Worldview #13: What happened to the Dinosaurs (Part #3)

“In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights” (Gen. 7:11-12).

Last month we talked about how the land animals survived the global flood which is outlined in the Bible and confirmed by almost every ancient civilization. Included among these land animals on the ark were dinosaurs. As we have discussed before, the Bible specifically lists 4 different kinds of dinosaurs. All of which are attested to having existed after the flood that took place some 4,500 years ago.

Many will object to the existence of dinosaurs within the last 4,500 years. However, since 2005, scientists have discovered soft tissues in a T. Rex bone which would be impossible if dinosaurs died off millions of years ago (see https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/when-did-dinosaurs-live/solid-answers-soft-tissue/). Therefore, while some of the dinosaurs did die off as a result of the flood, many did not. So what happened to the dinosaurs?

Many of the dinosaurs died for a variety of reasons. First, conditions after the flood were drastically different. Genesis 7:1-12 describes 3 places from which the water originated for the flood (“the springs of the great deep”-the oceans, “the floodgates of the heavens” -the canopy, and “rain.”). The second of these is frequently missed yet has great significance. Basically, the Bible is teaching that prior to the flood, the earth was surrounded by a layer of water in the atmosphere (Gen. 1:6-8). This would have meant that the entire world was like a giant greenhouse. This enabled people and animals to live way beyond any normal life expectancy today. Yet during the flood, the canopy came down and, as a result, the life expectancy of all living beings was drastically reduced! For some creatures this even meant their extinction. 

Within a century after the flood, mankind once again rebelled against God at the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11). Therefore, God brought judgment upon some of the world through an ice age and the diversifying of the language into the almost 7,000 languages in our world today. Geologist Dr. Andrew Snelling said, “We know from the fossil record that they faced constant local flooding, dust storms, super-volcanoes, massive earthquakes, meteorites, and downpours of snow or rain on a scale never before seen” (When Was the Ice Age in Biblical History?; available from https://answersingenesis.org/environmental-science/ice-age/when-was-the-ice-age-in-biblical-history/).

Some of the dinosaurs that survived for a while after the ice age likely were referred to as “dragons.” Most of these eventually died out or were killed. Other reasons for their extinction could be starvation, disease, and hunting pressure” (Ken Ham, The New Answers Book, p. 353). Yet maybe a better question is, did all dinosaurs actually go extinct (see the following video for more information, Creation Seminar 3 - Kent Hovind - Dinosaurs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsQIF7Yh3hI&t=3994s)?

The truths that dinosaurs share about God’s creation, man’s sin, death, the global flood, and ice age uphold the authority of Scripture and the Biblical worldview.

In His service,

            Matt