The Dinosaur Dilemma

“Sarcosuchus imperator” – The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis

The scariest movies I was allowed to watch as a kid were the Jurassic Park series, I remember going through that all to common phase where kids love dinos. I always chose dinosaur toys over Barbie dolls, sometimes those barbies became lunch for my T-Rex.

Even now, in my church preschool class, my children gravitate toward the dinosaur toy chest which is even more popular than the Hot Wheels race cars. The truth is, we never really lose our love of mystery. That curiosity toward the unknown and bizarre.  I mean let’s face it, dinosaurs are so terrifying and strange that it’s hard to imagine they ever existed. How could such monstrous creatures ever walk this earth and how do they fit in with the Christian story of creation?

Despite their amazing preservation, which proves the occurrence of the flood in Genesis (I will explain later), I believe that God also wanted them to be discovered, years later, so that they would serve as a reminder of pre-flood times.

Some say that they were in the Garden of Eden, created by God in the beginning. I believe that some were, such as the dinosaur-like creatures they termed “Behemoth” and “Leviathan,” which remain to this day a mystery though the description of the Behemoth matches that of a herbivorous dinosaur with a long tail and immense strength, while the Leviathan is more crocodile in description (Job 40-41). Either way, it seemed that mankind lived with them as naturally as we do creatures today. But what about the others?

The monsters of nightmares with razor teeth and claws that surely were killing machines of immense strength and ferocity. I find it difficult to imagine such creatures snuggling up to Adam and Eve in the garden, nor can I imagine God creating these creatures which depict pure savagery. Sure, we have crocodiles today and many reptiles that could be dangerous, but nothing like the T-Rex which was roughly 20 feet tall with a head large enough to swallow a man whole.

To find out what went wrong, we need only look to the beginning, the moment Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit and God placed a curse upon them and the land. From that moment everything changed and “forgot” it’s identity and purpose. Animals that once possibly talked to Adam (Eve didn’t freak out when the snake spoke to her), became dumb and timid of man. The plants that once grew freely and were easy to cultivate now required work, and had to be distinguished between thorny and poisonous plants.

The safe bubble was sealed away from mankind and they were cast out into the world which was already under satan’s control. I believe that the climate at this time was still rather tropical and “garden-like” since all the waters that God would later send down in the flood, resided in the earth and skies promoting a greenhouse effect. Mountains and water channels would exist only after the floodwaters retreated, carving out the landscape we know today. 

I heard that in Florida, pet boa constrictors have become an issue. People dump their pets into the Everglades where they flourish in the perfect temperature and space filled with prey. You see, reptiles have the potential to keep growing so long as everything is just right. They say that pet reptiles grow to the size of the exhibit or cage, remove such boundaries and they will continue to grow. Boa’s at home stay somewhat small, in Florida, abandoned snakes have grown to 10+ feet and can weigh over a hundred pounds!

Without God keeping things in check, reptiles all around grew and changed, warped by sin, turned into something other than their original intent. Satan is good at destroying what God originally created to be pure and just. Once Noah’s time had come, all creation and mankind had been fully corrupted and twisted. Noah’s Ark was large, and God started over by preserving the original animals, the core species that other varieties would come from later on. However, it is my belief that many of the creatures were left behind, T-Rex and dinosaurs of the like including.

This is of course just my opinion, setting aside the secular science timeline and its eras, I believe that the majority of dinosaurs died in that flood, and this becomes more believable by the preserved remains that have been found throughout the world.

Footprints, if you walked out in the mud your tracks would soon disappear, wind, multiple storms, and other animals/plants would destroy the prints. Today we have fossilized dino prints that are perfect and seemingly untouched.

Remains, if an animal dies in the woods it will deteriorate, be eaten, and it’s bones scattered. Today we find complete dino fossils, in death pose as if frozen in time.

Place, dinosaurs of the same species have been found in sporadic locations as if carried there and placed, ocean fossils can be found on mountain tops!

Age, if you believe that the Bible is accurate (as I do), this earth really isn’t that old and so dinos existed only briefly in the span of time, dying rather quickly and catastrophically which is something most scientists can agree upon, though I was taught that the event was a meteor and not a flood.

The floodwaters came fast, depositing layer upon layer of sediment, forever sealing away the remains of dino and man alike. Is Genesis History: Rocks and Fossils is a great source of information from scientists who set out to find the truth, regardless of the push to accept what’s been deemed popular science.

Was the flood cruel? I used to think it was, how could God do that to his creation, and yet if mankind and the earth had really slipped so far, perhaps we would’ve destroyed ourselves in the end. I personally am grateful that dinosaurs don’t exist today, it isn’t so far fetched to think that if they did we would be living out a real Jurassic Park film, which proves that the past should remain in the past. And what God has destroyed, should not be resurrected.

What do you believe?

 

Advertisement