SUBJECT:  Animals

QUESTION:  Do you believe in animals rights?

ANSWER:

Actually we go far beyond animal rights [which seems to have different definitions, agendas, and application in different quarters].  We view animals the way God does.  The Bible is replete with two overpowering ideas and ideals:

1] all animals belong to God.
Psalm 50:10-12

10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.

11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
 

2] God demands we regard the animals.
Proverbs 12:10
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.

Genesis 33:13-14
13 And he said unto him, My lord knoweth that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me: and if men should overdrive them one day, all the flock will die.

14 Let my lord, I pray thee, pass over before his servant: and I will lead on softly, according as the cattle that goeth before me and the children be able to endure, until I come unto my lord unto Seir.

Some key elements of our belief:
---God made all animals.

---All animals belong to God.
---As we say at our photo albums of animals, animals reflect the Creator and therefore we are to praise God for them.  They are wonderment.
---God gave some animals as beasts of burden but even then, we are to treat them well.

---God gave man domesticated animals to love and care for.

---God gave man some animals as food.
---God commanded certain animals to be sacrificed in the Temple.  The sacrifices symbolized the ultimate sacrifice of Christ.  Therefore God chose a most precious possession of His for the sacrifices.
---God commands that we treat all animals well.

Some key things we are not:
---We are not radical on animal rights as some are.
---We are not political on animal rights.  We are not even political on human rights as we seek a better government [of Christ] that will do both.
---We are not vegetarians.
---We do not protest or destroy property.
---We do not like ways animals are killed in the food industry.
---We do not like the captivity animals in the form of zoos and scientific experimentation.
---We like some forms of nature preserves.

Some key things that will be in the Government of Christ [which is over humans approximately 1100 years]:
---no zoos or housing of animals.

---all animals given new natures.  No animals of prey.  Lions, for example, eat straw
---no animal experimentation.
---no animals in the food industry as we see today.  God can provide what we call meat without harvesting animals.  God does not have to make a cow, which we slaughter to make a steak.  God can simply make a steak.
---animals no longer a curse as they are today, along with man [from the Garden of Eden---Genesis 3 and 6]

---commands will be that man harm no animal.
---no beasts of burden.  All burdens handled by other means.

To get a better look at the Government of Christ see:

1] What it will be like: http://www.icgchurches.org/Las_Vegas_NV/Heart_and_Soul/Good_News-001.shtml
2] What things you see today that will not be there:  http://www.icgchurches.org/Las_Vegas_NV/Heart_and_Soul/Good_News-002.shtml

My Private Beliefs:
---I feel God will resurrect pets.
---I feel God will resurrect every animal that was every sacrificed in the Temple sacrifices---to complete the symbolism, as Christ was resurrected.

GOD GAVE CERTAIN ANIMALS TO MAN FOR FOOD
Leviticus 11:3-4
3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

4 Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

GOD CHOSE ONE OF HIS MOST PRECIOUS POSSESSIONS TO REPRESENT HIS SON IN TEMPLE SACRIFICES
Genesis 8:20
And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

JUST A COUPLE KEY VERSES
Genesis 9:9-10
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.

Deuteronomy 25:4

Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

Job 38:41

Who provideth for the raven his food? when his young ones cry unto God, they wander for lack of meat.

Psalm 147:9

He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

Matthew 10:29

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

Luke 12:6

Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
 

ORDAINED AS FOOD FOR MAN

Genesis 9:2-3
Leviticus 11:3
Leviticus 11:9
Leviticus 11:21-22
Deuteronomy 14:4-6
Deuteronomy 14:9
Deuteronomy 14:11
Deuteronomy 14:20

 
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