With the recent death of my beloved dog, who was so much more than a companion to me, I looked more in-depth into this question. I was distressed to think my dog might not get to go to heaven. I couldn't imagine him not having all the benefits heaven could offer a dog like him - sweet green grass to sleep in, cool, clean streams to splash in and drink from, a variety of trees to sniff, tons of balls to chew into a pulp, and of course, plenty of dog friends - old friends he knew here on earth and new friends made in heaven.
I was sure he "deserved" to be in heaven since he was never mean to anyone a day in his life, was always in a good mood, only threw up on the carpet once, loved me and everyone else with an abandon you never find in people, and always forgave me if my bad day to spill onto him. He deserved to be in heaven more than anyone I knew. But did he get in?
Dogs were considered to be "unclean" by the ancient Israelites so they were banished to the garbage dump outside the city walls, and fed on what they could scavenge, including the remains of dismembered criminals (human bodies). The garbage dump outside Jerusalem was called Gehenna, which is another name for hell. Since the criminals were sinners, by extension the dogs were also because they ate the sinner's remains.
The concept of "clean" and "unclean" means that some things are unholy or unclean by their nature - like feces or dead bodies - and some things are clean, such as anything purified by water, fire or religious rites. In the Bible (Revelations, Chapter 22), the description of heaven as a physical place says that dogs will be "outside the gates of heaven" with the same criminals they feasted on while on earth. I suppose this is a sort of poetic justice to the criminals to be eaten for eternity by a pack of dogs. This may be where the expression "hounds of hell" originated. I don't know for sure but it would certainly fit.
The banishment of my precious canine companion to live outside of heaven's gates for eternity with criminals, perverts and murderers was distressing until I did a little more investigating. In Acts, Chapter 10, Peter is hanging out on a rooftop praying when he gets very hungry and asks God for some food. God lowers a cloth filled with all kinds of animals and tells Peter to pick one and eat it. Peter argues with God that the animals being presented are unclean. Remember Peter is an "ancient" Israelite so he is used to living under the Jewish laws and hasn't quite got the hang of God's rule changes under the new covenant. God tells him not to call any of the animals unclean because he (God) has declared them clean. So all animals (including dogs) are considered "clean" with the advent of the new covenant God made with the Gentiles (anyone who is not Jewish). So if God declared dogs clean then the "dogs" who are outside of heaven's gate must be some type of spirit creature specifically designed to torture criminals and not family pets.
Another thing you need to know is that there literally are two heavens - one for the Israelites (God's chosen people) and one for the rest of us (Gentiles). The description of heaven in Revelations, Chapter 22, is of a city built from gold, silver, pearls and all kinds of precious stones. This is the Israelites' heaven. Since the Israelites have been given special status as the chosen people, it makes sense that their heaven is a luxurious palace equal in splendor to the palaces of the kings and rulers of their day.
The "other" heaven is described as a renewed earth. The earth will be brought back to the splendor of the Garden of Eden and this will be a heaven on earth. On the new earth, all people will love one another and get along, and the lion will lie down with the lamb, which means animals also get along and won't eat each other for food. This is the Gentiles' promise of heaven. Obviously, it makes more sense to have the animals (including dogs) in the "garden" then in the palace. Only the chosen people will live in the palace, and the dogs will be in the garden with the Gentiles, who were also considered "unclean" by the ancient Israelites! The good news is Gentiles can be made "clean" by accepting Jesus as their personal savior. Without be "saved," Gentiles won't go to either heaven, which leaves only one place -hell with those nasty spirit dogs eating you for eternity.
God has made it very clear that only "clean" people and "clean" animals may come into heaven. The mere act of entering heaven means you will be in very close proximity to God. God does not allow anything unclean to be in his presence. We already know God made all animals clean (Acts, Chapter 10) and that those "clean" animals were lowered from heaven, which indicates there are animals in heaven already. Jesus also returns to earth to get the "clean" humans riding a white horse (another indication of animals living in heaven). So when animals are born to the earth they are already clean which means they can return to heaven when they die.
So if Gentiles (anyone who is not Jewish) are considered to be unclean by God, how do we become clean so we can get into the restored Garden of Eden (Gentile heaven)?
Unfortunately we didn't automatically get washed clean like the animals did. Each one of us has to ask for God to cleanse us. We do this by asking God's son, Jesus, to save us and promising to follow him all the days of our lives. This sounds hard to many people but it really quite easy to do. I explain exactly how to do this in my book, Save Yourself! The Plain Truth, if you want more information on salvation. The book also explains other things you need to know about God, like how God owns everything we have. This is why you enter the earthly world with nothing and leave with nothing, just like animals. For some reason we humans can't accept that acquiring more things does not make us better people; it just makes us people with more stuff to leave behind.
So to sum it all up: God owns everything in heaven and on earth. That means he owned "my" beloved dog but decided to "lend" me his dog so I could love and take care of his dog for 12 years. When God missed his dog and didn't want to be separated from him anymore, he took my dog back. I now understand that my dog was on loan from God and that my dog is back with his original master, God. I know my dog is in heaven, in the presence of God, and will be well taken care of forever. It doesn't mean I've stopped missing my beloved dog or that it has gotten any easier passing his favorite sleeping spot without thinking about him, but I take comfort in knowing he is in a good place
