Expert: Rev. Robert Woods - 6/26/2008

Question
Hi Reverend! I am twenty three years old and am a Believer.  I talk to my friends about God and Christ alot, and some of the things they ask, I can't answer.  I was hoping maybe you could help me.  I try to help them understand the Bible, but some of the things they ask me in contest to the Word makes me wonder too...I believe in our Father, his Son, and the Holy Spirit, but sometimes some of the things don't make sense!  Please help me understand!  First, how did dinosaurs come about?  God never mentions anything about them...I asked my own pastor this, and he really didn't give me a clear answer.  Second, how do we explain the clear evidence of our earliest ancestors? I know that we don't know that Adam and Eve looked like us, for all we know, they could have looked like the early humans, but what I'm saying is, is it possible that God created humans looking the way they did then, and they might have just evolved into what we look like today? (I hope that made sense, that's the only way I can explain it to my friends...) Third, I have read a book called "What's so great about Christianity?" (It is actually a really good one, i don't know if you've ever read it, but it makes incredibly valid points as to why there is definitely a God) and I STILL don't understand why everyone in the world tells me that the big bang theory could have still happened.  The best I can also explain this, is that maybe God took two things and made them that way? I am so lost on this, and I KNOW that there is most definitely a God as I wouldn't have my beautiful baby boy if there wasn't, but my friends ask some tough questions that I know if I could just give them reasonable and direct answers, they might consider believing.  I also know that alot of the things in the Bible people do just have to generally BELIEVE and trust that how the book says it happened, it happened.  If you could offer me any insight regarding these topics, I would really appreciate it.  I'm sorry this question was so long!  thanks!  Abby

Answer
Blessings and thank you for your question.

Your questions are great and have been asked by many Christians over the years.  I will try and answer them briefly.  However, if you want very detailed (and I mean detailed) explanations of your questions then I would suggest you get (The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God by Lee Strobel ISBN-13: 9780310240501; The Case for Christ: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel ISBN-13: 9780310209300; and Darwin's Demise: Why Evolution Can't take the Heat by Dr. Joe White & Dr. Nicholas Comninellis ISBN_0-89051-352-X Masterbooks.net).

1.  Dinosaurs: Let's look at your question two different ways.  First, Dinosaurs were made the sixth day with the rest of the animals.  The word dinosaur is not found anywhere in the Bible (dinosaur is an English word that wasn't even in use before 1841). For centuries they were called "dragons." (the word dragon is mentioned in the Bible at least 25 times)  However, in Genesis 1:21, the Hebrew text says "So God Created the Great Sea Monsters and Every Creature that moves..." The NIV translates this great creatures.  We understand that God created every creature including the Monsters we would call dinosaurs.

The Bible's best description of a dinosaur-like animal is recorded in Job 40:15-18. "Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. He ranks first among the works of God..."
In the Next Chapter of Job God says: Job 41:1 “Can you pull in the leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down his tongue with a rope?
Job 41:2 Can you put a cord through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
Job 41:3 Will he keep begging you for mercy?
Will he speak to you with gentle words?
Job 41:4 Will he make an agreement with you
for you to take him as your slave for life?
Job 41:5 Can you make a pet of him like a bird
or put him on a leash for your girls?
Job 41:6 Will traders barter for him?
Will they divide him up among the merchants?
Job 41:7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
Job 41:8 If you lay a hand on him,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
Job 41:9 Any hope of subduing him is false;
the mere sight of him is overpowering.
Job 41:10 No one is fierce enough to rouse him.
Who then is able to stand against me?

The Leviathan is not a crocodile, a whale or big fish like swallowed Jonah.  This is a sea monster or sea dinosaur.  

Psalm 74:14 says: 13 Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters. 14 Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness.

Psalm 104:25 says: So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. 26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.

  ISAIAH 27:1 says "In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea."

Secondly, Evolutionists maintain that dinosaurs lived over 70 million years ago and died out at least 60 million years ago before humans evolved.  But, evolutionists cannot explain:
1. Discoveries have been made of cave-dwelling humans with drawings and carvings of dinosaurs on the walls of caves in Arizona's Hava Supai Canyon, and in 30 other places worldwide.
2.Fossilized footprints of MAN and footprints of DINOSAURS have been found next to one another in New Mexico, Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri, Russia, Illinois, Texas and other locations.  This is a big problem since evolutionists claim that man and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
3. I could go on here but again I would advise you to read the books above.

2.  Man: again this is only a brief explanation.  I would again refer you to the above books.  Human beings are unique in comparison to every other living creature, Evolutionists say, however, that humans descended from apes through a series of transitional forms.  For evidence, they initially point to several fossil discoveries that they allege show these transitions.  Large numbers of these alleged transitional fossils have now been examined from apes to humans.  When new finds are made and only a scrap or two of bone is available, lots of speculation is possible.  However, as the evidence has mounted regarding each proposed "ape-man,," they have one by one been discarded.  This applies to Ramapithecus, Australopithecus, and Homo Habilis, while the standard Homo erectus is more and more being recognized as a true human.  Neanderthal Man, who contrived images are common in textbooks, we know today was actually a variety of human who suffered from disease known to cause physical deformities.  The thirst to find fossils of an ape-man (the missing link) has led to fraud and deception, best illustrated by the so-called Nebraska Man and Piltdown Man.  
I would encourage you to watch the Movie: Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.  This movie shows how far evolution has become, it is no longer a science but a religion.  The ending is actually funny, when pressed to explain how the first living cell came into being, the leading scientist of the Evolutionary movement, said he thought it actually came from aliens from another planet.

Again, get the books I mentioned above.  It show you the truth and as Jesus put it "the truth shall set you free."  Keep trusting in God, He will never let you down.

May the Lord Bless you richly.