Where do dinosaurs fit in the Bible?

Yesterday morning I sat through a delightful 90 minute presentation by Ken Ham, President and CEO of the creation Museum, made to elementary age children. The subject had to do with dinosaurs and how they fit in Scripture.

Children aren’t the only ones who want to know how dinosaurs fit in the Bible. We all struggle with putting our world into a modern language.

For example, the word dinosaur was never used until 1841. It’s obviously a made up word to describe something unknown and unusual.

The modern world “discovered” large, unknown bones of land animals beginning in the 1800s. They became known to us as “dinosaurs.”

How do they fit into scripture?

Genesis 1 describes God’s creation. On the first day, God created light. He spoke it into existence by saying, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3).

God created the world in successive days. By the way, the Hebrew word for create is only used with God as the subject. Therefore, man can make, fashion, arrange, and form, but only God can create.

On the sixth day God created “living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.”

In our minds, of course, we all think of dinosaurs fitting into the “beasts of the earth.”

On the sixth day God created human beings as well. He made them male and female.

Dinosaurs come in many different forms and sizes, some are as small as chickens and others are giant creatures of the earth.

Ken Ham noted that dinosaurs fit into two groups: some about the size of sheep and others about the size of a buffalo. Therefore, there was plenty of room on the ark for dinosaurs.

We have romanticized the extinction of dinosaurs. Actually, we don’t know what happened to the dinosaurs other than that they went extinct in the same way many other creatures have done throughout history. To put it in the language we all understand: they died.

History is filled with stories about large, fearsome creatures. From England we hear about St. George and the Dragon. The Chinese, of course, have many “dragon” sightings.

What else should we say about dinosaurs?

We should place them where they belong in God’s creation. He is the Creator and we are His people. We must live our lives in obedience to the God who created us in His own image. We must seek to honor Him with our whole lives and give Him allegiance and devotion.

Here’s one of the things I’ve learned in life. The more I have learned about Scripture the more I see God’s hand at work to bring all people to know and serve Him and to bless their lives.

Let us seek to know Him and His work in our world.

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