Question: I want to believe the Bible but with so much science out there concerning evolution/creation, the Bible has become suspect at best. What about dinosaurs, dating back millions of years ago if the Bible says the earth is only about 6-8 thousand years old?
For the Christian who hates being on the defensive and wants to accept true science and the Bible, there are basically three positions that are taken.
I. Creation Allegory Approach.
The Bible says that in Psalms 90:4 "For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night."
Peter summarized this Psalms in 2 Peter 3:8: "But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."
Many Christians believe this gives them a "way out" concerning the assault of science on Christianity. They believe that God created the world, just like He said, but used evolution and accomplished it over millions, perhaps billions, of years. They say, the term for "day" in Genesis might be understood as a 24 hour day to us, but to God, it could have meant very much longer than that. Therefore, all the science about the dinosaurs and the age of the earth could both be true.
This approach to Genesis has become very popular in our Christian schools and seminaries. It's strength is that this keeps Christians from being on the defensive and allows us to be open to science and discoveries that scholars accept. It keeps Christians from looking like neanderthal thinking, backwards, ignorant buffoons like the ones who used to swear that the earth was flat. We can teach the love of Jesus with this approach and the salvation of Jesus Christ. This is what makes this so desirable to many Christians, pastors and teachers.
Along with that strong upside, however, is a downside.
First, the use of Hebrew language in Genesis seems to prohibit this.
Gen 1:5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Gen 1:8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
The same measure of days in the six days of creation is used in verses 13, 19, 23 and 31. The Hebrew word for "evening" means "end of day". The word for "morning" means "beginning of day". Tied with verse 14-18, the phrase "day" obviously means a 24 hour day.
Gen 1:14-18 And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. 16 And God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. 17 And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, 18 to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
In this description of the creation of the marks of time, time appears to be reflect a literal 24 hour day.
The second problem is that it is too cryptic and confusing.
There are two ways to study the Bible: one that the Bible is a book of codes and secrets that have to be decoded, such as when God said a day when He meant millions of years. The other is that God communicated in the Bible for the purpose of revealing Himself to us.
To believe that God had Genesis written in such allegorical language teaches the wrong message about God. Genesis itself is written so man, as God's prime creation, can begin to understand Him and have a relationship with Him.
Psa 9:16 The LORD has made himself known;
Rom 16:25-27 Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-- to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen.
God began to call a people to Himself in Genesis, to prepare to send a Savior so He could make Himself known to the world. To question the language of Genesis brings all that into question.
I want to believe that God wants to be known, not to be a mystery that has to be solved.
Third, if you question the beginning of God's revelation to man, the Bible, how can you have confidence in the rest of it? If a day in Genesis doesn't mean 24 hours, then a virgin in Matthew may not have meant a pure young lady. Dying for our sins may not mean the real pure sacrifice of Jesus Christ. So, where do you stop changing what is said to fit what you want it to say?
Let me move to another theory of dinosaurs.
2. The Gap Theory.
The Gap theory teaches that God created all things, placed our environment here in six days, including putting us here, just as is says in Genesis 1-3. However, there may be much more to the story than meets the shallow student's eye.
There is a recurring theme in God's creation in Genesis 1. "God saw what He did and noted it was good". Look at verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, and 31. "It was good." What does that tell you about how God does things when He is in His creative mode?
Now, let's look back to Genesis 1:1. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth."
Now, knowing God does things excellently in creation, what is wrong with verse 2? "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep." Literally, shapeless, useless, empty and dark. Right after God created it in verse 1?
Now, here is the catch. Either God did something not excellent, or there is more to the story.
Notice in verse 3, He started out with a muddy ball in the dark. Notice that it says God created the heavens and the earth before the morning and evening of the first day. Confusing, right? Maybe not.
What if God created the perfect heaven and earth and something messed it up between verses 1 and 2? That would explain how the earth got useless and worthless.
What could have happen? A cosmic war? Yes, that's a strong possibility.
Isa 14:12-19 "How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star (Lucifer), son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' 15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. 16 Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: 'Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, 17 who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?' 18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; 19 but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot.
Most of us believe that this pictures the fall of Satan, the arch angel of God. He said, "I want to take over" and he started a cosmic war.
Jesus said in Luke 10:18 about the war, "I saw Satan fall from heaven." We learn from Revelations that one third of the angels sided with Lucifer and their fall was violent and destructive (Revelaton 12:9)
So, here is what might have happened. God created a perfect place in the heavens and in earth. Lucifer rebelled, caused a war, and tore up the earth. Genesis 1 would then be God rebuilding a world that had been, as He called it, torn completely up due to cosmic war. God put in place a plan to rid the universe of the evil that Satan started in his rebellion. God's plan involved re-creation and an agent of choice, mankind, to prove that righteousness wins out. Not the righteousness of His creation, but His righteousness alone, extended through the sacrifice of His Son, is enough to redeem the universe in the end. (Titus 3:5).
So, between verses 1 and 2 is a cosmic war against Satan and the faithful angels of God.
What has that to do with dinosaurs?
In that pre-creation world, God could have had all kinds of creatures that died in the rebellion. We know God loves creatures, even having them around His throne (Revelation 4). The creatures in this pre-genesis world included dinosaurs, as well as many others. They could have existed millions or billions of years before creation.
This could explain the fossils, archeological data and science that seems to conflict with a six-day creation.
The strength of this view is that we can recognize the archeological data, science, and fossil records, including the age of the earth, and still believe in a literal interpretation of the scriptures.
To be honest, your pastor leans somewhat to this view.
The opponents of this view, however, point to a passage in the New Testament and the problems it present.
To believe in this "Gap Theory", which relies on this gap in time between verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1, you have to believe that there was death in the universe before the fall of man. These opponents point to Romans 5:12 to question the "Gap theory".
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-- "
They say that A. This would mean that death entered into God's creation before the fall of Adam, which brings into question Romans 5:12.
B. It means that God's killing of an animal to cover Adam and Eve's sinful condition (Genesis 3:21) was not the first death of an animal or sacrifice.
(Note: Based upon Satan's temptation of Eve before the fall of man, there was a spiritual death, the same kind of death God promised Adam, before the fall of Adam and Even. Satan rebelled and was separated from God in order to tempt Eve in form of a serpant.)
They say this brings into question the redemption of Jesus Christ. Which brings us to the their position Christians can take. They say, and you might want to agree....
3. The world is only 6-9 thousand years old and there is no proof against this.
This accuses some scientists of having an agenda and creating a conspiracy. Many conservative Christians take this position and they have some strong evidence on their side.
Carbon dating: "Many people are under the false impression that carbon dating proves that dinosaurs and other extinct animals lived millions of years ago. What many do not realize is that carbon dating is not used to date dinosaurs. The reason? Carbon dating is only accurate back a few thousand years. So if scientists believe that a creature lived millions of years ago, then they would need to date it another way."
Have you not been taught that carbon dating proves that the earth is millions of years old?
"What would happen if a dinosaur bone was carbon date tested? - At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Scientists dated dinosaur bones using the Carbon dating method. The age they came back with was only a few thousand years old. According to observers, "This date did not fit the preconceived notion that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. So what did they do? They threw the results out. And kept their theory that dinosaurs lived "millions of years ago" instead. This is common practice."
The accusation here is that some scientists, determined not to surrender to the idea of a God they have to answer to, will continue to seek an answer that fits their theories and ignore their own tests that point to the accuracy of the Bible. They would even lie, telling us that carbon dating is accurate to millions of years.
I have a document produced by the University of Arizona, where dinosaur bones were tested by various methods to determine the date of their existence without the testers knowing what they were testing (a blind test). This document determined that the samples were from 10-16 thousand years old, but the exact date could not be determined by the tests they had available. This has been replicated many times, proving that the test that scientists rely upon to validate their claims of dating fossils cannot be trusted.
One scientist said, "To know if carbon dating is accurate, we would have to know how much carbon was in the atmosphere in the beginning, and also how long it has been increasing, or decreasing. Since no one was there, no one knows for sure. It's like trying to figure out how long a candle has been burning, without knowing the rate at which it burns, or its original size."
Examples: Living penguins have been carbon dated and the results said that they had died 8,000 years ago! The shells of living mollusks have been dated using the carbon 14 method, only to find that the method gave it a date as having been dead for 23,000 years!(Science vol. 141 1963 pg. 634-637). The body of a seal that had been dead for 30 years was carbon dated, and the results stated that the seal had died 4,600 years ago! ("The Illustrated Origins Answer Book" by Paul Taylor). Shells from living snails were dated using the Carbon 14 method. The results stated that the snails had died 27,000 years ago. (Science vol. 224 1984 pg. 58-61).
There is also a problem for those who reject the Bible because they say man did not live with dinosaurs, but the Bible may say different. Man's footprints have been found in dinosaurs tracks in Glen Rose and other locations. I know that is not what your text books say, but facts are facts, as scientists want to say.
One of the big questions for those who believe is only thousands of years old, what about dinasaurs? Where evolutionists say dinosaurs and man did not co-exist (did not live on the earth at the same time), creation scientists say men and dinosaurs lived together. The question always follows: Why are dinosaurs not mentioned in the Bible?
Perhaps it's because the Bible was written between 1500 BC and 90 AD. It was most successfully translated into English in the KJV in 1611. The word "dinosaur" was not even made up until Sir Richard Owen coined it in 1841. So the word "dinosaur" was not a word when the Bible was written or translated. If dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible, they would be called something else or simply described.
What is described in the Bible? A dragon. Hmmmmm. Dragon exist in legend in every culture. The earliest descriptions of dragons (before they were embellished in folk-lore) sounded more like dinosaurs. As a matter of fact, the dinosaur called the Baryonyx looks much like what we think of a dragon.
Psalm 91:13 - You will tread on the lion and the adder; the young lion and the serpent (sea or land monster, dragon) you will trample underfoot.
Isa 43:20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
Job 40:15-24 "Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. 16 Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. 17 He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. 18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. 19 "He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword! 20 For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play. 21 Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh. 22 For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him. 23 Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth. 24 Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?
The Bible talks about sea monsters (Plesiosaurs, which are really reptiles, not classified as dinosaurs, but considered with them by most of us.)
Psa 74:13 You divided the sea by your might; you broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters.
Isa 27:1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
What about other ancient literature and dinosaurs?
"There are many very old history books in various libraries around the world that have detailed records of dragons and their encounters with people. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly for creationists), many of these descriptions of dragons fit with how modern scientists would describe dinosaurs, even Tyrannosaurus."
One of the oldest poems we have discovered is about a Sumerian named Gilgamesh that kills a dragon somewhere between 3000-2500 BC.
China claimed to have dragons as late as 1500 BC and their earliest drawings looked like different varieties of dinosaurs. Their depiction has changed over the years as imaginations takes over.
In England, St. George is said to kill a dragon that lived in a cave after the time of Jesus (200-300 AD).
Even more remarkable, in about 1000 AD (just a little over 1000 years ago), an irishman reported to see what would be described as a Stegosaurus.
And, in the 1500's, just over 500 years ago, a European biology book called Historia Anamalium, listed several animals as still alive that could be described as dinosaurs.
The fact that they found dinosaur tracks and man tracks in Glen Rose (and other places) disprove the extinction of dinosaurs millions of years ago. It also points to the reality that man and dinosaurs lived together, not nearly that long ago.
Also, blood tissues and soft tissue are often found in dinosaur bone samples, which clearly means they are no-where near millions of years old. They could not possibly have been.
What happened to the dinosaurs?
From Answers in Genisis: "At the time of the Flood, many of the sea creatures died, but some survived. In addition, all of the land creatures outside the Ark died, but the representatives of all the kinds that survived on the Ark lived in the new world after the Flood. Those land animals (including dinosaurs) found the new world to be much different than the one before the Flood. Due to (1) competition for food that was no longer in abundance, (2) other catastrophes, (3) man killing for food (and perhaps for fun), and (4) the destruction of habitats, etc., many species of animals eventually died out. The group of animals we now call dinosaurs just happened to die out too. In fact, quite a number of animals become extinct each year. Extinction seems to be the rule in Earth history (not the formation of new types of animals as you would expect from evolution)."
How did Noah get dinosaurs in the ark? Some believed he loaded baby, or young ones.
Conclusion: Every 5 years, the theories about evolution change completely because of discoveries that are not fully understood.
Many are determined to find a way to free themselves of the responsibility of living under a Holy God and anything He demands. They heap up evidence to prove there is no God as we believe in Him. However, they have to change their minds and evidence every year.
What has not changed? The Word of God.
We grow in our understanding of the Bible, but Abraham believed God created the earth in six days and rested on the seventh, and so do I. Moses believed that God created the earth in six days and rested one, and so do I. Jesus taught that God created the earth in six days and rested one, and so do I. Paul believed that God created the earth in six days and rested one, and so do I.
The Word of God is trustworthy.
We have given you three ways to believe the Bible despite attacks on the truth.
I hope you make up your mind and don't let anyone shake you. You can have help.
Salvation.
