’t know why. Even though the book is not about dogs specifically, I just felt the title to be “right”. It wasn’t until five years later I found out that “Fido” comes from the Latin “Fidelis” which means faithful. In his subtle way, God guided me to “have faith” and get this message out.

I never saw myself as a writer, but God led me to do it and I have followed His direction. Numerous friends and Christian clergy encouraged and supported me and to date I have sold over 18,000 copies around the world. My greatest fear was that both the public and the clergy in general would ridicule me and label me as a crackpot. Amazingly, placing my faith in God and publishing the book proved my fears were unfounded. Clergy of all faiths have endorsed it and quoted the scriptures cited in the book with a newfound insight into God’s Word. Around the world, people have rejoiced in God’s truth that animals do have souls and have been granted a place in his Heavenly Kingdom.

It took over five years of research into the original Hebrew and Greek translations, the Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered, and numerous other sources to verify and validate the meaning of the scriptures. So much in our Bible is symbolic that I wanted to be certain beyond doubt. One time when my conviction wavered, God spoke Isaiah 54:17 to me in the middle of the night to give me confidence. Since then I have preached in a Presbyterian church, held a Blessing of the Animals with a Church of God minister, appeared on Christian TV and radio shows, and had national coverage on a secular TV show about animals. I have formed friendships with people like Jack Hanna and others who champion the rights of animals in our world. God has blessed my mission with this and much more.

As Michael Mountain’s article stated, for the last 200 years many Christian ministers and biblical translators have hidden and sometimes even changed the meaning of the scriptures to portray animals as mere soulless beasts. Many of these things are addressed on our web site www.creatures.com. This ties in very closely with another book “Redeeming Creation”. It is written by four Christian writers who speak out vocally about the lack of care and concern for animals and nature by Christians in particular. They cite studies conducted by Stephen Kallert and Joyce Berry of Yale University in 1980 which concluded that those who regularly attend church had the most materialistic and utilitarian attitudes toward nature and creation! Imagine, the people most vocal about caring and responsibility toward others being the worst offenders in their treatment of God’s world.

Lynn White, Jr, Historian at Berkley contends that, at least among present church goers, the church has imparted an attitude that God’s creation exists for man to dominate and use for man’s own purposes. The Bible states that in the Garden of Eden, God granted man Dominion over all creatures large and small. How ironic that the original meaning of “dominion” meant to “rule over” and be “caretakers of”. Modern translations of the Bible have subtly changed some meanings to better support their views and justify man’s aggressive posture on the use of our world.

Since beginning my studies of the Bible and biblical translations 30 years ago, I have accumulated over 60,000 hours of study approximately half of that time was spent concerning the immortality of animals based on biblical scripture. I have studied theology at Missouri Baptist College and Maryville University in St Louis, Missouri. What becomes apparent from those years of dedication is that man needs to re-evaluate his position in relation to God’s creation. Nature should be considered as an eternal entity. Designed by God to be innocent and guided by God-given intelligence, animals are by right granted immortality. It is up to man to accept responsibility for the stewardship placed on him in the Garden. The final truth is that Jesus came as a humble servant and preached humility as the path to God’s Kingdom. He paid a terrible price that few today would ever be willing to pay. But just think how many of God’s non-human creatures have had to pay that price for the pleasures of man.

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