Rays of Light

I sometimes miss those days when my three-year old son would open his dinosaur books and eagerly tell me all about the Rhamphorhynchus and Pachycephalosaurus –and yes, he could pronounce them flawlessly. In fact, he knew more about dinosaurs than most adults. What really blessed my heart, though, was his rather intense defense of Scripture. “There are dinosaurs in the Bible!” he would tell anyone who would listen, then begin a dissertation on creation. That’s my boy!

Dinosaurs in the Bible?  Does that surprise you? It shouldn’t. There are lots of Scriptures that talk about such things as dragons, flying fiery serpents, and of course, the behemoth and leviathan (the term dinosaur wasn’t coined till 1841).

In the book of Job, God tells Job to “Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee.” No surprise here, we were already told in the first chapter of Genesis (verses 25 & 26) that God created man and “cattle” on the same day. The word cattle is translated from the Hebrew word b’haymah (behemoth). However, the word cattle as used here, denotes any large beast. Cows are only one  type of “beast” that fall into this category.

In Job’s account, however, God is speaking of a very specific behemoth. He said that this behemoth: eateth grass as an ox. Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. He is the chief of the ways of God.

Wow, what a very vivid picture of a sauropod – that’s the genus of giant dinosaur that has legs like bars of iron and tails like cedar trees. Even so, most Bible reference notes say that behemoth was either an elephant or (most likely) a hippopotamus. I find this explanation to be entertaining to say the least, so I’ve included a photo of a hippo’s tail in order for you to share in my mirth.

Yep, that looks like a cedar tree — NOT!

How about this sauropod’s tail?  Is it just me, or does this look a little more believable?

What I do not find amusing, however, is the big tale that has turned this little, wimpy hippo tail into that of behemoth’s.  This man-made doctrine is called the “gap theory” or “gap creationism” and it is a whopper of a tale. In a very simplified nutshell, the gap theory claims that there is a gap in the narrative between the first two verses of Genesis.  In between those verses, some claim, is an undisclosed narrative of a previous creation –the one that held dinosaurs, ice ages and all the other things that would “require” an earth that is far older than the one we know.

Apparently, that “first” earth had its own problems and became as extinct as the dinosaurs that supposedly roamed it.  Therefore, as the gap theory claims, God destroyed this first earth so that it became without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And you know the rest of the story because it is recorded in Scripture.

Well, that would make for a very convenient explanation for some of those often misunderstood Scriptures. But there are several problems with the gap theory, including the following Scripture:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea (Revelation 21:1).    Oops, the first earth here is clearly speaking of the one you and I are living in now; so much for a pre-existing, dinosaur filled earth.

Now back to the hippo tail.  If only mankind would take God at His word, we would have no problem believing Him when he informs us that He created man and dinosaur on the same day and that they lived together on the same planet –this planet.  We would then read the fortieth chapter of Job and correctly understand that it was speaking of a big ole sauropod. I must admit, however, that a correct understanding of Job’s behemoth would mean  less laughter at the zoo near the hippo enclosure  when folks like me looked at its “tail like a cedar tree.”  But that’s a small price to pay for debunking such an outrageous tale as the gap theory; don’t you think?