Dinosaurs in History

Genesis 1:25
“And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.”

One of the most common questions Christians ask is “What about the dinosaurs?” Are dinosaurs proof that the Earth is countless ages old and that life must have evolved?

By themselves, dinosaur fossils do not disprove or contradict any history found in the Bible. Vast ages are not needed to form the Earth’s sedimentary rocks and the fossils in them. The flood of Noah’s time formed the rock layers quickly. The fact that fossil bones are found jumbled together in great heaps argues for their deposition during a flood. A global change, resulting in a cooler, wetter climate, probably caused the extinction of most of the survivors of the flood.

This means that man and dinosaur lived on earth at the same time. Perhaps we still do. In 1977, a Japanese trawler hauled up the decaying remains of a sea creature that had a long neck and flippers. After taking tissue samples and photographs, they returned the rotting carcass to the sea. The creature was commonly held to be a plesiosaurus, a sea-dwelling dinosaur. Virtually every people on earth have legends about dragons. Those dragons resemble dinosaurs very closely. If man had never seen these great reptiles, why does everyone seem to know about them?

The great sea-going dinosaurs were created on day five of creation week with the other great sea creatures. The great land dinosaurs were created on day six. Dinosaurs don’t contradict the Bible; rather, they glorify their Creator.

Prayer:
Lord, the dinosaurs were great creations of Your limitless hand. Help Christians to understand that these magnificent creatures do not call the Bible into doubt. Instead, these mighty creatures glorify You. Amen.

Notes:
Illustration: Skeletal anatomy of a Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus from Conybeare’s 1824 paper that described an almost complete plesiosaur skeletion found by Mary Anning in 1823.