Dinosaurs & the Bible

Genesis 1:1-2-In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. NKJV

This week, we visited San Diego. While there, we went to the Natural Museum and watched a film on Titanosaurs, the largest land dinosaurs known today. When we exited the theatre, the question came up about how does dinosaurs fit into the biblical narrative? Our oldest daughter began to explain to her sisters what I had shared with her about this question. As I listened, I had to laugh, telling her that wasn’t quite how I explained it. But I refused to elaborate because I decided that would be a great blog for today. So, how do dinosaurs fit into the biblical narrative?

I won’t pretend that I have done major research on this question and that I have the theological answer to it. But over the years, I have read and heard information regarding this topic that has helped me to form my own reasoning about the subject. If you agree with it, that’s great! If you have additional information, I’d love to hear it. If you think I am making something up, I can’t help you! Just pray that eventually, I’ll learn more about the subject and will be able to share it!

Dr. Charlie Dates did a mini-teaching on Genesis with Right Now Media. If you have a subscription to Right Now Media and can watch it, I highly recommend it! He starts his teaching with Genesis 1:1

In the beginning God…

Genesis 1:1 NKJV

And there he rests for a few minutes. His point was that the Bible is a book about God. It’s not a history book per se, but it’s a book where God introduces Himself to us. We are told that God is the beginning of time because He established time. He has always existed, and nothing or anyone created Him or existed before Him! Since He made time, time doesn’t define Him, but He defines time. So when we think about dinosaurs, we have to understand that God was before the dinosaurs.

Verse 1 continues to tell us that God created the heavens and the earth. What my daughter was trying to explain to her sisters was that I shared with her that Genesis doesn’t tell us how long the world was in existence between verses 1 and 2. Let me explain. God didn’t create the heavens and the earth in total darkness and chaos. And yet, in verse 2, the Earth is in a hot mess!

Dr. Tony Evans states that it is believed that Satan fell from heaven between verses 1 and 2, and the universe was plunged into darkness. This is what my daughter was trying to explain that I had shared with her.

In Jeremiah 4, we find these words:

I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; and the heavens, they had no light…by His fierce anger.

Jeremiah 4:23-26 NKJV

Jeremiah seems to look back at the time when the earth was without form and void; there was no light because of the fierce anger of God. It is believed that this anger was directed at Satan when he tried to exalt himself above God, and God kicked Him out of heaven (see Isaiah 14).

By looking at the Hebrew words for “without form” and “void”, we can gather some interesting information. Tôû, pronounced “to’ hoo,” describes a place of desolation, a place of nothingness. The Hebrew word for void is bôû and is pronounced: “bo’ hoo” and describes a place of emptiness. Years ago, I heard a speaker, Billye Brim, teach on this subject. I recall her stating that these words together are equivalent to a house being in order, but then you walk into one room (like a child’s bedroom) and find it to be a total mess! The implication is that it wasn’t created by God as a mess, and then He fixed it, but something caused it to be a mess, so then He fixed it!

So what about dinosaurs! To be perfectly honest, I don’t know with certainty, but it appears that when God created the earth, it was a beautiful land with large roaming creatures we refer to as dinosaurs. But when Satan angered God, He kicked Satan out of heaven and to Earth, and in the process, every single living thing on Earth was destroyed in an instant, causing it to become a place of darkness, emptiness, and desolation. There was nothing left!

Then verse 2 happens. God looks at the mess and decides to clean it up, making it a place habitable for man. Out of nothing, He created the heavens and the Earth, as the Spirit of God hovered over the Earth to bring beauty out of chaos (Dr. Evans).

So again, I’m not a Bible scholar, but these are things that I have heard about the creation and the place of the dinosaurs in the Biblical narrative. The Bible was never intended to be a history book, giving us complete details about every facet of the world. Some things we are just going to have to accept by faith or search it out for answers! Whether we can explain the dinosaurs satisfactorily or not is not as important as us being able to explain that “In the beginning God.”

Everything we believe about God starts right here: in the beginning, God. God created the heavens and the earth! And while we may not be able to prove biblically the placement of dinosaurs with any greater certainty, scientists cannot disprove God with any clarity. As a matter of fact, the more documentaries I watch on archaeologists searching for the truth about God and the Bible, the more they prove scientifically that what is written in the Bible is true!

Here’s a lesson that I learned a long time ago. There are some questions that I absolutely cannot answer. Some things will be explained to me when I see Jesus, and maybe then I won’t care enough to ask! But I don’t bury my head in the sand and hide from the hard questions. I do my best to answer honestly with the information and understanding that I have before me at the time. This is the best explanation I have thus far. Hopefully, someone else was wondering like my daughters were wondering, and now you have something to think about! Wonderful Jesus!