Were Biblical Behemoths Actually Dinosaurs?

Noah’s Boys in the City of Mother Earth is a thrilling tale set in the perilous Last Days before Noah’s Flood, a time remarkably like our own.  In some of their adventures, the heroes of the story encounter giant behemoths, huge animals that seem identical to dinosaurs.  Could people actually have co-existed with dinosaurs? How else could you explain the following descriptions?
 “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox.  See now, his strength is in his hips, and his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles.  He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.  His bones are like beams of bronze, his ribs like bars of iron.  He is the first of the ways of God; only He who made him can bring near His sword.  Surely the mountains yield food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there.  He lies under the lotus trees, in a covert of reeds and marsh.  The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him.  Indeed the river may rage, yet he is not disturbed; he is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth, though he takes it in his eyes, or one pierces his nose with a snare.” (Job 40:15-24)
The same book describes an even more fearsome creature known as a Leviathan.
“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook?  … Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears?  Lay your hand on him: remember the battle—never do it again!  Indeed, any hope of overcoming him is false; shall one not be overwhelmed at the sight of him?  No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. … I will not conceal his limbs, his mighty power, or his graceful proportions. … Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?  His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal; one is so near another that no air can come between them; … His sneezings flash forth light, …Out of his mouth go burning lights; sparks of fire shoot out.  Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.  His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.  Strength dwells in his neck, … When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; … Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; nor does spear, dart, or javelin.  He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. … His undersides are like sharp potsherds; he spreads pointed marks in the mire.  He makes the deep boil like a pot… On earth there is nothing like him …He is king over all the children of pride.” (Job 41: 1-34)
The context of these descriptions indicates that Job and his friends were quite familiar with these fearsome beasts.  Some have suggested behemoths were actually were elephants; but could their tails ever be described as massive cedars?  And the Leviathan was clearly not any kind of whale, or even giant alligator.  Actually, the only kind of creature they could resemble would be extinct dinosaurs!  But that cannot be, evolutionists insist. 
Dinosaurs died out following the Mesozoic Era, we are taught: a period of time further divided into the Triassic Period (245-209 million years ago), the Jurassic Period (208-145 million years ago), and the Cretaceous Period (145-66 million years ago).  And Homo sapiens only evolved approximately 300,000 years ago, they say: millions of years following the extinction of the dinosaurs.  It would have been impossible for them to co-exist!  In fact, any evidence to the contrary would seriously shake the foundations of Darwinian evolution, a view dominant in Western universities for more than 150 years.
Yet how do we actually know the age of any fossil?  According to evolutionists, the age of certain fossils, perhaps 200 million years, is estimated by the age of the rocks in which they are found.  And how can the age of the rocks be known?  The surrounding rocks can be dated in two ways.  First, they are dated according to similar rocks estimated by radioactive methods (which are themselves based on questionable presumptions of the initial proportion of radioactive isotopes, something only guessed at.) Second, the rocks are dated by the presumed age of the fossils found in the rocks.  This, however, is circular reasoning!  We are left with no sure answer of the age of either the rocks or the fossils! 
But what if the biblical account were accurate?  What if two of each kind of land animal had actually been saved from the cataclysmic Noah’s Flood, as the Bible says: something that occurred only thousands, not millions of years ago?  If so, is it reasonable to think that some of these creatures might have survived long enough to be described in 1500 BC?  Could some have survived another 3500 years? 
The persistence of reports of modern day dinosaurs is fascinating, especially in the light that we live in a big world that has still not been completely explored.  Even a casual online search quickly net recent sightings of possible dinosaurs. Most famous, of course, is the Loch Ness monster, which most resembles an Elasmosaurus.  The Mbielu-Mbielu-Mbielu, a reptilian creature with prominent back plates, seems much like a stegosaurus, while massive shark-like monsters appearing like a Megalodon has also been reported.  Another creature has been observed in the Congo River basin that is much larger than an elephant.  Named the Mokole Mbembe, this reported animal has a powerful tail, and resembles an Apatasaurus.  Recently, WikiLeaks revealed a video of an apparent bird-like dinosaur from the KGB records of the former Soviet Union.1 The netting of the decayed carcass of a huge creature by a Japanese trawler near New Zealand in 1977 has made many believe dinosaurs still exist.  Over 32 feet long, and weighing over 4000 pounds, it was thrown overboard because of its overpowering stench, but most resembled a plesiosaur, something supposed to have been extinct for 200 million years.  And this year, the discovery of the best preserved fossilized dinosaur ever (picture from National Geographic) has brought the question again to the forefront. 
While it is hard to prove that the Bible’s behemoth or leviathan were actually the same thing as the dinosaurs (“terrible lizards”), it seems to me that they could have been!  And if so, that would have made those days before the Flood very exciting! Get a copy of Noah’s Boys in the City of Mother Earth to read this summer!  It is exciting, satisfying, and thought provoking!
Gregory Horning

1.  “Five dinosaurs caught on camera and spotted in real life.”  YouTube video: Oct 19, 2016


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