Reader Question: Dinosaurs in Heaven?

My question (which you’ve answered before) is whether there are dinosaurs in heaven. But you’re view on animals in general going to heaven (both pets and things people are scared of like snakes) would make an interesting post. -Nikki

--------------------------------- You're not wrong, Nikki! Thanks for writing in. There have been some people with some very, very strong opinions on the subject of whether or not there will be animals in heaven. You may even be familiar with an internet meme where a Catholic Church and a Cumberland Presbyterian church get into a church sign debate over whether or not animals get into heaven. (Sadly, I must be the bearer of bad news and report that the meme in question is, in fact, fake. The pictures are photoshopped. The debate itself, however, has actually happened.) One of the things that a lot of people are surprised to learn is that we have very little information on what heaven will be like, or even what general form it would take. Some have this vague idea of people with wings sitting on clouds but that view is born entirely from pop culture, with very little Biblical backing save for the vague concepts of Elijah, and later Christ, being "taken into the clouds." So whenever someone tries to tell you definitively that the Bible says heaven will be one way or another, (like the fake Presbyterians from the meme) you can feel safe laughing them off. There is no authoritative view on the matter, which then moves us in this answer into the realm of guesswork, but educated. You see, part of the problem is that it is never entirely clear that heaven, insofar as we are talking about the eschatological destination of the saved, is a "place" separate from earth. The perception of the afterlife as some kind of disembodied spirit realm separate from bodily existence, for example, would have been entirely foreign to the Jews of Jesus' time, though such an idea fit really well with gnostic principles that Christianity started picking up after the writings of Paul. Another very real possibility is that heaven is, in fact, Earth, but Earth made perfect, purified and restored, not to primitive Eden but with human advancements incorporated while easing out our hard edges. That restored world, I believe, would certainly include animals, even extinct ones like Dinosaurs, all in the state of perfection that allows wonder while precluding fear. All this to say that yes, I believe there will be dinosaurs in heaven. And it will be awesome.