Animals

Joseph Smith Portrait

“Says one, ‘I cannot believe in the salvation of beasts.’ Any man who would tell you that this could not be, would tell you that the revelations are not true. John heard the words of the beasts giving glory to God, and understood them. God who made the beasts could understand every language spoken by them. The four beasts were four of the most noble animals that had filled the measure of their creation, and had been saved from other worlds, because they were perfect: they were like angels in their sphere. We are not told where they came from, and I do not know; but they were seen and heard by John praising and glorifying God.”

Joseph Smith  |  Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 291, 292

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“Let the people be holy, and the earth under their feet will be holy. Let the people be holy, and filled with the Spirit of God, and every animal and creeping thing will be filled with peace. … The more purity that exists, the less is the strife; the more kind we are to our animals, the more will peace increase, and the savage nature of the brute creation will vanish away.”

Brigham Young  |  (Journal of Discourses, vol. 1, p. 203.)

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“Look at the animal creation, they were all created by law, and will fulfill that law by which they were created. But see the feeling and disposition that we have in our hearts to be cruel towards animals, and that same passion that we cultivate towards the brute creation, mankind by-and-by will have towards one another.”

Heber C. Kimball  |  JD 9:335, Heber C. Kimball, The Course the Saints Should Pursue, Etc.

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. . . the earth and its heaven shall, after passing away through death, be renewed again in immortality. This earth is living and must die, but since it keeps the law it shall be restored through the resurrection by which it shall become celestialized and the above of celestial beings. The next verse of this revelation explains this as follows: [D&C 29:24-25]

“So we see that the Lord intends to save, not only the earth and the heavens, not only man who dwells upon the earth, but all things which he has created. The animals, the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, as well as man, are to be recreated, or renewed, through the resurrection, for they too are living souls.” (President Joseph Fielding Smith, Conference Report, Oct. 1928, pp. 99-100; see also D&C 88:17-19, 25-26.)

Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual  |  Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, p. 62

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Joseph Smith Portrait

In pitching my tent we found three prairie rattlesnakes, which the brethren were about to kill, but I said, ‘Let them alone—don’t hurt them! How will the serpent ever lose its venom, while the servants of God possess the same disposition, and continue to make war upon it? Men must become harmless before the brute creation, and when men lose their vicious dispositions and cease to destroy the animal race, the lion and the lamb can dwell together, and the sucking child can play with the serpent in safety.’”

Joseph Smith  |  Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 71

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