What's Wrong with Animal Rights? Part 2

How should we care for God's creation?

Listen to Adrian Rogers. Should we love God's creation? Of course we should. Should we be environmentalists? Yes, this is my Father's world. But should we put animals on a plane with human beings made in the likeness, the similitude of God?

Absolutely not. Welcome to Love Worth Finding featuring profound truth simply stated by beloved pastor and author Adrian Rogers. According to the book of Genesis, God created mankind and the animal world separately. Neither evolved from the other. There are similarities between humans and animals, but there are stark contrasts as well. For example, humans were created with a longing in the heart to know God. People have the capability for dominion and a capacity for depravity we don't see in animals.

And what about a concern for our destiny? If you have your Bible, turn now to Genesis chapter one, we'll begin in verse 26 as Adrian Rogers presents part two of what's wrong with animal rights. I want to talk to you as we talk about a Christian worldview about what's wrong with animal rights. But first of all, let's just jump into the word of God and let me just get your motor running by reading a few verses from the book of Genesis, which you know is the book of beginnings. Chapter one in verse 26, and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And then look in chapter three and verse 21, if you will, and unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothe them. And then look, if you will, please in Genesis chapter nine, verses one through three, and God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every fowl of the air and upon all that moveth upon the earth and upon all the fishes of the sea into your hand they are delivered. Now it may sound silly to you that we would even discuss animal rights and say what's wrong with animal rights, but if you listen for a while, you'll find out that it is not silly. You see, there are those who believe that men were not created in the image of God, but that we just came out of some primordial ooze or slime.

They can never tell us where the ooze and the slime came from, but we somehow just evolved out of all of this, so we're animals. Being animals, all animals are created equal. Now what they're trying to do is to raise animals to the level of humans, but what they are succeeding in doing is lowering humans to the level of animals, and that has all kinds of ramifications.

Here's a very interesting thing. The scientists today, I'm talking about the secular scientists. Most all of them believe in research with animals. They believe that you can take animals and be as humane as possible, but use animals, for example, in research to find a cure for cancer or whatever, and the scientists believe this.

The animal rights people say you have no right to do that because an animal is the same as a human being. The secular scientist says that is foolish. There's a difference between human beings and animals, and then they ask this evolutionary scientist what is the difference, and he can't say. He knows there's a difference, but he doesn't know the Word of God, and so he's in a quandary. There's an irony about it. He knows the difference, but if he believes in evolution, I want to tell you the animal rightist has it.

He's got him. He can't argue with him because the scientists cannot say, I believe that man is the special creation of God. Now some scientists do, but I'm talking about your secular scientists, and so they're really in a quandary. Now, let me just point out two or three things to fix your minds and get them straight as we talk about this question, what's wrong with animal rights? First thing I want you to notice is the creation of man and the animals. Go back to Genesis chapter 1, and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Now notice verse 27, and so God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Now folks, we need to go back to the early pages of God's word. How did everything get here?

There are only three possible answers. One is godless evolution. We started out as primitive protozoa and then became unsegmented worms and then became a fish and then an amphibian, then a reptile, and then a bird, then a mammal, and then a man. You believe that.

Go ahead. I reject it for logical reasons as well as theological reasons. I reject it for moral reasons, but godless evolution, that's one answer.

The other is theistic evolution. People say, well, it's not godless evolution. God did it.

God made it that way. A friend, you can't ride one horse in two directions. That will not fit the Bible. There's no way that you can make it fit the Bible. It is impossible theologically, philosophically, analogically to read this Bible and believe in what some call theistic evolution. The third alternative is that God created man and woman just exactly as God's word says.

I believe that. I've been amazed how anxious man is to make a monkey of himself. All right, so you see the creation of man and the animals. Now, here's the second thing I want you to see is the comparison of man and the animals. Man is like an animal, but he is not an animal. Now, some think because we compare with the animals that therefore we are animals.

For example, there's a similarity in design. Men and animals are designed somewhat alike. I took a course in college in human anatomy and physiology. One of the things that we did in that laboratory was to dissect a pig. It'd been soaked in formaldehyde, so you didn't know you had a surgeon for a pastor. But because the pig has a very simple digestive system, we were able to see the various parts.

You find the heart, the liver, the lungs, the stomach, these parts of the pig just to help understand the very elementary things. Men and animals have a basic design, but that doesn't mean therefore that man evolved from the animals. All buildings have a basic design. A doghouse has a floor, walls, and a ceiling.

A mansion has floors, walls, and a ceiling. So since a doghouse has floors, walls, and a ceiling, and a mansion has a floor, walls, and a ceiling, isn't that proof positive that the mansion evolved from the doghouse? Because you can see the similarity in design.

No. All that means is the same architect designed them both. That's all that means because both of them would live in the same vicinity, planet earth. Now, not only are men and animals similar in design, but they are similar in diet.

We eat the same thing. Look in verses 29 through 30 of this same chapter. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed. To you it shall be for meat. And the word meat here simply means food. He's not talking in this place about animal flesh.

Later on he will. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so. So men and animals have similar diets. Some men and some animals eat basically the same thing. Now, does that mean, therefore, that man evolved from animals because we have a similar diet? A motorcycle and a limousine both have carburetors. So anybody can see that the limousine evolved from the motorcycle. Is that right?

No. They just burn the same fuel. There's another similarity, not only in design and diet, but in death. Both men and animals die. And God said to Adam in Genesis chapter 2 verse 17, if you disobey me, you'll surely die. And the animals die. Men die and animals die. And the writer of Ecclesiastes, the great Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3 verses 19 through 20, that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts. Even one thing befalleth them, as one dieth, so dieth the other. The man dies, the animal dies.

Yea, they all have one breath. So that the man hath no preeminence above a beast for all his vanity. Now, you certainly have to take that text in context. He's not saying that a man is no better than a beast, but he's saying when it comes to dying, a man has no preeminence over a beast. We are Jews.

They die, we die. A similarity in design, a similarity in diet, a similarity in death. But let us think of the contrast of man and the animals.

What is the difference? Well, number one, man is born and given a capacity, a craving for God, a craving for deity. In verse 26 chapter 1 and verse 26, and God said, let us make man in our image. And God is spirit. Plants have a body, but they don't have a soul. Animals have a soul, but only man has a spirit. Only man has a spirit.

Man made in the image of God because the Bible says God is spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And the Bible says that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath, the spirit of life. That makes man different from the animals. With our bodies, we know the world beneath us. With our souls, we know the world around us. But with our spirits, we know the world above us. And man is created in the image of God.

And this image is not physical. It's the spiritual image of God. Put this verse down, Colossians 3 and verse 10. Paul is talking about what happens to us when we get saved. And he says, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. When you get saved, God puts that image back in you.

You see, that's the image of God that's in us. This makes us a moral creature, makes us different from the animals. Ephesians 4 and verse 24, put that down. And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Animals don't know righteousness. Animals don't know holiness. But he says here that after God is created in righteousness. I mean, he's talking about our creation.

We're created in righteousness and our new creation brings us holiness. Man is the only animal that can blush. He's the only one that needs to. Man's the only animal that can laugh. Man is the only animal that can suffer. I didn't say he can feel pain. And when I'm saying animal, I'm not talking about man being an animal like the other animals. Man is the only creature. You see, animals can feel pain and human beings can feel pain. And whether you are a human being or an animal, you're going to feel pain before you get out of here. But human beings have a capacity to suffer for anguish because they are made differently from all of these other creatures.

And so what is the contrast? Man has a craving for deity. Man has a capability for dominion.

Man is meant to rule. Man was, is, and shall be in a greater way in dominion over the creatures. Put this verse down, Psalm 8 verses 6 through 8.

The Psalmist is musing about man. And he says, Thou mayest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou has put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beast of the field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the sea. God gave man dominion. Adam lost that dominion. But the last Adam, the Lord Jesus, did not lose it.

You notice Jesus when he was here on earth. Jesus had dominion over the beast of the field. He said, You go get a wild Syrian donkey whereon never a man is set. I'm going to ride him into the city of Jerusalem.

I suggest you not try that. Try to ride a donkey never been ridden before. Jesus did. He had dominion. Jesus had dominion over the fowls of the air. He told Simon Peter, Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times. I want you to try to make one crow or keep one from crowing.

You can't do it. Jesus did. He had dominion over the fowls of the air. Jesus had dominion over the fish of the sea.

Went time to pay his taxes. He said, You go throw a hook in the sea and catch a fish, and in that fish's mouth will be a coin. Jesus guided that fish like a guided missile to some coin falling out of some fisherman's pocket somewhere on the bottom of the Sea of Galilee and then guided that fish with his spiritual radar right to that hook. He had dominion over all of these things. That's the dominion that the last Adam regained that the first Adam was supposed to have and the first Adam lost. But you see, man, man has a craving for deity. Man has a capability of dominion, and man has a capacity for depravity. You see, animals can't sin because animals are creatures of chemistry.

But man has more than that. Man has the Spirit of God to guide him, and God gave man a choice that animals don't have. And therefore, man with his choice, his capacity for good or evil, man made a little lower than the angels, has by his wickedness become lower than the animals.

I mean, men do things that animals wouldn't do because they have a capacity for depravity. You heard the story about the two monkeys who were talking about Darwin's book, The Descent of Man. And they were reading that book, and they looked around at all the crime and everything that's going on, and one monkey said to the other one, man descended beyond recus, but brother, he didn't ascend from us. I heard about some monkeys that had a little baby, and when they were examining the baby to see if it was normal, and the mama monkey said to the papa monkey, it looks like he's normal.

The papa monkey said, well, I'm grateful. I was afraid of evolution. Now, folks, I want to tell you, man sinks lower than the animals because animals cannot rise as high as man can rise made in the image of God.

What's the fourth thing? Man has a craving for deity. Man has a capability for dominion. Man has a capacity for depravity, and man has a concern for destiny. No animal knows he's going to die.

He doesn't think about dying. Even if an elephant goes to the elephant burial grounds, he doesn't know why he's going there. That's instinct. You see, God gave to animals instincts he didn't give to human beings, but he gave to human beings spiritual insight and revelation he didn't give the animals.

See, animals have instincts. A bee can build a six-sided cell in the honeycomb. It's an amazing thing to see how that beehive is run. Beavers can build dams. Spiders can build spiders' webs.

But the spider cannot build a six-sided cell, and the bee cannot build a beaver's dam because they have instinct. They don't have knowledge. They don't have logic. They don't have conscience.

They don't have these things that man has, and man made different from the animals. He knows that he is here for more. The Bible says of man that God has set eternity in his heart. We are not mere animals. Ecclesiastes 3, verse 11, he has set eternity in their heart. We don't believe in immortality because we've proved it. We move heaven and earth to prove it because we believe in it. I mean, it's instinctive in us.

A Gallup poll showed that 69 percent of all Americans believe in life after death. So what is God's plan for us? In our relationship to the animals, I mean, what is all of this about? Can animals be killed for food? Well, are you more compassionate than Jesus who ate broiled fish? Of course they can.

Friend, don't ever, ever think that you're more righteous than the Lord Jesus Christ who created everything. God says, I've given you this for food. Of course, God gave us clean animals to eat, not unclean animals for food. Can animals be used to help human suffering? Of course they can.

Can they be used for research? Yes. Should we therefore be cruel to animals? Absolutely not. Not gratuitous cruelty.

The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 12, verse 10, a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Should we love God's name? Of course we should. Should we be environmentalists? Yes.

This is my Father's world. But should we put animals on a plane with human beings made in the likeness, the similitude of God? Absolutely not. Should we teach our boys and girls that they are mere animals, that they have come from animals? If we do, don't be surprised that they begin to live like animals. For self-preservation, self-propagation, and self-gratification, that's what an animal lives for. God gave the creatures for food. And there's a food chain that God made us for Him. And Augustine said that our hearts are restless until they rest in Him.

You're not an animal. You're made in the image of God. If you have not yet given your heart to Jesus, let me tell you that God has a destiny for you. God has a heaven for you. God has a wonderful, incredibly glorious plan for your life.

It'd be so tragic if you missed it. If you'd like to be saved, let me lead you in this prayer and you can receive Him tonight right where you are. Just put everything else out of your mind and pray this prayer. Dear God, I thank you that you love me. I thank you that you died to save me and that you promised to save me if I would trust you.

I do trust you right now. I receive you by faith as my Lord and Savior. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin. Save me, Lord Jesus. Save me, Jesus. Pray that, folks, in meaning.

Did you ask Him? Then pray this way. Thank you for doing it. I trust you to do it.

And that settles it. You're now my Lord, my Savior, my God, and my friend. And Lord Jesus, because you died for me, by your grace and for your glory I will live for you. In your name I pray.

Amen. And today, if you prayed to receive Jesus, we would love to celebrate with you and help you get started on your faith journey. Go to lwf.org slash radio and click on the tab at the top that says Discover Jesus. You'll find answers you may need about your faith. There's a response section there as well where you can share your decision with us or tell us how this message spoke to you. Welcome to God's forever family.

We can't wait to hear from you. Again, go to lwf.org slash radio and click Discover Jesus. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message, request one by the title What's Wrong with Animal Rites when you call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD. This message is also part of the powerful series Christian World View.

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But with your spirit, you know the world above you. We hope you'll join us again next time for more timeless truth right here on Love Worth Finding. Recently, a listener in Wisconsin wrote with this encouragement. He said, My wife and I regularly listen to Pastor Rogers on our local radio station. The resources we've requested have been instrumental in keeping us close to God's word in our marriage. Well, we are honored to share these insightful resources to keep you strong in your faith in a world that seems to be changing every day. That's why this month is a thank you for your generous gift. We want to send you our critical issues booklet collection.

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