Q: Where do dinosaurs come into God’s creation?
A: Ah yes, the ultimate FAQ – the dinosaur question! Several people asked the question in different ways.
Since the Bible’s main objective is to tell the story of God’s history of redemption (and not the history of our planet), it is not obligated to cover material that is irrelevant to the development of that story. In all likelihood, dinosaurs were extinct long before Adam & Eve. That doesn’t mean the Bible is completely silent on the matter. Genesis 1:21 tells about Day 5 of creation and mentions the taninim gedolim. It gets translated a number of different ways. Gedolim meant “big” and taninim was a category of animal. This word is used elsewhere in the Old Testament and it is always a...
reptile. So, you could translate this verse, “And God created the big reptiles…” Since the author is mentioning animals only known to people at the time of writing, it would have been inconsistent in his writing style to mention something they would not have been familiar with. But, it is a hint; and perhaps that’s all it is.
Underlying the dinosaur question, often, is the notion that their existence somehow proves the Bible wrong. The existence of dinosaurs is only a problem if you are a “young earth creationist,” meaning you interpret from Genesis that the earth is only about 6,000 years old. That is a minority position within the Christian community. Old Earth Creationists believe the earth is millions of years old, though the story of God’s redemption of the world spans the past 6000. There are also “theistic evolutionists,” those who believe in God and accept the theory of evolution. Folks in these latter two camps have no trouble reconciling dinosaurs and the Bible.
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Dinosaurs!
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6 comments:
how do you explain the cavemen drawings depicting themselves interacting with dinosaurs? I thought Adam and Eve were the first humans....
In my personal opinion, it's best to treat a lot of Old Testament stories like Adam and Eve as children's stories (I'm not saying that as a put down at all. Promise). They all have a moral and a meaning, but that doesn't mean they literally occurred like they were written down. You don't have to believe that Adam and Eve actually existed and hung out with a talking snake to learn the story's important message, you know?
Lura: Yes, Adam & Eve were the first humans. But, could there have been pre-humans, hominids as Gerald Schroeder calls them in his book "The Science of God?" If so, they were the ones interacting with dinosaurs, not human beings as we know them.
Mark: It depends. Christian theology, as developed by Paul, is built on the reality of a literal Adam. It was the actions of an real person that introduced sin into our planet. That actual sin by a real person was met by the actions of the "last Adam" who died for the first Adam's sin and all who became sinners because of that. He didn't die for a fairy tale; he died for real sin committed by a real person.
Now, it is also true that not every element of the biblical account of creation is to be taken literally, I would agree. But, we need to be careful about where we draw that line. An historical Adam is critical to our theology.
So, let me see...Dinosaurs were extinct before Adam and Eve? Is that what you are saying? If so, then how to you explain them? I don't understand. Do you believe the earth is millions of years old or is it just as old as the bible says ( you stated about 6000 years). I guess I'm still confused on trying to figure out when the dinosaurs existed and if they roamed the earth millions of years ago...how? The earth wasn't here a million years ago was it?
It is important that we not put words in the mouth of God's Word. A faithful interpretation of the biblical record does not require a belief in a 6,000 year old earth. The Bible no where says that the earth is 6,000 years old. (It simply records 6,000 years of redemption history - a very different matter altogether.) The young earth view is an interpretation of the biblical record and interpretations can be wrong. At one time Christians defended the notion of a flat earth and that the earth was the center of the solar system based on interpretations of certain biblical passages. The Bible teaches neither. In their good intentions, Christians who defended those positions brought shame and reproach on the Bible. We should be careful about doing the same.
As I state in the blog, there is the young earth creationist school and the old earth creationist school. I happen to belong to the old earth school. I could be wrong. Ultimately, it doesn't matter... unless, in the meantime, I force the Bible into a corner it doesn't belong and dishonor the very Word I'm trying to honor.
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