Chapter 7 - What about the Dinosaurs?

Are Dinosaurs in the Bible? Why did they go extinct? 
Were they around at the same time as man? 

Evolution says that they evolved from a reptile 235 million years ago and ruled the earth before man appeared, but they cannot point to any clear transitional forms that proves this. Then 65 million years ago, they suddenly disappeared. Their bones are discovered all over the world. Most say a cataclysmic event, like an asteroid impact killed them. Many say that actually they evolved into birds! However the Bible’s explanation makes much more sense.

Genesis 1:21-25,31: “So God created great sea Creatures (‘Tannin’) and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 
v22: And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”   v23: So the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 

v24: Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.                           v25: And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
v31: “So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

The great sea-monsters and Dinosaur birds were created on Day 5, and the land Dinosaurs were created along with man on Day 6 and therefore lived at the same time as man, and we shall see that there are many stories from history and cave-paintings that confirm this. 

In 1677 the first dinosaur bones were discovered by Dr Robert Plot. Then in 1822, Dr and Mrs Mantell in Sussex found a large tooth of Iguanadon. They began to popularised these newly discovered creatures and soon after they were called Dinosaurs = ‘Terrible Lizards’ and they caught the popular imagination. In fact these were only rediscoveries of Dinosaurs in modern times, because the Bible had always talked about and described these creatures, but people just thought it was being mythical, poetic and symbolic.

So why is the word ‘dinosaur’ not in the Bible? Because it is a modern word. The KJV came out in 1611, and Sir Richard Owen only named them ‘dinosaurs’ in 1841, so it is hardly surprising that the word ‘dinosaur’ is not in the Bible but dinosaurs are certainly there under other names. Unfortunately the modern translators did not have the sense the use the word ‘dinosaur’ when it should have been used. Let me explain. There is a Hebrew word: ‘Tannin’ or ‘Tan’ that is used about 30 times which should be translated as ‘Dinosaur.’ In the KJV Tannin is usually translated DRAGON or occasionallysea-monster or serpent and the description of these Tannin perfectly fits the description of dinosaurs. When you read about DRAGONS in the KJV, it is not talking about mythical creatures but about Dinosaurs, which were obviously still around.

In fact, there are DRAGON legends from all around the world and stories of dragon slayers-up to recent times, including the UK and cave paintings of Dinosaurs which evolutionists have to dismiss as they can’t accept that man lived at the same time as Dinosaurs (see Bill Cooper’s - ‘After the Flood’). 

*In fact the oldest book of British history: ‘The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles’ describes many encounters with Dragons. 
*That’s why the emblem on the Flag of Wales is a Dragon. 
*The Loch Ness Monster fits in here. I have not seen it, 
but I know someone reliable who is certain he saw it. 
*The Patron Saint of England, St George killed a Dragon in a cave. 
*When Alexander the Great was in India he recorded how some locals worshipped a family of Dragons who lived in a cave. 
*China and Japan have many Dragon stories. 

The fact that we have consistent Dragon stories from all over the world, indicates that they are based on real dinosaur-encounters with rather than being purely the product of human imagination. Some of these historical stories come from the last few centuries, indicating that although Dinosaurs have been steadily diminishing in numbers over time, a few have continued even until recent times. Who knows, perhaps they are not all extinct yet, even today?! 

*The Bible writers, who wrote between 2000 and 4000 years ago, certainly knew of Dinosaurs and treated them as real creatures called Tannin (Dragons) that were still existing in their time. They were fearsome creatures inhabiting remote desolate places, very hard to kill, the Sea-Creatures often being serpentine.

LAND DINOSAURS are referred to in Jeremiah 51:34: “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, 
he has crushed me; He has made me an empty vessel, 
he has swallowed me up like a monster (Tannin - DRAGON); 
he has filled his stomach with my delicacies, he has spit me out.” 

Psalm 91:13 (1600 BC) includes a promise of protection from all kinds of dangerous wild-life including Dinosaurs: 
“You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the Serpent (DRAGON) you shall trample underfoot.”

The MONSTERS (Tannin) of the SEA were created on the 5th day: Genesis 1:21: “So God created Great Sea Creatures(‘Tannin’) and every living thing that moves.”

Psalm 74:13 while describing the miracle of the Red-Sea Crossing (1639 BC), also records the killing of Sea-Monsters that threatened Israel at that same time, one of which was called LEVIATHAN: 
“You divided the (Red) Sea by Your strength; 
You broke the heads of the Sea Serpents (Dragons) in the waters v14 You broke the heads of LEVIATHAN in pieces.”

This amazing fact is confirmed in Isaiah 51:9,10: 
“Awake, awake, put on strength, O Arm of the LORD! 
Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. 
Are you not the Arm that cut RAHAB apart, and wounded the (SEA) SERPENT? Are You not the One who dried up the(Red) Sea, the waters of the great Deep; who made the depths of the Sea a road (path) for the redeemed to cross over?”

Psalm 104:25,26 (in 1000 BC) speaks of LEVIATHANS, the most fearsome of the Sea-Monsters as still being alive: “This great and wide Sea, in which are innumerable teeming things, living things both small and great. There the ships sail about; there is that LEVIATHAN which You have made to play there.” 

FLYING DRAGONS or Pterodactyls are mentioned in Isaiah 30:6: “The burden against the beasts of the South. Through a land of trouble and anguish, from which came the lioness and lion, the viper and fiery FLYING SERPENT (DRAGON).” 

DINOSAURS and MAN LIVING TOGETHER? 
This idea might seem strange because we have been so indoctrinated by Evolution, but recent evidence has confirmed this strongly: 
Dinosaur DNA and T-Rex soft tissue has been found! Microscopic red blood cells (and immunological evidence of haemoglobin) have been discovered in dinosaur bone by Montana State University’s Dr Mary Schweitzer. This proves that Dinosaurs had to live recently (that is thousands, but not millions of years ago) because these cells and soft tissue could not possible survive for more than a few thousand years! Now in further investigations, not only have more dinosaur blood cells been found, but also soft, fibrous tissue, and complete blood vessels! The fact that this really is unfossilized soft tissue from a dinosaur is obvious to the naked eye and undeniable. The tissue fragment is still elastic. Elastic tissue like this could no possibly have lasted for 65 million years! The exciting discovery was made when researchers were forced to break open the leg bone of a Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil to lift it by helicopter.

The bone was still largely hollow and not filled up with minerals as is usual. Dr Schweitzer used chemicals to dissolve the bony matrix, revealing the soft tissue still present. The microstructures that look like cells are preserved in every way. The flexible branching structures in the T. rex bone were justifiably identified as ‘blood vessels’. This sort of thing has not been found before mainly because it was never looked for! Schweitzer was probably alert to the possibility, because of her previous serendipitous discovery of T. Rex blood cells. (It appears that the fossils were sent to her to look for soft tissues, prior to preservative being applied, because of her known interest and speciality in this area).

In fact, Schweitzer has since found similar soft tissue in several other dinosaur specimens! The reason that this possibility (of finding DNA and soft-tissue in dinosaur bones) has long been overlooked seems obvious: the overriding belief in ‘millions of years’. The long-age belief blinded researchers to the possibility of finding Dino-DNA, so they never bothered to look! 

When Schweitzer first found what appeared to be blood cells in a T. Rex specimen, she said, ‘It was exactly like looking at a slice of modern bone. But, of course, I couldn’t believe it. I said to the lab technician: ‘The bones, after all, are 65 million years old. How could blood cells survive that long?’ That is the big question: ‘How could these cells last for millions years?’ 

The simple answer is that they COULDN’T - they must only be thousands of years old. Soft tissues like blood vessels should not be there if the bones were 65 million years old. It is inconceivable that such things should be preserved for millions of years. 

This discovery gives immensely powerful support to the proposition that dinosaur fossils are not millions of years old after all, but were mostly fossilised under catastrophic conditions a few thousand years ago at most. 

Will they now be convinced?
Why do we find their fossils? 
The perfect conditions on earth before the Flood meant that the Dinosaurs thrived and filled the earth. Like reptiles they would continue to grow throughout their life and the long life-spans then allowed some of them to grow to very large sizes. Most would have been herbivores and the vegetation was abundant, well able to support them in large numbers. When the Noah’s Flood came, then the Dinosaurs, along with all other forms of life, would have been destroyed in massive numbers.

Common sense tells us that fossils are not formed by a slow gradual sedimentary process over millions of years, for then the corpse would just get destroyed. Instead fossil formation requires rapid burial by sand and mud through the action of water. Therefore the Flood created perfect conditions for a mass laying down of Dinasaur fossils. After the Flood there would have been continued disturbances and local floods, especially in the first few hundred years which would have laid down more fossil layers, including some Dinosaur fossils also. 

The Flood. Not all Dinosaurs would have been killed in the Flood, for God would have taken 2 of every kind of Dinosaur on the Ark.However their populations never built up to anything like the levels they had before the Flood. This was almost certainly because the earth had changed into a less hospitable place, unable to support the Dinosaurs in such large numbers. The food supply of vegetation was greatly depleted in quantity and quality. It was colder, with an ice-age in the years just after the Flood making it especially hard for the larger Dinosaurs to survive in the new environment. Life-spans were also shorter, so they generally would not have been so big. However we read in Job and other books of the Bible that there were still some large and fearsome specimens after the Flood.

*How did Noah get them all on the Ark? Would they have fitted?
The average size was between a sheep and a small horse. Only a few grew large. The biggest egg found is the size of a football. As they grew throughout their life-time, only the older ones were very large, and it is logical that the Ark would only carry the young adults in order to repopulate the earth, so these would not be so big. Although there are 600 named species of Dinosaurs, there are only about 50 Biblical kinds, making 100 Dinosaurs on board the Ark.So the Ark was easily big enough, and was designed to have room for many more people had they responded to Noah’s preaching.

Why don’t we see Dinosaurs today? Along with other animals they came off the Ark and began a new life in new world. They spread out and so are the basis of dragon legends in countries all over the world as well as being mentioned in a number of Biblical accountss (especially Job 40,41). But it was a devastated world, harder and harsher to survive - especially for large creatures in the ice-age after the Flood. Job 6:15-17 describes regular icy winters where he lived whereas today it is always warm: “My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away, which are dark because of the ICE, and into which the SNOW vanishes. When it is warm, they cease to flow; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.” The lack of nutrition after the Flood is seen in that God had to start allowing man to eat meat whereas before this was unecessary because it was easy to find enough nourishment as a vegetarian. 

*Why did the Dinosaurs go extinct? In the harsher conditions after the Flood, with fewer resources available, the battle for survival became more intense and many species went extinct and even today species are still going extinct. We don't wonder why other animals go extinct, but dinosaurs have a special fascination for us as monsters. On one level it would be the same kind of reasons other species go extinct: man hunting them, a lack of food, the destruction of their environment, diseases, etc.

*But I believe there is another deeper reason given in the Bible why in particular all the kinds of Dinosaur gradually diminished to extinction, and did not survive to threaten man.

*Dinosaurs (DRAGONS) were often greatly feared and used in the Bible as symbols of evil powers under the judgment of God.

Psalm 91:13: “You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, 
the young lion and the Serpent (DRAGON) you shall trample underfoot.” This promise of protection and dominion clearly does not just apply to animals but to the spiritual powers they represent.

Revelation 12:3: “Another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red DRAGON .... v4 His tail drew a third of the stars (angels) of heaven and threw them to the earth.” 

Revelation 12:9: “So the great DRAGON was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. v13 Now when the DRAGON saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.” 

Revelation 20:1,2: “I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the DRAGON, that ancient SERPENT, 
who is the Devil, or Satan, and bound him for a 1000 years.” 

In Job 3:8, satan is represented by Leviathan: 
“May those curse it (the day of my birth) who curse the day, 
those who are ready to arouse LEVIATHAN.”
He is refering to occult practictioners who woek in the dark, making evil curses, rousing satan and his demons to do evil. In his despair he wishes they would have cursed the day of his birth, so that he is not born. He clearly understands that Leviathan is a picture of implacable and terrible dangerous evil powers, for man had a knowledge of satan from the beginning (Genesis 3). We will also see other scriptures where Leviathan represents satan.

*THE SWORD OF THE LORD
2000-1600 BC. Job 40:15: “Look now at the BEHEMOTH, which I made along with you...v19: He is the first of the ways of God;Only He who made him can bring near His SWORD.”
Here God indicates that although Behemoth (a Dinosaur) is too great for man to overcome God was bringing him under His sword!
This is a picture that satan and his angels was also coming under the sword of God’s judgement.

As the greatest threat to man and a symbol of satan’s power, there are prophecies that God will bring Dinosaurs under His sword as a confirmation and promise that He will deal with satan in like manner. Thus the present extinction of dinosaurs is actually a fulfilment of these scriptures, and a prophecy of what God will do to satan and his angels - bring them to nothing (extinction):

Psalm 74:13,14 shows this judgement had started by the time of the Exodus: “You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke the heads of the Sea Serpents (DRAGONS) in the waters. 
You broke the heads of LEVIATHAN in pieces.”

Isaiah 27:1: “In that day the LORD with His severe SWORD, 
great and strong, will punish LEVIATHAN the fleeing Serpent, LEVIATHAN that twisted SERPENT; and He will slay the Reptile (DRAGON) that is in the Sea.”
These scriptures speak of the Sword of the Lord destroying Leviathan and the other Dinosaurs, but they also speak of God judging the spiritual powers they represent. Notice that there were still Leviathans around in Isaiah’s time (700 BC).

Our most detailed descriptions of Dinosaurs are in Job (2000 BC) - showing that they lived at same time as Job. The graphic desciptions clearly describe terrifying and large animals that Job knew about as alive in his time. They can only refer to Dinosaurs, and God used them to represent the powers of evil, teaching Job about how satan was behind his whole problem and how to deal with him. 

In Job 38, God appeared to Job and began to reveal His glory using nature as part of His object lesson. He used many animals to show His glory. He concluded this teaching by devoting 2 whole chapters to Behemoth and Leviathan, Behemoth being the largest and Leviathan being the most fierce of all of God’s creatures. These were real creatures or it makes no sense. Their importance is seen by number of verses devoted to their description. Far more space is given to them than for the other animals.

There was a spiritual battle going on over Job that he did not realise (Job 1&2 shows satan working behind the scenes causing his problems to get him to give up his faith in God). God is now revealing to Job what is going on and how to overcome satan.So that Job would understand what satan is like He used two Dinosaurs to describe satan: to show his strength (superior to man, yet inferior to God), his implacability and his pride.

*DINOSAUR 1: BEHEMOTH - many translations and commentaries suggest this is a Hippo or an Elephant? This is nonsense, a product of Evolutionary thinking because they don’t believe Dinosaurs lived with men. It is the largest of creatures with a tail like a Cedar Tree (look at the tails of elephants and hippos for a comparison). Only the largest Dinosaur fits - a Brachiosaurus.

Job 40:15: “Look now at the BEHEMOTH, which I made along with you; He eats grass like an ox. v16 See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles. 
v17: He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
18 His bones are like beams of bronze, His ribs like bars of iron
v19: He is the first (CHIEF, LARGEST) of the ways of God;
Only He who made him can bring near His SWORD.
v20: Surely the mountains yield food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there. v21 He lies under the lotus trees, in a covert of reeds and marsh. v22 The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him.
v23: Indeed the river may rage, yet he is not disturbed;
He is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, 
v24: Though he takes it in his eyes, 
or one pierces his nose with a snare.

*DINOSAUR 2:LEVIATHAN
Job 41 then describes a Sea-Dinosaur or Serpent - LEVIATHAN, which as we have previously seen represents satan. We shall see that this passage strongly confirms this identification. Commentators tend to say this is a crocodile but this is absurd. Man has always hunted crocodiles but this says no man man can hunt Leviathan!

v1: “Can you draw out LEVIATHAN with a (fishing) hook,
or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?
v2: Can you put a reed through his nose,or pierce his jaw with a hook? v3: Will he make many supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you? v4: Will he make a covenant (peace treaty) with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?
v5: Will you play with him as with a bird (take him as a pet),
Or will you leash him for your maidens?
v6: Will your companions make a banquet of him? Will they apportion him among the merchants? (can you eat and sell him?)
v7: Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears? v8: (If you) Lay your hand on him (and if you survive, you will) remember the battle (and you will) never do it again!
v9: Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false;
shall one not be overwhelmed (even) at the sight of him?
v10: No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up.
Who then is able to stand against Me? (in PRIDE)
v11: “Who has preceded (come before) Me, that I should pay (submit to) him? Everything under heaven is Mine. 

v12 “I will not conceal his limbs, His mighty power, or his graceful proportions. v13 Who can remove his outer coat? 
Who can approach him with a double bridle? v14 Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around? 
v15 His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal; v16 One is so near another that no air can come between them; v17 They are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted.

v18 His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. 
v19 Out of his mouth go burning lights; 
sparks of fire shoot out. 
v20 Smoke goes out of his nostrils, 
as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. 
v21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.
(as in Dragon stories- chamber in some Dino jaws for combustion)
v22 Strength dwells in his neck, and sorrow dances before him.
v23 The folds of his flesh are joined together; they are firm on him and cannot be moved. 

v24 His heart is as hard as stone, 
even as hard as the lower millstone.

v25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid;
because of his crashings they are beside themselves.
v26 Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; nor does spear, dart, or javelin. 
27 He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. 
v28 The arrow cannot make him flee; 
sling-stones become like stubble to him. 
v29 Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins. 
v30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds;He spreads pointed marks in the mire. 
v31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. 
v32 He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair. 

v33 On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear. v34 He beholds every high thing. 
He is KING over all the children of pride.”

*This final verse: “he is KING over all the children of pride” is the last thing God reveals to Job, so it is a key statement. It identifies Leviathan as satan. Job has been in pride so satan has had dominion over him. Job can’t defeat him in his own strength or win by trusting in his own righteousness. He cant do a deal with him or a peace treaty-he is out to destroy. Only the Sword of the Lord can destroy him, so Job’s only hope is to repent and humble himself under God and trust God which he does in the next chapter and God then turns his situation around and restores him twofold. Likewise we can’t defeat or pacify satan in our own power, but we must use the sword of the Lord, the word of God against him, saying “it is written” as Jesus did!

*When we see the extinction of these once dominant and seemingly undefatable Dinosaurs, who were the greatest threat to man (once fallen) - be encouraged, it is a fulfilment of prophecy, that the sword of the Lord would bring them to nothing because they represented the power of evil and were a mortal threat to man whom God loves and wants to redeem. Moreover it is a sign that the Sword of the Lord will also bring to extinction man’s greatest enemy, satan and all his forces, which are symbolised by the dinosaurs. Although they are dangerous and too powerful for us to handle and defeat on our own, God is well able to defeat and destroy them with His Sword, the Word of God, and if we put His Sword on our lips we too can defeat satan everythime!