Few topics interest children any more than dinosaurs. Even us older children are fascinated by fossils left behind from these amazing giants! But where do dinos fit into Biblical history and how can we make sense of it all?
Although there’s no proof that humans had dinosaur pets like the Flintstones did, there is evidence they were on earth at the same time. A depiction carved into a stone temple in Cambodia nearly 1000 years ago is unmistakably that of a stegosaurus. In addition, a Mesopotamian artifact dating to 3300BC includes dinosaurs with long entwined necks that are obviously sauropods.
In England’s Carlisle Cathedral, two longnecked reptiles were etched into brass over 500 years ago and still lie under a carpet alongside images of other animals that still exist such as birds, fish, and dogs. Rock petroglyphs in the United States as well as detailed Chinese carvings of triceratops also make it very difficult to explain how those who created them had never seen such animals.
The word “dinosaur” is not found in the Bible because it didn’t exist until 1844 when it was coined to name animals for which massive fossils were found. The word literally means horrible lizard. The King James Bible was translated in 1611 over 200 years before the word was created.
The Bible does, however, mention dragons and Job 41 describes a leviathan for which no other animal seems to fit except a dinosaur. Other ancient literature from around the world also refers to dragons including the early English poem Beowulf whose hero is mortally wounded killing one. Marco Polo mentions seeing dragons when he visited China in the late 1200s. And the list goes on.
The evolutionary narrative declares that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and were annihilated by some catastrophe like a meteor strike or even non-human climate change. This assertion stood virtually unchallenged for many years until Dr. Mary Schweitzer discovered soft tissue in dinosaur fossils. This tissue had not deteriorated and was not only unfossilized, it was still elastic. She herself didn’t believe it at first and many other scientists discounted her discovery until it was verified repeatedly. Since then many other examples of soft tissue from dinosaurs have been found.
Up until this discovery, no respected scientist anywhere believed that soft tissue could last hundreds of thousands of years, much less 70 million. But suddenly, to make it fit the narrative and rescue their timeline, a miraculous explanation was developed to describe how this happened instead of accepting the obvious fact that these remains were not millions of years old, but only a few thousand.
The idea that fossils require millions of years to form is blatantly false as proven by many examples throughout the world including a fossilized cowboy boot from Texas with a foot still inside. The petrifying cave in Yorkshire, England also underscores that mineralization doesn’t require millions of years but only the right conditions.
All that is necessary is for an item to be submerged in water rich with minerals. It can happen relatively rapidly as undoubtedly occurred when the global flood covered the entire world (Genesis 6-8) and buried billions of plants and animals, many of which were fossilized in short order. This event explains the evidence above but is rejected because it comes from a religious book that makes truth claims and moral judgments. Sadly, we reject our own human historians in favor of unproven and wildly speculative models to explain away the obvious because we don’t want to face our own sin.
On Sunday, March 23, scientist and researcher, Dr. Jonathan Sarfati, will be speaking at Antioch Covenant Brethren Church about these very issues and will be fielding questions as well. This free event begins at 8:45am and all are welcome. Come and learn how what the Bible has told us for thousands of years explains the bones and stones scientists are digging up every day. Blessings, George