Demons, Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Concerns

Much debate revolves around the age of the earth; particularly whether or not it was originally created during the six days described in the first chapter of Genesis. This study is dedicated not so much to defending the scientific measures used to determine the earth's age, but rather to thoroughly explore those scriptures that address the issue. I realize this subject is a sensitive one to many readers and I urge you to objectively consider the following information without pre-disposed bias.

Genesis 1:1 says: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The next verse says the earth was void, empty and covered with water; after which we see God calling into being various life forms, including, but not limited to man.

The first question I wish to raise has to do with verse 2: "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Did God first create the earth in such a way? Did He need such "raw material" for His creative acts? Although He chose to bring forth grass, herbs and even man from the earth; in creating light (verse 3), birds and fish (verse 20) out of nothing, God revealed that He does not need pre-existing "raw material."

"By the Word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth."

"By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made by things which are visible."

These Scriptures show unequivocally that God did not create the heavens and the earth from pre-existing substance. He formed them directly by His Word and by His breath! Hebrews 11:3 clearly states that the earth was not formed from "visible," pre-existing material. Thus we see that the heavens and the earth mentioned in verse one were not first formed in the condition that they are described in verse two, i.e., without form and void and then molded into something else, like a potter makes pottery from formless clay. This, however, must be asserted if the heavens and the earth first came into existence during the six days described in Genesis 1 and 2. That they did not is further verified by the unique use of the word for "create" in verse one (bara) - meaning to create out of nothing (ex nihilo). The heavens and the earth were immediately brought "ex nihilo" to an inhabitable condition - with no intermediate steps.

God's Word says that He did not originally create the earth formless: "For thus says the Lord God, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain (without form and void)..." Isaiah 45:18. Dr. C.I. Scofield, editor of the Scofield Study Bible, comments on Isaiah 45:18:

This is one of the Scripture passages that suggest the Divine Judgment interpretation of Genesis 1:1,2. This interpretation views the earth as having been created perfect. After an indefinite period of time, possibly in connection with Satan's sin of rebellion against the Most High (see notes at Isaiah 14:12 and Ezekiel 28:12), judgment fell upon the earth and it became "vain," "empty" or "waste." Another indefinite interval elapsed after which "the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" in a re-creation of the earth. Some of the arguments for this viewpoint are: 1) Only the earth, not the universe, is said to have been "without form and void"; 2) The face of the earth bears the marks of a catastrophe; 3) The word rendered "was" may also be translated "became," as indicated above - "became without form and void"; 4) The Hebrew expression for "without form and void" (tohu wabohu) is used to describe a condition produced by divine judgment in the only other two texts where the two words appear in conjunction (Isaiah 34:11, "emptiness" and Jeremiah 4:23, "without form and void"); 5) Such a prehistoric divine judgment would throw some light on Satan's fall and the peculiar relation he seems to sustain to the earth; and 6) this interpretation leaves room for an undetermined period of time between the original creation and divine judgment.[i]

If the earth was not originally created during the six days of Genesis 1, does the Bible reveal when it was created? No, it does not give an exact amount of time prior to the creation of Adam and Eve; however, it does specify when it was created relative to other events, such as Lucifer's rebellion: Job 38:4-7 reveals indisputably that the earth was in existence before Lucifer fell:

"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Here we see, proof positive, that ALL the sons of God (angels, including Lucifer) were "singing together and shouting for joy" AFTER the earth was created. The "sons of God" and "morning stars" are references to angels (Genesis 6:2-4/Jude 6,7, Job 1:6; 38:7, Isaiah 14:12). "All" the angels includes Lucifer, who, with his fallen angels, would not be singing and/or shouting with God for joy after they rebelled. Satan fell before the creation account of Genesis one and after the earth was created (Job 38:4-7). The obvious conclusion is that the earth was not created during the six days of Genesis 1. If the creation of the earth took place during the six days, then the Bible is in error - an absolute impossibility!

Isaiah 45:18 unequivocally states that God did not originally create the earth in the condition that it is described in Genesis 1:2, i.e., "in vain," "without form" and "void" - therefore it must have been reduced to its desolate condition by some catastrophe prior to Genesis 1:3. This is verified by the Hebrew words that are used in Genesis 1:2 and Isaiah 45:18, hayah (Strong's #1961), tohu (Strong's #8414) and bohu (Strong's #922). John G. Hall echoes the opinion of his close colleague, Finis J. Dake (author of the Dake Reference Bible):

The word "was" ("the earth was without form...") is the Hebrew word hayah, which is translated "became" in 64 Old Testament passages. For examples, see Genesis 19:26; 44:32, Exodus 4:3,4, Numbers 12:10. The word hayah is also translated "came to pass" in scores of Old Testament passages, indicating a change. All this implies clearly a change in the condition of the earth from its original condition. So this is another indication that the earth was not created without form and void, but became that way some time after it was created.[ii]

Author A.C. Custance informs us that of 1,320 usages of the word hayah, only 24 mean "to be" (as opposed to "became").[iii] Tohu is rendered "without form" in Genesis 1:2, but elsewhere in Scripture carries a much stronger (and more accurate) meaning: "empty" in Job 26:7; "waste" in Deuteronomy 32:10 and "confusion" in Isaiah 24:10. Tohu also means "desolation," the exact opposite of "creation!" God would not (and did not according to His own Word in Isaiah 45:18) create the earth in such a condition - it became (hayah) that way somehow. Bohu, meaning "ruined" or "empty" is translated in the KJV as "void." The earth was ruined, empty and void - the antithesis of "good," as God described His creation in Genesis 1:31. A proper and comprehensive rendering of Genesis 1:2 in the original Hebrew would read as follows:

Surely this is the result of some catastrophic judgment, that of necessity had to take place after (probably long after) the creation of the earth in verse one. The use of the Hebrew word bara in verse one substantiates this conclusion. Bara, meaning to create out of nothing (ex nihilo - Dr. Spiro Zodiates), is used only in verse one when describing the original creation and in verses 21 and 27 and 2:3 when describing fish, birds and the creation of man. In all other instances relative to the earth, asah, meaning to create from existing matter, is used in Genesis 1 and 2 and in Exodus 20:11, which refers back to Genesis 2. This reveals that Genesis 1:3ff depicts a re-creation or replenishment as is affirmed in Genesis 1:28.

The Creation Research Institute (CRI) attempts to scuttle the meaning of the word "replenish," by saying that some of the "modern" versions use the word "fill" in Genesis 1:28. The argument is weak at best, particularly when we consider the many gross mistranslations of the "modern" versions. The authorized King James version of the Bible is much more dependable than the "modern" versions, and "replenish" is the word the translators purposely selected. Noah, like Adam, was told in Genesis 9:1 to "replenish" the earth after all living things were destroyed in Genesis 7. Like Noah's world, a re-creation or restoration of Adam's world was also necessary as a result of the events described in Jeremiah 4:23-26:

"I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; and the heavens, they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth. I beheld, and indeed there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens had fled. I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, and its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord, by His fierce anger."

While Isaiah 45:18 tells us that God did not create the earth "without form and void," as it is described in Genesis 1:2, the foregoing scriptures reveal how it became that way - "by His fierce anger!"

Some allege that Jeremiah 4:23-26 has to do with ancient Israel; and while some of the surrounding text does refer to the "land" of Israel, verses 23-26 divert from the immediate text. This is revealed in the use of the word "earth" in verse 23, instead of the word "land" (Israel). Verses 23-26 are in the past tense, whereas verses 27 and following are in the future. Moreover, verse 23 is an exact repeat of Genesis 1:2 - making it certain that God is referring to something much broader in scope than localized judgment on Eretz (the land) Israel. The Bible is filled with examples of prophets suddenly deviating from their immediate message to something future and more widespread (Isaiah 24:1; 52:13-15, Revelation 1:10f, Daniel 7:13-15, etc., etc.). This is typical of the "Spirit of prophecy."

In Matthew 13:35, Jesus taught the overthrow of the world incidentally, in the use of the Greek word katabole, which is mistranslated "foundation". The word katabole is derived from the root words, kata, meaning "down," and ballo, meaning to "throw violently," hence the meaning, "cast down," or "throw down violently." The word is thus translated in 2 Corinthians 4:9 and in other passages.[iv]

It is difficult to say how much time elapsed between the original creation in Genesis 1:1 and its subsequent devastation. It is also difficult to tell how much time transpired between the pre-adamic judgement described in Jeremiah 4:23-26 and the restoration of Genesis 1 and 2 which took place 6,000 years ago.[v]

The scientific community, including Christian scientists, and the Bible agree that the ancient world was reduced to the condition which Jeremiah saw as a result of it being struck from heaven by God (Isaiah 24:1). Nahum 1:5,6 says, "The mountains quake before Him, the hills melt, and the earth heaves at His presence, yes, the world and all who dwell in it, who can stand before His indignation? And who can endure the fierceness of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him." Are these "rocks" from the terrestrial or celestial realm? Do they come down off a mountain or out of the sky? In describing the future judgment of the earth, the book of Revelation says that stars (ASTER in the Greek) will fall from heaven to earth (Revelation 6:13; 9:1). This Greek word, aster, is where we get our word "asteroid." Nahum no doubt was referring to celestial matter when he declared that "the rocks are thrown down by God." The scientific community has long verified this by its discovery that an asteroid six miles wide struck the Yucatan Peninsula 65 million years ago. The asteroid penetrated 8,500 feet below the surface of the water and 300 feet beneath the ocean floor.[vi]

Before Adam, the earth was inhabited by strange animals that wandered at will through lush vegetation. It was not a desolate waste for Scripture says that God "created it not in vain [tohu, waste]." He formed it to be inhabited (Isaiah 45:18).

Among smaller species roamed animals of extraordinary size: dire wolves, dirk-toothed cats, camels, deer, ground sloths, sabre-toothed tigers, etruscan rhinos, imperial elephants, mastodons, woolly mammoths, and dinosaurs. Quickly, death grabbed that world with icy fingers. Earth became an uninhabited waste, a dark-shrouded whirling ball zipped up tight in an overcoat of frost, snow and ice. No fact in geologic history is so startling as the abrupt extermination of earth's inhabitants. There are cuttlefish that were overcome so quickly they did not release their ink, bivalves that did not have time to close their shells, sharks that were obviously swimming at burial, fish that could not have been dead when closely packed in burial for they are curled with spread fins as if drawn up in horror. Predators and their prey, young and old alike, were destroyed; quickly stratified in layers of mud or gravel and covered with ice, snow or frost. Sea creatures are found with land animals. Bones were broken by the dashing and then deposited in distant places. All were buried by the same paroxysmal cataclysm that killed them.

Everywhere, earth shows evidence of that catastrophe. Broken strata of continental and oceanic crust dumped on Alaska and along the western edges of Canada, United States, Mexico and South America where it did not originate; great bedrock faults, shatter cones, shocked quartz, glassy microspherules scattered over the entire earth, extreme volcanism, ruffled mountains, deep water-cut canyons, inter-bedded sandstone, siltstone, shale, coal and clay, large bone cemeteries, shells on all land masses that are products of distant seas, and fossil trees extending up through multiple stratified layers, laid down quickly by moving water, all bear mute testimony to the effects of a terrible cataclysm.

Siberian mammoths were frozen so quickly that some are standing or kneeling, with grass, sedge, and buttercups still in their mouths, their flesh fresh enough for dogs to eat. The temperature necessary to prevent decomposition in the center or crystals in their flesh would have had to be more than 150 degrees below zero. That this intense cold was accompanied by other forces of a catastrophic nature is proved by the presence in hard hit Alaska of mammoths that were literally torn in pieces while fresh and immediately frozen. Professor Brandt of Berlin Academy examined their skin microscopically and found evidence from red blood corpuscles in the skin that they died from suffocation, either by water or gas. Earth's axis shifted abruptly during the catastrophe. When fluid rock, lava or water borne sediment is deposited, microscopic magnetized iron oxide particles align themselves toward north. These tiny compass needles recorded the shift.[vii]

Fossil remains and scientific dating strongly suggest there was life on planet earth millions of years before Adam. Don Stoner, son of Professor Peter W. Stoner, notes:

God created His universe with many built in ways of knowing its age. There are many natural processes which keep an actual count of passing years. The first of these we learn about, often as children, is that we can tell how old a tree is by counting its annual rings. It is easy to understand why this works. When a tree grows, it adds wood to its outside layer just under the bark. Trees do most of their growing in the spring and summer and sit dormant through the winter. This means that wood is added to the outside of the tree in spurts once a year. These annual growth spurts are visible as rings in the grain of the wood. By examining these rings, we can see many things such as which years had what sort of weather and during which years fires occurred.

Some trees live for very long periods of time; Bristlecone pine trees, which grow in the White Mountains of California, live for many thousands of years. One lived over 5,000 years before it was, unfortunately, cut down in 1964. Now 5,000 years is not the age of the earth; it is merely the age of one tree in California. Obviously, the soil and rocks which were under that tree are even older.

Like trees, sediments which accumulate in the bottoms of lakes also keep a yearly record of time. Different seasons create different types of sediments. In spring and summer, they are rich in calcium carbonate (limestone) which dissolves in the water from melting winter snow. The rest of the year, sediments are rich in organic material including moss and dead fish. This creates visible annual layers which stack up year after year.

The Green River Formation of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming is made of sediments from a huge fresh water lake which once occupied that location. It contains more than four million annual layers. Obviously, this means that the lake existed for millions of years before it disappeared. This is still not the age of the earth; it is only the length of time one particular lake existed. Once again, the rocks which lie under these layers, including all of the dinosaur fossils and all of the layers in the Grand Canyon, must be older yet.

There are many other examples we could examine. God has left a great deal of detailed and consistent evidence for the age of His creation. Scientists who study this evidence don't just think God's creation is old - they know it.[viii]

Dinosaurs perished in the pre-adamic judgment of the earth. Indeed the whole of creation was destroyed by God. Besides plant and animal life, did any other created being perish in the catastrophe described above? G.H. Pember, a theologian of the nineteenth century, seems to think so. Mr. Pember informs us that the New Testament differentiates between demons and fallen angels.[ix] While Matthew 25:41 mentions the angels of Satan, Matthew 17:18 uses a completely different word (daimonia) when describing demons and spirits. Acts 23:9 reflects this distinction, "We find no evil in this man: but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God." Pember's argument, which I find to be a cogent one, is that not only are demons (evil spirits) different from angels, but demons are disembodied spirits, whereas angels never had bodies of flesh (Luke 20:36). Pember posits:

May not these demons be the spirits of those who trod this earth in the flesh before the ruin described in the second verse of Genesis, and who, at the time of that great destruction, were disembodied by God, and left still under the power, and ultimately to share the fate, of the leader in whose sin they acquiesced? Certainly one oft-recorded fact seems to confirm such a theory: for we read that the demons are continually seizing upon the bodies of men, and endeavoring to use them as their own. And may not this propensity indicate a wearisome lack of ease, a wandering unrest, arising from a sense of incompleteness; a longing to escape the intolerable condition of being unclothed, for which they were not created? An unrest so intense, that if they can satisfy its cravings in no other way, they will even enter into the filthy bodies of swine (Matthew 8:31).[x]

So Pember suggests that present day demons once had bodies and lived in the pre-adamic earth, which according to Ezekiel 28, was ruled over by Lucifer before he fell.[xi] If this is not true, we must ask ourselves: where did demons come from? When were they created? And why do they seek to inhabit human bodies (Matthew 8:28)? If they were not dwelling upon the earth prior to its first destruction, I would like to hear a better explanation. This scenario, though admittedly not positively verifiable by scripture, does explain ancient fossil remains of "human-like" beings. It also explains how "human-like" footprints have been found next to dinosaur prints in Utah, Kentucky, Missouri and Tanzania in E. Africa.

Ezekiel 28:12-19 and Isaiah 14:12-17 provide evidence that before his fall, Satan had authority over the inhabitants of the earth. These passages describe his exalted position and subsequent rebellion. Pember wrote, "In remote ages, before the first whisper of rebellion against God, Satan, as the great governing head and the viceroy of the Almighty, assisted by glorious beings of his own nature, ruled over the sinless dwellers upon earth. At the same time he directed the worship of his subjects, and expounded to them the oracles of the all-wise Creator. But his weight of glory was more than he could bear; pride lifted up his heart, and he fell from his obedience. Then, doubtless, corruption appeared among his angels, and so descended to those who were in the flesh [demons]." As a result of his rebellion, and those who rebelled with him, God judged the entire world; He struck it with celestial matter and reduced it to the condition that we see in Genesis 1:2.

It has long been established and accepted by the scientific community, including Christian scientists, that dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago - not 5,000 years ago as CRI alleges. CRI, in its effort to debunk the theory of evolution (which is a noble and necessary cause), have in the process taken unacceptable liberties with the Holy Scriptures. Pastor Joey D. Faust notes:

It is not necessary to refute evolution by doing away with an older earth before man was created. In the book Scientists Confront Creationists, even many unsaved men make the claim that Christians had an extremely good case against evolution if only they would not have tried to make a young earth the strong point of their argument.

The earth is very old and very young and should therefore show the physical signs in support of both conclusions. The re-creation truth keeps one from having to lengthen the period from Adam to Christ longer than it really is (thus denying great prophetic truth concerning the seventh millennium) and also from having to waste time wrestling with scientists about the age of the earth since the original creation.[xii]

In attempting to establish a 6,000-year old earth, CRI alleges that behemoth, described in Job 40:15ff, is a dinosaur, even though the Bible was written after the flood. This, of course, would have dinosaurs on the earth as recently as 4,000 years ago - a preposterous assertion for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that they would have been much too large to even fit on the ark! In Job 40 it says that behemoth's tail was like a cedar; therefore (so it goes), it must have been a dinosaur because they had long thick tails. However, the Hebrew word for tail (#2180) means "extremity," "flapping" and is rendered "trunk" in the New International Version of the Bible. This describes the frontal extremity of an elephant: the very animal that most Bibles and theologians say is being described in Job 40. Moreover, if this were a dinosaur, which dinosaur is it? There were hundreds of species of dinosaurs, many of which did not have tails at all!

It is also said that Job 41 is describing a plesiosaur, a 30-foot marine reptile that lived 60 million years ago, and that such a creature was pulled from the ocean by a Japanese vessel in 1977. This is provided as proof that dinosaurs existed after Noah's flood; however, in 1977 a fish was found in the ocean, not a land roving dinosaur. It is questionable that the fish found in 1977 was a plesiosaur. It is even more difficult to demonstrate that the fish described in Job 41 was a plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs are said to have been only 30 feet in length - hardly the great sea monster described in Job 41 as Leviathan. More descriptive of Leviathan would be the "sea monster" described in Jonah 1:17 which swallowed Jonah. This great fish is thought to have been a shark whale, which grow to be 70 feet in length; more than twice the size of a "plesiosaur." Leviathan is said to be the indomitable creature of the deep. If a whale is twice as large as a plesiosaur (which is not large enough to swallow a man), then a whale more closely meets the description of this great sea monster. Perhaps the best explanation for Leviathan is that it is a mystical, even other-worldly (Job 41:33) creature representing Satan himself. Leviathan (#3882) means "winding serpent," "twist," "coil" and is identified as "the serpent" in Isaiah 27:1. Perhaps the serpent in the garden of Eden was dispatched to the sea, there to remain until his emergence as the "beast from the sea" in Revelation 13:1. There we see a multi-headed creature coming up from the sea; the description of Leviathan in Psalm 74:14. Hell's characteristics, sorrow and fire (Psalm 116:3), are described as emanating from him in Job 41:21,22 and Satan's original sin of pride and being lifted up (Isaiah 14:13,14) is also ascribed to Leviathan (Job 41:34).

Although we must continue to oppose the theory of evolution, we cannot and must not eradicate Holy Scripture in our effort to do so. Subscribing to a 6,000-year old earth and universe in an effort to close the door on evolution is akin to agreeing that Mary was not a virgin when she gave birth to Christ, so that more people will find it easier to believe in Him.

What is this "science falsely so called" (1 Timothy 6:20) that Paul warned about? In sum, it is any "theory" which interprets scientific data and evidence according to the world's accepted belief systems and not according to the explicit wording and revelations of the Holy Bible. The theory of Evolution simply is not good science, rather it is the wishful, philosophical thinking of men seeking to justify themselves by discounting the validity, precepts, and authority of God's Scriptures (see 1 Corinthians 2:14). Conversely, the so-called Christian Creationism theory, part of which holds that ALL of the fossils and sedimentary rock layers in the earth were caused by Noah's flood, is also an example of very poor science and subjective interpretation of the scriptures. Although its adherents claim scriptural authority for their belief, they postulate from a starting point which forces them to dismiss the validity of certain geologic data and, eventually, even dismiss the exact wording of the Scriptures to maintain their traditional belief system. This is unfortunate, as their efforts are certainly noble for the Lord's sake, but misdirected.

True science for the Bible believer must fit all the observations and verses, not just some of them, or the theory is inaccurate and we end up doing God a great disservice. There are quite a few true things postulated in both of the above theories but both, individually, have fundamental flaws which invalidate them as a whole. Those flaws are revealed by a prayerful examination of the exact wording of the Scriptures, and the use of a little common sense and reasoning (Isaiah 1:18).[xiii]

Above all else, we must safeguard the clear teaching of Scripture, regardless of what we think the outcome might be. In this instance, Scripture teaches that the heavens and the earth did not come into existence for the first time just 6,000 years ago. They in fact are most probably billions of years old. Credible scientific data, as described above, approximates the earth to be 4.5 billion years old.

[i]. Some contend that since Romans 5:12 says that sin and death entered the world through Adam, there could be no world prior to Adam and Eve. However, Paul made no mention whatsoever that Adam's sin was the first sin. He merely stated that the present world, which was restored in Genesis 1 and 2, was subsequently cursed as a result of Adam's sin. Death and sin first entered through Satan (Ezekiel 28:15), who later transmitted it to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:1-7).

[ii]. John G. Hall, God's Dispensational and Prophetic Plan (Newcastle, OK: Prophecy Marches On, 1985), p. 28.

[iii]. Ken Ham, et al, The Answers Book (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 1996), p. 171.

[iv]. Hall, p. 29.

[v]. For scriptures showing there have been 6,000 years since Adam, see the author's Chronology of Man.

[vi]. Ed Sardella, NBC Evening News (Denver, CO, February 17, 1997).

[vii]. M.J. Agee, End of the Age (New York: Avon Books, 1994), p. 31, 32.

[viii]. Don Stoner, Science Speaks (Paramount, CA: Fall '94), p. 2.

[ix]. G.H. Pember, Earth's Earliest Ages (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publishers, 1975, first published 1876), pp. 50-61. This book is available through Schoettle Publishing (P.O. Box 1246, Hayesville, NC 28904).

[x]. Ibid., p. 59.

[xi]. Lucifer/Satan is said to have desired to "ascend" to the throne of God in heaven (Isaiah 14:13,14). This reveals that his sphere of influence was on the earth, from which one must ascend to get to heaven.

[xii]. Joey D. Faust, The Kingdom Alert (P.O. Box 2509, Arlington, TX 76010, June/July, 1998), p. 3.

[xiii]. Gaines R. Johnson, Christian Geology Ministry (Wayne, WV, 1997, http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/1009/main.html), pp. 2,3.

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