Romans 18, that little section that talks about creation longing for redemption. There's a few key point in that whole thing.
1st: Creation for some reason is eagerly awaiting the revealing of the sons of God. Why? First, what is the revealing of the sons of God? Well, what else can it be other than either the 2nd Coming of Christ where Christ gathers up his faithful to rule with him for 1,000 years or the judgment where Christ says depart or well done.
Why does creation eagerly await this? Because creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, or as said previously, from the futility they are unwillingly subjected too.
So, now why is creation eagerly awaiting for the faithful of God to be named, i.e. for the sons of God to be revealed? Is creation just waiting for no reason?
2nd: Creation was subjected to futility unwillingly by him who subjected it. What does subjected to futility mean? We know by Solomon. All is vanity, all is meaningless. Why is all vanity and meaningless under the sun? Right, because of sin. It all inevitably goes to dust anyway. So, all is futile because no matter how much you struggle, you die anyway, and all you fought so hard for, all you learned and taught eventually is for nothing because it is all forgotten in time. All of the good you ever did for the world is inevitably worthless and pointless, unless it is good that built more treasure in heaven, and only that good you did won't suffer the futility of inevitable death, pointlessness.
3rd: So, what was this futility creation was subjected too then? The law of sin and death of course. All of creation exists entirely in futility because no matter what, it will all die and inevitably be forgotten, and none of the good it ever did will ever last. If all you do is exist to die and be forgotten, what point is there to your existence? That is fundamentally the law that all of creation lives under right now. So, you can see why now that creation eagerly awaits for the sons of God to be revealed. In fact, that is what is told to us in the next verse or two.
4th: Here's the next to final key point: If you read it, God tells us that creation was subjected to this futility unwillingly. Understand what that means. Creation did not choose the futility inherent to the law of sin and death. No, in fact creation was subjected to this futility unwillingly by he who subjected it to it. And who is he that that subjected creation to futility against its will? God, and why did he do that. Well, God tells us it's for hope. Hope for what though, hope for us. You see, God was so troubled by our sinning, that he realized that if we had any hope of finding him, we needed to know the tragedy and finality of sin. And we see it all of our days from childhood to our own death, that death and decay from which there is no coming back, and if we don't find life, then we're finished. There is no coming back. There is no reload. There is no purgatory. This is it. We must find life before we die because when we die, that's it, we're done. Decay and death will be our sole existence for all eternity. The only source of life is God, and the only one worthy of life that lived and died as we do, yet never chose to subject himself or herself to futility is Christ.
You see, creation did not choose futility, but were subjected to it unwillingly by God for the sake of hope, for our sake. We humans however chose futility. Creation did not choose futility, but we humans did choose futility. And so now in the hopes that we will seek for God and find life, find Christ, God cursed the whole of creation to subject it to the penalty of sin and death. But that's only temporary, right, because remember what God tells us . . .
5th: And here's the final capstone point in all of this. God tells us that Creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption. So, now it all makes sense right? That is why creation eagerly awaits for the sons of God to be revealed. That is why creation groans now. It's because creation is eagerly awaiting its own deliverance from the curse of sin and death.
And so here's the question and why all of this applies here: Are your dogs a part of creation that is being unwillingly subjected to the futility of the law of sin and death, or are your dogs a part of humankind who willingly subjected themselves to the futility of the law of sin and death.
Right, there is only one reasonable answer to that question.
So, will our animals be in heaven? According to this area above Romans 18, all of creation will be in heaven. However, perhaps for now the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth as it eagerly awaits the time when the sons of God are revealed so that it too can have its deliverance from the bonds of corruption. Perhaps it is then where we will see what it says in Ecclesiastes, that the spirit returns to the god who gave it.
Full disclosure: (My own thoughts and concerns: This has nothing to do with my point above.)
In the interests of full disclosure, I too find myself questioning these things. You see, my dog also recently passed. One question that keeps occurring to me is whether or not we humans who go with Christ actually decide what of creation gets to go to heaven. After all, the Bible says we will judge the world, and it suggests here in this Romans 18 area that the deliverance of Creation has something to do with the sons of God being revealed. I assume it's just by virtue of the fact that when the sons of God are revealed, then it's a time of God making his will happen, and you know he's a God of life, right. It makes me think that when Christ fully delivers us from sin, as in we have our new bodies, are no longer tempted by sin, and there is absolutely no longer any danger of us falling away . . . such as when we die and go to Jesus, that perhaps he is going to give us the task of judging creation and deciding which of creation gets to be delivered from the law of sin and death and which of creation goes away when the heavens and the earth are destroyed by Christ just before giving us a new heaven and earth. You see, because if that's the case, then who's going to choose to bring my dog back so that he can live in heaven? I would be the one who would do that because of how much I love him. Personally, I'm on the side of all of creation is saved anyway no matter what, but that other thought lingers, and I think God wants it that way. God was vague about what happens to the spirit of animals, seemingly intentionally. I wonder if this is why. We all know that creation is without sin because they were not given a way to choose sin as we humans were. And by the story by Nathan and the ewe lamb, a pet essentially, that the man cared for like a child, we know that this sort of deep love for animals was not uncommon even back in David's day. So naturally, people must have been wondering for most of human existence about what happens to animals, yet God remains vague about it. Why? I think probably for the same reason I am uncertain, because uncertainty gives us a reason to get to heaven because if the animal spirit is merely destroyed when the earth is destroyed, the only way that animal will have any chance of not merely disappearing into non-existence is if the person who cares about it makes it to heaven and pleads with God that since humankind has been judged and there is no humans anymore to concern about, then allow me to bring my dog back to me now because as we understand, creation is without sin because they were never given the understanding to sin, and they always remain obedient to God, and the life of all things is in God's hands, thus in his hands to return the animal's spirit to himself, and any other argument I can think to bring up. And it's not that God isn't sufficient. It's that it's not fair that a sinless thing is subjected unwillingly to decay and death and then should just disappear, and since there is nothing wrong with having the joy of loved ones in heaven with you despite God being sufficient, then what is wrong with having your pets with you despite God being sufficient. In the same way that having your loved ones in heaven will give you joy despite God being sufficient, so too will your pets give you joy despite God being sufficient.
