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Photo by Thom Holmes on Unsplash Read Time: 6 Minutes Years ago I loved watching the cable news channels. There was a television in my office with a 24/7 news channel on it all the time. I thought I was being informed of current issues and could speak about them with others and meaningfully do something because of it. I forget now. Maybe it was 10 or 15 years ago. I turned the television off and vowed to stop in taking what it was putting out. Sure, every now and again, I will click over to their websites and see what is going on. I have felt the lure of constant intake of cable news sneak back into my heart over the past couple of weeks. I have spent too much time refreshing their homepages for the latest news. I have spent too much time going down rabbit holes on social media comment threads. Recently, I have felt my heart crave the latest news. This morning I read Colossians 3:1-4 in my daily Bible reading. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set […]

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Photo by josue rosales on Unsplash Read Time: 4 Minutes If you have a Roman Catholic friend or family member, you have probably heard them refer to Mary as the “mother of God.” Should we call Mary the “mother of God?” The phrase “mother of God” is a big phrase that needs nuancing before someone should refer to a human as the “mother of God,” so let’s nuance it a little before we come to an answer. For the record, I am not Roman Catholic. I am a Southern Baptist pastor with a reformed theological understanding of the Bible. What does “mother” mean? When you think of mother, you think of the woman who gave birth to you. You lived inside her womb for about nine months before you were born. After she gave birth to you, she cared and nurtured you. She did much more, but when we say someone is mothering someone, they are ultimately caring for them. This is what Mary did for Jesus. Jesus lived inside Mary’s womb. When she gave birth to Jesus, she cared and nurtured Jesus. Mary did many more things that mothers do for their children. So in this sense, Mary is […]

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Photo by Terry Disoloane on Unsplash

Introduction

Short answer: Yes!

Read on if you would like to understand why we can say, with confidence, that dinosaurs and humans lived at the same and possibly in the same areas together. In this post, I will give you perspectives from Christian groups who disagree with each other. Their disagreements are not primary issues to salvation, so there is room for kind and humble conversation on these thoughts. It is my hope, with this post, that as people wrestle with the implications of dinosaurs and humans coexisting, people come away with a greater awe of God.

Although this question came to me from a child in my church, I realize that many adults struggle with the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans. I want to give an overview of theological and Biblical answers to this question to encourage you in your faith. I will attempt to be brief in my post, however, there will be links to other resources for deeper study.

Biblical Evidence

The first and best evidence from the Bible for the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans in in Genesis 1:24-31. This is Day Six of Creation. Specifically, let’s start with verse 24-26

And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so.And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 1:24-26. Emphasis added.

This is Day Six of Creation. The Bible clearly says that God created animals and humans on the same day. We will get into whether these days are literal or figurative in just a moment. Either way, God created dinosaurs and humans at the same time.

Job is the oldest book of the Bible. The man, Job, lived around the same time as Abraham. Toward the end of the book, the LORD challenges Job. While proving the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans isn’t the point of Job 40 and 41, we see the LORD discussing some of His Creation that Job would have known about.

Behold, Behemoth, 

which I made as I made you; 

he eats grass like an ox. 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Job 40:15. Emphasis added.

Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook 

or press down his tongue with a cord? 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Job 41:1. Emphasis added.

Dinosaur is not a Biblical Word

The term “dinosaur” wasn’t created until the 19th century, so there is the Bible doesn’t mention the word, “dinosaur.” It does mention words like, “Behemoth” and “Leviathan.” Job must have been familiar with these animals because the LORD mentions them to him. The LORDs use of these animals presumes a largeness in size that we would understand as dinosaurs.

Let’s look at just one more passage. This one takes us to Jonah and the Great Fish.

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. 

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Jon 1:17. Emphasis added.

Whether this great fish was a whale or a leviathan from Job, we don’t know for certain. We can say with confidence that it was big enough to swallow a grown man. This passage isn’t the strongest argument for the coexistence of dinosaurs and humanity, but it is one that children will know or be introduced to early in their lives. If you would like to know more about Jonah, I did a sermon series over the book, you can see it here.

Dinosaurs and the Age of the Earth Conversation

At its core, science is an attempt to understand Creation and its Creator. This is true even is the scientist is an atheist, agnostic, secular, pagan, Hindu, Muslim, or Christian. Science attempts to look at nature and understand it. It is a noble profession especially for the Christian.

Science makes some wild claims that have to be taken on faith as they are questioned, explored, criticized, and theorized. One such claim is on the age of the universe. Humans may live 70 to 90 years at best on earth, so when science starts to throw out the age of the universe in billions of years, it is difficult to comprehend. Add to that, because many scientist currently understand time as relative, we don’t have a universal constant measuring stick for time. Consider, does/did time move faster “millions” years ago in the far reaching corners of the universe and how does that impact the orbit of the earth around the sun, our measuring stick for time today? We are left with wonder and perhaps a headache.

Biblical Christians have tried to answer the age of the universe question with two main responses: Young Earth Creation and Old Earth Creation.

Science attempts to date dinosaur fossils in the millions of year ago range so some would think that to recognize the existence of dinosaurs, one could not be a Young Earth Creationist. That’s not true. Carbon dating assumes a lot and is not precise or accurate. When you have to give or take a couple million years, your measuring stick is broken and can’t be trusted. When you consider the extreme pressure floods put on the ground and what is underneath, you can conceivably fossilize something quickly and give it an assumed age of millions of years when in fact it was just thousands of years ago.

Literal or Figurative Days in Genesis + A Possible Gap Theory

Old Earth Creationists don’t have as much of an issue with millions or billions of years, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have the right age of the universe. Young Earth Creationists take a position of a literal six day creation account with God resting on the seventh. This means that the days are actually 24 hours in.

Old Earth Creationists take the Genesis account as figurative with the days probably meaning periods of time or epochs. Dinosaurs who lived millions of years ago fit into an Old Earth Creation model easily but humans existed with dinosaurs and have humans existed that long.

Jumping back into the Young Earth Creation model, they use the genealogy lists in the Bible to count back to Adam. The story of Adams creation is found in Genesis 2. This second telling of Creation zooms in on Adam and his story with God. When you count back through the generations of all the lists of unpronounceable names, you can roughly get to 6,000 to 8,000 years. This is nowhere close to the millions or billions of year that science and Old Earth Creationist accept.

Who is right? How old is the universe?

An honest, humble, and God-honoring answer is “I don’t know.”

Another wrinkle in attempting to answer this question tries to bring Old and Young Creationists together with The Gap Theory. The Gap Theory assumes an ancient earth and universe because they appear old but then marries with it a young humanity of 6,000 to 8,000 years. The Gap Theory would still have to age dinosaurs in the thousands of years and not the millions of years because animals and humans were created at the same time.

Dinosaur Extinction and the Flood

So, we have fossils of dinosaurs and no current dinosaurs. Where did they go? Dinosaurs as we know them through their fossils are extinct. There may be some “kinds” (think Genesis 1:24) of dinosaurs still around, maybe not, though. How did they become extinct?

While science attempts to answer the mass extinction event of the dinosaurs with meteors crashing into Earth, we have a Biblical record of a mass extinction event, the Flood. Whether God used a meteor to crash into the Earth to cause the flooding that happen, we will never know. We do know that the Earth was flooded and every living thing not on the Ark perished.

Were there dinosaurs on the Ark?

Yes, at least two.

This means that there weren’t two Tyrannosaurus Rexes and two Stegosauruses and two of each of the different types of dinosaurs, there were two of the kind (or sort) of dinosaurs that would be capable of reproduction after the flood.

And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ge 6:19.

The Flood killed off the rest of the dinosaurs and apparently they didn’t reproduce in the same way or amount as before the Flood. This is all under God’s sovereign control and desire.

Dinosaurs and a Great God

Dinosaurs were real and God created them at the same time as He created humans. They were large beasts that probably lived peaceably with humans before the Flood, many of them were herbivores. The story of dinosaurs point us to a creative and powerful God who made them and called it good.

Dinosaurs were not the ultimate part of God’s creation. Humans are. God created humans in His likeness, meaning we are in the image of God. We are image bearers of God. This makes us special to Him as no other part of His Creation is said to have been created in His image. Learn more about God’s love and care for you in the Bible.

Visit DiscipleshipStudio.com for books and resources to help you know and follow Jesus.

For More Information

Butt, Kyle, and Eric Lyons. 2008. “Physical Evidence for the Coexistence of Dinosaurs and Humans [Part I].” Apologetics Press. July 5, 2008. https://apologeticspress.org/physical-evidence-for-the-coexistence-of-dinosaurs-and-humans-part-i-2416/.

Hawkins, Peter. n.d. “How Long Were the ‘Days’ in Genesis 1?” Life, Hope & Truth. Accessed June 5, 2024. https://lifehopeandtruth.com/god/is-there-a-god/how-long-were-the-days-in-genesis-1/.

Hodge, Bodie. n.d. “Where’s the Evidence of Dinosaur and Human Coexistence?” Answers in Genesis. Accessed June 5, 2024. https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/humans/wheres-the-evidence-of-dinosaur-and-human-coexistence/.

“How Long Are the Days of Genesis 1?” 2023. BioLogos. November 20, 2023. https://biologos.org/common-questions/how-long-are-the-days-of-genesis-1.

Taylor, Justin. 2015. “Biblical Reasons to Doubt the Creation Days Were 24-Hour Periods.” The Gospel Coalition. January 28, 2015. https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/biblical-reasons-to-doubt-the-creation-days-were-24-hour-periods/.

“Was Jonah Truly Swallowed by a Whale?” n.d. GotQuestions.org. Accessed June 5, 2024. https://www.gotquestions.org/Jonah-whale.html.

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