Where Did the Dinosaurs Come From?

by Jay McMullan

© 2003

    One of the most frequent questions I have been asked is, "Where do the dinosaurs come from?" First of all, dinosaurs definitely did exist on this earth. Working in an oil refinery, I work with evidence of their existence every day. I have actually listened to some Christians try to claim that dinosaurs did not exist or that they existed a mere six thousand years ago when Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Eden.

    The gasoline you put in your car is tangible proof that dinosaurs existed. Oil is a fossil fuel and it comes from carbon based life forms that have been held below the earth for perhaps, many millions of years. When oil rigs drill for oil, they almost always hit pockets of salt water many hundreds and thousands of feet below ground. Years ago, I was working on a "workover" oil rig north and west of a small Texas town named Vega. The driller, or the man that ran the rig was an old seasoned oilman, rough rugged around the edges. The other helper on the rig was young and inexperienced in the oil field. As we were running rods on the rig, the young man asked the old veteran where all the salt water came from that rigs almost always hit. I was surprised when the driller replied, "Haven't you read the Bible?" That started a conversation between us about the creation of the earth.

    In answering the question about dinosaurs, I could easily get into a study that would take up many pages. I will attempt to keep my answer precise and to the point, showing Biblical proof of the age in which the dinosaurs existed. If the reader is interested and wants to learn more, I would recommend studying what others have written on the time period of which I will be speaking.

    Shortly after transferring with my employer to Utah in June 1993, I was astonished to learn that a prehistoric camel had been unearthed at the huge, open pit, copper mine on the west side of the Salt Lake valley. Apparently this was not the first of such creatures to have been found. There are at least two other places in Utah that many prehistoric animal's bones have been found. One is south of Price, Utah, the other is a National Monument on the Utah/Colorado border. The proof of the existence of dinosaurs is so clear that I will not attempt to prove it here.

    Scientists believe that the dinosaurs existed many millions of years ago. Biblical scholars believe that the six days of creation and the creation of Adam and Eve occurred approximately six thousand years ago. If this is true, how can modern science and the Word of God fit? Obviously, one or the other is not true or we are missing something. Let me say this, I do believe that the six days of creation was only approximately six thousand years ago and I do believe the dinosaurs are much, much older. I have heard some Christians who believe that the dinosaurs were here when Adam and Eve lived. I do not believe this for a minute and believe that the Bible would be clear on that issue if it was true. So, what have we missed?

    Here it is, the six days of creation and Adam and Eve were only six thousand years ago but the earth was actually created many, many millions, if not billions of years before that. Genesis chapter 1, verse 1 says, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". Then in the very next verse, "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", we see a portrait of the earth and her sad condition. The earth was "without form and void". By looking at the Hebrew, we see that the earth was in a horrible state, "Without form" is taken from the Hebrew word "tohuw" meaning waste or desolation. The earth was chaotic, empty, desolate, vain and wilderness. Darkness consumed the light of the earth. With the darkness, obviously came the ice age that is talked of so much by scientists. Where there is no light there is no heat.

    Was the earth created in such a mess? Obviously not. Look at Isaiah 45:18:

For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.

    It is absolutely clear from the scriptures that the Lord did NOT create the earth in the destructive state as it appears in Genesis 1:1. When this earth was created, it was created perfectly. God cannot create anything, any other way. Just as God cannot look upon sin, God cannot create anything in vain or in a destructive state. As you begin to study this subject more deeply, you will see that the earth was populated before Adam and Eve. It was during this time that the dinosaurs existed. Before Adam and Eve there was no time so when the scientists use carbon dating on dinosaur bones and other things prehistoric, it is impossible for them to get an accurate date in which these things existed. If it were possible to put a time table on these things it would, perhaps have been, many millions or billions of years ago. Look at Isaiah 14:12:

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!

     What nations is Isaiah writing about? He is speaking of the cities and nations that were built in "eternity past" as I prefer to call it. Others call it, "the pre-adamite world". As you may well know, God has existed for eternity. At some point in that eternity, God created the dinosaurs. He also created Lucifer and the people that lived on this earth. Whether Lucifer's subjects perished at the same time as the dinosaurs is not known. Personally, I believe they existed at different periods. When the Lord re-created the earth, I can almost perceive Him with a large spatula in the same manner as a cook coating a cake with icing. This would explain why the bodies of the living who perished are now many hundreds and thousands of feet below the earth's surface and have become crude oil. This also explains why drilling rigs will encounter salt water under the earth.

     Another thing that scientists believe is that the earth's continents were all connected at one time. The word they use for this theory is "Pangea". The continents can be pieced together like a jig saw puzzle. This explains how a pre-historic camel could be found in Utah. Scientists once commonly believed that the Spaniards introduced the horse to the North American continent until pre-historic horses were found in the Americas. It could be that the Spaniards re-introduced the horse to North America! Surprisingly, Genesis also gives the answer to when the Pangean continent was separated. It was actually after Adam and Eve walked the face of this earth!

    Hopefully, I have piqued your interest in this subject and you will study further. I would highly encourage you to read many of the writings by Finis Jennings Dake. His books can be purchased through the Dake web site at http://www.dake.com. Also, study the following scriptures and others that are closely related to them:

Genesis 1
Genesis 10:25
Isaiah 14:12 - 15
Ezekiel 28:11 - 17
Colossions 1:15 - 18
2 Peter 3:5 - 7