Christians, I really want to know...?

Question

what's up with dinosaurs?

Answer 1

Secular books would tell you that the first discovery of what were later called “dinosaurs” was around 1677 when Dr. Robert Plot found huge bones that were thought to belong to a giant elephant or a giant human. Then in 1822, Gideon Mantell and his wife found some Iguanodon teeth. But that was really when dinosaurs were rediscovered. Adam discovered the dinosaurs when he named the kinds of land animals God had created on the sixth day of Creation.

Take a look at Genesis 1:24ff. Here is a basic form of logic called a syllogism: T. Rex is a land animal. Land animals were made on day 6. Therefore, T. Rex was made on day 6. So, according to the Bible, dinosaurs lived beside man. Dinosaurs were made on day six of the creation week the same as man; they were beasts of the earth.

You may ask, “But what about Gen. 1:30?” It says, “...to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to everything that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food.”

Yes, all the dinosaurs were vegetarians at first, before Adam’s sin. We see that people and animals only ate plants, not other animals. The carnivorous part of the present “food chain” didn’t exist. There were no animals to rip you apart in this “very good” creation—lions, bears, crocodiles, T. Rex, and Velociraptor ate squash for dinner.

But what about those sharp teeth? After Adam’s sin in Genesis 3, God changed the serpent (I think as a visual reminder to us that Satan is still out there). He changed childbirth, the ground, and brought in physical death to man. It could also be at that time He changed the animals (that had previously only eaten plants): creatures given teeth and claws designed to rend flesh, venom to paralyze, mouths to suck blood, coils to constrict, expandable jaws to swallow prey, etc.

God could have changed them after the fall, but the fact is, there are many sharp toothed animals living today that are vegetarians like the giant panda, the fruit bat, and some apes and bears are totally vegetarians. They have those big carnivorous looking teeth and yet they are plant eaters. And there are some plants that require sharp teeth to eat—can you imagine trying to bite into a coconut? Some evolutionists say the panda evolved sharp teeth so it could eat bamboo.

Then, in Gen. 2:19-20, we can see that Adam named the dinosaurs since he named every land animal and bird. It doesn’t mention cats and kangaroos and yet we believe they were there.

And then, look at Genesis 6:18-20 about Noah and the animals. It doesn’t say two of every kind except dinosaurs. Now, keep in mind that God brought the animals to Noah; it says they will “come to you”; he didn’t have to go out and catch them.

The response that often comes from the skeptic is: “Noah couldn’t have fit all those animals in the ark—especially the dinosaurs!” And you ask them, “How many animals had to go in the ark?” “I don’t know.” “Well, how big was the ark?” “I don’t know.” So, you don’t believe an unknown amount of animals could have fit in an unknown sized ark?

First of all, Genesis 6:20 states that representative “kinds” of birds and land animals boarded the Ark, not all the different species and subspecies. People say, “But there were over 600 names for dinosaurs.” Yes, and there are many names for the different types of dogs in the world, but all the dog “species” came from only one original dog kind—one Genesis kind. There were many different Ceratopsia dinosaurs that probably all came from one Genesis kind. Many creationists believe there were fewer than 50 distinct kinds of dinosaurs that had to be on the Ark.

Second, you also need to remember that the ark didn’t look like those cutesy Sunday School pictures. The ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet tall (and that’s using a small cubit measurement; it could have been quite a bit larger). The space in the ark would have held more than 520 modern railroad boxcars, and I’ve read that shippers allocate up to 250 sheep per boxcar when moving them by train.

Third, not all dinosaurs were huge, many were as small as chickens. Some scientists say the average size of the dinosaurs was about that of a sheep or a small pony. Very few of the dinosaurs grew to extremely large sizes.

And fourth, who says that he took full grown dinosaurs on board? It would be foolish to fill up space on the ark with the oldest, biggest adults. The largest fossil dinosaur eggs found are about the size of a football. Reptiles normally grow till the day they die so the enormous dinosaurs were probably just very old. Would God want to use senior citizens to populate the new world? Their main purpose was to reproduce after the flood. I don’t think there were old adults of any of the animals on the ark. Some scientists, looking at their growth rings, believe the dinosaurs had mid-life growth spurts; it would make sense to take them before that time in their development.

Now, take a look at Job 40:15-24. Job was questioning God because of his suffering, and so God comes and challenges Job with His creation.

Many people say, “Job 40 can’t be speaking of a dinosaur.” They say that, not because the description doesn’t fit, but because of their preconceived conception that man and dinosaurs didn’t live together.

The margin of the NIV says, “Possibly the hippopotamus or the elephant.” Something to keep in mind—the footnotes are not a part of the original.

Well, the tail of an elephant or hippo is like a twig, not a cedar (most dogs have longer tails). Throughout the Scriptures, cedars were known for their great size and length.

Nothing on earth today fits this description, but a sauropod type of dinosaur does. The largest we have found was over 120 feet long. That sounds to me like the “chief”—not a hippo.

And then in Job 41, God describes the Leviathan (Isa. 27:1 calls it the dragon in the sea). The margin of the NIV says, “Possibly the crocodile.” But the description again doesn’t fit any animal alive today. Besides, man has never had a problem catching crocodiles, even primitive tribes, but God says in Job 41 that Leviathan couldn’t be caught.

Some think this was just a mythical creature since it speaks of it breathing fire. And yes, Job is a poetic book and those could just be poetic descriptions. But not necessarily. Impossible you say? What about the electric eel that can produce enough electricity to stun a horse? If the electric eel was extinct and all we could find were its fossils, would we be able to know that it could generate electricity? Nope. What about the firefly and anglerfish that can produce light? What about the bombardier beetle that can fire a boiling mixture of chemicals at its enemies that is 212 degrees Fahrenheit?

Why couldn’t God have created certain water-living reptiles that were capable of expelling hot gaseous fumes that could ignite? Most animals produce methane anyway, which is a flammable gas. Stories of fire-breathing dragons have circulated for thousands of years.

Also, keep in mind that Behemoth and Leviathan were included along with real creatures that Job knew about. Read Job sometime.

In Isaiah 30:6, Isaiah speaks of flying serpents. I also find it interesting that Herodotus, the Greek Historian who lived around 450 BC wrote about flying serpents in Arabia. He talked about finding their bones and described their snake-like bodies and bat-like wings. And the Jewish historian from the first century, Josephus, wrote about Moses and the Israelites having a difficult time passing through a particular region because of the presence of flying serpents. I think they were speaking of one of the pterosaurs like the pterodactyl, pteranodon, or rhamphorhynchus.

Answer 2

We don't know. We were not there.
We do, however, know that the things we need for life every day, we have in our hands. Since dinosaurs are not here to deal with, why do we fret about them?

Nobody ever said that God created the heavens and the earth in 6 X 24 hours. It is made clear, in the Bible that to God a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years is as a day. So to use our worldly measure, to determine how long it took, is feeble minded.

For all we know, it took 6000 years, in which time the dinosaurs could have roamed this earth. We have no idea, the time or sequence. We have never been told.

The only reason, I can see, for constantly arguing the birth of this planet and the times, is to distract the believer. It's like getting all involved with a stick, when one has yet to notice the forest. What a waste.

Answer 3

We cannot believe the
time line of Earth's history concocted by the scientists. They did exist, a quick mention of something in the Book of Job that is said to be a dinosaur, and yet still today they are here.
Those others are extinct. Consider the animals that ARE still alive...let's say we didn't know what a giraffe, or elephant, or Rhinoceros, or Whale was. Find those types of bones, and presto- a dinosaur.
For whatever reason, certain animals have gone extinct. I think mostly due to the flood during Noah's time. Obviously the climate changed enough where they couldn't survive.
I imagine the reason so many plant and animal fossils are found is because they will sink and be quickly buried in a flood.( the ground gets churned up)
Human bodies tend to float. This is why there are so few fossils of people...they would have rotted away.

Answer 4

Dinosaurs are the 'Taneem' created that was brought forth from the waters. Genesis 1:21. Translated as whales.

The water breathing water dragon (Leviathon) has a chapter in Job. So does the Behemoth (tail like a cedar).

There are a lot of scripture of the dragon. Look up 'dragon' (word search) in a Strongs Exhaustive Concordance that goes with the King James bible.

In Revelation is a scripture of the big red dragon who is satan & swiped 1/3 of the angles out of heaven with his tale.

Answer 5

What do dinosaurs have to do with Christians? We know they existed at some point in time and now are dead.

Answer 6

A messianic Jew is a Jew that believes that Jesus is the Messiah. Christians and Messianic Jews believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They are Jews. The point of view of the anti Messianice Jews is best summed up by Mark JPAS when he said "it is acceptable to blend some degree of foreign spiritual elements with Judaism. The one exception is Christianity, which is perceived to be incompatible with any form of Jewishness. This is the double standard that is applied to Christianity even though Jesus is considered the Jewish Messiah in Christianity. Messianic Jews are looked at with even greater disdain. Why? its a cover for there own deviations from Judaism. Some Jews need to maintain a connection to Jewish family because they have deviated so much from traditional Judaism that many Orthodox question their Jewishness. They need find some way to distract attention because of there deviation from the Torah. This is done by pointing their finger at others to direct attention away from their own actions. You can't give yourself a title and expect that it makes you something. This is the argument that has been used against Jews that decide that Jesus is the Messiah. We are told that the mere belief of a different nature of God immediately invalidated a Jews Jewishness. At the same time Jews that become atheists, pantheists or stop practicing any element of their religion we are told are still Jews. They say that you can believe in anything but Jesus. Jews call conversion "joining the tribe". Things that would never fly in Orthodox or for that matter Messianic Judaism can be found in the Reform and Reconstructionist movements. A good example of this is a previous question asked here. The person asking worshiped the God Ferris but did not believe in him or the Jewish God. The focus of the question was" ...would you PERSONALLY feel comfortable welcoming me not just as a fellow congregant at your Synagogue, but as a member of the Tribe?" (so he was clearly asking about converting to Judaism). The response was "Reform Judaism covers a wide swath of beliefs and practices and I am sure you will be wholly accepted. ... I personally would accept you whole heartily as a fellow Jew." So some Jews will accept all kinds of deviations from the Torah but not belief in "Jesus". Let's not forget the Reform movement wanted to change the sabbath to Sunday to be more like Christianity. Most Messianic Jews are Torah observant yet you can become an atheist, stop practicing their faith, become a Buddhist, join a Unitarian Church and still be a Jew in the eyes of Reform/Reconstructionist Jews. Most Orthodox when asked about other Jews will say they don't know what non Orthodox Jews are. The same applies to the other sects. Speaking of sects Jews will tell you there are no sects but its not true. Rabbinical Jews follow an understanding of their faith that was established 1,900 years ago. They have their own canon of Scripture. There are also non Rabbinical Jews such as the Ethiopian Jews that follows the pattern of the Christian Old Testament and they have many additional books that they consider to be scripture. A group called the Karaites is the opposite of the Ethiopian and only believe in the 5 Books of Moses. Rabbinical Jews call Karaites "a sect of Judaism". You can goggle it and see for yourself. Don't let anyone tell you that there are no sects in Judaism. They say the the teachings of Jesus are very different from Judaism. They also claim that Jesus taught nothing new from the rabbis before him. Then they we tell you that there were no rabbis until a hundred years after the time of Jesus. Its all about winning the argument to them not about what's true. The problem is not differences but similarities. You should know ALL the writers of the Christian Bible were Jews but one. Much of our Scriptures are shared. The vast majority of early believers in Jesus were Jews. So when you hear the exact opposite you need to keep that in mind. A Jew can believe in Jesus and still be a Jew. Edit: those that make personal accusations should include links or shut up.

Answer 7

1. The term dinosaur is probagbly less then 200years old.
2. They existed and are mentioned in scripture (including Job; behemoth and Leviathon), after the Flood. (Job; son of Isaachar, Eliphaz; son of Esau).
3. They seem to be extinct, like the unicorn; why, I currently do not know.

Answer 8

Dinasours were created by God along with the animals. None were carnivours even though some dinasours and animals had the anatomy to be carnivours. After the flood fear was put into the animals of humans and we were able to eat meat from that point on. Something changed drastically which caused all the dinasours to go extinct. We are not sure what it was.

Answer 9

OH, they did exhist at one time...way back when...at the time of Job...he even talked about them....there were a few that still roamed the earth ...but the majority were destroyed in the flood....when everything went topsy-turvy....(the earth puked-so to speak) and broke into fragments and such...and the one big mass became several...that's all...OK? Even to this day, there are great big water creatures that live deep in the ocean, huge....they didn't die because the flood didn't affect them...it was "water" this is how other big creatures came to be on top of the earth in vast no#s kinda "washed-up and dead..."then we find them later and say we made these fantastic discoveries!! but, it's all there....just have to know where to look...that's all.....OK? No big deal.....don't get your underware in a bunch over it.......lol........

Answer 10

Dinosaurs existed.
They were either let to die off, or exterminated.
Dinosaurs don't exist anymore ....at least not in the original sense of the term.

Answer 11

I LOVE dinosaurs, and the fact that they are now extinct.
I certainly do NOT want to have to deal with foot-long mosquitos.