Do You Squeeze Dinosaurs into the Bible?

You see, those who are trying to squeeze dinosaurs somewhere into the Bible are usually starting with man’s interpretation of dinosaurs (including the timeline of millions of years), based on fallible man’s ideas about the past, and can’t understand how the Bible and this understanding of dinosaurs go together. But we shouldn’t be starting with man’s ideas about the past! We need to start our thinking with God’s Word in every area.

Dinosaurs Are Land Animals Created on Day Six

To understand dinosaurs, we need to look at what the Bible teaches us about Earth’s history. We also need to recognize that the word dinosaur wasn’t invented until 1841, as a word for a particular group of land animals. According to Genesis, God created everything in six, literal, 24-hour days. Land animals were created on Day Six of Creation Week (Genesis 1:24–25). Since dinosaurs are land animals (some people think that certain flying and marine reptiles were dinosaurs, but these actually aren’t classified as dinosaurs), they must have been created on Day Six as well. Originally all dinosaurs, like everything else, were created vegetarian (Genesis 1:29–30). They didn’t begin to eat meat until after Adam and Eve rebelled against God.

The reason we have a number of dinosaurs buried in sedimentary layers is because of the global Flood described in Genesis 6–8. This catastrophic Flood would have ripped up miles of sediment, trapping and burying creatures that weren’t on the Ark as it was re-deposited. These creatures turned into fossils that we dig up today. After the Flood, dinosaurs died out for many of the same reason species die out today: changes in climate, habitat, lack of food, human predation, and so on.

Dinosaurs aren’t a mystery when you start with the history recorded in God’s Word. The Bible perfectly explains dinosaurs. They are just another example of the incredible variety of creatures that God created in the beginning.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.