Question:  Dear Greg,

            Thank you for taking the time to try and answer a question I am sure you have been asked before.  I appreciate the openness and honesty in your answers.  I am attempting to reconcile in my mind the obvious discrepancies in the Bible’s account of history and the geological history of the fossils and planet in general.  I saw that in one of your answered questions you stand behind the biblical theory that the earth is 6000 years old.  So I assume you mark this as the beginning of time.  This would dictate that dinosaurs had to exist within this timeframe.  If that is a true statement then I can’t help but wonder why they are not mentioned.  I would think they would be a fairly awe-inspiring sight.  Sheep and goats are mentioned throughout the Bible and by all appearances they were as commonplace then as they are today.  Based on all my research, they didn’t make it on the ark, so that means they must have existed between creation and the flood.  This puts their existence less than 6000 years ago, which as I am sure you are aware is millions of years less than science tells us.

            There is an obvious conflict of information here.  Is there an explanation for this conflict?

            Thanks again,

            Bill

Answer:  Dear Bill,

            You must have misunderstood one of the questions we were asked with one of our answers.  We do not believe that the earth is only 6000 years old, nor do we believe that human history is only 6000 years old.  PTM emphatically believes that the Bible is the inspired word of God.

            We do not believe that a Christian must automatically take positions that are scientifically untenable or that a Christian must accept a fundamentalist/dispensational interpretative view of the Bible that forces the Bible to say something that it does not.

            The Bible has no quarrel with the existence of dinosaurs – they existed, the Bible simply is silent about them, for it was written after the time when they existed.  The Bible is also silent about airplanes and the computer, upon which and with which I am communicating to you – but both airplanes and computers exist.

            The Bible tells us what we cannot know from any other source – about revealed knowledge of God.  The Bible is the specific revelation about God, his plan and his will.  The natural creation is general revelation about God and his will.  The two are not in conflict, for they both came from God.  God is the source of all, the creator of all, and he made all in harmony.  We cannot set the natural creation against specific revelation (the Bible) without doing a grave dis-service to one or both.

            The major problem with this topic is that some well-meaning Christians believe that science must be given no quarter, and that evolution will be the product of accepting anything that science says.  In so doing, such folks are twisting and perverting the Bible – the Bible does no such thing.  The Bible is not against science.  The Bible, of course, is very much against macroevolution, which posits that life forms evolved from another life form, and that in the very beginning life came out of nothing.  The Bible says that God created everything – and that anything that was once “nothing” came into being as a result of the creative act of God – not as a result of warm soup-like ocean slime.  Upon that topic the Bible is clear.  Genesis 1 and 2 tell the story.

            But the Bible is not against science.  The Bible does not force Christians to deny the realities that the scientific world discovers (by God’s grace).  There is no reason that Christians have to check their brains at the door of the church – there is no such requirement in the Bible.  In fact, failure to engage the brain and cognitively reason is one factor helping cults succeed, while at the same time prejudicing people against giving Christianity a chance.  Unfortunately, Christianity has been mis-represented by sincere folks who think that they are holding the line against evolution, but are in fact holding the line against reality and fact.

            We have many questions and answers about science and the Bible, about evolution, and about Genesis.  Check the categories under “Ask Greg”.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht