Hot button Questions 6

A: I believe the Bible does mention dinosaurs, though it never uses the word “dinosaur.” Dinosaur is a relatively new word that was coined in 1841 by the famous British scientist Sir Richard Owen. Prior to this time, the word “dragon” was used to describe large reptilian creatures.

The Bible uses the Hebrew word tanniyn (tah-neen), which is translated a few different ways in our English Bibles. Sometimes it’s “sea or river monster,” and sometimes it’s “serpent.”

It is most commonly translated “dragon or dinosaur.”

The tanniyn appear to have been some sort of giant reptile. These creatures are mentioned nearly thirty times in the Old Testament and were found both on land and in the water, suggesting that dinosaurs dwelt amongst men.

In addition to mentioning these giant reptiles, the Bible describes a couple of creatures in such a way that some scholars believe the writers may have been describing dinosaurs.

We find a creature called behemoth in Job 40:15, which is said to be the mightiest of all God’s creatures, a giant whose tail is likened to a cedar tree.

Some scholars have tried to identify the behemoth as either an elephant or a hippopotamus. But elephants and hippopotamuses have very thin tails, nothing comparable to a cedar tree.

Dinosaurs like the brachiosaurus and the diplodocus had huge tails which could easily be compared to a cedar tree.

Throughout history nearly every ancient civilization has some sort of art depicting giant reptilian creatures. Images carved into rock, artifacts, and even little clay figurines found in North America resemble modern depictions of dinosaurs.

Rock carvings in South America depict men riding diplodocus-like creatures and, amazingly, bear the familiar images of triceratops-like, pterodactyl-like, and tyrannosaurus rex-like creatures.

Roman mosaics, Mayan pottery, and Babylonian city walls all testify to man’s familiarity and fascination with these creatures.

In addition to the substantial amount of historical evidences for the coexistence of dinosaurs and man, there are physical evidences, like the fossilized footprints of humans and dinosaurs found together at places in North America and West-Central Asia.

So if dinosaurs and human beings coexisted, what happened to the dinosaurs?

While the Bible doesn’t discuss the issue, dinosaurs likely died out sometime after the flood due to a combination of dramatic environmental shifts and their being relentlessly hunted to extinction by man.

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Q: Are there really Aliens? And if so, where is it in the Bible?

A: First, let's define “aliens.” An alien would have to be “a physical being capable of making moral choices, having intellect, emotion, and a will.”

In light of that, here’s a few scientific facts:

1. Men have sent spacecraft to nearly every planet in our solar system. After observing these planets, we have ruled out all but Mars and possibly a moon of Jupiter as being able to support life.

2. In 1976, the U.S.A. sent two landers to Mars. Each had instruments that could dig into the Martian sand and analyze it for any sign of life. They found absolutely nothing.

In contrast, if you analyzed soil from the most barren desert on earth or the most frozen dirt in Antarctica, you would find it teeming with micro-organisms.

In 1997, the U.S.A. sent Pathfinder to the surface of Mars, which took more samples and conducted many more experiments. It also found absolutely no sign of life.

Since that time, several more missions to Mars have been launched. The results have always been the same.

3. Astronomers are constantly finding new planets in distant solar systems. Some propose that the existence of so many planets proves that there must be life somewhere else in the universe.

The fact is that none of these has ever been proved to be anything close to a life-supporting planet.

The tremendous distance between Earth and these planets makes it impossible to make any judgments regarding their ability to sustain life.

Knowing that Earth alone supports life in our solar system, evolutionists want very badly to find another planet in another solar system to support the notion that life must have evolved. Yet none has been found.

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So, what does the Bible say? It teaches that the earth and mankind are unique in God's creation. Genesis 1 teaches that God created the earth before He even created the sun, the moon, or the stars.

Acts 17:24-26 states that “the God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands…he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.”

So, God paid very special and close attention to earth and all its inhabitants!

In conclusion, the Bible gives us no reason to believe that there is life elsewhere in the universe, alien or otherwise.

Yes, many strange and unexplainable things do take place that people attribute to aliens. But they likely have a spiritual cause, demonic in origin—including ghosts, phantoms, haunted houses, unexplainable glowing lights, and so forth.

Remember, Satan is all about deception. And his intent is always to lure people away from Jesus Christ by drawing their attention and heart to something other than Him!

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Q: Why did Rachel, Jacobs wife, steal her fathers pagan idols? She was already with Jacob and knew of his God. I wonder if this was part of the reason Rachel was barren for so long.

A: Ok, the Bible records, “While Laban was gone to cut the wool from his sheep, Rachel went into his house and stole the false gods that belonged to her father” (Gen 31:19).

“There are a few theories regarding why Rachel stole her father Laban's idols.

1. She was an idolator (idol-worshipper) herself.

2. She disapproved of her father's (Laban's) idol worship and wanted to help prevent it.

But the next verses may just give us a clue:

“Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban by not telling him he was running away. So he fled with all he had, crossed the Euphrates River, and headed for the hill country of Gilead” (Verses 20-21).

So Jacob deceived Laban when he fled the scene. He left secretly, which Rachel knew would anger her father and place Jacob, herself, and their family in jeopardy.

With that in mind, Bible history reveals that one reason the idol worshippers kept household idols was they believed they could reveal secrets, as well as future events.

It’s very possible that Rachel took these idolatrous images so that Laban could not use them to reveal where she and Jacob had gone.

Was this the reason for her barrenness? Probably not. God chose to use the barrenness of all 3 of the patriarch’s wives—Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel—in order to manifest His power by answering their prayers. Each of the 3 patriarchs received children by faith, which certainly foreshadowed the miraculous conception and birth of our Lord Jesus.

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Q: What does the Bible say about sex before marriage? Is it truly wrong?

A: The Bible teaches that any and all sex outside the boundaries of marriage is sin. This includes fornication (sex between an unmarried heterosexual couple), and homosexuality, which is sinful in all contexts.

The writer of Hebrews makes this plain, “Marriage should be respected by everyone. God will punish those who do sex sins (sex outside of marriage) and are not faithful in marriage (adultery)” (Heb. 13:4).

Paul writes, “But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband” (1 Cor. 7:2).

So according to the Apostle Paul, marriage is the “cure” for sexual immorality for those that can’t exercise self-control.

Another verse to the Corinthians says, “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body” (6:13).

And an even stronger verse, “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body” (6:18).

The word “flee” here is “to shun something,” or “to flee to safety from something abhorrent, as if a lion were after you.”

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Now, something that goes on a lot these days among professing Christians is living together without being married.

I have had people look at me and say, “We live together because we love each other and feel complete peace about our arrangement.”

So the logic is, “Love justifies sin.”

I’ve also been told by unmarried Christians living together, “We’re married in the eyes of God. Who needs a piece of paper to prove it?”

Okay, so the logic there is, “God Himself has joined us in a sort of ‘God as the minister’ ceremony.”

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Okay, first...does love justify or absolve sin?

The Bible would say no. First, true love, genuine God-like love will not involve itself in sin.

In Paul’s epic, classic description of the God kind of love, he writes:

1 Cor. 13:6 “Love is not happy with sin. Love is happy with the truth.”

True love doesn’t justify sin; true love shuns sin.

True love will never make a truce with sin!

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Now, what about not needing “a piece of paper” (a marriage license) in order to be truly married?

First of all, Jesus always talked about marriage in relation to a legal contract. When talking about divorce, He said: “You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’ 32 But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery.”

Notice how Jesus assumes that marriage is a legal transaction that requires a legal, written notice of divorce to dissolve it!

And let’s not forget that His first miracle was performed at a wedding.

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I have a question for those who take this stand. If it’s “just a piece of paper,” why are you afraid of it?

Every time I’ve seen a couple living together out of wedlock, it has been one of two things:

1. It’s a relationship that went sexual early on and they have decided to go ahead and live that way with no lifelong commitment at all.

2. It’s a situation where one of the pair thinks they are practically married (common law) and will make it official one day (usually the woman). And the other partner (generally the guy) thinks they have not actually made any commitment to marry. In other words, he can walk away when he pleases with no strings attached.

In a genuine marriage, commitment with the so called “piece of paper” is just the beginning. It is the foundation on which everything else is built.

A wedding makes the statement to God that we want to have His very best for us and the family to come.

The Bible tells us that God’s best for couples is one man and one woman together for life within the covenant of marriage.

Moses wrote, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).

And Jesus echoed Moses, saying: “Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. ‘They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ 5 And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ 6 Since they are no longer two but one’” (Matt 19:4-6).

And we know that the “joined together” Jesus mentions means a legal ceremony based on His attending a wedding for His first miracle, and His words about a legal “certificate of divorce” necessary to end a legal wedding.