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What about the Dinosaurs??

August 24, 2016 Speaker: Jim Galli Series: Specials

Topic: Special Messages

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What about dinosaurs?


These paragraphs were written quickly in response to a dear grandson's question. What about the dinosaurs. The Bible doesn't mention them. Why?
Modern science says; "see, the Bible makes no reference to dinosaurs. It's authors were ignorant of them. The fact that they did exist and that we have some scientific evidence proves the Bible is just a product of men with limited knowledge. blah blah blah.
We've heard it all before. We'll hear it all again. Someone has said, if we wait long enough, science catches up with the Bible. Things like in the book of Job; "he hangeth the earth on nothing". Job, the oldest book in the Bible pictured a spherical earth with poles while thousands of years later the best science said the world was flat.
But the Bible is not a science manual. That isn't it's purpose. It often speaks in the vernacular of how we perceive. It doesn't speak of earth revolvings, it speaks of sunrise and sunset. Just like every scientist would speak to his family members.
The purpose of the Bible is to portray a grand story of who we are, why we're in the mess we're in, where history has been and where it's going, and how to be redeemed out of the mess. From Genesis to Revelation the story is about man's creation, his resultant fall into sin, the pervasiveness of a world completely corrupted with sin, a world ruled by Satan.
That's our mess, and the Bible is the story of how God reached into that realm and revealed Himself first to single men, the patriarchs, like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Job. Then to a nation He chose. Then through His Son who died to pay the penalty for our sin. And ultimately how the Son of God, Jesus, will return and depose Satan and take back this earth and punish all wickedness and return it to the glory it was created for.
So where do dinosaurs fit in? Well, we will default to the creation narrative and say they were created along with everything else. Beyond that, everything is speculation. The problem is, they aren't really very important to the real narrative of the book.
I'll default to a couple of verses that set some priorities. First is Deuteronomy 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.
God has His secrets. He doesn't tell us everything. But what He does tell us we are responsible to know and understand and obey. Dinosaurs simply aren't important.
A second passage is similar. Proverbs 3:5,6
5Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. 6In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
do not lean on your own understanding What that means is the Bible trumps science. Where the Bible speaks and science wants to speak and there is a perceived difference, the Bible wins. Period. do not lean on your own understanding
So we can wonder and speculate about dinosaurs all we want. As long as we don't allow someone to try to say, see, science trumps the Bible.
The fact is, some scientist will discover a single bone some place and design an entire dinosaur around one found piece. What you have is a "flight of fancy". Some scientists imaginative portrayal of what might have been. Whoopee. All we really have is flight of fancy. Imagination built on bones.
None of it matters. Now listen because I'm going to say something important. The Bible is crystal clear about what does matter. Crystal clear. Sin. Sex. Gender issues. Judgement. Redemption. Things that have eternal significance. All crystal clear. Dinosaurs, not so much.
I've included a bit of hebrew poetry from the book of Job. Was God describing the very dinosaurs that He created, that science would find later? I think the possibility is there.
Job 41New International Version (NIV)

41 “Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
2 Can you put a cord through its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
3 Will it keep begging you for mercy?
Will it speak to you with gentle words?
4 Will it make an agreement with you
for you to take it as your slave for life?
5 Can you make a pet of it like a bird
or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
6 Will traders barter for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
7 Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
8 If you lay a hand on it,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
9 Any hope of subduing it is false;
the mere sight of it is overpowering.
10 No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
Who then is able to stand against me?
11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.

12 “I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs,
its strength and its graceful form.
13 Who can strip off its outer coat?
Who can penetrate its double coat of armor[b]?
14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,
ringed about with fearsome teeth?
15 Its back has rows of shields
tightly sealed together;
16 each is so close to the next
that no air can pass between.
17 They are joined fast to one another;
they cling together and cannot be parted.

His point is not the grandeur of the creation, but the overwhelming grandeur and glory of the one who created it. We can't approach this fierce creature. But we talk back to God all day long. Crazyness.
A final biblical point by Paul in 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 4:6
Brothers, I have applied these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what is written. Then you will not take pride in one man over another.
We cling to what is revealed. We don't go beyond there into things not revealed. We can't be dogmatic about dinosaurs other than to say, God created them for His own purpose and pleasure. That's it.


OK, to round things up, I think I get to speculate a bit just like every one else. Suppose God created the dinosaurs for the very purpose that they would not survive the great flood of Noah but would instead become pockets of oil in the earth for the very purpose that men would fight over it and perhaps even create other carbon conditions that set the end time events into play. The climate heats up and we fight over oil and voila, the things revealed in the book of revelation begin take shape because of; dinosaurs??
Something for young minds to think about. God is sovereign ruler over it all.