ORIGINS #3: DINOSAURS IN THE BIBLE
(November 2010 – Beausejour Church – Pastor Chris Jordan)
THE MYSTERY OF THE DINOSAURS:
This morning on Discovery Channel there was a program: “Last Day of the Dinosaurs!”
People – especially children – love dinosaurs. They have fascinated our generation! From movies like Jurassic Park and The Land before Time, to TV shows and kids toys, they are everywhere.
• Sauropods – i.e. the brachiosaurus
• Ceratopsid – i.e. the triceratops
• Ankylosaurs – i.e. the stegosaurus
• Theropods – i.e. the T-Rex
(These are just a sampling of some of the many different groupings).
WHERE DID THE DINOSAURS COME FROM?
THE EVOLUTIONISTS VIEW:
“Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals that were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period (about 230 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous (about 65 million years ago).” (www.wikipedia.org).
• Dinosaurs evolved from some reptile that had evolved from an amphibian. However, where is the missing link / transitional form? There is none.
• Dinosaurs lived millions of years before humans and therefore never lived together.
• Note: When they dig up a dinosaur bone, it does not have a label attached showing its date. These are guesses based on indirect dating methods. No evidence!
• They say dinosaur history is recorded in the fossil layers in the earth.
• The mystery: 65 million years ago the dinosaurs all died off – how? Asteroid maybe?
• Some dinosaurs have evolved into birds.
THE CREATIONISTS VIEW:
“Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind"; and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:24-25).
• God made the dinosaurs with all other land animals and human beings on day six of creation.
• Dinosaurs could not have died out millions of years before human beings because there was no death before Adam’s sin (see Romans 5:12).
• If this is true, then are there dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible?
DINOSAURS IN THE BIBLE: (USE THE KJV FOR OVERHEAD SCRIPTURES)
• Why don’t we see the word ‘dinosaur’ in the Bible?
• The Bible was first translated into English in 1611 (King James Version).
• The word ‘dinosaur’ wasn’t invented until 1841 –by Sir Richard Owen, a British scientist. (Dinosaur = deinos meaning terrible or wonderful, and sauros meaning lizard).
• We shouldn’t be surprised that we don’t see that word in the Bible!
• However, we do see many descriptions of dinosaurs in God’s Word:
1. BEHEMOTH:
“Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox.” (Job 40:15).
• What is this creature called a behemoth? Some footnotes in certain Bibles say it might be the hippo or the elephant, but does that really fit here? No!
“See now, his strength is in his hips, And his power is in his stomach muscles. He moves his tail like a cedar; The sinews of his thighs are tightly knit. His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron.” (Job 40:16-18).
• This description says he has a big belly. A hippo has a big belly. An elephant has a big belly. But do any of those fit the rest of the description?
• Neither a hippo nor an elephant have a tail like a cedar tree.
“He is the first (chief – reshiyth) of the ways of God; Only He who made him can bring near His sword.” (Job 40:19).
• This phrase suggests that the behemoth was the largest land animal that God made.
• There is no creature alive today that fits this description. However, it does sound a lot like a sauropod like a Brachiosaurus or an Apatosaurus.
2. LEVIATHAN:
“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, Or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? Can you put a reed through his nose, Or pierce his jaw with a hook? … Can you fill his skin with harpoons, Or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hand on him; Remember the battle-- Never do it again! Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him? … Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? Who can open the doors of his face, With his terrible teeth all around?” (Job 41:1-2, 7-9, 13-14).
• The NLT calls this creature a crocodile, but this doesn’t fit at all.
• “Who can remove his outer coat?” Many people have skinned a crocodile.
• “Shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him?” Not everyone is afraid of a croc.
“In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.” (Isaiah 27:1).
• Leviathan is here described as a sea dragon / dinosaur.
“His sneezings flash forth light, And his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lights; Sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke goes out of his nostrils, As from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, And a flame goes out of his mouth.” (Job 41:18-21).
• This passage seems to indicate that leviathan is a fire-breathing dragon!
• Is that even possible? Yes!
GOD’S DIVERSE CREATION: (source: www.wikipedia.org).
• Fireflies or lightning bugs are winged beetles that use light to attract mates or prey. This is a chemically-produced light from the lower abdomen.
• The electric eel is capable of generating powerful electric shocks, which it uses for hunting and self-defense.
• The bombardier beetle ejects a noxious chemical spray in a rapid burst of pulses from special glands in its abdomen that is accompanied with a popping sound.
• So is it possible that our infinitely creative God could have also made fire-breathing dragons? Yes!
Leviathan: “A sea monster or dragon. A large aquatic animal; perhaps the extinct dinosaur, plesiosaurus, exact meaning unknown. Some think this to be a crocodile but from the description in Job 41 this is patently absurd. It appears to be a large fire breathing animal of some sort.” (The Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon).
Ken Ham says, “This “dragon” may have been something like the mighty 40 foot Sarcosuchus imperator (Super Croc), or the 82 foot Liopleurodon.” (What REALLY Happened to the Dinosaurs?).
3. THE FIERY FLYING SERPENT:
“A fiery flying serpent…” (Isaiah 30:6).
This could be a reference to one of the pterodactyls, which are popularly thought of as flying dinosaurs, like the Pteranodon.
4. DRAGON:
Tanniyn: This word which appears 28 times in the Bible is translated in the KJV as “dragon” and the Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon defines it as: “dragon, serpent, sea monster or dinosaur.”
• “And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons…” (Isaiah 35:7).
• “Nebuchadrezzar… hath… swallowed me up like a dragon.” (Jeremiah 51:34).
• “I… laid his mountains waste for the dragons (tannah) of the wilderness.” (Malachi 1:3).
Note – some of the modern translations of the Bible have changed the word tanniyn to serpent, jackal, or great monster, instead of leaving it as dragon.
• There have been dragon legends from all throughout history.
• Many descriptions fit the characteristics of specific dinosaurs.
• Could these have been actual stories of encounters with what we now know as dinosaurs?
ARE THERE OTHER ANCIENT RECORDS OF DINOSAURS?
“In the film The Great Dinosaur Mystery, many dragon accounts are presented:
• A Sumerian story dating back to 2000 BC or earlier tells of a hero named Gilgamesh, who, when he went to fell cedars in a remote forest, encountered a huge vicious dragon that he slew, cutting off its head as a trophy.
• When Alexander the Great (c. 330 BC) and his soldiers marched into India, they found that the Indians worshipped huge hissing reptiles that they kept in caves.
• China is renowned for its dragon stories, and dragons are prominent on Chinese pottery, embroidery, and carvings.
• England and several other cultures retain the story of St. George, who slew a dragon that lived in a cave.
• There is the story of a tenth-century Irishman who wrote of his encounter with what appears to have been a Stegosaurus.
• In the 1500s, a European scientific book, Historia Animalium, listed several living animals that we would call dinosaurs.
• Petroglyphs (drawings carved on rock) of dinosaur-like creatures have been found.
In summary, people down through the ages have been very familiar with dragons. The descriptions of these animals fit with what we know about dinosaurs. The Bible mentions such creatures, even ones that lived in the sea and flew in the air. There is a tremendous amount of other historical evidence that such creatures have lived beside people.”
(Ken Ham, What REALLY Happened to the Dinosaurs?).
The Great Dinosaur Mystery: www.christiananswers.net/dinosaurs/video.html
CLOSING CHALLENGE:
The bottom line in this discussion is who will we believe – the fallible changing opinions of evolutionists, or the infallible word of God, Someone who was an eye-witness to creation?
“Forever, O Lord, Your word is settled in heaven.” (Psalm 119:89).
“the word of God lives and abides forever.” (1 Peter 2:23).
NEXT WEEK:
• We will wrap up this series by looking at The Flood and Noah’s Ark.
• How did Noah fit all of those animals – including dinosaurs – on the ark?
• And what really happened to the dinosaurs? Are there still dinosaurs in the world today?
• We will look at both the Biblical account, and also geology and fossils…
Beausejour Community Church Website: www.beausejourchurch.ca
Pastor Chris Jordan’s Blog: http://thelandofpromise.blogspot.com/
Note – I am very grateful to the research of Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis and Kent Hovind of Creation Science Evangelism whose information on this topic has been invaluable.
