Man and Beast

In the expansion of secular attitudes today it is often observed by Christians a tendency to downgrade the value of human life while elevating that of animals. There seems to be a social trend to elevate animals to the status of people, in treating them like people, creating laws protecting them like people, and referring to them as a family member like people. Although God created and loves animals, man should be reminded that animals are below man, and man has dominion over them. These recent trends towards animals rights, and animal status elevation are alarming signs of the end of days.

• God does not want man to abuse animals
• Eating animals and using animals for work and the improvement of life is not abuse
• Animals do not have a soul and therefore do not go to Heaven
• Animal rights laws are a sin and a sign of the Rapture

Animals do not have "rights" under God, however, God does not condone cruelty to animals. "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animals." (Proverbs 12:10) It should be clear that man is made in the image of God and endowed with stewardship rights and responsibilities (Gen. 1:28-30). The animal rights movement proclaims the animals and humans are the same and both should have rights. This is not the teaching of the bible.

We are not being cruel to raise animals for food, to hunt them in order to control overpopulation, and to use them for medical research. However the Bible does teach that all animal life belongs to God: "For every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains and the creatures of the field are mine." (Psalm 50:10-22)

The Scriptures tell us that animals are soulless creatures, and will perish with the rest of creation. We will not see them while our souls rest with God; when Christ returns and our bodies are resurrected, we will live in the new heavens and new earth—where there may be new, not resurrected, animals. The Lord desired that one of His creatures would be able to commune with Him and appreciate the splendor of His perfect creation.

God created man in His image (Genesis 1:27–28). On the sixth day, Adam was created "in the image of God." No animals were created in God's image. Only man received the breath of God. In this way, he was given a spirit (Eccles. 12:7; 1 Thess. 5:23) so that he transcends the world of the animals.

Only man has a free will and possesses the faculty of creative thought. According to Psalm 8:5, man was made "a little lower than the heavenly beings." Only man possesses the gift of speech and of prayer in order to convey thoughts to God.

Man and woman were created separate from the animals: Adam from dust, and Eve from his rib. In Genesis 9:6, the Creator decrees capital punishment for those who murder man, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

The Bible not only teaches that human beings are made in the image of God but also that we have been entrusted with dominion over the animals. God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. (Genesis 9:3)

God Himself was the first to slaughter an animal in order to clothe Adam and Eve after they had sinned.

After the flood, God gave the animals as food for humanity to eat (Genesis 9). Later, the sacrifice of animals and the spilling of their blood for Israel’s sin was to point to fact that a death was needed for God to forgive sins (Exdous 12).

In Genesis 9:3, God sanctions the human consumption of animal flesh in rather broad terms, then later in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, God institutes the extensive protocol of animal sacrifice. In this same law, the Lord decrees the criminal penalties for homicide and human sacrifice. God defined more specifically what animals to eat. You shall not eat any abomination. These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. (Deuteronomy 14:1-29)

"All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another" (1 Cor. 15:39).

"Now the Egyptians are men, and not God and their horses flesh, and not spirit..." (Isaiah 31:3)

It is said only about man that he was not only created "by God," but also "for Him" (Col. 1:16). This high purpose is only ascribed to man. Animals are also creatures of God, but they did not receive the calling to become children of God (John 1:12).

Man is an eternal being; this means that his existence never ends, even after the death of the body (Luke 16:19–31). An imperishable body will be raised from the perishable one (1 Cor. 15:42). Animals have no soul and will perish.

The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. 1st Timothy 4:1-3 warns about false prophets who teach doctrines of devils, forbidding to eat meat and forbidding to get married.