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Chapter 2.
The Soul and Spirit of Man and Animal
The Hebrew word nephesh or the Greek word psyche is used in the Bible passages , it should be translated as "soul".
Chapter 2.
The Soul and Spirit of Man and Animal
The Hebrew word nephesh or the Greek word psyche is used in the Bible passages , it should be translated as "soul".
Contents
Foreword..
Introduction.........vii
Chapter 1
George MacDonald and the
Assurance of the Gospel.....1
Chapter 2
The Soul and Spirit of Man and Animal.....8
Chapter 3
The Wisdom and Intelligence of
Man and Animal.....39
Chapter 4
Merciful God, Merciless Man.....49
Chapter 5
Dr. Albert Schweitzer and Reverence for Life ....... 62
Chapter 6
Obedience of Creation and theFaithfulness of God... 67
Chapter 7
All Creation Praise the Lord Forever...72
Chapter 8
Pope John Paul II and the
Roman Catholic Church ....78
Chapter 9
Saint Francis of Assisi,
the Patron Saint of Animals....89
Chapter 10
Martin Luther, Protestant Reformer and Founder of the Lutheran Church...97
Chapter 11
John Calvin, Founder of thePresbyterian Church...112
Chapter 12
John Wesley and
"The General Deliverance of Creation"....120
Chapter 13
Jewish and Muslim Tradition
Concerning Animals.... 141
Chapter 14
Redemption as It Affects Both Man and Animals..... 145
Bibliography .....162
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the following people for their research and encouragement.
Thanks to Margaret Miller, for sending me wonderful resource books and material and encouraging me in every way.
Thanks to Robert S. Clark, for his efforts in finding original writings by various Christians.
Thanks to Bill LaSalle, for his support and commentary on Animals, Immortal Beings.
Thanks to Roman Buddemeyer, illustrator, for the cover design.
Thanks to Ronald Porter, for all his help in finding resources and checking out the authenticity of various theologians' writings.
Thanks to Diane Pomerance, Ph.D., for her support and advice.
Thanks to Crystal Wood of Tattersall Publishing for editing and formatting Animals, Immortal Beings.
Thanks to Eric and Debbie Freesmeier for their prayers.
Thanks to Don and Pam Close, for their support and for the appearance of their cat, Coach, on the cover of Animals, ImmortalBeings. (The beagle represents our beloved Duffy.)
Thanks to Roger Fritz, who not only made my first book possible,but made Animals, Immortal Beings happen.
Thanks to my family and those friends who have so prayed for this ministry and have encouraged me in every way.
- MBP
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using shotguns to frighten them away.
A young elephant mother-to-be will seek the company of anolder cow that will stay with her after the calf is born and help protect it from any harm. The older cow may also assist in the birth,and other females as well if needed.
There is great affection exchanged between the mother and calf, and when a youngster gets out of line the mother disciplines her young calf. When the calf does get into serious trouble, other elephants will come to the rescue. A calf was walking too close to the edge of a bank when the earth gave way and it fell into the water. The cows tried to get the youngster to take their trunks as they reached out for it, but it was too scared to know what to do, so two cows knelt on the bank while the other two lowered themselves carefully into the water. Between them making encouraging sounds to the waterlogged, coughing calf, the latter two put their tusks under him and lifted him high enough for the two on the bank to get hold of him and pull him to safety. The youngster, nervous and scared, cuddled up to his mother, who, showing great compassion, checked him out with her trunk by feeling all over him. But, after deciding he was not injured in any way, she sternly disciplined him by giving him a very hard wallop with her trunk. Then, screeching in anger at the top of her lungs, chased him away from the water's edge.
While warden at Murchison Falls National Park, Colonel C.D.Trimmer experienced the grief of a mother elephant over her dead calf. He observed that for three days the mother carried the little carcass, laying it on the ground only when she had to get a drink. Later he found her standing beside a tree but there was no calf. She stayed there for several days in mourning without food and would not allow anyone to come near. Several days later she left, and when Trimmer went to the site he found that she had dug a grave under the tree and buried her calf there.
Elephants are often used for moving logs. They are more highly regarded than horses, as they are much stronger and can move with
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ease through the forests. They are very agile, which helps greatly traveling through the forest. There has been at least one tribe of people inIndia who have trained their elephants to work five days a week, but when the weekend comes the elephants head for quite some distance to the water where they swim and play all weekend; yet faithfully, every Monday morning, they are back at the camp ready to work.They do this without human intervention in any way.
When injured, elephants also will allow man to treat them and they learn by scent a man who hunts with a gun and one who is their friend. An old bull that can no longer keep up with the herd is often spotted with two young males who stay with him to protect him until he dies. Elephants live to be about sixty if allowed to live out their life.
Wild orangutans that lived near a camp showed up and helped share the chores they saw the people doing, such as washing laundry in the river, rinsing and wringing it out.
John and Michele Helfrich of Justin, Texas, had a bovine longhorn calf named Beanie that watched John repair a water line that had sprung a leak. To repair the pipe he first had to dig a trench on both sides of the pipe. The heifer stood beside him the entire day, observing his actions. Then, to his amazement, when he started filling the trench back in, she would stand beside him and push the dirt in. Finally, he jumped in the trench, and when he did, Beanie jumped in with him and started stomping the dirt down. When he got back out to shove more dirt in, she would get out and push the dirt with her head. The ditch was five feet deep, and when she jumped in and out, she really had to jump.
Can dolphins imitate actions immediately? Again, the National Geographic team did flips in the water and used various devices in the water, and immediately the dolphins would do the very same thing on the first try.
Pigeons can identify shapes and know the difference between large and small areas. Chimps demonstrate abstract thinking abilities.
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They can push the numbers on a kind of calculator and identify the numbers they see on a screen in front of them.
Parrots can identify numbers in the same way the chimps do and they can also vocalize the numbers. They can count as well. In fact, parrots can vocalize almost as many words as people can.
Chickens give specific calls for different predators. Dogs can understand physical language in communicating with man. Dolphins can grasp complete sentences and then follow directions accurately.
There have been so many experiments backed up by the Bible that animals have intelligence, can reason, and make decisions. They do to some degree also possess wisdom given by God. The many aspects of the understanding of creation below man are all intertwined through the Hand of God. It would be the folly of man to reject God's word.
Experiments and common observations have demonstrated that animals have deep emotional levels, feel pain, mourn the loss of both their animal companions and human companions as well.
James Burgh, a Scottish moralist of the 1700s, found that God wills the happiness of all rational creatures; and he admitted that animals show "signs of reflection, gratitude, and faithfulness: and a sort of rationality as well. He left the impression that God, willing good to all reflective things, must, by the very resemblance between beasts and men, have an interest in both.
Philosopher David Hume came from Scotland and was influenced by Calvinistic doctrine, though later his approach to religion changed drastically. He did not believe in miracles or ministries that proclaimed miracles. Yet his belief in the understanding of the intelligence of creation was quite forward thinking. In 1739 he discussed animal sympathy in his anonymously published Treatise of Human Nature. He said, "Although beasts have no feeling for kinship, they do have a strong feeling of acquaintanceship and a love of kind. Through a crowd of people or a herd of cattle, anger and fear pass with lightning swiftness. Grief likewise is received by sympathy; and produces almost all the same consequences, and excites the same emotions as in our species."
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Animals play as they fight, a dog with his teeth, a lion with his paws. " Yet they most carefully avoid harming their companion, even though they have nothing to fear from his resentment; which is an evident proof of the sense brutes have of each other's pain and pleasure."
In 1759 Adam Smith stated in Theory of Moral Sentiments that sympathy is the fundamental fact of moral consciousness. It is impossible to conceive of a sensitive and innocent being, high or low, human or otherwise, whose happiness we should not desire. Our kindly feelings of the lowest animals are proportionally low; but they rise as we consider those nearest ourselves and reach the highest point of all as we look to our own species.
David Hartley was the son of an Anglican clergyman living near Halifax, Yorkshire. He became a medical doctor and engaged in mathematical research. His theological concepts were in conflict with the Church of England. His ideas caused much support and yet much dissent. He wrote Observations on Man: His Frame, His Duty and His Expectations in 1749 stating: "Science has lately shown us that even seemingly inanimate things show signs of life like ours,and this is argument enough for a greater consideration of their pleasure and pain." Animals are also like us in "the formation of theirintellects, memories, and passions, and in the signs of distress, fear,pain and death. They often likewise win our affections by the marksof peculiar mental discernment or soundness of judgement, theirinstincts, helplessness, innocence, and benevolence."
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CHAPTER 4
Merciful God. Merciless Man
References:
•The Very Rev. James E. Carroll, Commentary on Merciful God, Merciless Man.
•Pope John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope.
•Matthew Henry, Commentary
•Dix Harwood, Love for Animals.
•Rev. Dr. Dewitt Talmage, Presbyterian Minister,Sermons from 1869 to 1902.
•Rev. John Hildrop .
The view of true Christians concerning the treatment of animals is beautifully expressed by Reverend James E. Carroll, an Episcopal priest in San Diego, California. Reverend Carroll delivered a sermon he gave me permission to quote: "The Church of God is concerned with all life, when she is true to the Divine vocation, and thus 'all' includes the creatures of God's animal kingdom...
"The callous may escape the prosecution of human law, but he will never escape divine judgment, for he has abused the dominion which God gave him over the creatures, and there are few graver sins than this"...
"A committed Christian, who knows what his religion is about, will never kill an animal needlessly. Above all, he will do his utmost to put a stop to any kind of cruelty to any animal. A Christian who participates in or gives consent to cruelty to animals had better reexamine his religion or else drop the name Christian."
In the Jewish tradition of Jesus' time, animals, especially livestock, were to be treated humanely. Man was to care for them and keep them from suffering. They were considered part of the household and were not to be exploited for man's benefit.
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Archbishop York and Roman Catholic Cardinal Manning joined the Victoria Street Society in London to regulate vivisection and bring about its abolishment in 1875. About fifty years earlier, in 1824, the Royal Society for the Protection of Animals was founded by Reverend Arthur Boome, a Christian minister. And even earlier, Reverend Dr. Humphry Primatt published the book The Duty of Mercy and the Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals in 1776. Yet even with the founding of societies and books written to protect animals and bring understanding of the humane way animals were to be treated and the Christian's duty to uphold the rights or humane treatment of animals, the establishment of laboratories to perform vivisection on innocent animals keeps growing with no regard to the torture and pain inflicted upon the animals in the name of science.
[Vivisection means the cutting open and torturing of live animals, usually without any anesthetic or means to reduce or eliminate pain endured by the animal, in the name of science. This totally unmerciful and cruel treatment began long ago and is still prevalent in most of the countries of the world today, including the United States of America. This type of needless torture and abuse is going on in universities, experimental labs, and other institutions of learning and research experimentation throughout the country. Millions of these animals are dogs and cats. Even human slaves have been used. The acceptance of this practice hinges on the belief that animals do not feel pain, do not have emotions and do not have a soul or spirit; therefore, they are simply animated objects, even though the cruel and godless perpetrator sees the animals crying out in pain, and flinch when inflicted with knives. The fact that supposedly great scientists are doing this, believing that the animals have no feelings or purpose other than that for which man chooses to use them, is most frightening, and to those who have godly wisdom and a logical ability of reasoning know to be completely untrue.
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If one cannot observe and hear and see the pain of innocent creatures as they are butchered, one will not hear the cry or see the worth of humans either, other than themselves. They are not people of wisdom. They lack true understanding. The fact that they cannot seen or hear any pain from those innocent creatures has to indicate that they do not have in a true sense a soul, as we know it, of God. We have seen the evidence and heard the horrors of the Holocaust. We know that no God would be behind this type of torture and death and we know that our Heavenly Father is a merciful God. God is devastated due to the pain and heartbreak of our earthly acts of evil upon man and animals alike. It is not what a person says about how much they love and praise God; the evidence is in the way they treat all creation, and praise God for all He has given us in nature to love and care for. Man so often fakes true beliefs and feelings to others. How interesting that animals though they do vocalize in their own languages, yet in this present world can not communicate in a way we can in most cases understand, do not fake their love or fear of us in ways we can understand. They either respond with fear or suspicion toward man or in complete love. MBP]
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states "We must know Christ as the source of grace in order to know Adam as the source of sin." The pilgrim church of God "takes her place among the creatures which groan and travail yet await the revelation of the sons of God."(Romans 8:19-21) Thus this "truth of creation" - that the fundamental purpose of the lives of animals is not to serve the needs and desires of humans but to manifest God's glory - is affirmed through end times theology. Humans share a common destiny of fellowship withGod with other living creatures. Stated in Psalm 145:8-13, Revelation 5:4-13, Psalm 98:7-9, 1 Chronicles 16:30-34, both man and the creatures/creation praise the Lord together for all eternity.
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Pope John Paul II states that man needs to respect "the nature of each being" within creation. He emphasizes that man has dominion over the animals, but man does not have absolute power. We do
not have the right to "use and misuse," or to dispose of things for our own pleasures and convenience. Animals belong to God. He created them, therefore man has no right to alter them through genetic engineering. Each one of them is unique and wonderfully made, and we have no right to interfere with what God has created. The animals exist primarily for God, not man. They belong to God. For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.(Psalm 50:10-11 KJV) The Pope said human patenting of animals is nothing less than idolatrous.
Based on Jewish and Christian traditions and other religions as well, evidence from old manuscripts and Scriptures state that man will be held accountable before the almighty Lord for the way we
have treated the animals here on earth. What a rude shock that will be for many Bible believers who have believed themselves exempt from the abuse, humane responsibility and neglect we have inflicted on His creation? And as to accountability for the animals Solomon summed it up when he said, "A righteous man has regard for his beast but the mercy of the wicked are cruel." (Proverbs 12:10 KJV)
Solomon's father David said, "The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works (His creation)...thou satisfiest the desire of every living thing." (Psalm 145:9 KJV) Though much of mankind lacks mercy for the creatures, God has mercy, eternal mercy for them.
What is the desire of every living, sentient being? As the word "instinct" means God-given intelligence, we know through scripture and simple observation that much of the non-human creatures have some intelligence. Certainly they are not to be tortured and die needlessly without any hope of a future state of righteousness.
How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of the whole field wither? For the wickedness of them that dwell therein, the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said: 'he seeth not our end." They have made it a desolation, it mourneth unto Me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. (Jeremiah 12:4,11, Holy Scriptures)
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Matthew Henry's commentary says of Jeremiah 12:4,11 God never did, and will never do anything wrong to any of His creatures. Matthew Henry goes on to say, "When we find it hard to understand particular providence we must have recourse to general truths as our first principles, and abide by them; however dark the province may be, the Lord is righteous."
To speak from the view of the animals and creation regarding Jeremiah 12:4, 11, as the animals are, in a true sense, speaking through the prophet Jeremiah as he views the world from the point of view of the creatures and creation as a whole. He says, "How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of the whole field wither? For the wickedness of man that dwells therein, we beasts are consumed and the birds; because man said: 'he seeth not our end' Man has made the world desolation. It mourneth unto God, because no man cares."
In the Open Bible, in Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, verses 16-22, the heading is "God judges righteous and wickedness." Solomon's fatherDavid, who wrote the Psalms, states that God judges the world with righteousness and the people with equity, His truth (equally). Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice Before the Lord: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. (Psalm 96:12-13 KJV)
Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the LORD for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity (fairness). (Psalm 98:7-9,Open Bible)
In the Good News Bible under "The Goodness of God" we read: LORD, your constant love reaches the heavens, your faithfulness extends to the skies. Your righteousness is towering like the mountains; your justice is like the depths of the sea. Men and animals are in your care. (Psalms36:5-6, Good News Bible)
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A distinction is made between God's judgment and righteousness of the world/creation/earth and of the people. The world is judged with righteousness but the people are judged with equity/fairness. The word "with" means for, in correspondence, accompanying. It also can mean compared to. God compares the righteousness of creation with that of the people, the people being of a sinful nature, as compared to the creatures of an innocent nature.
Death came into the world only through the Devil's envy as those who belong to him find to their cost. (Wisdom 2:24 NJV) But the souls of the upright are in the hands of God, and no torment can touch them. (Wisdom 3:1 NJV)
But the upright live forever, their recompense is with the Lord, and the Most High takes care of them. (Wisdom 5:15 NJV) For armour he will take his jealous love, he will arm creation to punish his enemies. (Wisdom 5:17 NJV) He will take up invincible holiness for shield, of his pitiless wrath he will forge a sword, and the universe will march with him to fight the reckless. (Wisdom 5:20-21 NJV)
Your justice is as solid as God's mountains. Your decisions are as full of wisdom as the oceans are with water. You are concerned for men and animals alike. (Psalm 36:6 TLB)
Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are agreat deep: O LORD, thou preservest man and beast. (Psalm 36:6, Criswell Study Bible) The Darby Bible says, "Thou savest man and beast." The Jewish Holy Scriptures says, "Man and beast thou preservest,O LORD."
As the 1700s concluded, a few theologians, philosophers, and even the science community maintained an understanding of the fact that the universe was not made just for man. This era, it seemed at least some extent, gave a kind of sympathy and felt a kinship between the species expanding our hearts to love and protect them. And as stated in Love for Animals by Dix Harwood in 1928, "If a man is entitled to immortality, then certainly beasts, which suffer all the consequences of man's depravity, will also be similarly rewarded.
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If living things are to have relations with one another, then we must settle as nearly as may be what the rights of each shall be in a world society. At any rate, we are all one, and the artificial inequalities must gradually disappear."
He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
[Thus stated the true Christian by the end of the era; however, though they at that time had dreams that a new understanding of the ethical, humane treatment of animals would become legislation and abuse would cease, it for the most part did not stop. As the age of real materialism bloomed and man started searching the Bible for what promises were in it for himself, and himself alone, even more falsehood sprung up. People were told in Christian church after Christian church that animals did not go to heaven and had no soul or spirit, despite scriptures stating otherwise. Some in the ministry standing on John Calvin's one statement that animals were for our use only, failed to include Calvin's commentary and scriptural referencing that they do go to heaven. This presented man with the excuse to state animals did not deserve humane treatment, nor were they worthy of heaven. Those knowing the just God began to become suspect of some Christian churches and the ministry preaching untruths concerning the fair treatment and eternal life of animals. Instead of bringing people to salvation, some, through their false teachings have driven millions away from Jesus. MBP] Many of the popes of the Catholic faith, including Pope John Paul II, and the founders of the mainstream Protestant churches
Many of the popes of the Catholic faith, including Pope JohnPaul II, and the founders of the mainstream Protestant churches such as Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Wesley, have writings
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and commentary quoting scripture to remind their congregations and future ones that animals do indeed go to heaven. In most cases they have also added commentary stating that all animals are to bet reated humanely. Of all of the Christian faiths only the Vatican has in recent years written into their doctrine that animals are to be treated humanely and will be in heaven.
During the late 1700s many Christian theologians and moralists felt somewhat uncomfortable when they spoke of Genesis where man was given authority over everything that flies or creeps upon the earth. They realized that the animals did belong to God and that wanton destruction of them was an act of evil. Isaac Watts was a Calvinist; however, he disagreed with Calvin on the manner in which Calvin believed animals could be treated by mankind and had to question that of the evils beasts suffer in this world, there must be a better world hereafter for them. Before Eve sinned, all things were at peace. The evidence shows that man, once the favorite is now much nearer terms of equality with other living things, he said.
Reverend John Hildrop, MA, Rector of Wath, in Yorkshire, England, published a small book in 1742 in which he attacks the theory of a French Jesuit, Fr. Bourgeant. Fr. Bourgeant believed that the functions of brute creation were due to the evil spirits at work on earth. Rev. Hildrop also addresses the theory of the French philosopher and mathematician Descartes who in the early 1600s stated that animals were simply unfeeling machines.
Rev. Hildrop wrote, "In the beginning God appointed man the master of Eden; when he fell, his servants the animals went with him into outer darkness, even as in this life a man's family and retainers must suffer with the disgraced master. If death came into the world only after Adam's sin, then, before it came, animals must have been immortal. If they are intended for God's glory (and so is every created thing intended), then He will not slay them. When men assume that God will destroy, they conceive a wasteful deity; hence, an imperfect one. This God of ours made all things to be happy, yet
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animals have lost their primeval joy" And here the author rapped out a rebuke to the Bishop of Cork, Bishop Browne. The Bishop wanted no cheese mites in heaven. And the reply from Hildrop was "If God created the body of a cheese mite, will it be any more of a trick to endow it with a soul?"
Hildrop continued, "Genesis 9 authorized man to use beasts as food after the flood. Fear and dread now came upon all of the other species. What woe has our own kind wrought! The animals once roamed in peace, happy and innocent, wandering through the gardens and meadows of paradise. Yet after the flood the forests and land is filled with bloodshed and treachery. The very noblest fell the farthest. As in Eden the lion was the finest, so now he is the fiercest.The rest are now in a state of servitude to the very creatures who ruined them." Hildrop goes on to say, "They will be repaid one day for all they have suffered; they will be recompensed with life eternal; but in the meantime, common justice demands that they receive kindly treatment from those who brought damnation on them." Rev. Hildrop wrote his account of Creation as written in theBook of Genesis. He asks: "Is there any thing in this account (the Book of Genesis) that seems either impossible or improbable? Does not the whole appear consistent, reasonable, worthy of God, and agreeable to Scriptures? On the other hand, how mean, how trifling, how unworthy of God, how repugnant to Scripture, is the philosophy of those, who suppose [animals] to be either animated by Evil Spirits or else allowing them no spiritual principle of motion or action, supposing them to be mere machines? Stating that they have no more sense or perception than a clock or a watch; that though they have some motion, some appearance of sense and shadow of reason, yet it is no more than what arises from the structure of their organs, and the mechanism of their frame; that they are therefore no more the objects of our compassion than any other piece of machinery...Is not this offering violence to reason, nature, and common sense? Is it not making a mockery of God's creatures?"
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From the Holy Scriptures, Genesis 1:12, 18,21, 25, states "everything God made, He says was good." And God made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:25) In Genesis 1:22 God blessed all the creatures below man and said for them to multiply. In Genesis 1:27-29 God created man in His image. He blessed them and told them to multiply. God put man in dominion over the lower animals.... and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Animals were blessed along with man. They were told to multiply and they were all created to go in pairs, male and female. They were given a soul as the original Jewish text reveals in Scripture.Then man sinned and brought physical death to all creation.
Rev. Hildrop says "[Adam] stood in the place of God to theworld below him. He was the created image of the ever-blessed Trinity. Then by his transgression he lost the favor of his Maker, andforfeited both for us and the lower creation, the blessed privileges ofour primitive state and condition; the communication of divine lightand life between God and man. Now communication being suspended, he had no more power to direct and govern the creaturesbelow him. He had no blessing to receive, and therefore none tobestow. The state of the brute creation, therefore, has, every sincethe fall of Man, been very different from what it was at the first."
[All were obedient to God's just commands until Eve and Adamate of the tree of life in disobedience to God, being tricked by acreature the devil used to gain authority through man to become the prince of this world. - MBP]
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Rev. Hildrop says: "Now I would venture to say, that the partition between the lowest degree of human and the highest degree of brute understanding, is so very slender, that it is hardly perceptible, and could not in any degree be distinguished but by a greater fluency of language: which though in the main it may be considered an advantage to our species in general, yet is it none to those who seldom make any other use made of it, than to discover the emptiness of their heads, the perverseness of their wills, or the iniquity of their hearts, and show how little the real difference is (shape only excepted) between sagacious [having acute mental discernment and keen practical sense], good-natured, governable, useful animal, which we agree to call a brute; and a wrong-headed, vicious, ungovernable, mischievous brute, whom we agree to call a man; and what authority we have to strike out of the system of immortality so great a part of the creation without an absolute and evident necessity, exceeds my comprehension. If both reason and revelation assure, us, that in their first creation they were all very good: as perfect in their several kinds, as beautiful in their several orders, as necessary to the universal harmony, as infinite power and wisdom could make them; if by the special benediction of their Maker they were to increase and multiply, and perpetuate their several species, before sin and death entered into the world; how dare we pretend to reverse this blessing, to correct infinite wisdom, to alter the established order of things, and pronounce a sentence of utter extinction upon numerous ranks and orders of beings, created by infinite wisdom....
"Is not this pronouncing a curse where God has pronounced a blessing? And in effect declaring that Infinite Wisdom and power were idly employed in forming, supporting, feeding, and blessing numberless species, tribes and families of useless and unnecessary beings? Is it not more reasonable or consistent with the nature of God, and the scripture-account of the creation, to suppose that the immaterial forms, the incorruptible essence of the whole system, not withstanding its present ruinous and deplorable appearance under the bondage of corruption and death, are immoveably fixed in their proper rank and order in the invisible world, according to the eternal archetypal model (original form) in the divine mind, in and by which, as their efficient and exemplary cause, every being in heaven and earth, from the most exalted seraph to the lowest vegetable, was made, in which they now subsist, and shall for ever subsist, in a glorious immortality?"
How lovely is your Temple, O Lord of the armies of heaven. I long, yes, faint with longing to be able to enter your courtyard and come near to the Living God. Even the sparrows and swallows are welcome to come and nest among your altars and there have their young, O Lord of heaven's armies, my King and my God! How happy are those who can live in your Temple, singing your praises. (Psalm 84:1-4 Good News Bible)
Deuteronomy 5:14, Exodus 19:10 and Exodus 23:12 say the animals were to rest along with man on the seventh day. Six days thou shalt do thy work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest... (Exodus 23:12, Holy Scriptures)
Rev. Dr. T. Dewitt Talmage was a noted Presbyterian minister inBrooklyn, New York City. He was born in 1832 and died in 1902.Within his very popular and vast collection of sermons he speaks onthe subject of animals: "Behold in the first place, that on the first night of Christ's life God honored the animal creation. You cannot get into that Bethlehem barn without going past the camels, the mules, the dogs, and the oxen. The animals of that stable heard the first cry of the infant Lord. Some of the old painters represent the oxen and camels kneeling that night before the new-born babe. And well might they kneel. Have you ever thought that Christ came, among other things, to alleviate the sufferings of the animal creation? Was it not appropriate that He should, during the first few days and nights of His life on earth, be surrounded by the dumb beasts whose moans and plaint have for ages been a prayer to God for the arresting of their tortures and the righting of their wrongs? It did the arresting of their tortures and the righting of their wrongs? It did not merely 'happen so,' that the unintelligent creatures of God should have been that night in close neighborhood. Not a kennel in all the centuries, not a robbed bird's nest, not a worn-out horse on the tow
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path, not a herd freezing in the poorly-built cow-pen, not a freight car bringing the beeves to market without water through a thousand miles of agony, not a surgeon's room witnessing the struggles of the fox or rabbit or pigeon or dog in the horrors of vivisection, but has an interest in the fact that Christ was born in a stable surrounded by animals. He remembers that night, and the prayer He heard in their pitiful moan. He will answer in the punishment of those who maltreat them."
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CHAPTER 5
Dr. Albert Schweitzer and His Reverence for Life
References:
●Ann Cottrell Free, editor, Animals, Nature and Albert Schweitzer
●Albert Schweitzer, The Philosophy of Civilization
Dr. Albert Schweitzer was a famous medical doctor whose humble spirit and love for all creation led him to Africa to treat the poorest of humanity who had not financial means to acquire medical attention.
"As long as I can remember, I have suffered because of the great misery I saw in the world. I never really knew the youthful joy of living. I believe that many children feel this way," Dr. Albert Schweitzer stated concerning his childhood.
Before he entered primary school he composed a small prayer:"Dear God, protect and bless all living things. Keep them from evil and let them sleep in peace."
"I suffered particularly because the poor animals must endure so much pain and want," Schweitzer explained. "The sight of an old, limping horse being dragged along by one man while another man
struck him with a stick he was being driven to the Colmar slaughter house-haunted me for weeks."
Schweitzer says of Nature: "The deeper we look into nature, the more we realize that it is full of life and the more profoundly we know that all life is sacred and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live for himself alone.
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We must realize that all life is valuable and that we are united to all life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the universe.
The fact that in nature one creature may cause pain to another, and even deal with it instinctively in the most cruel way, is a harsh mystery that weighs upon us as long as we live. One who has reached the point where he does not suffer ever again because of this has ceased to be a man."
Dr. Schweitzer says, "Whenever an animal is somehow forced into the service of men, every one of us must be concerned for any suffering it bears on that account. No one may shut his eyes and think the pain, which is therefore not visible to him, is non-existent.
"Each of us must therefore decide whether to condemn living creatures to suffering and death out of inescapable necessity, and thus incur guilt. The man who pledges himself to neglect no opportunity to help creatures in distress can find some atonement for guilt."
These are the things Dr. Schweitzer accepts as being Good: "To preserve life, to promote life, to raise to its highest value life which is capable of development"; and, as being Evil: "To destroy life, to repress life which is capable of development. This is the absolute, fundamental principle of the moral, and it is the necessity of thought." Dr. Schweitzer asks when will we reach a time when hunting, the pleasure of killing animals for sport, will be regarded as a mental aberration? "We must reach the point when killing for sport will be felt as a disgrace to our civilization."
He truly loved and appreciated God's creatures and understood their intelligence, feelings, love and fears and he so loved being around the animals all the time.
In The Philosophy of Civilization Dr. Schweitzer says the moral for which man should attain is of concern for all creation. He says, "If one walks on the road after a shower and sees an earthworm which has strayed on to it, he be thinks himself that it must get dried up in the sun if it does not return soon enough to ground into which it can burrow, so he lifts it from the deadly stone surface and puts it on the grass.
He should not be afraid of being laughed at for such a sentimental act. It is the fate of every truth to be laughed at until it is recognized."
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He speaks of the reverence for life concerning the relationship between man and the animal world: "Whenever one injures an animal of any kind one must consider if it is truly necessary." He speaks of inoculating animals with diseases, and so as to be able to bring help to mankind with the results gained. "These people must never quiet any misgivings they feel with the general reflection that their cruel proceedings aim at a valuable result. They must first have considered in each individual case whether there is a real necessity to force upon any animal this sacrifice for the sake of mankind. And they must take the most anxious care to mitigate as much as possible the pain inflicted. He reminds us that everyone must be concerned with what the suffering every animal does for the benefit of mankind.
"No one must shut his eyes and regard as non-existent the sufferings of which he spares himself the sight. Let no one regard aslight the burden of his responsibility. While so much ill-treatment of animals goes on, while the moans of thirsty animals in railway trucks sound unheard, while so much brutality prevails in our slaughter-houses, while animals have to suffer in our kitchens painful death from unskilled hands, while animals have to endure intolerable treatment from heartless men, or are left to the cruel play of children, we all share the guilt.
"The ethics of reverence for life guards us from letting each other believe through our silence that we no longer experience what, as thinking men, we must experience. They make us join in keeping on the look-out for opportunities of bringing some sort of help to animals, to make up for the great misery which men inflict on them, and thus to step for a moment out of the incomprehensible horror of existence."
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The Life of Dr. Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer lived from 1875 though 1965, the son of a Lutheran minister. He grew up in an Alastian village. He studied organ in Paris and was in the military service. He became a professional organist and published his first book before 1899. Schweitzer received a doctorate of philosophy at the University of Strasbourg in1899. He received a degree in theology and was ordained as a pastor in 1900. He continued his professional career as an organist, a pastor of a church and was the principal of a theological seminary.
This, however, was not what he felt God wanted for his life, and in 1905 at the age of thirty he felt led to study medicine and go to Africa to help those who were too poor to afford medical treatment. In 1912 he married Helene Bresslau, and in 1913 after finishing his M.D., the couple left for Africa to set up a hospital to treat the poor.
In 1917 the French forced the Schweitzers to go to France as civilian interns until the end of the war. In 1919 their daughter Rhena was born and five years later he returned to Africa alone to rebuild his hospital in a new location. He continued to travel, giving lectures and concerts. Mrs. Schweitzer joined him, escaping from Europe during the Second World War.
In 1952 he received the Nobel Peace Prize and Medal from the Animal Welfare Institute. In 1957, his wife, Helene, died in Switzerland. Dr. Schweitzer continued his fight for the rights of animals and endorsed a bill in the U.S. Senate to reduce laboratory animal suffering. In March 1965, the government of Africa, due to the fear of the spread of rabies, ordered all of his dogs, cats, and monkeys be put to death. His love for animals was so great and his lifetime of suffering over the pain inflicted on animals took such an emotional toll that he passed away within seven months of their deaths at the age of 90.
His most famous book, The Philosophy of Civilization, in which he wrote his great discourse "Reverence for Life," has helped mold
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modern thought toward more compassion for the non-human creation and that of mankind as well. In his lifetime he never missed an opportunity to demonstrate his compassion for both man and animals. His teachings and examples affected people all over the world as he became recognized as a leading advocate for the welfare of the animal kingdom and fight to save man from himself in teaching the value of all life on earth and the preservation of all that God has created as much as possible.
He prayed continuously for the protection of the animals and for the minds of man to be opened to the understanding of concern for creation. He wrote that he could never be at complete peace even through all of his honors and accomplishments because he was constantly in remembrance of the suffering of humanity and the animals. He knew so much of creation was suffering needlessly at the hands of mankind, bringing excruciating pain in the name of science or sport.
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CHAPTER 6
Obedience of Creation andThe Faithfulness of God
References:
●Matthew Henry, Commentary
When considering the obedience of the animals, the Bible reveals many were obedient to God, and Psalm 119:89-96 addresses all of God's servants. His servants are the angels, the saints,and the non-human animals as well. For ever, O Lord, Thy word standeth fast in heaven. Thy faithfulness is unto all generations; Thou hast established the earth, and it standeth. They stand this day according to Thine ordinances; for all things are Thy servants. Unless Thy law had been my delight, I should then have perished in mine affliction. (Psalm 119:89-92 Holy Scriptures)
Matthew Henry's commentary on Psalm 119:89-91 states, "Your faithfulness continues through all generations. He produces, for proof of it, the constancy of the course of nature: You established the earth,and it endures. It is by virtue of God's promise to Noah (Gen. 8:22) that day and night, summer and winter, observe a steady course. All the creatures are, in their places, and according to their capacities, useful to their Creator, and fulfill the purpose of their creation; andshall man be the only rebel, the only revolter from his allegiance,and the only unprofitable burden of the earth?"
A prophet named Elijah, from Tishbe in Gilead, said to King Ahab,"In the name of the LORD, the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tellyou that there will be no dew or rain for the next two or three years until
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I say so." Then the LORD said to Elijah, "Leave this place and go west and hide yourself near Cherith Brook, east of the Jordan. The brook will supply you with water to drink, and I have commanded ravens to bring you food there." Elijah obeyed the Lord's command, and went and stayed by Cherith Brook. He drank water from the brook, and ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening. (1 Kings 17:1-6 Good News Bible) This is an example of animals doing the will of God as He commanded them to bring food to Elijah.
1 Kings 13:18-29 tells of a prophet from Judah who disobeyed God, as God had told him not to eat or drink anything which King Jeroboam or anyone else offered him and to return home a different way than he had come; but when the prophet in Bethel tempted him, he disobeyed God and was killed by a lion. This is an example in line with the whale that swallowed Jonah and the donkey of Balaam of an animal being obedient to the Lord. Then the old prophetfrom Bethel said to him, "I, too, am a prophet just like you, and at the Lord's command an angel told me to take you home with me and offer you my hospitality." But the old prophet was lying. So the prophet fromJudah went home with the old prophet and had a meal with him. As they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet, and he cried out to the prophet from Judah, "The LORD says that you disobeyed him and did not do what he commanded. Instead, you returned and ate a meal in a place he had ordered you not to eat in. Because of this you will be killed, and your body will not be buried in your family grave. After they had finished eating, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet from Judah, who rode off. On the way a lion met him and killed him. His body lay on the road, and the donkey and the lion stood beside it. Some men passed by and saw the body on the road, with the lion standing near by. They went on into Bethel and reported what they had seen. When the old prophet heard about it, he said, "That is the prophet who disobeyed the Lord's command! And so the LORD sent the lion to attack and kill him, just as the LORD said he would." Then he said to his sons, "Saddle my donkey for me." They did so, and he rode off and found
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the prophet's body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion stillstanding by it. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey.The old prophet picked up the body, put it on the donkey, and brought itback to Bethel to mourn over it and bury it. (1 Kings 13:18-29 Good News Bible)
Exodus 19:12-13 tells us that neither man nor beast could touch the mountain where Moses went to get the Ten Commandments or they would die. There shall not an hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live: when the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount. (Exodus19:13 KJV)
Balaam was a very disobedient prophet. He did not want to do as the Lord commanded him to not curse the people of Israel as the King of Moab, Balak, so wanted. However, Balaam went with the prince of Moab to curse the Israelites, which made the Lord very angry so God sent an angel to stop him. Balaam had his ass and his two servants with him. And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.But the angel of the LORD stood in a path of the vineyards, a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side. And when the ass saw the angel of theLORD, she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall: and he smote her again. And the angel of the LORD went further, and stood in a narrow place, were was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam's anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff. 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? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou has ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? Was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay. Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand:and he bowed down his head, and fell flat on his face. And the angel of the Lord said unto him, Wherefore has thou smitten thine ass these three times? Behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy was in perverse before me; and the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times; unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.(Numbers 22:23-33 KJV)
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There is so much unnatural to human understanding in this message. We have a disobedient man and an obedient donkey. We have adonkey that can see an angel (a spirit being), and we have a donkey that can also talk as commanded by God. And we have a man who has no problem believing that the donkey can talk and talks back. If we outside of the Bible tried to convince someone of this type of situation it would be most improbable if not impossible.
Now the Lord had prepared a large fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three night. Now Jonah
