John Wesley, Martin Luther, Adam Clarke, John Henry, John Calvin
–all believed that animals who had died would be in the new earth.
Because they did nothing to deserve pain and suffering. Animals were with Adam and Eve on the Earth before sin and they were given the gift of eternal life, they were not meant to ever have to face death or suffering. And so since they shared in death and suffering, through no fault of their own, because of man’s sin and rebellion against God, they are also going to be sharing in man’s redemption. Because eternal life was theirs to begin with.
Romans 8:19-23
19: For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
20: For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
21: Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
22: For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Referring to the Romans 8:18-23
From John Calvin:
I understand the passage to have this meaning – that there is no element and no part of the world which, being touched, as it were, with a sense of its present misery, does not intensely hope for a resurrection…
… for he meant to intimate, that all creatures, seized with great anxiety and held in suspense with great desire, look for the day which shall openly exhibit the glory of the children of God…
… for all creatures shall be renewed in order to amplify it, and to render it illustrious.
From Matthew Henry:
And this redemption of the creature is reserved till then; for, as it was with man and for man that they fell under the curse, so with man and for man they shall be delivered…
From John Wesley: [From Sermon 65]
The whole brute creation will then, undoubtedly, be restored, not only to the vigor, strength, and swiftness which they had at their creation, but to a far higher degree of each than they ever enjoyed.
From Adam Clarke:
Do not these words plainly imply a resurrection of the bodies which have died, been dissolved, or turned to dust? And is not the brute creation principally intended here?
