By Pastor Greg
Listen to this sermon HERE
When we lived in Shippensburg, a family of Red
Tailed hawks moved into the neighborhood.
They built a nest high atop one of our white pine trees. We became so fascinated with them that we
actually built a bench out back so we could sit and watch the birds come and
go. The most fascinating part was
watching the adults teach the young how to fly.
The parents would take a mouthful of food to the nest, but not give it
to the chicks. Instead they would fly to
another tree, dangling the morsel of food from their mouth. We watched as the chicks first climbed up out
of the nest, then walked to the edge of a branch, and finally made their first
attempt at flying. It was an amazing scene.
I
have always marveled at creation, both the heavens and the earth. As I look at the wildlife in this world I am
amazed at the incredible beauty and diversity of the animals on this
planet. Have you ever stopped to wonder
why some creatures were created? Have
you ever wonder why God put them here? Why
make the Armadillo curl up in a ball when it’s scared? Why put quills on a porcupine but not a
groundhog? And why are emu’s just so
darn ugly?
As I mentioned last week, the fossil
record indicates that plant life and animal life began to exist; life exploded
into existence (Genesis
1:24-31 ). The Bible meshes
perfectly with the evidence. Life began
to exist because God spoke. And what He
created was very good (Genesis
1:31 ).
As we look at the Creation account in
Genesis chapter 1, we see that God prepared the earth to support life, but keep
in mind that it was life as He originally designed it to be. The earth and all that God created was very
good, much different than the world we see today. So don’t try to imagine simply a younger
version of what we see in the world now.
The world was different then. In
the world, as it was first created, plants were given for all the animals to
eat (“And I have
given every green plant as food for all the wild animals, the birds in the sky,
and the small animals that scurry along the ground—everything that has life”. Genesis 1:30).
It’s also clear from Genesis that death was not a part of God’s
creation. How else could death become
the curse of sin (see Genesis
2:17 )? Adam’s sin caused
death, says the Apostle Paul (Romans 5:17).
Because of that sin, that “Fall”, the earth changed. It was no longer the same earth God had
originally created, especially after the flood.
The world which God had created very good became very bad. In this fallen world the relationship between
Man and animals changed (“All the animals of the earth, all the birds of the sky, all
the small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the fish in the sea
will look on you with fear and terror. I have placed them in your power”.
Genesis 9:2). After the flood it appears
both Man and animals were now permitted to eat meat (“Every moving thing that is alive shall be food
for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant”. Genesis
9:3). In Genesis 9:5 God talks about what to do when a wild animal actually kills a human being; implying that up to this point, this wasn't an issue. Even the vegetation and the soil
became a curse (see Genesis 3:17-19 ).
So the Genesis story teaches us
that before the Fall and before the Flood, Man and animals got
along quite nicely. Both Man and animals
were vegetarians, and there was no death.
After the Fall there was death.
After the Flood both Man and animals began eating meat, and both
began to fear one another. After the Flood this world
changed, possibly causing things that used to exist to become extinct. We know this because of
the evidence found in the fossil records; records which indicate there used to
be some pretty awesome animals that lived on this planet. Yes, I’m talking about dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs always seem to be a big stumbling block when we consider the creation story. That's because it’s very difficult to clear our mind
of what we have been sold over the years.
Most of the dinosaurs depicted in movies are not correct when compared
to the fossil record. Take the
blockbuster series
If we chose to believe the creation
account, and that is a choice we will have to make because both Macro Evolution
and Creation can’t be true, then God created the dinosaurs. The Genesis account says that everything that
swims in the ocean, walks on the earth, or flies in the sky was created by
God. And since the fossil record
indicates that dinosaurs did exist, then God had to have created them.
This is where the Word of God
will challenge the fanciful imaginations of Man.
Chose to believe the Creation story
and you’ll find that at one point all dinosaurs were vegetarians, as we saw in
Genesis 1:29-30. Dinosaurs could not
have existed before Man and simply gone extinct because the Bible clearly
states that death was not a part of God’s creation before Man sinned (again see
Genesis 2:17). And Man and dinosaurs
probably got along quite well at first, considering that it was only after the
flood that things changed (again, see Genesis 9:2).
I think part of the reason many Christians have a hard time meshing Dinosaurs into the creation story is because we've been led to believe they are not mentioned in the
Bible. This is probably the
biggest objection heard over the years.
If God created the dinosaurs, why are they not mentioned in the
Bible? Well, God doesn’t use the actual
word “dinosaur” because that is a relatively new word. But the Bible does talk about Dragons and
about two large creatures called Behemoth and Leviathan. If you’ll turn to Job chapter 40, I think
you’ll see a vivid description of two creatures you and I would call dinosaurs
(Read Job 40:15-41:34 ).
God mentions several familiar animals
in Job 39, but in chapter 40 & 41 he mentions two very impressive and
immense creatures that you and I don’t know but were apparently familiar to Job. And honestly, if Job had no idea what kind of
creatures God was talking about, the whole conversation would have been
pointless. Job would have said, “What’s
a Behemoth, what’s a Leviathan?” Instead
God describes two creatures that look nothing like a Hippo or a crocodile. And considering that there was fear of these
creatures, they must have existed after the flood (again, see Genesis 9:2).
So, when did dinosaurs roam the
earth? I know this is going to shake the
foundation of what we’ve been told, but if we chose to believe in the creation
story then dinosaurs were created on day six; the same day Man was
created. And when Man sinned and the
earth was cursed, something happened that changed the world. Something happened that caused the dinosaurs
to become extinct. Perhaps it was the
Flood. Perhaps it was a change in the
environment. We simply do not know. But what we do know is that dinosaurs did
exist at one point in the past. And it
appears we’ve been led to believe something about those dinosaurs that simply
is not true. According to the Bible
dinosaurs did exist, and they roamed the earth with Man. And the two got along at first because things
on earth were different back then. And
we know this because that’s what the Bible says.
For too long Christians have
made up their minds about dinosaurs based upon what is being sold, not
on facts. Without going into lengthy
detail, just consider the petroglyphs we find carved in stone; ancient drawing
of dinosaurs etched long before modern archaeology “discovered” the age of the
dinosaur.[1] We are left to wonder how these ancient
people knew so much about the dinosaur in the first place. One can only surmise that they had seen
creatures like this (see http://creation.com/messages-on-stone for more information).
The main point I’m trying to
make here is that the archaeological evidence supports the sudden appearance of
animals; many that are extinct, but many which are still alive today. The archaeological evidence also supports the
sudden, cataclysmic destruction of life on the earth. Yet it is obvious that some life survived. This evidence does not discredit the
Bible. Actually it confirms just what
the Bible says. But today I also wanted
to talk a little bit about the dinosaur.
I have to tell you that if my preacher had talked about dinosaurs when I
was a kid, I’d been on the edge of my seat.
When I was a kid dinosaurs and the Bible just didn’t mix. And it became a big stumbling block for
me. I wish someone would have cleared things
up for me back then, which is why I’m sharing this today.
No comments:
Post a Comment