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DID GOD CREATE DINOSAURS AND MEN IN ONE WEEK ?
Today there is some confusion among Christians about creation. Yes, the Genesis account is inviolable – the inspired word of God – but doesn’t that conflict with the theory of evolution? Now, admittedly that concept is a theory, but creationists have a tough time arguing that all creation took just seven days, because the fossil record puts a big separation, possibly millions of years, between dinosaurs and men; it seems proven that they were not around at the same time.
And it’s not just dinosaurs. All the plants, trees and animals of that era were gigantic, quite hostile and unsuitable to exist alongside humankind. Instead, the late fossil record, that includes evidence of man, contains the kind of plants, trees and mammals we see around today, with some extinctions - eg. sabre-toothed tigers, mammoths, dodos.
Generally speaking, evidence of mammalian life is found only in Cretaceous rocks and rocks of the post Cretaceous geological era – that is rocks that have not had the time to set rock hard and can be dug into with a spade. These mammals, plants and trees are the kind that man is comfortable with and can use to his advantage for food, clothing, transport, housing and warmth.
So, are science and religion in conflict here? If God is truly the creator, He must be the greatest scientist ever, for even now, with all our technical ability, man cannot create even one living cell, let alone a plant or animal of even the simplest kind! In fact, true science and true religion will always agree, as scientists are beginning to find – so let’s begin to put the scriptures regarding Creation together to get an accurate picture of those events so long ago.
Isaiah 28:9-10 "Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little."
The first clue lies in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” The Hebrew word for “create” here is always used of divine activity (no.1254 in Strong’s Concordance. See also The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew and English lexicon, page 135). B.D.B. there goes on to list God’s handiwork – which transforms and makes perfect – eg. a clean heart in Psalm 51:10 “Create in me a clean heart,” the new heaven and earth, Isaiah 65:17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind,” Jerusalem into rejoicing, Isaiah 65:18 “But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; For behold, I create Jerusalem as a rejoicing, And her people a joy.” This word then, implies a perfect creation.
How did creation come about? Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” God the Father spoke, and the Word who dwelt with God carried out His instructions.
John 1:1-3,14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
Jesus Christ was that Word, as it were the executive arm of God. Ephesians 3:9 “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.”
Jesus Christ, then, pre-existed with God as the Word, from eternity. Colossians 1:16-17 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” He became the father’s son and heir, as well as the hands on Creator. Hebrews 1:2 “Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds.”
Science is only now just beginning to grasp that this world and all things in it are sustained and made up of pure energy , or ‘the force’ as ‘Star Wars’ describes it, but which the Bible, even thousands of years ago, explained was “spirit” – the Holy Spirit of God. Hebrews 11:3 “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
The Laws of mass and gravity which hold this earth in its position within the universe, just like a gigantic accurate clock, are governed and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. Job 26:13 “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.”
Long before God created the universe, He created spirit beings. These angelic servants of God were so delighted to see the physical creation of this perfectly beautiful planet and the surrounding universe that they spontaneously burst in to song in praise of the Creator. Job 38:4-7 “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” With over 100 billion stars in the milky way alone, they knew that God would somehow involve them in His new creation!
So, we know that this earth was created perfect and beautiful, even if it was not then suitable for men. Everything God turns His hand to is without fault or imperfection. 1 Corinthians 14:33 “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints.”
Isaiah 45:18 specifically states that God created it not “in vain” which in the Hebrew is “tohu” – to lie waste, a desolation (no.8414 in Strong’s Concordance). Remember that it was not originally created desolate, because we will come across the same word again later!
God placed one of His three archangels in charge of the earth. They were Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer. Lucifer was still “the prince of this world” when Jesus walked this earth 2000 years ago. John 12:31 “Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.” Lucifer was also given charge of a third of God’s angels to assist him. But his new position, beauty and power went to his head and he began to corrupt God’s angels by his lies.
Ezekiel 28:12-18 “Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.”
Lucifer’s plan was to rise up in rebellion against God with his angels and gain control of the universe. Isaiah 14:12-14 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
Of course his rebellion was doomed to failure, and he and his angels were cast back down to the earth after a tremendous battle, with the universe still bearing its scars to this day. From then he was no longer known as Lucifer, which means light bringer or morning star, but Satan, which means enemy, and his angels became demons.
Jude 6 “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
And Revelation 12:4 “And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.”
Here, they await their eventual judgment, far from the light of God’s presence and now are abased into deep mental darkness and trepidation. 2 Peter 2:4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
However, it was not just the moon and solar system that suffered in that battle, which brings us to Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
Our all knowing God had actually planned mankind’s eventual creation long before He created the angels and the universe. 2 Timothy 1:9 “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”
Why? God wanted to expand His family. Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
It was Lucifer’s rebellion that caused the surface of the earth to be totally devastated and laid waste. The huge trees and animals died, and a world wide flood buried them with sand and silt, producing eventually all the oil, gas, and coal that we use today. Without those resources our present way of life would not be possible. As a geology student long ago, I studied exposed seams of coal, which were often found on top of the clay that had been the soil the trees grew in and the dinosaurs walked on. Only one or two marine creatures survived and lived on from that dinosaur era, to the present. The shark is one of those.
So, Genesis 1:2 “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” should be correctly translated :- “And the earth became without form and void …” If you read this in the NIV you will see there is a footnote which states “or possibly became”.
“Without form and void” reads “tohu and bohu” in the original Hebrew – nos. 8414 & 922 in Strong’s. As we saw before, the words mean “to lie waste, a desolation” and “to be empty” Therefore the earth became tohu and bohu as a result of that great battle between God and Satan, for it had originally been created perfect!
The same word is elsewhere in Genesis translated “became” eg. Genesis 47:26 “And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's.” Brown Driver Briggs (page 224) explains the Hebrew word translated “was” can mean to fall out, to come to pass, become (in the imperfect tense). Exactly how long the earth lay waste and desolate in the gap between Genesis 1:1 and verse 2, we just don’t know.
But then verse 2, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The re-creation was about to start! Psalm 104:30 “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.” This time every part of creation was designed for man’s dominion. Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”
So, the earth was replenished with life as we know it today. Verse 28 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
But, there, in the garden of Eden, along with Adam and Eve, was that once great archangel who had become Satan, the serpent, or whisperer - Genesis 3:1 “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” In hatred and envy, Satan’s plan from that day forth has been to bring about mankind’s total destruction, if he can. To that end, he and his demons have worked to turn all men away from the truth Isaiah 25:7 “And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.”
Still with great power and influence (2 Corinthians 4:4 “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them”), one of his most successful ploys has been the theory of evolution, carefully inspired to undermine faith in the creator God.
But, now you can begin to see that there is no conflict with true science and the book of Genesis, as all will eventually come to see. Dinosaurs never did walk this earth with men, but were millions of years earlier, as part of a previous creation. What we read of in Genesis 1:2 is the re-creation designed to finally allow mankind to become brothers and sisters to Jesus Christ, members of that great eternal family of God!