Last week, we talked about the controversy that has been raging for the last 150 years between secular, unbelieving scientists/evolutionists and Bible believing Christians and their vastly different worldviews regarding the age of the universe, and especially as it relates to the creation account as found in the Bible. As noted last week, chapter 1 of Genesis says that everything was created in 6 days and evolutionists claim that organisms evolved over millions, if not billions, of years ago until we reached the current state of all living things that we have today.
In Genesis 1:24-25, we read that on the 6th day of creation “God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”
These two verses say that all the land animals, both mammals and reptiles were made on the 6th day, and in the next verse it says that God created mankind on the same day (verse 26) to rule over these animals. If the Biblical account is correct, this would include the dinosaurs, which are reptiles. This would mean that men and dinosaurs lived together on the earth at the same time. This is denied by evolutionists who teach that dinosaurs were wiped out some 65 million years ago in some kind of cataclysmic event and that man first appeared on the earth 200,000 years ago. So who is right? Well if the Bible is correct there would have had to be dinosaurs on the ark, since Noah took two of every kind of reptile that would be needed to repopulate the earth (a male and a female). How this is possible will have to wait for another discussion, but for now, humor me and for the sake of argument, let’s just assume dinosaurs were on the ark. And if that is the case, shouldn’t there be some mention of them in the Bible along with humans that came through the flood? Well if we believe the Bible, the answer is “yes”.
So you may say, “Well, I’ve never seen the word dinosaur in the Bible.” That is certainly true and for good reason. The word dinosaur was not invented until the year 1841, when Sir Richard Owen, on viewing the bones of an extinct Iguanodon and Megalosaurus created the term dinosaur from Greek words that meant “terrible lizard.” Since the King James Version of the Bible was translated from Greek into English in 1611, that word was not available. But that still doesn’t answer the question. Since God says all land animals and man were created at the same time, is there any mention of them existing together in the Bible?
Well the book of Job, believed by many to be the oldest book of the Bible, mentions an animal that does not fit the description of any other modern-day creature. It is called “the behemoth” in Job 40:15 and was described by God to Job in these words. “Behold, behemoth, which I made as well as you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength is in his waist, and his power in the muscles of the belly. He hangs his tail like a cedar; the tendons of his thighs are knit together. His bone are tubes of bronze; his limbs are like bars of iron” (Job 40:15-18 – NKJV). His tail was “like a cedar.” I know of no animal alive today that fits this description, but I do know of one extinct dinosaur that might, a “Brachiosaurus.” In Job 41, God describes another animal to Job, known as “leviathan” that evidently lived in the sea. Some have tried to equate this creature to the crocodile, but it is uncertain as to what creature it is that is being referred to.
Now, there is another piece of information in the Bible that may refer to these creatures. The Bible in several places speaks of ‘dragons’ (i.e.; Isaiah 27:1, Psalms 74:13) which, according to Ken Ham, may very well refer to ‘Mosasaurus’. And finally, you have mention of what Isaiah 30:6 describes as a ‘flying fiery serpent,’ which may refer to the existence of the ‘pterodactyls.’ Now, whether these verses are referring to literal creatures in their presence or to creatures they knew existed but didn’t know any other way to describe them, it certainly seems to me that, in these cases, there is more than a remote chance that they were speaking of creatures that existed in their time that we don’t see anymore, (i.e.; dinosaurs).
For God’s glory and His alone,
Pastor Terry.