What happened to the dinosaurs?

Of all the questions I get in my seminars, the most commonly asked question is that of the dinosaurs. How do they fit in with the Bible? What's the Creationist answer to Paleontology?

Yes, the dinosaurs are Biblical and were just as much a part of God's creation as were elephants or bears. Dinosaurs were made the sixth day with the rest of the animals, and yes, Noah took them on the ark.

The pre-flood world was contrastingly different then the fallen one we live in today. We know this because of the fossilized-vegetation found in sedimentary rock all over the world, including the north and south poles, which resulted from the flood. These fossils are of plants known only to grow in warm tropical regions of the globe. This type of environment would produce an abundance of lush vegetation and animal life. All of God's creation was originally intended to have long, permanent, life spans. However, because of the original sin of Adam, which set death in motion, all life forms began to die out.

In the fifth and sixth centuries, dinosaurs were originally called dragons and differ only in life span from the reptiles we see today. Reptiles will grow all of their lives and since the early earth's life forms experienced long-life spans due to a more pure genetic make-up, the reptiles (dinosaurs) were able to grow quite large.

Dinosaurs were never too far from food but all that changed when the flood hit. Of course, all but those on the ark perished to a catastrophic death. After the flood, the dinosaurs, and all the animals for that matter, entered into a strange new environment with blizzards, droughts, hurricanes, and glaciated regions as well as desert regions. This was all quite shocking to them and other animals and many of them had trouble adapting to this strange new economy. The pressures of climatic change and hunting were far too much for some of the animals to overcome. These unstable cycles would have certainly had effects on their breeding habits quite similar to those of the Giant Panda bears that have only semi-successfully been bred in captivity. Emotional trauma can affect animals just like it does humans. And not to exclude the fact that "…all creation groaneth…" as a result of Adam and Eve's sin, just like man, all life forms were subjected to the laws of entropy (deterioration).

There is a great amount of evidence that proves dinosaurs have always lived with man. In fact, it is possible that a few small dinosaurs may still be alive today in remote parts of the world. There have been over 20,000 reported sightings of dinosaur like creatures in the 20th century and many, once promoted to be, Jurassic-era fish, continue to be caught of the coast of Madagascar.

As far as the Biblical evidence for dinosaurs, we see they are referenced in the Bible in several areas: Job 40:15-18, God is comparing the power of Job with that of the behemoth. God describes the behemoth as having a "…tail like a cedar…". This is probably describing an Apadiosaur (formerly known as a brontosaur). Also in Job 41:1, God now compares Job's power to that of the Leviathan, "Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?" A leviathan is described as a sea monster, something with immense size and power. This was probably a plesiosaur.

Early theologians chose to disregard the dinosaur issue because they assumed it supported evolution and this has resulted in becoming the most asked question of all. Well, that was because of their ignorance's to what reality demonstrates as evidence for creation. Simply put, people need to hear the truth that dinosaurs were part of God's creation, they were on the ark, and they didn't die out 70 million years ago.