If you verbalize your faith on a regular basis, you may have found that one of the perennial questions you get is "where do dinosaurs fit into the Bible?" It's a great question, although it's hard to be dogmatic about any answer, because the Bible is largely silent on the subject of dinosaurs (some scholars cite Job 40-41 as evidence of a biblical reference to dinosaurs, but this is debated). Even though answers fall largely into the realm of conjecture, I thought it might be helpful to have a working knowledge of several theories so that you can have an intelligent and loving discussion with a skeptic or curious searcher. Here are four alternatives to an athiestic or evolutionary explanation of dinosaurs.1. Mature Creationism Theory: It would seem that God created Adam and Eve as mature adults from the outset. He did not create a tiny baby which grew, but a fully grown adult. Since He did this with people, advocates of mature creationism would argue, why would he not do it with other aspects of creation? Why not create, instead of seeds or saplings, fully grown trees with rings already in their trunks? Instead of creating infant stars whose light would take countless years to reach the earth, why not create stars with beams of light already in place? Why not create an already mature earth as well, with fossils and oil and geologic strata? In this theory, dinosaurs may never have lived at all, but exist only in fossil form to give the earth the appearance of age or maturity.
This theory has merit in that there is a definite precedent in Scripture for at least one mature creation-- that of man. It has the disadvantage, however, in that it seems to make God almost . . . deceptive, for lack of a better word. It paints a God who seems to be tricking people into thinking the earth is very old even though it is very young. That seems problematic, and very unlike the God of Scripture.
2.The Day/Age Theory: This theory states that the six days of Genesis chapter one are not literal 24 hour days, but extended periods of time, or geologic ages, with each "day" being hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. In this theory, dinosaurs were created near the beginning of the sixth "geologic age of earth," roamed the earth for thousands or millions of years and died out before God made man near the end of the sixth geologic age.
This theory can find some support in the fact that the Hebrew word for day (yom) is occasionally used within Scripture to refer to an extended period of time, not a literal 24 hour day. The disadvantages of this theory include the fact that it requires quite a bit of acrobatic stretching to rework the original language (it says "there was morning and evening", but it means the period began and ended . . ."). It also makes death, violence, and disease the rule of the world even before the Fall (although to be perfectly fair, while the Bible is clear that death entered the world for mankind at the moment of the Fall, it never explicitly says that this was true for the animal kingdom as well).
3. The Gap Theory: This theory states that there is a large chronological gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. In this theory, God created a primordial universe and an earth that was populated with dinosaurs, which He subsequently destroyed and out of the chaos of that first destruction he made the current earth. This theory states that Genesis 1:1-2 ought to read, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth BECAME formless and empty . . ." Many Bibles will have a footnote indicating the possibility of translating the Hebrew this way. Some suggest that God destroyed this first earth by a flood (possibly as a judgment somehow connected to the rebellion and fall of Satan) and it is over the flooded earth that the Spirit of God hovers and begins to recreate.
This theory fascinates me and has some possible merit although it is hard to argue for it since a "prior earth" is mentioned nowhere else in Scripture.
4. The Young Earth Theory: I subscribe to this theory (although I am sure that it makes me an object of scorn and derision to some) because it seems to be the theory which best allows the Bible to say exactly what it seems to be saying-- that God made the earth in six literal days, that He created land dwelling dinosaurs on the sixth day with all the other land animals, and ultimately, on the same day, that man was created. This would mean that man and dinosaurs lived side by side for some time (young earth scholars would suggest that dinosaurs became extinct during or shortly after the flood, which intensified and shortened the fossilization process). I am fully away that many scientists would consider that crazy and ignorant, but if it is true, I have no problem saying with Paul, "Let God be true and every man a liar!" (Romans 3:4).
I do beleive we need to maintain a spirit of generosity and discussion within the Body of Christ on these matters. As long as we hold to the clear facts of Genesis 1 (that God created the world by His Sovereign Power, that He made man specially and in His image, etc.) that we can allow some flexibility on the things that are not explicitly stated. As teacher Allistair Begg is fond of saying about Scripture, "The plain things are the main things!" Let us hold unswervingly to the truth, and loosely to theories. God bless!
