What happens to animals when they die, according to the Bible?

This may serve in some measure as an illustration of the soul as the connecting link between the spirit and the body. The soul is the animating principle of both man and beast. When the beast dies it ceases to exist—soul and body. When man dies, his body dies, but the soul survives.

We can of course take notice of that within our observation, how life begins with an infant, develops into manhood and womanhood, passes on to old age with its decreasing powers, and ends in the death of the body. The animal dies, and ceases to exist, as if it had never existed, but when a human being dies, the body dies, but the spirit and soul continue to exist, but in another sphere than that of earth.

Man stands in contradistinction to the beast in many ways, and in none more than in his knowledge of his approaching death. Why is this? The animals do not need this knowledge, for they are not morally responsible and die outright when they die! They cease to exist.

In this man stands alone. The brute creation have no such knowledge. They are not “through fear of death … all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:15), as man is. The reason is very simple. The creature dies as being under Adam’s headship. If the head fell he dragged all else under him in the consequences of his fall. But though the creature dies it knows it not, because it is not responsible, and moreover when dead perishes completely as if it had never been.

Moreover the possession of a spirit by the beast is not asserted in Scripture, except in one passage by the writer of Ecclesiastes (Ecc. 3:19-21): "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath (roach); so that a man hath no pre-eminence over a beast, for all is vanity. All go unto one place: all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?"

Moreover the possession of a spirit by the beast is not asserted in Scripture, except in one passage by the writer of Ecclesiastes (ch. iii. 19-21): "For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath (ruach); so that a man hath no pre-eminence over a beast, for all is vanity. All go unto one place: all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" This passage has been seized upon by materialists of course, and is constantly put forth as the stronghold of their doctrine. They quote verse 19 triumphantly. "Words cannot be stronger than this," says Mr. Constable. "The preacher tells us not only that man and beast both have spirit, but that the spirit of both is one and the same. He is here evidently comparing them, in what they had of the highest kind, and nothing could be higher than the possession of that spirit which the Psalms and other Scriptures tell us was indeed nothing less than the Spirit of God Himself. Yet in this he tells us that ‘man hath no pre-eminence above a beast.' "*

But let us come to Scripture proof. We read, “Who knows the spirit of man that goes upward, and the spirit of the beast that goes downward to the earth” (Eccl. 3:21).

The body at death goes downward to the earth, and if the spirit of the beast goes downward to the earth, it implies that the spirit dies with the body, and the beast ceases to exist. But why should the spirit of man go upward? Surely this implies survival after the death of the body; that the spirit of man survives the death of the body.

What the apostle says is this: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. 5:12. Now here he evidently is entirely occupied with the effect of sin in bringing man under death, as the beginning of death declares. Neither in Genesis nor in Romans is anything said of the beasts. In both, men alone are spoken of as the specific subject. In Genesis, and to that the apostle refers, it is a sentence previously pronounced on man. When man was created, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, a thing never said of beasts. Death was pronounced in case of failure. As far as any other testimonies go, the New Testament rather speaks of beasts, as indeed does the Old, as perishing beings — "The beasts that perish." Ps. 49. Peter says, "Natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed." 2 Peter 2:12. Now I grant this does not positively prove anything, because the psalmist and apostle may refer to their present condition. But it shews how little ground there is for the objection. For with a holy wisdom, the word of God does not answer our curiosity, but leaves beasts as they are before our eyes. We are told, indeed, that the creature has got into misery and ruin by our fall, and, as a system, will not be restored till we are manifested in glory; and this is true even of our bodies. This was morally important for us to know, that we might be humbled by the sense of the way in which we had dragged down subordinate creation with us — encouraged by the thought that our glory would be the occasion of the restoration of the blessing. But no further curiosity is indulged.*

It is not said of the beast that God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This is special to man, and whilst it is said of the beasts that they are soul and body—a living soul, and a physical body—yet this special and unique action of God in relation to man’s creation set him off as apart from the beast. As another has said, God gave man a soul of larger content. The soul of the beast perishes with his body and there is no resurrection for either. Scripture teaches that man’s body will be raised, whilst his soul is immortal. The actual word “immortal” is never used of the soul, but the fact that “this mortal shall put on immortality” is only said referring to the body points to the fact that the soul is immortal, since it does not need to put on immortality. For if the soul, which is more important than the body, were not immortal, we should have in resurrection an immortal body without a soul, which is absurd. The immortality of the soul is taken for granted as an unquestioned fact in Scripture, and woven into its very warp and woof.

It is not merely that all the rest of the animal kingdom were put under man here below, but he alone had his life direct from above. "Jehovah Elohim breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." No other animal became a living soul thus. Man, and man alone, enjoyed the breath of Jehovah Elohim. Such is the true source of the immortality of the soul; this is the reason why man alone stands in direct moral responsibility to God, and must give account of the things done in the body to that God who thus gave him his soul and spirit. In the case of a beast, though possessed of a spirit, it goes downward and not to God, because God never breathed into it. The living principle of a beast, in other words, perishes, because it is a mere question of what is connected by God's will with its material organisation. Therefore an irrational animal when it dies perishes, but in man's case there is a soul and a spirit which abide distinct in origin from the body, having a far more intimate connection with God Himself. Accordingly therefore, the soul partakes of an immortality which the mere body, alive here below in its own nature, does not possess. This was a physical question of the will of God, but that was a thing which indelibly and intrinsically belonged to the soul and spirit. Therefore it is that the body of man will be raised up in the resurrection to be reunited to that soul and spirit, and so every one of us shall give account of himself to God.