INTRO 0:00
Welcome to the Naturally Healthy Pets podcast. Let's get to it.
Dr. Judy Morgan
Hello, everyone. I'm Dr Judy Morgan, your host for the Naturally Healthy Pets Podcast. Today, we are going to talk about a topic that is near and dear to my heart, because I have had so many animals in my life and so many animals that have passed from this life to the next life, and I am positive that I will be spending a lot of time with them again. But today my guest Steve Wohlberg, who is the Speaker and Director of White Horse Media and the author of 40 plus books including, Will My Pet Go to Heaven? He loves animals and the great outdoors. Steve, welcome today.
Steve Wohlberg 0:49
Yes, thank you. Dr Judy, it's a blessing to be with you. Thank you for having me.
Dr. Judy Morgan 0:53
Well, thank you so so tell us a little bit about yourself, where you live, what you do, and how you ended up writing a book called Will My Pet Go to Heaven?
Steve Wohlberg 1:04
Sure, I do a lot of things. It's not a simple answer. I have many hats. I think my my biggest hat is I'm a husband to my wife, Kristen. I'm a dad to our two children, Seth, who's 20, and Abby, who is 16, which is a huge part of my life. I also direct White Horse Media. As you mentioned, we are a Christian Ministry up in the woods of North Idaho, near the Canadian border. We have a five acres which is actually my property, and next to my house is our headquarters, which is a 5500 square foot building. Half of the building is our television studio. We have a staff, tremendous team of very qualified, technical, spiritual people. We pray a lot. Most of the books that I write and the podcast that I do are on prophecy topics. That's kind of really my field. We do a lot on the Book of Revelation and on what's happening in the world, and our center is the Bible and Jesus trying to help people to get to know Jesus in these challenging times. I grew up in the Hollywood Hills in Southern California in a very secular, cultural, Jewish home that didn't we didn't go to the synagogue, we didn't go to church, we didn't pray, we didn't read the Bible. So I knew nothing about Noah and the ark or Jonah and the whale, nothing like that as I was growing up. As a teenager, I got lost in the wild world of Southern California, just the crazy life. And when I was 20 years old, I started reading the Bible. It's kind of a long story how that happened. People began to witness to me, talk to me. So as I started reading the Bible, eventually I got to the Garden of Gethsemane and the Cross, where Jesus suffered. For me, and it just, it just pierced my heart, and I realized he's the one that I need in my life. So I gave my life to God. That was about 45 years ago. And as I mentioned, most of the books I now write, it's armed prophecy, but I do have this book will my pets go to heaven? And the backstory of that is that when my wife and I first got married, we were living in Texas in Fort Worth in the year 2000 and we didn't have any children, so we got a dog. We got a little, tiny dog, and his name was Jax, j, A, X, and he was a toy rat terrier, and he became like our little kid. You know, I'm sure people can relate to that if you don't have kids, or even if you do, sometimes, you know, animals just become such a big part of your life. So Jax was like our little boy, and one day, very unexpectedly, we were getting out of the car. He was in our car. We were going to our front door in a very quiet neighborhood. He just jumped out of the car. He wasn't on a leash at that moment, which in hindsight, you know, it just everything happened quickly. So he he got out of the car, went toward the front door. A car passed by in our quiet neighborhood, and he ran after the car bit the back wheel, rammed his head into the ground. It was a nightmare for me and my wife. He was in a coma for about three days, or kind of a semi coma at the vets, the vet finally said, take him home. Maybe he can recover being in the familiar surroundings of your house. So we took him back home, and this was on Halloween evening in 2000 in the year 2000 and we had a prayer for him, earnest prayer, and then in a short time, he just closed down and died. And it was so such a heartbreaker for us. And so I went on my computer and began to email a couple friends that I knew had been praying for our family and praying for Jax. And one of them wrote me back and said, I'm so sorry to hear about your dog, but I hope that you will see Jax again in the Kingdom of God. And when he said that, I remember sitting in my office, in Fort Worth, staring at my computer and just pondering that email. And then at that moment, I sensed the presence of the Lord right there with me. And I took a kind of a mental step back, and I thought, What is going on is, is the Lord impressing me that this is true? And that led me to research this topic, from Genesis to Revelation in the Bible. And the result is, the book, will my pet go to heaven?
Dr. Judy Morgan 5:34
That's awesome. That's awesome. So are there, were there specific, specific Bible verses that you found in doing that reading and research that that made you really understand that you will see Jax,
Steve Wohlberg 5:51
yeah, great question. There were a lot of verses that impressed me about God's love for animals, which I hadn't really seen before in the book of Genesis, Adam was surrounded by animals, and he named them. And there's just so many Bible verses in Proverbs, Chapter 12, verse 10, it says, a righteous man regards the life of his animal. And so the more I began to read these verses, I just realized that animals it's not just people. Obviously, people are God's priority, but animals are also important him too. And then, yes, there were, there were a couple of verses that really that actually led me to write the book. And so here, here's one of them in Psalm 104 this whole Psalm is about the different creatures that God has made. It talks about the birds, the stork, the wild goats, the beasts of the forest, the young lions and about man. And then in verse 27 it says these all wait for you that you may give them their their food in due season, what you give them, they gather. You open your hand. They are filled with good. And then verse 29 and 30 really struck me. It says David said, you hide your face. They are troubled, referring to the animals and man, you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. And then at verse 30 says, you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. And I looked at that, and I relooked at that, and I thought, this sure sounds like the animals and man, that when they die, God removes his breath, they go back to the dust, and then he sends forth His Spirit, and they referring to the ones that have died, they are created. And he renews the face of the earth. And I've read in the book of Revelation that the day is coming when God will make a new heaven and a new earth. He's going to get rid of all sin, he's going to get rid of evil, and everything's going to be like it was in the Garden of Eden. And in the Garden of Eden, of course, there were animals. And in the book of Isaiah, it says the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat. So we know there's going to be animals in God's kingdom. And when I read this verse, it just seemed to me that it was saying that the very animals that die, God is going to send forth his spirit, and they are going to be created when he renews the face of the earth. And so that verse just impressed me, that in the kingdom of God, it's very possible that, especially for me as God's child and my wife, if we have a special bond with a certain animal that the Lord can easily bring that animal back, give it a new body. There'll be no more sin, death, sorrow, pain in the New Earth. And so that was one verse. And then the other one is in Romans, chapter eight, where Paul talks about in this world of sin. Verse 21 says the creature itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. So it's talking about when God remakes the earth again, not only will humans be delivered, but the creature will also be delivered. And so when I when I looked at both those verses, it just gave me hope in seeing Jax. And now I have another dog that died about a year ago, Pooka. And so I wrote the book, and people ask me, you know the answer to the question of my book? And I always say my book builds a case for hope. And I believe in a loving God, and I think, you know, I don't give a definitive yes or no because I don't have a clear Bible verse one way or the other. I try to be faithful to the scriptures, but these verses give me a lot of hope. And Will my pet go to heaven? My book has given hope to a lot of other people as well.
Dr. Judy Morgan 1 9:38
Well, I think that's critical. It's we just did a whole thing recently on grief, and we actually have a grief download, because so many people are so attached to their pets that when that pet passes, they lose all hope, and they're they just get mired and stuck in that grief. And they can't see a path forward past that grief. And I, for a couple of mine, I got stuck in that grief for a long time as well. And a lot of times when we get stuck in that grief, it's because we've got some guilt where we think we should have done more. We should have done something differently. But you know, having that that hope and that knowledge that we will be reunited at some point, I'm such a firm believer in that. And we, right now, we have 50 animals on our farm, and I've had many, many, many go before me, and I'm sure there will be many more, many more in the rest of my years, and I would, I would be shattered if I never got to spend time with them again and experience that love. I mean, they are, they are unconditional love, our our animals, they and even when our animals are sick, they don't have the same foreboding that we do. They're like, yeah, it's another day. Did I get a meal? Did I get a nap? Did somebody scratch me? Is great? You know, we start grieving long before they're gone. If we know they're sick or they have a terminal diagnosis, I have some people that are grieving even when their pet is healthy, because they're already like, oh my gosh, he's going to leave at some point. And and I think, you know, things like your book and conversations like this can help people kind of move through that a little bit and understand that they're they're always with us. So I'm going to ask you something. So you've lost these two dogs. Do you ever feel their presence in your home?
Steve Wohlberg 11:50
But I can't say that I actually feel like a spirit of them, but I do. I do remember the things that we've done. It's like they're close to me, my dog, Pooka, especially because Pooka died a year ago. Jax died 24 years ago. So with Pooka, I used to jog with Pooka up in the woods. She was the perfect dog. She never went to the bathroom in the house. She was a border collie mix, kind of like a German Shepherd, and she wouldn't even need a leash. We'd go up in the woods. I'd go running, sometimes even in the snow with my cleated running shoes, and she was right with me on these fire roads. She'd go in the forest, but she'd always come back to me, and she was just like the perfect dog. So a year ago, she had cancer, and we had to put her I had to put her down, and it was a very difficult thing. And I, you know, I do remember when I go for walks, I just think, you know, Pooka was right here with me, going up and down through the trees. And so I do have that consciousness of remembering her. You know, another thing about how big this topic is for people that are grieving. One time, I was giving a seminar way up in Republic Washington, way up in the mountains, near Canadian Canadian border, and this big burly woodsman walked up to me out of the crowd, and he said, Steve, I got to tell you a story. He said, some time ago, my dog died, and it was just me and my dog and my dog died, and I was so devastated, I almost just lost my faith and went back to the world. But then he said, but then I read your book, will my pet go to heaven? And it kept me, it kept me having faith in God. And it just showed me God's love and kindness and goodness to me and and it was basically like the book. God used the book to change his life. And I think, you know, praise the Lord, that's why I wrote the book, to help people, and that was a big shining light in my life.
Dr. Judy Morgan 13:48
That's a great story. We need to take a break to hear from our sponsor. We'll be right back. Stay tuned.
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Dr. Judy Morgan 16:00
Welcome back. You're listening to the naturally healthy pets podcast, and my guest today, Steve Wohlberg, has written many books, but the one we're talking about today is, will my pet go to heaven? And I think this is an important topic for for people who are hoping that they'll see their pets again and helping people move through the grieving process. So I haven't seen your book yet, but do you have celebrity quotes in the book?
Steve Wohlberg 16:30
Oh, yes, the book is, it's very it's very colorfully put together with pictures and quotes. And here's a quote from Abraham Lincoln, he said, I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. That's quite a statement from uh, here's one from Elizabeth Taylor, some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses. So I've got a lot of pithy little quotations here. Here's one from Andrew Rooney, the average dog is a nicer person than the average person. So there's all kinds of little quotes, quotes in here. Here's another one from Ben Williams, there is no psychiatrist, no psychiatrist in the world. Like a puppy licking your face. So I'm I grew up in the Hollywood Hills with lots of animals. I've always liked animals. My wife and I now we have one dog and three cats. We don't have as many animals as you do, but we have, we have a lot, and it's so neat. In our backyard up in Idaho, we've got five acres, and the deer around our property are so friendly because they've gotten to know us. And when I pick some unripe apples off my tree, or if they fall to the ground, I'll take the apples to the deer, and they will surround me and eat the apples right out of my hands. And it's just such a you know, my son feeds them, my daughter feeds them, my wife feeds them. And it's just, it just, it's a glimpse to me, of the kingdom of God when all the animals are friendly and we don't have to worry about, you know, anything harming us or hurting us or hurting them. It says they shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountains, says the Lord in the book of Isaiah. So, I love animals. I believe God made them, and he also, he's the author of the bond between us and his creatures.
Dr. Judy Morgan 18:29
Well and it's, it's just a huge bond, your dear story, I think is great. So on our farm, we have a fenced area for all of our equines, and right outside our fenced areas is little wooded area, and we have a mama Fox who has had a den there since we moved in so over four years, and every spring, she has her litter of kits. And it's so much fun in April seeing the kits when they leave the den and they're playing outside our fence, running back and forth. And so, you know, a lot of people don't like the foxes. The daddy Fox lives over on the other side of our property, and Mommy Fox is on that side. And they are a problem, because they will definitely steal chickens. And mommy Fox got two of our chickens, but I couldn't even get that mad. I'm like, you're trying to feed four babies, and that was a ready food source. So we solved the problem by saying our chickens can't free range anymore, but I can't even get mad at her. And her kits are so cute, and so sort of like, all right, you you can stay. We're not going to rehome you. That's it's fine. And I think that for a lot of us, you know, learning how to commune with the wildlife, because we're destroying their habitats. We're destroying their environment with all of the building and the things that we do. So I think it's really cool. And actually, where we live, we've kind of become an island. They've built so many developments all around us, and so we've got this 23 acres kind of in the middle of that. So I figured this wildlife needs somewhere to go. They might as well come to us.
Steve Wohlberg 20:13
Sure. Yeah, it's amazing to me, how if you have a room full of people that are, you know, maybe not getting along so well, and there's some tension in the air, and then the dog comes running in and starts licking different people. It's like the whole atmosphere just changes. And when 911 came and the towers went down and so many people were grieving, one of the ways that professionals ministered to these shell shocked family members who had lost loved ones, was with therapy dogs. They brought therapy dogs to these people, and the dogs just made them feel sane, and they made them feel comfort and and love. And there's a verse in Matthew 24 where Jesus talks about the signs of the times. And one verse, one verse in verse 12 says that, because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. So love is growing cold among humans, but many animals bring love into people's lives. And it's like you know, if human hearts are getting hard and cold, God still ministers to us through the warmth of a dog or a cat or a horse, and I think it's part of his plan.
Dr. Judy Morgan 21:29
absolutely true. And you know, the thing is, there are my sister does therapy with her dogs, and she actually had one. He was the longest survivor of being a therapy dog at 911. She took him down there and did a lot of work down there, but the animals bring so much comfort. And my mother lives with us. She's 87 and she spends all day talking to the animals, and all day walking back and forth to the barn, collecting the eggs and petting the calves and feeding carrots to the horses, and they're they're such an integral part. And I feel sad for people who don't have any relationship with animals, because they they just bring warmth, they bring that unconditional love. And I think we could stop a lot of the anger in the world with a little more therapy animal care. And you know, horses are used as for therapy for their actually, we have a Clydesdale who is being shipped from North Carolina back to New Jersey in a couple of weeks, he's going to be used in a therapeutic riding program. They needed a large horse for some of their bigger people, and he was standing in our field doing nothing, and he's just a big old marshmallow. So we thought, Well, why not? We'll let them use him for for that. So, yeah, I they just bring a lot to us. Horses, I think if you have a great relationship with a horse that goes way above and beyond. I lost my horse at the age of 33 that I had had for 22 years, and when he it took me over a year to get over him. That's and I had him cremated. So and you don't think about it like my most of my dogs and cats have been cremated, so we've got these little, tiny boxes with their names on them. And so when I went to have the horse cremated, I didn't really think about it. And when you get a horse cremated, you get a footstool. It's a very large, very heavy box, but he goes everywhere with me.
Steve Wohlberg 23:47
Yeah. Well, yeah, there's a lot of stories that we all can tell. And when my when Pooka died, here's one story that just I want to share that really affected me. Pooka like a mensch, was just like the perfect dog, my dog. I loved that dog. We had her for over 10 years, and when finally it came time, I just had to take her to the vet and put her down, because she could hardly walk. She was suffering. So I carried her to the car, and then I carried her into the vet, and it was so hard. And then I we went into this little room, and I had my arm around her, and she was relaxed. And then the vet shaved off a little bit of her hair, put the needle in. And here's the amazing thing that right after that happened, right before she died, the next thing Pooka did, as soon as the needle went in, she turned her face and she looked right at me, full on into my eyes. And then she was gone, she was out. And it just I thought about that I cried, and I thought about that, that that my dog looked to her master in her closing moments. And then I thought, there's a lesson for me about me and Jesus, that. You know, if my time comes, I'm going to look right at him by faith, and I'm going to say, Lord, I'm in your hands. You are my master, and I look forward to being with you in the kingdom of God. And so we can learn so many lessons from our animals, spiritual lessons as well, which can really touch our hearts
Dr. Judy Morgan 25:19
Absolutely. I mean, they're, they're, like I said, they don't have a lot of the emotions, the negative emotions, that we do. And so they can teach us about, you know, like I one of my dogs, if my husband's going in to take a nap, she knows that she gets to snuggle in all the pile of pillows and like, she predicts when, when this is going to happen, and it's not on a schedule. And she's like, flying in there. And I'm like, You know what? You're kind of teaching us that we all should take time to just chillax and find our favorite place to just meditate, relax, do whatever, but they're, they're just, they're, they're always living in the moment. And that's something that so many of us could, could use a lot of, a lot of help in that.
Steve Wohlberg 26:12
yeah, you're right. There's lots of lessons we can learn from the animals. You've probably heard this, that God spelled backwards is dog and so, and they say a dog's man's best friend. And some people are cat lovers, some people dog lovers, horse lovers, Hamster lovers. I had somebody said my my rat is my favorite pet. They love their rat. And so, you know, all kinds of animals, and God teaches us things about his character. His character is revealed to us through the things which he has made, and that includes his animals. So we can, we can learn more about about Jesus and His love and His care for us by looking at our pets.
Dr. Judy Morgan 26:55
Absolutely this is we're just about out of time. I do want to make everyone aware of an offer that you are, that you have. Some of our supporters have donated to a book giveaway fund, and we would like to offer a free copy of Will My Pet Go to Heaven? for the first 10 callers who call White Horse Media and request a copy, and they have to say that they watched or listened to this show, and the phone number is 1 800 78 BIBLE that will be in will be in the show notes. If you're not in the first 10 group, you can still order the book. It makes a great gift, particularly if you have a friend or family member who is stuck in grief or has a pet that is has a terminal diagnosis, it can be really, really helpful to, you know, get some insight into what we might see down the road. So Steve, thank you for all that you do. This is this has been amazing.
Dr. Judy Morgan 27:54
Anything you want to leave us with?
Steve Wohlberg 27:57
No. other than God. Is a God of love. He cares for us he made he made the animals to show us a little bit of his character. And most important thing in life is to have faith in Jesus and faith in God's love that he can bring us through whatever happens and we have thankful hearts every day that he gave us his animals to brighten our lives as well.
Dr. Judy Morgan 28:17
Absolutely. Thank you very much.
Steve Wohlberg 28:20
Yes Thank you. Judy, so much. God bless you.
Outro
Thanks for listening to another great Naturally Healthy Pets episode. Be sure to check out the show notes for some helpful links. And if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. We value your feedback and we'd love to hear from you on how we're doing. Visit DrJudyMorgan.com for healthy product recommendations, comprehensive courses, upcoming events and other fantastic resources. Until next time, keep giving your pet the vibrant life they deserve.
DISCLAIMER
The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. It is no substitute for professional care by a veterinarian, licensed nutritionist or other qualified professional. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Dr. Judy and her guests express their own views, experience and conclusions. Dr. Judy Morgan's Naturally Healthy Pets neither endorses or opposes any particular view discussed here.
