As we study creation we want to answer questions that people would have about it. Some questions might relate to dinosaurs such as: “When did dinosaurs live?” and “What happened to the dinosaurs?” This week, we want to examine reasonable answers to both those questions.
We know that dinosaurs existed because fossils of dinosaurs have been found. There are also multiple historical accounts of dinosaur-like creatures called dragons.
Fossils
A fossil is a part of a plant or animal where everything in it has been replaced by minerals so it is like a rock. Fossils of all kinds of things are found everywhere on earth. Fruit trees are found in the Arctic zone and redwood forests are buried under the South Pole.
Fossils are formed when an animal or plant is quickly buried under mud that has lots of minerals in it. An animal that dies and is not rapidly buried under mud is either eaten by predators or decays. Fossils do not form very often.
Because dinosaurs are now extinct, evolutionists think they had to live millions of years ago. Evolutionists believe that one kind of animal turns into different kinds of animals over time. They believe it took millions and millions of years for the different types of animals that exist to develop. Somewhere in those millions and millions of years, dinosaurs developed and lived. They think dinosaurs became extinct millions of years ago.
In contrast to evolution, Christians believe that God created each type of animal after its own kind. That means that dinosaurs were created as dinosaurs. They didn’t first exist as some other type of animal and then change into dinosaurs.
Land Mammals
Last week we saw that on the sixth day that God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds.
Since dinosaurs are land animals, the animals God created would have to include them. Next week we will see that God also made people on the 6th day. If God made both people and dinosaurs on the sixth day that means that they lived together at the same time on earth. However long people have lived on earth is how long ago the dinosaurs lived here too.
The Book of Job
In the book of Job in the Bible, God talks to Job about his creation. God describes the behemoth that he created. (Job 40:15-24) The word behemoth means giant, kingly beast in Hebrew. Consider whether it sounds like a dinosaur as you read the passage.
15 “Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. 16 What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! 17 His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. 18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. 19 He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword.20 The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby. 21 Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh. 22 The lotuses conceal him in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround him. 23 When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth. 24 Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose?
Behemoth
According to Job 40:15-24 the behemoth does the following:
- He eats plants. He is an herbivore.
- He has very strong abdominal muscles to support his huge body.
- His tail moves back and forth like a swaying cedar, a huge tree. His thigh muscles are tight together.
- He has huge, strong bones to support the weight of his body.
- There is none in size more majestic and bigger than he is, but compared to God he is small.
- Other animals aren’t threatened by him as he is a plant eater. He is not aggressive.
- He lives in wet, marshy areas.
- He hides among the plants, submerged in the water.
- Because he is so big and strong, the powerful flow and flooding of the Jordan River doesn’t affect him. He can stand firm and isn’t swept away.
- No one is able to catch him, trap him or lead him around. He is not an animal that could be tamed like an elephant.
God said that the Behemoth ranked first among all the creatures he created. This means that he was the largest, and the greatest of all the animals. The dinosaurs belonging to the class of Sauropods were the biggest land animals that ever lived. The Apatosaurus was a Sauropod measuring 76 feet long. Diplodocus (die-PLOH-dah-kus) measured 87 feet long. These Sauropods also had huge tails that could sway like a cedar tree to counter-balance their long necks
The Behemoth had powerful legs. So did the great Sauropod dinosaurs. They needed huge pillar like legs to support their great size. They were marvelously designed by God to carry the immense weight of their bodies. A Brachiosaurus weighed about 89 tons; which is more than 12 adult elephants combined.
The Behemoth was a land animal, but it could hide in the water. The Brachiosaurus and other Sauropods could submerge their bodies in water, hiding themselves with only their eyes and their nose visible. Unlike other animals whose nose is positioned directly above the mouth, the nose of the Sauropod is located on the top of the head, designed so most of its body could be submerged in water and it would still be able to breathe. That means it could hide among the plants in the water.
What was it then?
Because the description of the Behemoth does not fit any animals currently living today, some people think that the behemoth was a mythical animal. We need to remember that God is the one giving the description in Job and he would not describe a mythical animal as something he created. When God was talking to Job he said (Job 40:15), “Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.”
Other people have said that the behemoth must be an elephant, hippopotamus, or crocodile. The size of the behemoth is obviously larger than those animals and the type of tail of an elephant or hippopotamus is different. Both an elephant and a hippopotamus can be caught by people and kept in a zoo. A crocodile has a big tail but it doesn’t sway back and forth like a tree; it is dragged on the ground. Also, the crocodile is a vicious animal; other animals wouldn’t play around it.
Dinosaur?
If you believe the description fits that of a Sauropod, it is evidence that dinosaurs lived at the same time as Job, as he knew the animal that God was describing. That means dinosaurs didn’t become extinct millions of years ago. They lived together with people as God created them on the same day.
The other question to examine is: “What happened to the dinosaurs?” It is widely believed by scientists that dinosaur life died out very suddenly. All kinds of theories to explain this have been proposed by evolutionists such as: volcanoes erupting, meteors striking the earth, etc. These theories fail to explain why so many dinosaurs died out at the same time all over the earth.
A reasonable explanation as to what happened to the dinosaurs would be a worldwide flood occurring, such as the flood at the time of Noah. A worldwide flood would have wiped most of the dinosaurs from the earth. Rapid burial by floodwaters springing up from under the ground and coming down in torrential rain would explain why so many dinosaurs and other types of creatures are found in the fossil record around the world.
If Noah took baby dinosaurs or dinosaur eggs on the ark with him, some would have survived after the flood and lived at the time of Job. However, conditions on earth following the flood would have been much harsher than before, causing not just dinosaurs but other animals found in the fossil record to die out and become extinct.
You have to examine the evidence and determine what is a reasonable explanation for both the existence and disappearance of dinosaurs. Did God create the dinosaurs as he did every other living thing or did they evolve from some other animal hundreds of millions of years ago? Does the flood explain the existence of fossils? Could a worldwide flood have wiped out most dinosaurs causing them to eventually become extinct?
- Overview Questions: When were dinosaurs created? How do we know dinosaurs lived at the same time as people? What does the description of behemoth sound like? Why? What is a reasonable explanation for what happened to the dinosaurs? Why?
- Thought Questions: Why are dinosaurs always described as having lived millions of years ago? Why won’t evolutionists consider the possibility of a worldwide flood as having wiped out the dinosaurs?
- Prayer: Thank God that he is the almighty creator that brought all things into being. Thank him for the dinosaurs that show his amazing power and strength. Pray that you would understand dinosaurs from God’s viewpoint and not the way the world thinks about them.
- Week’s Memory Verse: Job 40:15
“Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.
What can we know about dinosaurs from the Bible?
God made dinosaurs along with people.