DINOSAUR QUESTIONS

 Text by Stacia McKeever

Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Stegosaurus, Iguanodon, Velociraptor … . Dinosaurs are fascinating creatures, aren’t they? But how much of what we think we know about them is actually true?

For instance, when did dinosaurs live? You might answer, ‘Millions of years ago’! Did dinosaurs ever live with people? ‘No!’ you might shout. If asked what, say, tyrannosaurs ate originally, you’d probably say, ‘Meat!’ Are dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible? ‘Of course not!’ Did dinosaurs turn into birds? ‘Yes!’ you might reply. But actually, all of those answers are wrong.

Let’s rethink the answers to these questions, using the Bible (which tells us the true history of the universe) as the foundation for Our thought, rather than just relying on what we’ve always heard or been taught.

God reveals to us through His Word that He spoke the whole of creation into existence in six actual days, just a few thousand years ago. So could dinosaurs have lived on Earth millions of years ago if the Earth is only thousands of years old? No—they must have come into existence sometime during those first six days. Can you figure out when?

God created air and sea Creatures on the Fifth day of that first week, including the dinosaur-type flying creatures like Pteranodon, Quetzalcoatlus and Rhamphorhynchus; and the dinosaur-like swimming Creatures like Plesiosaurus, Kronosaurus and Liopleurodon.

On the next day, Day 6, God created land-dwelling Creatures (elephants, bears, koalas, giraffes … ) and all the kinds of dinosaurs we know of and love. This leads us to the correct answer to the second question: Did dinosaurs ever live With people? Yes! God also fashioned, from the dust of the ground, the first man, Adam, on that Sixth day. This means that Adam was actually the first human to ‘discover’ dinosaurs! This also means that dinosaurs didn’t turn into birds—birds were formed the day before dinosaurs.

How about what they ate? Genesis 1 teaches that at the end of the Sixth day, God declared that His completed creation was ‘very good’. He instructed Adam, Eve and all the animals to eat from the plants and trees He had created for them on Day 3 (vv. 29–30). So, all dinosaurs (including the mighty T.rex) munched on fruits, leaves or other plant material in the very beginning.

And the Bible mentions dinosaurs. You won’t find the English word ‘dinosaur’, because this word was made up hundreds of years after the Bible was first translated into English. But you will find, more than once, a Hebrew word which was then translated as dragon(s). And when God is talking to Job, He describes a beast called behemoth that is the largest of His creation—it eats grass, has strong legs and bones, and a ‘tail like a cedar’. Of course, cedar trees are huge—they can grow up to 3.6 m (12 ft) in diameter. This can’t possibly be a hippopotamus or elephant, but fits well with some type of sauropod dinosaurs here – perhaps a Brachiosaurus or Apatosaurus!

The Bible presents a different picture from what we usually hear, doesn’t it? But since it was written by the Creator God, we can trust it to provide us with a true and accurate picture of history that helps us understand the world we live in.

THE FIVE REAL DIBOSAUR ‘AGES’:

Formed ca 4000 B.C.

God brought dinosaurs into existence on the sixth day of the very first week in the history of the universe—about 6,000 years ago, along with other animals that make their homes on land, and With Adam and Eve. It was a perfect place in which all living Things dined on the green plants God had created for them.

Fallen ca. 4000 B.C.

The universe was changed when Adam disobeyed and took a bite of the fruit of the tree from which God had forbidden him to eat. Before that sad event, death of animals and humans wasn’t part of God’s beautiful creation. But after Adam disobeyed, he and Eve began immediately to die, and the animals began to desire other food besides the plants God had given them.

Flooded ca. 2500 B.C.

As time went on, things got so bad that God judged the wickedness He saw with an Earth-covering Flood. He brought two (seven of some) of every kind of land creature—including dinosaurs!—on board Noah’s Ark, where they were safe from the storms and waves, volcanoes and earthquakes. Those land animals that breathe through nostrils that weren’t selected to go on the Ark perished in the great Flood. Because of all the water, mud and minerals that were mixed up during this time, the conditions were right to cause the bones of many of these animals, and also many of the sea and air creatures, to become fossilized. Fossils have since been found around the world.

Faded…

After the Flood, the people, the dinosaurs and the rest of the animals left the Ark and began to refill the Earth. Some of the animals found it increasingly difficult to survive in the new world—the climate in some places was much colder than before, as a result of the Ice Age that started after the Flood finished. Also, food sources may have been much less, and people were now allowed to kill and eat animals (Genesis 9:3). So they used them for Food, and also clothing, weapons, jewelry, etc.—and eventually some of those animals became extinct. As they slowly died out over the years, all that was left of the dinosaurs were their bones and some stories—which turned into legends about ‘dragons’.

Found ca. 1800 A.D. to present time

Later, people began to discover bones of colossal beasts. In 1841, Sir Richard Owen was the first person to use the word ‘dinosaur’ to describe the ‘terrible lizards’ whose bones he was studying. From their perspective, they were discovering ‘dinosaurs’ for the first time, but actually, they were re-discovering dinosaurs … Adam was the first human to discover them! Because most don’t believe the Bible to be true, people have created a new (but wrong) history of the dinosaurs. They have put the bones they found on display in museums, along with their incorrect stories about the past.

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