“Should Christians Own Dogs?”
One of the toughest jobs of being the leader of this flock is—it breaks my heart to have to point out people’s sins—but it’s also my job. I Timothy 4:13 tells me that I am to “…give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.” I’ll be doing all of these things today. That’s the Word of God—amen?
When I first came to this ministry, I was approached by a member of this congregation who had a problem with one of her neighbors. She went on to explain how she lived two houses down from a family that kept their dog outside all night. Apparently this dog barked at anything that moved and kept waking this woman all night long. Now this neighbor of hers was supposed to be a Christian, so she asked me if Christians should even have dogs as pets. Now I didn’t give her my opinion—oh, no, no, no! I told her what the Bible says about dogs—amen?
Let’s turn to Deuteronomy 23:18, shall we? “Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the Lord thy God…for even both these are abomination unto the Lord thy God.” Right here in black and white, we are being told that dogs are an abomination unto the Lord! And as we plainly see in this passage, dogs are on an equal footing with prostitutes! Would you have a prostitute in your house? Should Christians have dogs as pets? Probably many of you are wondering why I am making such a big deal of this and why you came here this morning to hear something that might not be sitting well with you right now. But I want you to live a life that God can bless, and if you are living in a way that is contrary to what the Bible says, you are not living a life that God can bless—amen?
Now some of you might be wondering why it is okay for pagans and non-believers to play with dogs but not okay for Christians. The Bible tells us why in Exodus 11:7 (please turn with us), “But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.” That’s it right there! We are not to live the way the world lives—there needs to be a difference! Let the Egyptians have their dogs! Let the world have its pet dogs! But the Lord puts a difference between us and the world, and one of those differences (as we see in this passage) is whether or not we are going to let dogs approach us to lick our faces! Should Christians own dogs? Go a little further in your texts to Exodus 22:31 and we shall see how dogs were thought of back in Moses’ time—“And ye shall be holy men unto Me: neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.” Whatever was unholy was thrown to dogs! If dogs were acceptable and holy, the Israelites would not have been commanded to cast unholy things to them—amen? Give not that which is holy unto the dogs—amen?
In Proverbs, King Solomon tells us, “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” That’s Proverbs 26:11 if you want to look that up in your Bibles. Now we’ve already learned why, as Christians, we need to reconsider what we think we know about the appropriateness of dog ownership. We’ve learned that we need to keep ourselves separated, unique, and holy. We’ve read earlier that was the explanation that Moses provided the Israelites. In Proverbs, King Solomon gives us more insight into why the character of dogs and why as Christians we shouldn’t be living like them—or with them for that matter. Now I’m not telling you to go loose your dog as soon as you get home from church. This is something that you need to pray about, look over the scriptures that I gave you and then make your decision. Amen?
Meanwhile, be careful how much run of the house you give to your dogs or other pets. Have you ever been to someone’s house where the family dog basically controls everything—instead of the biblically mandated head of the house? Have you ever been invited to someone’s home for a dinner where you can’t even enjoy your meal because the family dog is there—begging at the table? I have. Yes, I have! Now, a Christian home should be a holy home because we are to be holy as He is holy. And we are commanded in Matthew to give not that which is holy unto the dogs. Dogs should not be running our Christian homes—amen?
Our Savior also tells us in Matthew 15:26, “…It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.” Are we feeding our children before we are feeding our dogs? How many of you know needy families that have pets? Sadly, probably most of you here. But what does the Bible say? Is Matthew 15:26 in your Bibles too—or just mine?
Finally, turn with me if you would to Philippians—chapter three, and we will be closing our message today with verses two and three. “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.” Let’s stop there for a moment…notice that dogs get lumped together with evil workers, and concision. Earlier it was dogs, prostitutes, abomination. In Proverbs; dogs, vomit, folly. Is anyone noticing a pattern here or is it just me? Can anyone find me one example in the Bible where a dog is spoken well of? Can someone find me one example in the Bible where a God-fearing man has a dog as a pet? Let us continue, shall we? “…for we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.”
Let us make a commitment today to rid our lives and our homes of anything that is unholy to God. We will take no confidence in the flesh, but hold fast to the truth of the Written Word—amen?
Let us pray…
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April 24th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I have pastored for 26 years and come out of a long line of pastors. As a pastor, it is not our job to point out people’s sins…it is the Spirit of God that convicts and persuades of sin. Our job as pastors is to be a odly example before our flock and to feed them God’s pure word.
And for your message on dogs, you should know that dogs were mangy, mean, stray critters in bible days and not used for pets. Dogs in those days would could be compared to coyotes or wolves in our day. Try preaching on ‘Jesus Christ crucified.’ It worked for the Apostle Paul.
April 27th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I am actually not a pastor. This was just a satirical piece showing how easy it is to pull passages from the Bible and make them fit a particular agenda. I believe I have seen this done a lot, so I wrote a fake sermon on the most ridiculous thing I could think of.
I put this website together and only gave the address to a few of my friends so they can share some of my poetry and other writings with them. I honestly don’t know how you found it. I apologize for the confusion.
April 28th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Come now and let us reason together, Brother James. You have indeed made a coercive argument regarding the believer’s dealings with canines. However, all scripture is profitable for reproof among other things, and as Jesus said while being tempted by Satan, “On the other hand…”. And so we must keep a balanced view of scripture.
If you will allow me, I shall point out some verses you may or may not be familiar with. In Proverbs 12:10 for instance, we are told that a righteous man has regard for his animal. Now I know what you are thinking… this isn’t necessarily a dog. But let us go back to the original language. In the Hebrew, the word for animal, or beast, is “b@hemah” which strangely looks like an invalid e-mail address. This word, when loosely interpreted as I want it to be, can mean a domestic animal, or a dog. But allow me to offer more solid points for my argument.
Was there anyone in the old testament who owned a dog? Why yes! Job had sheep dogs, which last time I checked, were dogs. And Job was a righteous man, was he not? Now let us skip ahead to the New Testament, lest I am accused of only using the Torah to justify my position.
In the parable about Lazarus and the unnamed rich man, the dogs licked Lazarus’ sores, and let’s not forget he ended up in Abraham’s bosom! One could make an argument that having a dog lick your sores is a method of salvation as it were. In fact, it is not recorded anywhere that the rich man was licked by a dog, and we know for certain he ended up in Hades! But let’s not get too carried away.
If dogs themselves are an abomination as you allude to, then killing a dog would certainly be a righteous act, would it not? But yet we are told by the prophet Isaiah in verse 66:3 that breaking a dog’s neck is an abomination. I hope this brings a little balance to your scriptural interpretations Brother James.
I will leave you with this though — even if you have a pet dog on earth, your dog will not be allowed into heaven unfortunately. This is evidenced by Revelation 22:15 which tells us that dogs are, in fact, outside of the gates of heaven. But, dog owners – don’t fear! For it also tells us in Revelation 21:25 that those gates will never be closed, so you will be free to go out and pet and feed your dog as often as you’d like. Amen?
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:39 am
I am convicted to the core by this message and have decided to arrange a ceremonial burning of all local domesticated dogs. Let us be rid of their evils forever!
December 20th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Well, what can I say? This was very clever, and thought provoking! Still, I too would like to know what you’d come up with about cats? Are cats mentioned in the Bible? I don’t recall that being so. However it was this intended, this “sermon” does hold a very important message about pets, or any other thing “ruling” us, rather than us having control over them.
So shall we rehome our cat because of our allergies???????????? I wish someone would give me a non mushy answer that would persuade my preacher husband that it would be better for our health instead of condemning me for the potential killing of an animal.
May 8th, 2010 at 12:27 am
My dog brought me so close to God, I thank God everyday from my heart/mind/soul for his creation. My dog stopped a potential dangerous break-in / robbery with just let out prison inmates, while I was living alone on gated 40 acres. This dog is my 2nd, i prayed for months asking if I should have one. After 30 or so days, I arrived home and my 1st dog had a post it note from my desk with his potential partner. I have roughly 12 post-it notes on my desk at the time, the post it note in my dogs mouth was not even torn or crippled ( very unusual). Thank You God.
T
July 9th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
id just like to say GOD is love and when we love something we like to keep it.and in the old times dogs werent pets so why would GOD take what you love forever,many places speak of animals in the kingdom.and that every creature will praise his name.ill close with the LORD knows what we love and he wouldnt take it from us.brother justin summed it up great job my friend.may GOD BLESS you in all you do
October 5th, 2010 at 7:40 am
I love my dog and would not trade her for ANYTHING and would give my life for her. She has helped me go through the heart wrenching decision of putting my son up for adoption. I have been a Christian since i was about 9 and I am 22 now. If keeping her is a sin then I may be so bold as to say I shall enjoy living in sin because she is my family, and I don’t get rid of family. By the way, to the man that wrote this I took the liberty of cross-referencing this in the New American version… http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearchresults.php?passage1=Deuteronomy+23%3A18&version1=49
dog = male prostitute.
October 24th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
these comments are funny as hell. If people would have actually read the whole thing. They would have saw that this was to show how the bible could be used out of context. But no they jump right away to prove this guy wrong.
The bible also says not to covent another mans ass. Should we also give our daughters up to be raped to save our guest from being raped? Both are from the bible.
The first one I have taken out of context, it is from the ten C’s but was speaking of a donkey.
The second one is unfortunely true and messed up. Lot was supposed to be one of the few holy men in Sodom and Gomra and he did offer up his daughters to be raped inexchange for the villagers not rapping the angel that came to warn him.
Anyway read the whole thing before you comment and make yourself look like an ass.