The question about where dinosaurs fit into the storyline of the Bible is a common one because the Bible begins in Genesis 1 with the story of creation and that chapter ends with the creation of the first human beings, Adam and Eve. Some people ask then, ‘where do the dinosaurs fit into this timeline? And why aren’t they mentioned?’
It’s a good question, and I think it’s best answered by an understanding of why the Bible was written, and who it was written for. At the end of Genesis 1 when mankind is created by God we’re told that God made us ‘in his image, in his likeness’. We were made to be like God in character with the ability for compassion, mercy, grace, anger, frustration, a longing for peace, joy, love, purpose etc. These are all characteristics we share with God having been made in his image. This is a very big deal because it shows that of all that God made, it was humans who were the goal, because of the way they reflect the glory of God by nature, being made ‘in his image’.
God created us to relate to us, and God’s plan of salvation through Jesus Christ was to make a way for us to relate to him forever. The stars are beautiful but they don’t relate to God, and the same can be said of dogs, cats, birds, planets and plants; as well as dinosaurs and other created beings that are now extinct.
This is important to stress because it helps us to understand the purpose for why God revealed himself through the scriptures, and what the purpose of the scriptures are. Because God’s goal of creation was to relate to his people, God inspired the Bible to be written for the sake of his people, so we could learn about him, learn about ourselves, and most importantly learn about the way God was going to give us an opportunity to be forgiven so we could live with him forever.
So, in saying this we need to understand that the Bible has a ‘why’, and it was written for an intended audience. The ‘why’ was so humans could know their God, and the audience was humans themselves. The Bible was written to people to bring them to the knowledge of God, so they could enjoy him by relating to him forever. This means many things will be missing from the pages of scripture – like a description of the creatures in the depths of the ocean, an explanation of how the laws that govern our universe work, the arts of astrology, geology, mathematics and many other ‘sciences’ that God created for us to discover as we learn more about God himself by studying what he’s made. They’re missing from the pages of scripture, only because they aren’t the main goal of the scriptures.
Dinosaurs fit into this category. They’re real, they existed, but the Bible wasn’t written to give us an account of life before mankind was made. It was written so we could know God, and live in light of his good plan for our lives. If you read Genesis 1 you’ll notice God created the world in 7 days – which seems to be the way God spoke to us about his work in a way that we could comprehend – us and the ancient people who read it before us. In that account we have a kind of order which included light itself, the wider universe, sky, sea, land, vegetation, animals and humans in roughly that order, but we have to realise this is a very brief order of things to show humans that God created all things and made us alone in his image to represent him on earth. God never intended to give us a description of all that he had made, otherwise the book of Genesis would take on a very different purpose.
There’s a verse in the Old Testament of the Bible written about 1000 B.C. which says, ‘Great are the works of the Lord, they are pondered by all who delight in them’ (Psalm 111:2), which seems to indicate that many of us will spend our lives delighting in and studying what God has made. This is science, and God has given us the mind to study the sciences to learn more about him as we study his works.
Ultimately, all things were written and recorded as they are so that when God came to us in the Lord Jesus to make a way for us to be reconciled to him and each other, we’d recognise him and come to him to fulfil the purpose for why we were created.
The Apostle Paul said, ‘No matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘yes’ in Christ’ (2 Corinthians 1:20), reminding us that all that was written before God came into the world was written so that we’d come to know him as he finally revealed himself to us in Jesus.
When Jesus came he said,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17).
… which was Jesus’ way of saying that since he had come, we can now turn to God (repent) because Jesus was here to make a way for us to be reconciled to God. Apart from Jesus we have no way of personally knowing God or relating to him as our Father in heaven. Jesus is the promised Saviour who came to bring us into a proper relationship with God. This is why Jesus went on to say,
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:27–29).
This was God’s goal for his written word, the Bible, not that we’d know about dinosaurs or any other study of what God made, but that we’d know him as he revealed himself to us in Jesus.
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