This Page Last Updated January 2nd, 2009 (new style reckoning)
The early Christians always thought
negatively towards dogs
Matthew 7:6
“Give not what is holy unto the dogs.”
Matthew
Philippians
3:2 Beware of
dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of concision.
2 Peter
Revelation
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
The ancient Christian rule is that, “Should a dog happen to
find its way into a church building, any service must immediately stop, all
people are to depart (the animal being evacuated as well) and the doors locked
– till such time as the bishop can again consecrate the house of God [Old
Christian Council].” Inasmuch as the home is, as it were a little pocket
of the Church, dogs are not to be allowed inside of them either.
Wolves are part
of the dog family, there is no need to explain the many other negative
connotations that the Lord gave in the Holy Gospels about wolves in
sheep’s clothing, etc. Good Christians should not allow dogs in the house, even though they might take the food that drops from outside tables. Dogs are dirty and spiritually defiling so we have no business making them our best friend or a member of the family, ect. In no way should we make a habit or practice of hugging or kissing or petting dogs. We certainly need help in understanding this here in America.
In the Fathers of the Church, volume 68, we find a reference in the section by St. John Chrysostom, that the doglike hyena is not only a wild beast, but “a filthy wild beast.”
From The Journey Beyond Death, Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1968, at the Twelfth Torment, it says of the accusing demons that, “they licked their chaps like dogs”.
Clerics from the heretical western churches proudly wear their Dog Collars, even neo-style Orthodox clergy are often known to be “Dog Collared”.
An expression given to the heartless society we live in today appropriates it as a “Dog-Eat-Dog Society”.
In the statute of Prince Vladimir the Great, at article 9, it specifies that Church courts have juristiction over crimes such as leading a dog (or anything else not fitting) into a Church.
There is a book titled Ways of Russian Theology. In Chapter 3, at footnote 88, it explains how the uncle of Tsar Aleksei mocked Patriarch Nikon by training his dog to mimic Nikon’s new style hand blessing. It reminds me of just how loathsome and disgusting dogs (and the corrupted form of the hand) truly are.
German Ambassador Baron Sigismund, in the account of his visits to Russia during the years 1517 and 1526, mentions that “a dog is regarded among them as an unclean animal, and it is a defilement to touch a dog with the naked hand”.
Some false Christianities go to great heights, or depths; see this Wall Street Journal article: Episcopalians Allow Dogs Communion
Beware of the false prophets,
who come to you in sheep’s clothing,
but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
Above is a 18th century Russian Christian drawing portraying a demon as a dog.
From an article titled, A Look At The Early Church, we can see that Nero had the early Christians “torn by dogs”. Since the first Christians were left to the fury of wild dogs it is not a good practice to be keeping them very close to us, but we ought to shun them.
We can see from the link here that Saddam Hussein’s son Uday fed a christian woman to dogs--- still alive.
From a booklet called, A Brief History of the Old Believers, compiled in the fall of 1995, is an illustration on page 12 of how the Brazilian Old Believers kept dogs, below. Notice how they were kept in a pen, outside, rather far away from the home. Dogs might serve a purpose, as protection, for they were made to bark at intruders.
I also know, in Russia today, that many drivers will go out of their way to run over stray dogs on the road. Dogs can be a menace.
A Hindu gets at least one thing right in this area, as the quote
below offers:
“A dog goes here and there on four legs; we go around on
four wheels. Is that progress?”
I do not hate animals, I just think they have their places.
There will be a renewed example of all creation in Eternity.