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Podcast Dinosaurs [S07,E189]

Posted on by Randy Glotfelty

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Podcast Dinosaurs

Commander Wayne, I know what happened to the dinosaurs and this is not a guess.  They died.  We’ve told you that we cover it all right here on your favorite podcast.  I’m Commander Randy and you’re listening to The Ranger Podcast.

  • Day 5 and 6

I am excited for this years Powwow.  Penn Florida 2023.  The theme this year is Jurassic World.  I remember the first time I saw the movie Jurassic Park.  I took my mom, who’s dad was a theatre owner back in the 30’s, and it was the first movie she had attended in decades.  When the cast boarded the iconic jeep and the cameras pulled back to reveal living breathing dinosaurs it was epic.  Dinosaurs capture the imaginations of kids from every age and that fascination stays with them long into their adult years.  Dinosaurs are important to Royal Ranger and should be important to every Christian mom and dad.

Children are exposed to dinosaurs at a very young age, kindergarten, and then a narrative starts to take shape, backed by every public textbook and in classroom, that is in stark contradiction to the creation story.  Even some Christian teachers teach a theistic evolutionary account of dinosaurs.  And this is the start to the hundreds of times that adults in positions of responsibility over your kids with contradict what mom and dad are saying at home.

The worst part is that they have science, lab coats, bowties, and lots of letters after their names that infectible, evidentiarily reject the creation account.  Your flannel graph in the Noah’s ark story book at home doesn’t stand a chance.  Walk into any museum or local dinosaur park and there they are, life sized replicas of these fearsome creatures.  It gets worse.  There are charts and pictures on the walls with terms like fossil records and inferences to the data.  How can you deny it.  As a parent of children that went to public schools, I can tell you that little Jonny isn’t coming home to tell mom and dad they are wrong, but their pretty sure Mrs. Mcgillicuddy is right.

This is no small matter.  We are talking about world view ideas and it’s the small seeds that are planted in the minds of children that begin to challenge the very underpinnings of life’s toughest questions.  We have to be assertive and start the conversations early or the questions will never be asked.

 

  • Why doesn’t the Bible tell us about dinosaurs?

You might not be surprised to learn that an exhaustive search of the word Dinosaur in the Bible will come up empty.  Never mentioned.  There is a good reason for this.  The word wasn’t coined until 1841 by Sir Richard Owens.  It means terrible lizard.  Fair enough, but, does the Bible speak to anything like a dinosaur?

Job 40:15-19  Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.  Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.  He moveth his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.  His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.  He is chief of the ways of God.  What is this?  Dog, cat, elk?  No, this is an ominous creature.  Even Christians get this wrong.  The NIV study Bible says that it was probably an elephant or hippo.  “Tail like a cedar”?  Like everything else in life, you look to the best evidence.  What animal remains have been uncovered that best fits this description? A sauropod dinosaur.

  • Why is it important?

The story of dinosaurs is presented to us cloaked in a shroud of proof.  In other words, we are told that all these things about their lives, diets, procreation, and extinction are all facts proved out by examining the fossil records.

Question.  If you uncover a fossilized fish, what do you know and what can you prove?  All you can say with provable certainty is, “here lies a dead fish.”  You don’t know what color the fish was, or what he ate.  You don’t even know where he died.  You only know where he wound up.

What makes a fossil?  Sudden entombing with millions of tons of sediment.  What historic event explains this?

The word proof is thrown around along with the word certainty and yet every statement beyond, “here lies a dead fish,” is just a best guess.

The Bible tells us that our faith should be evidence based.  Faith in God is not blind faith but rather a rational evidence-based faith.  Very few things in life are provable but there is strong evidence to have faith in the most important things in life.  I can put two apples on the table, add two more and prove to you there are four apples on the table.  Commander Wayne, I can’t prove that your wife loves you, but I know you would stake your life on the overwhelming evidence that she does.

The Bible tells us — Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” 1 Peter 3:15 NIV  And yes, that includes questions about dinosaurs.  Leaving a child’s questions about dinosaurs unanswered or ambiguous gives way to much leverage to evolutionist.

There is something more.  Science is impersonal and predominantly concerned about the how.  How this creature lived, how it looked, how long ago did it die, etc…  But aren’t we also concerned with the why.  Science can tell me how Grammie makes here delicious cherry pie, but it can never tell me why, and the why my be the most important question.  Grammie must reveal that to me by getting to know her.  God gave us science and is thrilled that our curiosity has uncovered so many things about His creation, past and present, but He longs for us to ask why.  The creator of the universe is a personal God who wants to have a relationship with you through Jesus Christ.

I love dinosaurs Commander Wayne.  What a creative God we serve.  I love finding sharks teeth on the beach and even along the Peace River down at Camp Wilderness.  A few years ago, a young Ranger pulled up a megalodon tooth.  A shark thought to be more that 70ft long.  Our Earth has an amazing story to tell of civilizations lost and strange creature that have gone extinct.  Archaeologist and paleontologist work to give us insight and sometimes even remains to captivate our imaginations.

Dinosaurs are one of the earlies introductions of world view questions and undoubtedly your kids will be inundated with evolutionary views early and often.  We need to have wisdom and knowledge on these topics so that we are able to answer the tough questions and give further revelation to our Rangers about our heavenly Father and great creator.

 

 

Randy Glotfelty