What Does It Mean By, "Dogs Will Not Enter The Kingdom Of God"?
Question : The article about animals were a great blessing to me...I have doubt in one thing...What does it mean when the Bible says that.. dogs will not enter into the kingdom of heaven? So please clarify... I also had a dog which died years before. Thanks!
Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name! The Bible speaks about Dogs both in a negative way and also in some positive ways. When God began to judge the Egyptians finally with death of all of their first-born, for having rebelled against the true God and enslaving His people and oppressing them greatly, God said, "But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the LORD does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." (Exod 11:7). In other words it means God is saying, when the angel of death will invade the Egyptian homes to kill the first-born of all living things, among the Israelite's it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark, shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast. Dogs are creatures that are believed to see in to the spiritual realm and sense the paranormal activity. Here in the above verse it indicates that dogs might scream or howl when the angel of death is present in the Egyptian camp, but it will not do it in Israelite's camp because it will see no paranormal activity of the angel of death. Here the dogs were used as a guarding alarm to its people which is a good thing that it had done and is mentioned here by God Himself. It also means they were used to guard houses and flocks in the Hebrew people's homes and also in the post-flood civilization during which I believe it was domesticated (Isa. 56:10; Job 30:1).
There were also semi-wild dogs that wandered about devouring dead bodies outside the city limits where usually dead bodies were buried or discarded, and also sometimes eating rubbish of the streets and growling all around the city (1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 21:19, 23; 22:38; Ps. 59:6, 14). This is a bad connotation given to dogs indicating the scavenging and humiliating thing it did to dead bodies of people which should have been honored instead. But in another way, God's worst judgment was expressed by Him when He executed it through these semi-wild dogs.
Hazael the servant and assistant of the king Benhadad the king of Syria was told by the prophet to become a king out of no where, to that Hazael replied “...what is you servant - just a dog” (2 Kings 8:13), through this reply we can see how in the Old Testament times of the Kings, the word 'dog' was spoken in mock humility and in utter disdain, so that this servant was in other words saying it was impossible that one like himself so contemptible should attain to such power as a king. Also we see that with the same kind of disdain people used phrases such as “dog,” “dog's head,” “dead dog,” because it was an unclean animal, these terms were used as terms of reproach or of humiliation (1 Sam. 24:14; 2 Sam. 3:8; 9:8; 16:9).
Persecutors are called “dogs” prophetically in a Messianic passage by the beloved psalmist David, which prophetically pointed out the Gentiles who killed Jesus later, which was the most used name by Jewish people to describe any Gentiles in their culture, which Jesus also used at a particular time, it was used by Him not to insult a Gentile woman but to test her faith (Ps. 22:16; Matt 15:26-27). Jesus said, "“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." (Matt 7:6). Jesus was pointing out to religious legalistic and Pharisaical lives of people who justified themselves by judging the faults of others and rejected all spiritual truth of God which are sacred and precious insights through which He exhorted people to be non-judgmental in order to be truly spiritual as it was given by the Holy Spirit, and then Jesus spoke to all spiritual people not to waste their time in convincing such legalistic people with their revelations of the inspired word. In context, Jesus points out to such hypocrites as dogs and swine symbolically, which were all unclean animals in the Old Testament, which means that their evil nature within was never transformed because of their pride as they were not at all saved by God. Jesus has used these symbolic connotation for both dog and pig [i.e. swine], to convey a spiritual message in that Jewish culture, and this does not mean that Jesus hates both these animals which were created by him for a purpose initially during creation and He does have a purpose in the future too (Col 1:16; John 1:1-3, 12, 14). All that was physical in the Old Testament times became spiritually identified in the New Testament times because of the Jewish writers whom God used to mostly write it (1 Cor 10:11; Rom 15:4). So apostle Paul who was a Jew became a Christian calls false apostles “dogs” (Phil. 3:2), because of his Jewish past. Also the same thing was done by Apostle John who said of those who are shut out of the kingdom of heaven as dogs spiritually and designated it to reveal the unclean nature of the word used in that connotation (Rev. 22:15). The same thing was also done by Apostle Peter who pointed out to unsaved people who acted as though saved, but who showed their real soulish evil character after a certain period of time and continued in it without remorse, he described these hypocrites by the proverb saying, "But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." (2 Peter 2:22; Prov 26:11).
We cannot take that which was used spiritually to denote something symbolically and use it to mean a reality in the New Heaven and New Earth. The grammar of interpreting the Bible is, first read the Scripture and interpret it literally, when you know it does not fit, see whether it is done symbolically or spiritually spoken to mean something that the cultural context considers as good or bad during the time of the writing. When you do not find anything culturally too, see whether there is some spiritual message given to us through it. So accordingly, though the word 'dogs' were used culturally, it was not literally used to mean the object nearly in all the New Testament passages. So through this we know for sure that there will be dogs in the New Heaven and New Earth (2 Peter 3:13).
Much Blessings....
Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name! The Bible speaks about Dogs both in a negative way and also in some positive ways. When God began to judge the Egyptians finally with death of all of their first-born, for having rebelled against the true God and enslaving His people and oppressing them greatly, God said, "But against none of the children of Israel shall a dog move its tongue, against man or beast, that you may know that the LORD does make a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." (Exod 11:7). In other words it means God is saying, when the angel of death will invade the Egyptian homes to kill the first-born of all living things, among the Israelite's it will be so peaceful that not even a dog will bark, shall growl against any of the people of Israel, either man or beast. Dogs are creatures that are believed to see in to the spiritual realm and sense the paranormal activity. Here in the above verse it indicates that dogs might scream or howl when the angel of death is present in the Egyptian camp, but it will not do it in Israelite's camp because it will see no paranormal activity of the angel of death. Here the dogs were used as a guarding alarm to its people which is a good thing that it had done and is mentioned here by God Himself. It also means they were used to guard houses and flocks in the Hebrew people's homes and also in the post-flood civilization during which I believe it was domesticated (Isa. 56:10; Job 30:1).
There were also semi-wild dogs that wandered about devouring dead bodies outside the city limits where usually dead bodies were buried or discarded, and also sometimes eating rubbish of the streets and growling all around the city (1 Kings 14:11; 16:4; 21:19, 23; 22:38; Ps. 59:6, 14). This is a bad connotation given to dogs indicating the scavenging and humiliating thing it did to dead bodies of people which should have been honored instead. But in another way, God's worst judgment was expressed by Him when He executed it through these semi-wild dogs.
Hazael the servant and assistant of the king Benhadad the king of Syria was told by the prophet to become a king out of no where, to that Hazael replied “...what is you servant - just a dog” (2 Kings 8:13), through this reply we can see how in the Old Testament times of the Kings, the word 'dog' was spoken in mock humility and in utter disdain, so that this servant was in other words saying it was impossible that one like himself so contemptible should attain to such power as a king. Also we see that with the same kind of disdain people used phrases such as “dog,” “dog's head,” “dead dog,” because it was an unclean animal, these terms were used as terms of reproach or of humiliation (1 Sam. 24:14; 2 Sam. 3:8; 9:8; 16:9).
Persecutors are called “dogs” prophetically in a Messianic passage by the beloved psalmist David, which prophetically pointed out the Gentiles who killed Jesus later, which was the most used name by Jewish people to describe any Gentiles in their culture, which Jesus also used at a particular time, it was used by Him not to insult a Gentile woman but to test her faith (Ps. 22:16; Matt 15:26-27). Jesus said, "“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces." (Matt 7:6). Jesus was pointing out to religious legalistic and Pharisaical lives of people who justified themselves by judging the faults of others and rejected all spiritual truth of God which are sacred and precious insights through which He exhorted people to be non-judgmental in order to be truly spiritual as it was given by the Holy Spirit, and then Jesus spoke to all spiritual people not to waste their time in convincing such legalistic people with their revelations of the inspired word. In context, Jesus points out to such hypocrites as dogs and swine symbolically, which were all unclean animals in the Old Testament, which means that their evil nature within was never transformed because of their pride as they were not at all saved by God. Jesus has used these symbolic connotation for both dog and pig [i.e. swine], to convey a spiritual message in that Jewish culture, and this does not mean that Jesus hates both these animals which were created by him for a purpose initially during creation and He does have a purpose in the future too (Col 1:16; John 1:1-3, 12, 14). All that was physical in the Old Testament times became spiritually identified in the New Testament times because of the Jewish writers whom God used to mostly write it (1 Cor 10:11; Rom 15:4). So apostle Paul who was a Jew became a Christian calls false apostles “dogs” (Phil. 3:2), because of his Jewish past. Also the same thing was done by Apostle John who said of those who are shut out of the kingdom of heaven as dogs spiritually and designated it to reveal the unclean nature of the word used in that connotation (Rev. 22:15). The same thing was also done by Apostle Peter who pointed out to unsaved people who acted as though saved, but who showed their real soulish evil character after a certain period of time and continued in it without remorse, he described these hypocrites by the proverb saying, "But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." (2 Peter 2:22; Prov 26:11).
We cannot take that which was used spiritually to denote something symbolically and use it to mean a reality in the New Heaven and New Earth. The grammar of interpreting the Bible is, first read the Scripture and interpret it literally, when you know it does not fit, see whether it is done symbolically or spiritually spoken to mean something that the cultural context considers as good or bad during the time of the writing. When you do not find anything culturally too, see whether there is some spiritual message given to us through it. So accordingly, though the word 'dogs' were used culturally, it was not literally used to mean the object nearly in all the New Testament passages. So through this we know for sure that there will be dogs in the New Heaven and New Earth (2 Peter 3:13).
Much Blessings....
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