Were Dinosaur’s on Noah’s Ark?

A VERY Common Question

Perhaps no other single question concerning the Flood will more quickly bring out the atheist’s sneers and the believer’s fears than, “Were dinosaurs on the ark?” But there is evidence that man and dinosaurs did indeed live on earth at the same time.

In Rhodesia, paintings on cave walls by bushmen known to have left the caves in 1500 BC include paintings of brontosaurs. According to the nature of their art, cavemen only painted from what they could actually see. Thus, they would have had to see a brontosaur in order to paint one.

Evidence of these large reptiles has been found since the Flood. Dinosaur footprints have been located in the same strata with human footprints in Glen Rose, Texas.

According to Dr. Henry Morris, Ph.D.:

“The Book of Job is one of the oldest in the Bible and reflects living conditions in the early centuries after the Flood. The climax of the book is when God speaks directly to Job and his friends in Job 38, 39, 40 and 41. God is calling attention to His great power in creating and sustaining all things.’

“Finally, He calls attention to His two greatest creations in the animal kingdom, the behemoth (Job 40:15-24) and leviathan (Job 41:1-34). Most commentators suggest the behemoth is either the elephant or hippopotamus and that leviathan is the crocodile. However, the actual descriptions (and these, coming as they do from the mouth of God Himself, certainly refer to real animals) obviously do not apply to any animals known today.

The most reasonable interpretation is that they refer to extinct animals. Perhaps, then the behemoth is a land dinosaur and leviathan a marine dinosaur. Suddenly these chapters become very much alive and meaningful! These great animals were still living in Job’s day, even though they may have become extinct since.’

“In reading God’s description of the behemoth, one can clearly visualize a great brontosaur, with his long neck protecting out to eat the swamp vegetation and to wash it down with great quantities of water, with his powerful legs and tail easily capable of demolishing his enemies with their overwhelming blows. ‘Behold, behemoth,’ God remarks…’he eats grass like an ox…his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like cedar.’ (Ever see an elephant’s tail?) ‘His bones are as tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron’ (no wonder so many fossil dinosaur bones have been preserved so long). Finally, God states, ‘He is the first of the works of God’ (the greatest animal God ever made); ‘Let Him who made him bring neat the sword’ (God Himself can destroy the dinosaurs, even though man could not). ‘Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened… Can one take him by his eyes or pierce his nose with a snare?’”

To answer the question concerning whether dinosaurs were on the ark, it may be said that since they existed with man prior to the Flood, the chances are good that a young pair of these huge reptiles may well indeed have been aboard.

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Dr. Elmer Towns is a college and seminary professor, an author of popular and scholarly works (the editor of two encyclopedias), a popular seminar lecturer, and dedicated worker in Sunday school, and has developed over 20 resource packets for leadership education.His personal education includes a B.S. from Northwestern College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a M.A. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary also in Dallas, a MRE from Garrett Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois, and a D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.He is co-founder of Liberty University, with Jerry Falwell, in 1971, and was the only full-time teacher in the first year of Liberty’s existence. Today, the University has over 11,400 students on campus with 39,000 in the Distance Learning Program (now Liberty University Online), and he is the Dean of the School of Religion.Dr. Towns has given theological lectures and taught intensive seminars at over 50 theological seminaries in America and abroad. He holds visiting professorship rank in five seminaries. He has written over 2,000 reference and/or popular articles and received six honorary doctoral degrees. Four doctoral dissertations have analyzed his contribution to religious education and evangelism.

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