My offer still stands ... I will email my memorial to my
beautiful Precious dog to anyone who asks. I've emailed about
ten copies to Doves so far, and I've received thank you's for
each one. (One of the reasons I love 5DOVES is that I get to
"meet" so many very nice and interesting people. Thank you
again, John, for your labors.)
Please put "DOG" in subject line.
I finally managed to convert PDF to text and have included
the final seventeen pages in this email. I think any animal
owner will find this both comforting and interesting.
25
Afterthoughts
How can you be so broken up over a dog?
How can I love my fellow man if I canʼt love an
animal? Our four footed
furry and two footed feathered friends teach us
from our earliest days.
They teach us to love. They teach us to grieve
and mourn, for they pass on
before us. They teach us to rule with forbearance
and to meet the
responsibility of caring for others, to be a
servant. They teach us patience.
They teach us to teach. They teach us to be kind,
to laugh, to be friends.
English possesses one, pathetic four letter word
to represent our entire
purpose in life. That word is LOVE.
We LOVE our spouses. We LOVE our children. We
LOVE our family. We
LOVE our country. We LOVE our homes. We LOVE our
work. We
(hopefully) LOVE our God.
The craftsman LOVES his tools. We LOVE the
garment we shopped for.
We LOVE that painting. We LOVED the movie, show
or performance. We
LOVE our vacation. We LOVE our steak or poached
salmon or whatever.
The hormone-driven teen LOVES his date -- for a
season. (Iʼd better leave
this one alone.)
And, there is a dark side of LOVE.
John 3
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved.
Natural man LOVES his sin!
A Dog named “Precious”
26
Do you see the problem here? What does LOVE mean?
In English itʼs an
oxymoron. It has no meaning unless we hyphenate
it with another
descriptive word. We depend upon context, which
is usually fuzzy and
undependable, to derive meaning.
I have no pretensions to scholarship. I speak
from general knowledge.
Ancient Greek is a far more precise language than
English. It had separate
words for different types of love. For instance,
agape is specifically God
love. Other words would be used to specify other
types of love. I am sure
that somewhere in that ancient lexicon there was
a separate, distinct word
for creature love, a defining reflection for that
specific bonding between
man and his animals.
I well know the difference between man and
animal. I still mourn and miss
each family member, friend and even acquaintance
Iʼve lost over the years.
And I still mourn each furry four footed and
feathered two footed creature
Iʼve lost over the years. I miss all of
them.
Iʼm surely not unique in this. All of us do the
same. Memories never perish.
The loss of Precious is merely the most recent
loss, and, therefore, it is the
most intense. She leaves a void in my life that I
havenʼt learned to deal with
yet.
Why did you say, “I
know Iʼll see you again. It wonʼt be long. Iʼll
be
there soon.”
The facile answer would be that Iʼm 73 and living
on borrowed time.
Another would be that I anticipate Christʼs
return for his church at any
moment.
Alas, it is more complex than that.
CAUTION: Provocative
theology ahead! This gets a bit lengthy and
ponderous.
Nevertheless, if you have ever lost a beloved pet, I
hope it
will provide some
measure of hope and comfort to you. And, I
invite
A Dog named “Precious”
27
friends and family
to add to this memorial as they see fit and to
share
it with any whom
they feel it might benefit.
Iʼm completely familiar with “conventional”
theology on the subject, to wit,
how could there possibly be animals in heaven? To
which my response is,
how could they NOT be there? Do we not see the
Cherubim, clearly
identified as CREATURES, not angels, in Genesis,
Ezekiel and
Revelation? Do we not see horses in Revelation?
And, if we really persevere, if we really dig, we
will find that animals
possess body, soul and spirit. I will address
this a bit later.
Iʼve sat through myriad stupid-sermons which
address the “stupidity” and
“soul-lessness” of animals, usually dogs,
inevitably focusing on their eating
habits.
Are they serious?
Pot, cocaine, heroin, abused prescription drugs,
booze, tobacco, ... all you
can eat whenever you can eat, 500 pound humans
incapable of moving,
masticating their way to early graves, ...
Whoʼs stupid?
These pulpits are dimly reflecting an ancient
prejudice, an ancient thought
that because we are above animals, we are
entitled to torture, torment and
maim them at will. Regrettably the KJV Bible
translators reflect this
prejudice, possibly from fear of royal ire. After
all, bear and bull baiting, dog
fighting, cock fighting and whatever other torments
man devised were royal
entertainment. The Tower of London once housed a
zoo where animals
were kept under appalling conditions, all for the
benefit of a jaded nobility to
torture as they pleased. And, shamefully, these
practices endure to this
very day.
I am not denigrating the KJV in any way. It
remains my Bible of choice. But,
the translators are the first to admit that it is
not a perfect translation. To
which Iʼd add: Nor will there ever be such a
thing.
A Dog named “Precious”
28
GH Pember, a dispensationalist apologist of the
1800ʼs wrote a very short
book, Animals, Their Past and Future.
It, along with many of his other
works, is available today from Amazon.
+pember&tag=googhydr-20&index=stripbooks&hvadid=2866474015&hvpo
s=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=59999691327123611&hvpone=&hvptw
o=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_6xmb7vx1ad_b
(I might add that the book is partially copied
and partially scanned. Page
numbers are erratic. Therefore, I have not
attempted to footnote any
quotations.)
He was an early supporter of the Royal English
SCPA.
The following excerpt from Wikipedia summarizes
the movement far better
than I could:
Animal welfare and animal rights
Pember also wrote very briefly about a Christian
approach to animal
welfare and animal rights, which was becoming a
topic of great social
concern in Victorian society.[21] What Pember had
to say on the subject can
be understood on a wide historical canvas. In the
seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries human attitudes about the
status of animals began to
change as theologians and philosophers discussed
whether animals were
capable of rational thought, had emotions, had a
soul, and questions about
brutal treatment were also debated.[22] Some
theologians began to examine
passages of the Bible concerned with the
afterlife and the prophesied new
heaven and new earth, and as those discussions
developed Nathaniel
A Dog named “Precious”
29
Homes (1654) and Stephen Charnock (1660) argued
that animals would be
included in the resurrection of the dead.[23] In
the eighteenth century the
debate was carried forward by both the Anglican
Bishop Joseph Butler in
his Analogy of Religion and the Anglican
priest and hymn writer Augustus
Montague Toplady, both believed in the
resurrection of animals, while
Toplady regarded brutality towards animals as
sin.[24] Other important
contributors to the debate were Humphry Primatt
(1776), Richard Dean
(1767) and John Wesley as they each addressed the
problem of brutality to
animals in connection with the problem of evil
and sin, while both Dean
and Wesley held to the resurrection of
animals.[25]
Before Pember wrote about animal rights there had
already been many
Christians in England involved in protesting
against the maltreatment of
domestic animals, agitating for legislation
against cruelty to animals, and in
rejecting the practice of the scientific
dissection of living animals called
vivisection.[26] An early but failed attempt to
pass a Bill against cruelty to
animals was initiated by Thomas Erskine
(1750–1823). He was a Christian
who served in the House of Lords and was also
Lord Chancellor in
England. In 1809 Erskine "introduced into the
Lords a Bill for the
prevention of malicious and wanton cruelty to
animals".[27] Although
Erskine's bill was rejected in the House of
Commons, a later legislative
attempt to punish acts of cruelty to animals was
successfully passed by
A Dog named “Precious”
30
England's parliament in 1822.[28] The architect
of that 1822 legislation was
the Irish Christian politician Richard Martin.
Two years after the passage of
Martin's anti-cruelty legislation, a meeting was
called on June 16, 1824 for
the formation of an organisation (sic) to oppose
animal cruelty. With the
exception of Lewis Gompertz who was a Jew,
everyone else who attended
the meeting were professing Christians and a new
organisation (sic) was
founded. The principal founding figures were Rev.
Arthur Broome, William
Wilberforce, Richard Martin and Thomas Fowell
Buxton, and the
organisation they created became the Royal
Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals in England.[29] Alongside the
activities of organisations
(sic) like the RSPCA, there was a steady stream
of books where Christians
argued for animal welfare and animal rights, (COMMENT:
These two links
are well worth reading!) and most
writers linked animal rights to
theological topics such as whether animals have a
soul, that brutality is sin,
and if they will be included in the general
resurrection of the dead.[30]
So, it is within that context of Christian
thought about animals that Pember
contributed a short book Animals: Their Past
and Present.[31] He examines
the spiritual status of animals in the Bible and
explores the duties that
humans have towards animals. He argues that
humans are made in God's
image and likeness and have been given authority
by God to rule over the
animals (sometimes called dominion). Due to
Adam's sin all animals live
A Dog named “Precious”
31
under the curse. Pember argued that on the basis
of several biblical
passages in Isaiah 11:6-9, 2 Peter 3 and the book
of Revelation that some
species of animals will be restored or
resurrected to live on the new earth
foreshadowed in those biblical books. The nature
of animals will be
changed so they will no longer be predators, and
they will have the
capacity for speech. Pember argued that as
animals will share in the
prophesied new earth that in the present life
humans must cease being
apathetic about the plight of animals. Humans
have responsibilities and
duties of care towards animals. Pember's argument
about a biblical
approach to animal rights as seen from the
standpoint of end times
prophecy was by no means unique, as some of his
Christian
contemporaries such as Lutheran authors George N.
H. Peters (The
Theocratic Kingdom) and Joseph A. Seiss
also argued similar points.[32]
Likewise, elements of Pember's arguments against
brutality to animals had
already been anticipated by Christian writers in
the previous two hundred
years[33]
A Dog named “Precious”
32
IF YOU READ THE LINKS I SUGGESTED:
My Bible specifies throughout that domestic
animals are PROPERTY! It
also states that man has dominion. PETA and
similar madnesses are
nothing new. Animals do not have civil rights.
“Animalism”, to coin an
expression, is but one of the many NWO GREEN
initiatives to seize total,
irrevocable power!
Also note that Satan has infiltrated and corrupted
a noble and just cause,
Nazi Germany being the most obvious example.
(Hitler just LOVED
animals, pristine environments, vegetables and
healthy living.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pemberʼs primary argument in his Animals,
Their Past and Future is the
non-literal translation of the Hebrew nephesh
chaiyah in Genesis.The
literal translation is living soul, and
it is so translated in respect to man. In
respect to animals it is rendered living
creature.
I checked a number of translations available to
me. Most go along with
living creature. But, I did find two that
translated literally. The first is the
Wycliffe Bible.
“John Wycliffe is credited with producing the
first translation of
the complete Bible into English, although he was
probably
assisted with the translation of the Old
Testament. It was
produced between 1380 and 1384 and was a very
literal and
word for word translation of the 4th Century
Latin text that was
used by the church throughout Europe at that
time.
...
A Dog named “Precious”
33
Even though written by hand, both versions of
Wycliffe's Bible
were copied many times and distributed throughout
England.
They remained in use for a great many years and
are probably
the Bibles referred to by Sir Thomas More in
1528. He had seen
''Bibles fair and old written in English in
laymen's and women's
hands". Wycliffe's followers, known as the
Lollards, 'poor
preachers', took his Bible far and wide
throughout England. This
was the beginning of the Reformation in
England.
The Pope was so enraged at the success of these
heretics that he
ordered Wycliffe's body disinterred, burnt and
the ashes tossed
into the river. It has been said, ''his ashes
flowed into the seas of
the world, spreading the Gospel to all the
world".”
The Wycliffe reads living soul for
the animals.
Here is a sample:
Genesis 1:24
24 And God seide, The erthe brynge forth a
lyuynge soul in his kynde, werk
beestis, and `crepynge beestis, and vnresonable
beestis of erthe, bi her
kyndis; and it was don so.
The other Bible version rendering living
soul is the Darby literal
translation, published in 1890.
Genesis 1:24
24 And God said, Let the earth bring
forth living souls after their kind, cattle,
and creeping thing, and beast of the earth, after
their kind. And it was so.
The one KJV exception is:
A Dog named “Precious”
34
Numbers 31:
28 And levy a tribute unto the LORD of
the men of war which went out to
battle: one soul of five hundred, both of
the persons, and of the beeves,
and of the asses, and of the sheep:
According to Pember, the KJV translators had to
use souls here because
no other word could be substituted. Other
translations follow suit, excepting
the Geneva Bible, which renders “person” instead
of “soul”, raising the
interesting question of how Calvin relates
“person” to animals.
Pember next considers the popular belief that
somewhere in Scripture we
are taught that man alone will survive in spirit
after the death of the material
body, noting that if this is true, we are bound
to believe it, no matter how
our ideas of justice and benevolence conflict with
it. There are but two
passages which appear to support such an idea.
Psalm 49
20 Man that is in honour, and
understandeth not, is like the beasts that
perish.
and
Eccl 3
21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that
goeth upward, and the spirit of the
beast that goeth downward to the earth?
Read it again, and NOTE THAT IT IS A QUESTION,
NOT A STATEMENT
OF FACT! Pember gets too inscrutable here for me
to paraphrase, but I
think the interrogative sense, of which this is
but one of several of
Solomonʼs rhetorical questions to which he had no
answer, is clear.
( There should be an errata in
the section, to wit, that “Psalm xxii” is
actually Psalm 49)
“On the strength of these two passages we are
called to believe that when
a beast dies, it dies forever, and that its
life is utterly extinguished as the
flame of an expired lamp. Every one who has even
the slightest
acquaintance with the exposition of the
Scriptures is aware that nothing is
A Dog named “Precious”
35
more dangerous than attempting to explain any
passage, however simple,
without a reference to the original text. The
translator may have mistaken
the true sense of the words, or insufficiently
expressed their meaning. In
this case, the rendering is absolutely wrong.
The original Hebrew for the
“beasts who perish” is dumb beasts or beasts
reduced to silence. In the
Jewish Bible, which is acknowledged to be the
best and closest translation,
the word irrational is given as an alternate
rendering of dumb. In the
Septuagint and Douay version it is rendered
senseless cattle.”
Note that the primary definition of “dumb” is
lacking the power of speech.
Pember farther asserts that we can ascertain that
the animal kingdom, like
the human race, has fallen from a higher
condition and are now lying under
a ban. This can be inferred from:
Genesis 3:
14 And the LORD God said unto the
serpent, Because thou hast done this,
thou art cursed above all cattle, and
above every beast of the field; upon
thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat
all the days of thy life:
Every beast was cursed as a result of Adamʼs sin,
the serpent being cursed
above and beyond the rest of the animal kingdom.
The serpent was once
quite different than the creature we know today.
For one thing, it evidently
didnʼt live on its belly.
Romans 8:
19 For the earnest expectation of the
creature waiteth for the manifestation
of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to
vanity, not willingly, but by reason
of him who hath subjected the same in
hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall
be delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain
together until now.
The creature has fallen from its previous
condition, against its will
becoming slaves to corruption, decay, pain and
death, and the creature will
be restored to its former estate. Originally
there were no carnivores. The
A Dog named “Precious”
36
time approaches when there will again be be no
carnivores. In the
beginning the green herb was the sole food of
beast and fowl. So will it be
again.
Eve expressed no surprise or suspicion that the
serpent spoke. May we not
fairly infer that animals possessed some power of
speech?
Numbers 3
28 And the LORD opened the mouth of the
ass, and she said unto Balaam,
What have I done unto thee, that thou hast
smitten me these three times
Does not this favor the idea that the creature
was originally endowed with
speech?
And then there is the ostrich:
Job 39
13 Gavest thou the goodly wings
unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers
unto the ostrich?
14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth,
and warmeth them in dust,
15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush
them, or that the wild beast may
break them.
16 She is hardened against her young
ones, as though they were not hers:
her labour is in vain without fear;
17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom,
neither hath he
imparted to her understanding.
18 What time she lifteth up herself on
high, she scorneth the horse and his
rider.
The literal translation is, “God hath made her to
forget wisdom ...”,
signifying that she once had wisdom.
These are but a few examples of the creatureʼs
fall. The creature is
innocent. It has not sinned, but the curse
resulting from Adamʼs sin extends
to all creation.
The first six chapters of Genesis teach that God
created six great tribes to
inhabit earth, specifically the fish, the fowl, the
cattle, the creeping thing,
A Dog named “Precious”
37
the beast of the earth and man. The first five were
placed under the
dominion of man.
Nevertheless, only three were brought to Adam to
be named, the, cattle,
beast and fowl. These appear to be distinguished
from the two remaining,
and their ultimate fate remains a mystery.
When Adam and Eve were evicted from the garden,
they looked back to
see the Cherubim.
The Cherubim are not angels. They are variously
translated as living creatures, beasts or
living beings, They appear
frequently in the Bible, but we are concerned
here with their heads: man,
lion, ox and eagle. We must remember that God
Himself has classified the
animal kingdom, and named the three honored
tribes, beasts of the field,
cattle and fowls of the air.
Now, while manʼs head obviously indicates the
human family, the lion is the
king of the wild beasts, the ox is the chief of
the domestic animals and the
eagle the first of birds. It would seem, then,
that the Cherubim are
somehow connected with four of the great earth
tribes which lost their first
estate with Adamʼs sin.
This idea is confirmed when we investigate the
probable meaning of their
name. The Hebrew means, “the many”, in literal
English, and this implies
that they are representative beings.
Such an explanation is in accord with the present
context; for if it be
correct,the appearance of the Cherubim must have
been both comfort and
promise to Adam, for WITHIN the guarded circle
stood the four living
creatures; in their representative forms he could
see a promise that God
would yet redeem His banished ones, to restore
man and beast to the
privileges of the Tree of Life.
Moving on to the time of Noah, we find another
promise.
A Dog named “Precious”
38
Genesis 9
9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant
with you, and with your seed after
you;
10 And with every living creature that
[is] with you, of the fowl, of the cattle,
and of every beast of the earth with you, from
all that go out of the ark, to
every beast of the earth.
11 And I will establish my covenant with
you; neither shall all flesh be cut
off any more by the waters of a flood; neither
shall there any more be a
flood to destroy the earth.
12 And God said, This [is] the token of
the covenant which I make between
me and you and every living creature that [is]
with you, for perpetual
generations.
13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it
shall be for a token of a covenant
between me and the earth.
14 And it shall come to pass, when I
bring a cloud over the earth, that the
bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15 And I will remember my covenant, which
[is] between me and you and
every living creature of all flesh; and the waters
shall no more become a
flood to destroy all flesh.
16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and
I will look upon it, that I may
remember the everlasting covenant between God and
every living creature
of all flesh that [is] upon the earth.
17 And God said to Noah, This [is] the
token of the covenant which I have
established between me and all flesh that [is]
upon the earth.
The promise is made to beast as well as man.
Farther, the rainbow is
specified as the token of the covenant, and it
accompanies the Cherubim in
their subsequent appearances.
The Cherubim appear in the Tabernacle and on the
Mercy Seat of the Ark.
Pember notes that ALL representations of the Ark
that he is aware of
portray the Cherubim wrongly as angels, the one
exception being the plate
in Parkhurstʼs Hebrew Lexicon.
The throne room scene in Revelation 4 must have
been the source of the
patterns given to Moses. And, as the Cherubim
represent the animal
kingdom as well as man, the animal kingdom will
be redeemed with man.
A Dog named “Precious”
39
“If it be objected that our inference is too
important, too subversive of
ordinary theological teachings, we reply that
in the Old Testament the
mysteries of redemption were ever veiled in
symbolism; but that in the New
the salvation of the creature is set before us
in clear and unmistakable
terms.”
ROMANS 8
19 For the earnest expectation of the creature
waiteth for the manifestation
of the sons of God.
20 For the creature was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason
of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21 Because the creature itself also shall be
delivered from the bondage of
corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain
together until now.
23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which
have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for the adoption,
to wit, the redemption of our body.
With such direct prediction we can confidently
accept in the most literal
sense those passages -- Isaiah 11:6-9, Ezekiel
34: 25, 28, Hosea 2: 18 -- in
which it is said that hereafter the wolf will lie
down with the lamb, the lion
eat straw like an ox, and the asp and cockatrice
become the playmates of
children.
Likewise, we should not be surprised that the Old
Testament is rife with
instructions as to how animals, both domestic and
wild, are to be treated.
REVELATION 5
13 And every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under
the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all
that are in them, heard I
saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and
power, be unto him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and
ever.
So ends my condensation, paraphrasing and
commentary on Pemberʼs
Animals, Their Past and Future. I
hope it has been of some help and
comfort to know that animals have an eternal
future with us. It is apparent
A Dog named “Precious”
40
that that future will be in Christʼs Millennial
Kingdom and subsequent new
earth. But, are there animals in heaven itself?
Note the preceding Revelation 5 quotation: every
creature which is in
heaven -- does this not state that there
are animals in heaven also? It is
my hope that all of my furry four footed and
feathered two footed friends
are there waiting for me.
In any case, the animalsʼ future is sure and
automatic. They are innocent,
they have committed no sin, their present woe is
due to Adamʼs sin.
It is not so with us. We have eternal life ONLY
if we choose to have it. We
have eternal life by believing that
Jesus Christ is who He says He is and
has done what He says He has done, to wit, that
He is God become man,
conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin
Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried and
descended into hell, that
He arose from the dead on the third day and
ascended into heaven where
He sits on the right hand of God the Father and
from whence He will come
to rule and judge and to whom every knee will
bend and every will tongue
confess that He is King of Kings and Lord of
Lords.
He has paid for the sin of the world, past,
present and future. Itʼs a done
deal. No one ends up in hell because of what
theyʼve done -- weʼre all
guilty, weʼre all sinners; they end up in hell
because of what they havenʼt
done.
Ephesians 2
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should
boast.
A GIFT must be received! How? By
believing on Jesus Christ. By our
telling Him we believe on Him and want Him to
save us.
God did not create hell for man; He created it
for Satan and his angels.
God is unwilling that any should perish; He takes
no pleasure in any that
perish. He has provided THE way, the ONLY
way, to eternal life. But, if we
refuse the gift, we leave Him no other choice:
A Dog named “Precious”
41
HEBREWS 2
3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation; which at the
first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was
confirmed unto us by them
that heard him;
4 God also bearing them witness, both with signs
and wonders, and with
divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost,
according to his own will?
My friend, if you do not KNOW you are
saved, if you are counting on your
good life, your good works, your church, your
heritage or any of countless
other deceptions to save you, please, I beg you,
cry out from your heart
right now:
Lord Jesus Christ, I believe in you. Please
save me!
John 3
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the
Son of man be lifted up:
15 That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal
life.
16 For God so loved the world, that he
gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent not his Son into the
world to condemn the world; but that
the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on him is
not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only
begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that
light is come into the world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light,
lest his deeds should be reproved.
THE END
II CORINTHIANS 13
14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you
all. Amen.
A Dog named “Precious”
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