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Fur Babies and Pet Stewardship · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Well, you see them everywhere now in strollers in tiny
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  Speaker 1: sweaters on just about every commercial jet flight now that
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  Speaker 1: I'm on for babies. And it turns out how we
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  Speaker 1: treat those pets says more about our own hearts than
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  Speaker 1: it does about the pets themselves. There's a deeper question here,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John, about what happens to us when a pet
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  Speaker 1: starts to fill a hole that only a person could
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  Speaker 1: fill and should fill. So we are talking child pets.
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  Speaker 1: And when I saw this question come in a few
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  Speaker 1: weeks back, I knew I had to ask it, and
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  Speaker 1: I've been looking forward to this day ever since.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well we'll see. It's gonna be fun.
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  Speaker 1: At the very least, it'll be fun, maybe even edifying.
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  Speaker 1: Today I asked Pastor John for babies and pet stewardship.
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  Speaker 1: The question is from Samuel and New Haven, Connecticut. Pastor John, Hello,
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  Speaker 1: and thank you for entertaining my question. It's a cultural one.
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  Speaker 1: You seem like a man who loves dogs side you too,
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  Speaker 1: which is why I love the end of APJA one
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  Speaker 1: thousand and one. Do pets distract Christian life? There? You
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  Speaker 1: mentioned your golden doodle, Dusty and all that she taught
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  Speaker 1: you over the years, and in April twenty fourteen, in
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  Speaker 1: an article you mentioned in passing a dog in your
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  Speaker 1: childhood in South Carolina? So what do you think of
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  Speaker 1: this society in which we live increasingly treating dogs and
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  Speaker 1: other pets as children, as child replacements by single women
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  Speaker 1: who have a nurturing instinct, or especially by married couples
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  Speaker 1: who could have children, but choose instead to spend their
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  Speaker 1: discretionary money on pampering those pets with unnecessary clothes and
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  Speaker 1: expensive food, flying them on jets, using resources that would
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  Speaker 1: easily support a child, and throwing it to the dogs.
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  Speaker 1: As Jesus put it in Matthew fifteen twenty six, I'm
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  Speaker 1: sure you've seen this. How does it strike you?
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  Speaker 2: When I saw this question, I thought to myself, you know,
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  Speaker 2: when I'm dead and gone, somebody's gonna say, not only
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  Speaker 2: did Piper waste his time and money on a dog,
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  Speaker 2: he also wasted everybody's time in answering questions about whether
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  Speaker 2: you ought to have a dog. But then I thought, well,
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  Speaker 2: if not, on asked pastor John, then where who else
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  Speaker 2: would make himself a shooting target over dogs and cats
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  Speaker 2: and fish and pet turtles. So here we go. If
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  Speaker 2: your culture is poor enough, you eat dogs, no shame.
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  Speaker 2: I would certainly eat a dog before i'd let my
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  Speaker 2: kids starve. If your culture is rich enough, you kill
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  Speaker 2: other animals like fish and chickens and feed your dogs,
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  Speaker 2: and then you bring them in the house and brush
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  Speaker 2: their hair. Clearly, how we relate to animals as pets
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  Speaker 2: or as food is mainly culturally determined. So let's ask
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  Speaker 2: what biblical factors might shape a culture's attitude toward animals
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  Speaker 2: or pets in particular. And the first thing I would
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  Speaker 2: draw attention to his Genesis two nineteen. The Lord said,
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  Speaker 2: it is not good that the man should be alone.
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  Speaker 2: I will make a helper suitable for him. That's where
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  Speaker 2: we get complimentarianism, by the way, from that word right there,
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  Speaker 2: complimentary to him. Now out of the ground, the Lord
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  Speaker 2: had formed every beast of the field and every bird
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  Speaker 2: of the heavens, and brought them to the man to
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  Speaker 2: see what he would call them. And whatever the man
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  Speaker 2: called the living creature, that was its name. The man
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  Speaker 2: gave names to all livestock, and to the birds and
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  Speaker 2: heavens and every beast of the field. But for Adam
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  Speaker 2: there was not found a helper suitable for him. The
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  Speaker 2: main point of that paragraph is when God created all
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  Speaker 2: the animals, he did not make any of them as
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  Speaker 2: a satisfying partner for a human being. That's the point.
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  Speaker 2: For Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him.
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  Speaker 2: So animals are not designed by God to solve the
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  Speaker 2: god given longing for companionship, expressed in the words it
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  Speaker 2: is not good for man to be alone. That problem
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  Speaker 2: is not solved by animals as God designed it. This
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  Speaker 2: doesn't mean you can't enjoy the companionship of an animal.
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  Speaker 2: It means that when that companionship starts to function like
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  Speaker 2: the companionship of a human, it's moving against God's design.
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  Speaker 2: The Bible considers sex with an animal a perversion Leviticus
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  Speaker 2: eighteen twenty three, and Jesus had very harsh words for
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  Speaker 2: those who had more compassion for an animal than for
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  Speaker 2: a disabled human being, or I might add an unborn
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  Speaker 2: human being. The next text I would cite is Proverbs
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  Speaker 2: twelve ten. Whoever is righteous has regard for the life
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  Speaker 2: of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.
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  Speaker 2: In other words, even though animals are not human and
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  Speaker 2: should not be treated as human Nevertheless, how you treat
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  Speaker 2: them says something about being human. Indeed, it says something
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  Speaker 2: about being righteous and not wicked. Now, the text, of course,
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  Speaker 2: is not about pets, but it is certainly relevant to
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  Speaker 2: whether you kick a mangy dog into the gutter or
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  Speaker 2: whether you feel some pity and try to relieve its pain.
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  Speaker 2: And you can see pretty clearly, I think that it's
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  Speaker 2: not a great leap from that sense of biblical pity
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  Speaker 2: to taking the dog home and finding that the affection
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  Speaker 2: turns into ten years of care and dog human friendship.
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  Speaker 2: The third text I would refer to is Tewod Samuel
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  Speaker 2: twelve to three, where Nathan, remember the prophet indicts David
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  Speaker 2: for his adultery and his murder by telling this little parable.
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  Speaker 2: The rich man had very many flocks and herds, and
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  Speaker 2: the poor man had nothing but one little lamb, which
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  Speaker 2: he had bought, and he brought it up, brought up
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  Speaker 2: this little lamb, and it grew up with him and
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  Speaker 2: with his children. It used to eat his morsel, and
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  Speaker 2: drink from his cop and lie in his arms, and
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  Speaker 2: it was like a daughter to him. Now, it would
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  Speaker 2: be very strange for Nathan to use that little parable
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  Speaker 2: if such a thing were disgusting to David, or if
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  Speaker 2: such a thing never happened. In other words, it did
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  Speaker 2: happen evidently from time to time that a family would
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  Speaker 2: become attached to one of the little lambs in the flock,
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  Speaker 2: which then grew up as a pet. And the fourth
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  Speaker 2: text or texts I would refer to is the dozens
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  Speaker 2: and dozens and dozens of texts that refer to over
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  Speaker 2: seventy five different kinds of animals in the Bible, most
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  Speaker 2: of whom have no commercial value at all. They're just
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  Speaker 2: there in the wild, and the main use that God
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  Speaker 2: makes of them is not how they function perfectly to
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  Speaker 2: keep the ecosystem going, though that's his wisdom as well,
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  Speaker 2: but how they provide occasions for humans to see in
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  Speaker 2: God's creation, things like strength, diligence, beauty, orderliness, perseverance, freedom, skill, humor,
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  Speaker 2: like the ostrich, fearlessness, balance, motherliness, filth, disgust, changeableness, slyness, subtlety, hugeness, insignificance.
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  Speaker 2: The sparrows just fall to the ground in the middle
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  Speaker 2: of the forest, peace, wisdom, deceit, tenderness, humility, magnificence, and
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  Speaker 2: on and on, just like the stars and trees and
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  Speaker 2: mountains and lakes and flowers. Animals show that God is
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  Speaker 2: bent on beauty and strangeness, not just functionality. He means
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  Speaker 2: for all of creation, including animals, to declare the glory
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  Speaker 2: of God, His wisdom, his power, his beauty is one.
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  Speaker 2: And when we ask what animals are for, we can't
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  Speaker 2: just answer for food, for clothing, for transport, for war.
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  Speaker 2: We must also answer they are to be admired and feared,
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  Speaker 2: and stayed away from and taking hold of and copied.
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  Speaker 2: Go to the ant sluggard, consider her ways.
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  Speaker 1: And be wise.
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  Speaker 2: They are to draw out of us worshipful responses toward God.
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  Speaker 2: So here's some of the questions that I think we
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  Speaker 2: should ask to test whether we're responding to animals biblically wisely,
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  Speaker 2: knowing that we're shaped by our culture. First, does this
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  Speaker 2: animal point us to God and help us love God more?
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  Speaker 2: Or does it distract us from God and replace God? Two?
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  Speaker 2: Does this animal draw out of us virtuously impulses or
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  Speaker 2: does it stir up unrighteous impulses? Do we treat people
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  Speaker 2: better because of this animal? Three? Does our relationship with
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  Speaker 2: this animal accord with and confirm God's order of creation?
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  Speaker 2: Or does it distort that order. Is the animal starting
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  Speaker 2: to fell needs that only a human should fill? And finally,
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  Speaker 2: is the care for this animal hindering resources and time
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  Speaker 2: that should be spent blessing other people. Now I'm trying
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  Speaker 2: to be careful with that last question because I know
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  Speaker 2: there are people who don't have pets who are stingy
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  Speaker 2: and they're not generous to other people. And there are
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  Speaker 2: people who do have pets that are lavishly generous to
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  Speaker 2: other people. Giving up their pets wouldn't make them more
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  Speaker 2: generous to other people. So I'm asking, is the pet
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  Speaker 2: hindering generosity to others? Okay? So there I've done it, Tony.
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  Speaker 2: Somebody's gonna say, Piper, you overthink things. That's my wife says,
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  Speaker 2: to which I say, well, then stop asking these questions
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  Speaker 2: and get yourself a dog and be way more generous
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  Speaker 2: with other people than you are now.
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  Speaker 1: I think, just for the record, how many dogs have
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  Speaker 1: you had besides Dusty?
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  Speaker 2: Started with the first Dusty, who got killed after six months,
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  Speaker 2: a Cocker Spaniel my dad gave me. Then I got Blackie,
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  Speaker 2: who was a mongrel from across the street. She lived
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  Speaker 2: about fourteen years, and then there was this long period,
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  Speaker 2: and we had kids, and finally we got Sable when
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  Speaker 2: the kids were little, and then we got Dusty, and
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  Speaker 2: then when Dusty died after I mean Sable lived fifteen years.
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  Speaker 2: Dusty lived fifteen years, and we got one more and
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  Speaker 2: this dog turned out to act like a cat, and
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  Speaker 2: we gave it away after three years. I don't think
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  Speaker 2: poodles are real dog. This is a golden doodle and
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  Speaker 2: it was way too much doodle and not enough golden
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  Speaker 2: and so we couldn't survive this. The attitude of this dog.
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  Speaker 2: He was very catlike in different to human beings. So
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  Speaker 2: we don't have a dog now.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, pastor John. I'll I'm gonna keep this exchange
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  Speaker 1: at the end for those who are listening every so often,
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  Speaker 1: we have a little Easter egg in the outro just
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  Speaker 1: for you who listen to the podcast, little conversational bits
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  Speaker 1: that we keep in and so thank you for listening. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for
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  Speaker 1: him because animals are not designed by God to solve
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  Speaker 1: the God given longing for companionship. Great point. God didn't
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  Speaker 1: design animals to fix loneliness. They are strange, beautiful gifts
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  Speaker 1: meant to show us God's glory, but never to replace humans.
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  Speaker 1: So treat pets well, but don't let them become the
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  Speaker 1: thing that stops you from being generous to humans. Really good,
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  Speaker 1: thank you, Pastor John. And speaking of pets, do Pets
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  Speaker 1: Go to Heaven? Five thirty seven for that and the
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  Speaker 1: episode mentioned in the beginning in the question do pets
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  Speaker 1: distract from the Christian life? That's ABJ one thousand and
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  Speaker 1: one in the archive at Askpastor John dot com. Both
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  Speaker 1: of those episodes five thirty seven and one thousand and
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  Speaker 1: one at Askpastor John dot com. Don't let her die
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  Speaker 1: before you say this next time? Thoughts for a son
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  Speaker 1: whose mother is losing her final fight with cancer. Antoni
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  Speaker 1: Ranky will see you back here on Monday.