In God's grand design, all creation, including animals, is precious and loved. The Psalms reveal that God's mercy extends to all living things, and His righteousness is upheld in the earth, as seen in Psalms 36:5-6. The Bible teaches that God is the giver of life and breath to all creatures, as stated in Job 12:10, and Ecclesiastes 3:16-22 suggests that humans and animals share a common fate. While the Bible does not provide a clear answer to the question of animals in the afterlife, Romans 8:18-23 offers hope that all creation will be redeemed and set free from suffering, hinting at a future where God's love and mercy will be fully revealed.
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Your loving devotion, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, since there is a time for every activity and every deed.” I said to myself, “As for the sons of men, God tests them so that they may see for themselves that they are but beasts.” For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile. All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth? I have seen that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will come after him?
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains; Your judgments are like the deepest sea. O LORD, You preserve man and beast.
The life of every living thing is in His hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.
I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time. Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are only cruelty.