Commentary on The Lost World

Authors: Ken Ham, Carl Kerby

The Lost World is the sequel to the biggest-grossing (in more meanings than one) film of all time, Jurassic Park (1993). The Lost World is a grossly violent, scary, and dark film (two T-Rexes, for example, use a man as a wishbone). Also, the Lord’s name is used in vain nine times. It’s a wonder that it could have ever received a PG-13 rating. The story involves a group of dinosaurs who survived the closing of the Jurassic Park entertainment complex of the first film. Early in the movie, the ‘hero,’ Ian, sets the tone when he says there will be a lot of ‘running and screaming’ to follow. One dinosaur, a T-Rex, is transported to San Diego, escapes, and wreaks havoc in the suburbs, frightening children and eating adults along the way.

Film’s Claims

1. Did dinosaurs evolve into birds? The movie portrays dinosaurs as bird-like (e.g., a T-Rex was a ‘nurturing parent’ of its young in a ‘nest’). This is to illustrate the claim made by both movies that birds we see today are really dinosaurs, for birds evolved from them! (One evolutionist was quoted in a paper as saying that a hummingbird is a dinosaur!) Birds and reptiles (such as dinosaurs) are vastly different, from the structure of their bones to their coverings (feathers are extremely complex in design, and bear no resemblance to scales). Archaeopteryx, a fossil bird paraded by evolutionists as a link to reptiles, is considered by even many evolutionists to be a full bird—it flew! Furthermore, modern birds have been found in the fossil record buried at about the same time as Archaeopteryx!
2. Is it possible to clone a dinosaur today? Both of the dinosaur films spun the tale of dinosaurs being re-created from DNA that had been preserved in dinosaur blood found in mosquitoes, which in turn were entombed in amber. However, to clone any animal (including the Scottish sheep) you must also have a living female egg into which the preserved DNA could be placed. The female egg cell provides the cytoplasm (i.e., machinery) that is absolutely required for cloning. Therefore, you’ll never be able to clone a dinosaur unless you have a living female dinosaur!

The Bible’s Claims—A Chronology of Dinosaur History

When your young people ask you about dinosaurs, what will you say to them? If you begin with the Bible and ignore the speculations of fallible men, here is how you can offer answers.

1. When were dinosaurs created? Dinosaur-like creatures that lived in the sea were created on day five (Gen. 1:21—some translations call them ‘sea monsters’) and those that lived on land were created on day six (Gen. 1:24), just thousands of years ago. They did not perish 65 million years ago in the (incorrect) evolutionary time-line. Furthermore, Buddy Davis of Answers in Genesis—and four others—have found ‘fresh’ dinosaur bones in Alaska (some with ligaments still attached!) including a Lambeosaurus.
2. Did humans live at the same time as dinosaurs? Because Adam named all the different kinds of animals that had been created on day six (Gen. 2:19, 20), Adam must have lived with them. (Also see Job reference below.) By the way, even some evolutionists believe that there are dinosaurs alive today in Africa!
3. Are dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible? It is very possible that Job was describing a dinosaur in Job 40 when he wrote of the ‘chief’ of God’s Creation, with a tail like a cedar tree. Very possibly this was a Brachiosaurus. Some Bible commentators have called this animal a hippo or an elephant, but their tails cannot be compared to the massive cedar tree! Also, dragons are mentioned in Psalm 74:13, Isaiah 43:20, and other verses. The actual word ‘dinosaur’ is not mentioned in Scripture because it was first coined in 1841, well after the King James Bible of the 1600s.
4. Were dinosaurs meat-eaters? According to the Bible, all animals were originally plant eaters (Gen. 1:30), not carnivores. You see, the Bible clearly teaches there was no physical death, disease, or bloodshed of the ‘nephesh’ creatures before Adam. Therefore, the imagined geological ages of millions of years are a man-made myth. Actually, by following the dates provided in the Bible, the date for Creation must be under 7,000 years, not millions or billions of years. Therefore, even the menacing T-Rex was meant to eat plants at the beginning. Although he had very sharp teeth, a lot of animals who have sharp teeth today are not carnivores, but use them to open fruit and eat vegetables. Having sharp teeth has nothing to do with an animal being a meat-eater or not.
5. If dinosaurs lived at the same time as Adam, were they later on Noah’s ark? Genesis 7:8 says that all land animals entered the ark in pairs. Therefore, all land-dwelling dinosaurs not on the ark died in the Flood, a watery catastrophe that covered the whole Earth (Gen. 7:19, 20). Indeed, there was plenty of room on this massive Ark for all the land animals, including the 50 or so types of dinosaurs. About one year later all the animals exited the Ark (Gen. 8:19).
6. Were dinosaurs real? Are the fossils we find in rocks today really their remains? Dinosaurs were real creatures (they are mentioned in the Bible, as stated earlier), and we do find their skeletons in rock layers. The Bible even has an explanation for these fossils. For a fossil to be formed, a creature had to have been buried quickly to prevent scavengers from destroying the carcass. Because in Romans 5:12 and other passages we are told that there was no death of animals before Adam sinned, the world-wide Flood provides an ideal mechanism for laying down thousands of feet of rock layers, resulting in the creation of fossils.
7. What happened to the dinosaurs? After the Flood, the dinosaurs died for the same reasons animals become extinct today (for example: changing climatic conditions, disease, competition with other animals for food, humans also killing them for food, etc.).
8. Does the Bible teach evolution (for example that dinosaurs evolved into birds)? The Lost World makes the claim that dinosaurs eventually evolved into birds. This goes not only against good science but against Scriptural chronology. Birds were created on day five (Genesis 1:22) and land animals on day six (Genesis 1:24). An all-powerful God would never use the cruel, wasteful process of evolution (‘survival of the fittest;’ or ‘nature red [in blood] in tooth and claw’) to bring about life. It is against His nature. Struggle and death came as a result of man’s sin after the Creation.

Conclusion

The infallible Word of God explains a great deal about the so-called ‘mysteries’ about dinosaurs. Should we accept the teachings of evolutionary scientists and Hollywood movie-makers who were not present to see the origin of living things (and the death of dinosaurs), or believe the God Who has always been there? Our all-knowing God has written the only completely accurate history of the universe in His Book. Dinosaurs should remind us that just as God judged the rebellion in Noah’s day, He will judge the world again. For those who do not accept by faith what Christ has done for them on the Cross and do not recognize their sinful nature and need for redemption (Rom. 3:23), the Bible warns us that such people will live forever, but will be separated from God in a place of torment that the Bible calls hell. The same Bible that describes dinosaurs also describes our lost world’s way of salvation (John 3:16).

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