No Dogs Go To Heaven. Dogs are mentioned forty-one times in the Scriptures. Goliath disdained being likened to a dog that a boy might scare away with a sling (1 Samuel 17:43). David later saw himself as a dog unworthy of King Saul’s attention (1 Samuel 24:14). Solomon mentioned greyhounds (Proverbs 30:31), which the ancient Egyptians raced. Isaiah talked about watchdogs (56:10). Dogs licked Lazarus’ sores (Luke 16:21). Many Jews despised dogs; therefore, the Jews who hated Gentiles derogatively referred to them as dogs (cf. Matthew 15:26). By contrast, the humble Syro-pheonician woman was not insulted by being referred to indirectly as a dog, so Jesus rewarded her with healing (Mark 7:28).

We think of dogs as pets, but in the Bible they were usually not seen as “man’s best friend.” Although dogs were possibly the first animal domesticated, as Job spoke of dogs that guarded his flocks (Job 30:1), in ancient Israel, dogs were usually more wild than tame. These unclean animals sometimes banded together in packs and lived off a town’s garbage. Ravenous prowling dogs walked ancient streets and dumps, ready to devour any edible thing (cf. Psalm 59:6, 14; 68:23; Proverbs 26:11; 1 Kings 14:11, 16:4; 2 Kings 9:10; Jeremiah 15:3). Dogs licked the blood of Naboth and Ahab, and ate all but the skull, hands, and feet of Jezebel (1 Kings 21:19-24; 22:38; 2 Kings 9:35, 36).
Many of the Bible’s references to “dogs” (especially in the New Testament) do not refer to the four-footed variety. They are used metaphorically of humans. Perhaps the dog was chosen as a term of reproach because dogs were common, and possessed several negative characteristics. People of that day thought the dog was among the most vile and disgusting of all animals (cf. Deuteronomy 23:18; 1 Samuel 17:43; 2 Samuel 3:8; 9:8; 16:9; Matthew 7:6; Philippians 3:2).

There is no place in heaven for “dogs.” John wrote that all dogs are kept outside the heavenly city—“for without¹ are dogs” (Revelation 22:15). He is speaking figuratively, of course, of certain kinds of people.² What kind of people does the Bible describe as the “dogs” that will be thus excommunicated from heaven?

Homosexuals were called “dogs.” Moses wrote, “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel. Thou shalt not bring the hire of a whore, or the price of a dog, into the house of the LORD thy God for any vow: for even both these are abomination unto the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 23:18-19). This does not refer to the price of redeeming the firstborn of a dog; nor for the loan of a hunting dog, or a shepherd’s dog for breed, as Josephus interpreted this law.³ Barnes says: “The word ‘dog’ is figurative (compare Revelation 22:15), and equivalent to the ‘sodomite’ of the verse preceding.” It referred to the money one gained by prostituting his body to unnatural lusts.⁴

Matthew Henry agrees, adding: “The price of a dog, that is, of the Sodomite, pimp, or whoremaster (so I incline to understand it, for such are called dogs, Revelation 22:15), the money he gets by his lewd and villainous practices, no part of it shall be brought into the house of the Lord (as the hire of prostitutes among the Gentiles was into their temples) for any vow.” This implies that⁵

• God will not accept any offering from wicked people. They have nothing to bring except what was gained by wickedness, and therefore their sacrifice could not be anything but an abomination to the Lord (Proverbs 15:8).
• they should not think that bringing offerings to the Lord would gain them permission to continue their sin (cf. Proverbs 7:14-15). One popular religion allows “indulgences,” but God accepts no bribe to turn away His eyes from sin.
• we cannot honor God with our substance unless it is honestly and honorably acquired (cf. 1 Samuel 8:3; Psalm 26:10; 1 Timothy 6:10). We must not only consider what we give, but how we got it. God hates robbery for burnt-offerings, and un-cleanness too.

Persecutors are “dogs” (Psalm 22:16, 20). In David’s prophecy of Christ’s crucifixion, “dogs” referred to the blood-thirsty, crude, ignoble crowd, who, while less strong than their brutal leaders—Jewish “bulls” and Roman “lions”—were not less ferocious. Like dogs, they closed in on (“compassed”) their prey. Ancient hunters frequently surrounded game in a circle, and gradually encompassed them within an ever-narrowing ring of dogs and men.

When Jesus was praying in Gethsemane, the dogs closed in on Him: “And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people” (Matthew 26:47). The dogs closed in on Him again when Pilate asked if he should release Barabbas or Jesus (Matthew 27:21-23). When Pilate said, “I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it,” the “dogs” responded, “His blood be on us, and on our children” (27:25).

Later when Jesus was on the cross, these people howled and barked like unclean and hungry dogs. Matthew says, “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross . . . The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth” (27:39, 40, 44). In the center of this hateful circle of bloodhounds stood the “hind (deer) of the morning” (as Psalm 22’s title suggests). Around this bleeding, fainting man the enraged and unpitying enemies finally “hound Him to death.”

Unfaithful shepherds are “dogs.” Isaiah said: “His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter” (Isaiah 56:10-11). “Dumb dogs” refers to watch-dogs that refuse to bark when a stranger approaches in the night. One of the responsibilities of the leaders of God’s churches is to be diligent to warn of dangers and faithful about their charge (cf. Ezekiel 3:17; Isaiah 58:1; Acts 20:28, 31-32; 1 Corinthians 4:1-2; Titus 1:9; Hebrews 13:17; 1 Peter 5:2-3). “Sleeping” dogs refer to those too lazy to keep up with God’s sheep (Proverbs 12:24⁶ ; 22:29; Matthew 25:26; Romans 12:11; Hebrews 6:12). “Greedy dogs” refers to those leaders who gain wealth through dishonest means (1 Timothy 3:3, 8; 6:10; Titus 1:7, 11; 1 Peter 5:2).

Those with unholy tastes and desires are “dogs.” “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers . . .” (Philippians 3:2). Here Paul used “dog” to refer to one who is base, unholy, and vile. We use it in a similar way when we say a situation is “going to the dogs.” Jesus used the word in a parallel way when He spoke of those who had no spiritual appetite, but would abuse truth when it was given to them: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs” (Matthew 7:6). Peter spoke of a dog’s distasteful habit of “turning to his own vomit again” (2 Peter 2:22). People are like dogs when they fail to demonstrate love for others. Paul wrote of people, for instance, who “bite and devour one another” (Galatians 5:15; cf. James 3:14-18; 4:1-3). In the immediate Philippian context, it refers to false teachers and workers of evil (cf. Matthew 7:15; 2 Timothy 4:14-15).

No Hogs Go To Heaven. Peter wrote, “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).

Peter uses the term “hogs” to describe false teachers who use religion as a mean of manipulating gullible people and conning them out of their money (2 Peter 2:12, 22). The passage implies that whatever pains are taken to change the habits of the dog and a hog, he would return to them again. The dog threw up and felt better; the sow washed up and looked better. But the dog was still a dog and the sow was still a sow!

“The dog is turned to his own vomit again . . .” The quotation here is from Proverbs 26:11: “As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.”⁷ A similar proverb is found in the Jewish Rabbinical writers. This use of dogs and swine together recalls Matthew 7:6: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”

“And the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” ⁸. . . This second proverb does not occur in the Old Testament. It may have come from a Gentile source but was commonly under-stood by anyone familiar with pigs. “Wallowing” (eis kulismon) means “rolling.” “Mire” (borborou) is an old word for “dung.” Epictetus and other writers moralize on the habit of hogs, having once bathed in a filthy mud-hole, to delight in it. J. Rendel Harris⁹ tells of a story about a hog that went to the bath with people of quality, but on coming out saw a stinking drain and went and rolled himself in it.

Matthew Henry observes: “The apostle, in the last two verses of the chapter, sets himself to prove that a state of apostasy is worse than a state of ignorance.” Adam Clarke says, “Here is a sad proof of the possibility of falling from grace, and from very high degrees of it too. These had escaped from the contagion that was in the world; they had had true repentance, and cast up ‘their soursweet morsel of sin;’ they had been washed from all their filthiness, and this must have been through the blood of the Lamb; yet, after all, they went back, got entangled with their old sins, swallowed down their formerly rejected lusts, and rewallowed in the mire of corruption. It is no wonder that God should say, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning: reason and nature say it must be so; and Divine justice says it ought to be so; and the person himself must confess that it is right that it should be so. But how dreadful is this state! How dangerous when the person has abandoned himself to his old sins! Yet it is not said that it is impossible for him to return to his Maker; though his case be deplorable, it is not utterly hopeless; the leper may yet be made clean, and the dead may be raised. Reader, is thy backsliding a grief and burden to thee? Then thou art not far from the kingdom of God; believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved.”

“For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning” (2 Peter 2:20). The devil more narrowly watches and more closely confines those whom he has recovered, after they had once gone off from him and professed to be the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:45). They are kept under a stronger guard.

Warren Weirsbe. If I had Only One Sermon to Preach, Edited by Richard Allen Bodey, Excerpts taken from pages 239-245

Footnotes

¹ἔξω, exō, adverb, “out (side, of doors).”
²We’ve all heard that “all dogs go to heaven,” but as far as I can tell, the Bible promises resurrection only to human beings (Ecclesiastes 12:5; John 5:28-29). No dogs, cats, famous stallions, or saber-toothed tigers will be raised from the dead to go to heaven. Pet lovers may rest assured, though, that whatever is needed to make them happy in heaven will definitely be there. There will be “no tears in heaven”—God Himself will wipe away the last one (Revela-tion 22:4).
³Antiqu. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 9.
⁴Keil and Delitzsch add that it “is a figurative expression used to denote the gains of the kadesh, who was called κίναιδος by the Greeks, and received his name from the dog-like manner in which the male kadesh debased himself.”
⁵Adapted from Henry
⁶The qualifications of elders in 1 Timothy 3:1-6 and Titus 1 indicate a man who is diligent about many good works.
⁷Peter often quoted Proverbs in his First Epistle (1:7; 2:17; 4:8, 18).
⁸Vincent points out that there are three words used in this verse that are found nowhere else in the New Testament: vomit (ἐξέραμα); wallowing (κυλισμὸν); and mire (βορβόρου). Robertson adds that “sow” (hūs) is also only here in New Testament.
⁹Story of Ahikar, p. LXVII, quoted by Robertson