What about Prehistoric Creatures?

[Michael V. Frazier]

Regarding "prehistoric" animals, i.e. creatures that are presumed to predate recorded history, as a Biblical Creationist, I cannot truly ascribe to the concept. I believe the Bible clearly defines the boundaries of all history, and thus all of history is recorded. :-)

Seriously though, I believe those creatures such as dinosaurs and other extinct animals were part of God's original created kinds, spanning Days 5 and 6. This, of course, runs contrary to the generally accepted theories of modern society, but the Bible does speak of such incredible creatures within its pages.

When I was a young boy, I can remember visiting the natural science museum on school trips and viewing the amazing reproductions of various dinosaur, pterosaur, and plseiosaur fossils. I believed that these were all just fabrications from the minds of nefarious men, twisted by Satan to deceive mankind. Since the Bible didn't mention anything about these great beasts, these fossils could not be authentic, my naive, eight-year-old mind reasoned. I later learned that the fossil record is overwhelming evidence that a vast amount of plant and animal life has vanished from the earth. That these massive creatures did walk the planet cannot truly be ignored or denied. While media sources tend to glamorize the enormous varieties of these creatures, the average size of dinosaurs was about that of a sheep, and some were as small as a chicken. Most people who live near sedementary rock layers, can find evidence of "pre-historic" life by just spending a little time foraging through the rocks and discovering trilobites, brachipods, etc. Needless to say, my young ideas about these creatures had to quickly progress into a more rational understanding.

As I grew older, I was taught that the earth is a few billion years old and that these fascinating creatures died out 60 millions years before man appeared on the planet. Although I never bought into the evolutionary concepts, I did naively accept what I was being taught by my secular teachers from School regarding the age of the earth because I had other religious teachers from the Church supporting the idea through philosophies such as the Ruin-Reconstruction (Gap) and Day-Age theories. These religious theories perfectly explained away any doubts and difficulties that secular geology imposed upon the Biblical texts. Unfortunately, instead of being given good answers to the proposed problem, by accepting these compromise theories I had moved from one misconception into yet another. Thankfully, the LORD finally brought me back to my younger faith but with a better understanding of the Scriptural texts.

Evolutionists preach that dinosaurs first evolved 235 million years ago and finally became extinct 65 millions years ago (about 5 million years before modern man evolved onto the scene). Because we do not see evidence of dinosaur-like creatures today, most scientists believe they were killed off by some sort of catastrophe, such as an asteroid impact. If we accept the Bible's direct testimony, dinosaurs were created on Day 6 of Creation Week (with pterosaurs and plesiosaurs on Day 5). Since Adam was also created on Day 6, it must be affirmed that man and dinosaurs lived at the same time. Dinosaurs could not have died out millions of years before mankind's appearance, for death, bloodshed, disease, etc. are all results of Adam's sin (cf. Gen. 1:29-30; Rom. 5:12; 1 Cor. 15:21).

As to my childish notion that the Bible doesn't mention these creatures, I can only confess that I was youthfully ignorant. Consider the words of God to Job regarding Behemoth: "Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee ... his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar ... He is the chief of the ways of God" (Job 40:15-19a). The phrase "chief of the ways of God" suggests that this creature was the largest land animal that God ever created. Most commentaries try to explain this amazing creature as merely a hippopotamus or elephant. Certainly these animals have powerful loins and significant bellies, but neither of their tails are anything like a cedar tree! On the other hand, a Brachiosaurus easily fits the description.

Or consider Leviathan: "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down? Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn? ... Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish spears? Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more. ... None is so fierce that dare stir him up: who then is able to stand before me? ... Who can open the doors of his face? his teeth are terrible round about. His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal. One is so near to another, that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered. By his neesings a light doth shine, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or caldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him. The flakes of his flesh are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. ... When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: by reason of breakings they purify themselves. ... Upon earth there is not his like, who is made without fear" Job 41:1-2, 7-8, 10, 14-23, 25, 33).

Descriptions like these defy any ability to rationalize them away. Yet most commentaries try to explain Leviathan as merely a crocodile. I particularly like the way the BlueLetterBible.org's Lexicon portrays this imagery: "לויתן (livyathan) 1. leviathan, sea monster, dragon; 1a) large aquatic animal; 1b) perhaps the extinct ... plesiosaurus, exact meaning unknown. -- Some think this to be a crocodile but from the description in Job 41:1-34 this is patently absurd. It appears to be a large fire breathing animal of some sort. Just as the bombardier beetle has an explosion producing mechanism, so the great sea dragon may have an explosive producing mechanism to enable it to be a real fire breathing dragon."

For Behemoth, BlueLetterBible.org has "בהמות (bĕhemowth) 1) perhaps an extinct dinosaur; 1a) a Diplodocus or Brachiosaurus, exact meaning unknown. -- Some translate as elephant or hippopotamus but from the description in Job 40:15-24, this is patently absurd."

Well anyway, to be absolutely true to the direct reading of Scripture, any deviation from the belief that God created "prehistoric" creatures at the same time He created everything else (Days 5 and 6), forces us into a compromise position between the infallible Word and the theories of fallible man.