Is Leviathan exaggerated? How does it have “fiery breath?”

It’s interesting that Leviathan, which is actually mentioned six times in the Holy Bible, is described in such vivid detail in the Book of Job (Job 41:1-35). But, Leviathan is also mentioned in the Psalms and in Isaiah. Many Bible scholars have argued over what Leviathan was. Some argue it was a crocodile, some argue that it may have been a type of dinosaur, and others have argued that it was, in fact, some sort of creature that we commonly refer to as a dragon. A dragon?? Is that even possible?

Did dragons exist? Well, hmmm … Satan has been described as “the dragon.” And, in the book of Isaiah, chapter 27, Isaiah declares that the Lord will punish and slay Leviathan. Isaiah calls him the “monster of the sea.” In the King James translation, Leviathan is described as that “crooked serpent” and that “dragon in the sea.”

Dragons, throughout history, have been described as “fire-breathing.” In this case, it may have been true fire or, and here’s where it gets tricky, it may have been a description of the evil speech coming from the mouth of the dragon. Remember, the dragon could be a representation of Satan - and Satan is the Prince of Lies and represents everything bad in this world. So, Leviathan’s “fiery breath” could be the lies, the hate and the anger that Satan spews from his mouth.

It could also, quite literally, be fire. Leviathan could have been a fire-breathing dragon that existed in the sea. We just don’t know for sure. Is the description of Leviathan literal? Is it descriptive? Is it exaggerated? Or is it spot on? Again, we truly don’t know for sure.

I do know one thing, when I get to Heaven I am going to ask Job (who clearly saw Leviathan) what in the world was he describing!

Were the dinosaurs here first or Jesus Christ?

That is a great question! And the truth is that there is a Biblical answer to this question. In the Book of John, the fourth book of the New Testament, it starts out: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” Now, that sounds very confusing doesn’t it? I mean, when I first read that I said to myself, “what or who is the Word?” Then, I read John 1, verse 14, which says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

The Word is Jesus! So, what that means is that Jesus was here in the very beginning. And, here’s the most important thing to remember: this clearly shows that Jesus is God. Jesus was not created, He was the Creator. He has always been here. Now, I know that sounds even more confusing because people always ask, “Well who created God?” And the simple answer is, no one. God has always been here and He was the one who created the heavens and the Earth. Remember Genesis? God took six days to create the Earth and everything in it. And, because Jesus is God, he created everything in the world too…including the dinosaurs!

Can Satan create? If so, did he make dinosaurs and were they evil so they could not go on the ark?

One of the problems with Satan is that a lot of what we think we know about him is popular mythology – meaning that we get our ideas from stories and history and traditions that are not in the Bible. That Satan is a mean dude in a red suit with a pitchfork is a good example of a description of Satan that is not in the Bible. Another idea – a surprising one - is that Satan is in hell. The Bible states that he roams earth looking for someone to destroy (Job 1:6-7; 1 Peter 5:8). The point I am making is that we want to use only the Bible to understand Satan.

One of the clearest statements about Satan is Revelation 12:9, which states that “this great dragon – the ancient serpent called the Devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world – was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.” There are a lot of other passages in the New Testament that also describe Satan as humanity’s deceiver, adversary and challenger. 1 Peter 5:8 makes it clear that Satan wants to destroy us and Matthew 4:1-11 is a great example which shows that not even Jesus was free of his challenges.

To answer your question directly as it refers to dinosaurs, Satan is not the Creator, God is. God is the Creator of everything, of all matter and energy and space and time and life, and everything in creation that God called first “good” and later “very good.” This includes dinosaurs! God created dinosaurs and they were good.

The reason they did not make it onto the ark was probably because they were already extinct, not because they were evil.

I thought that dinosaurs died by eating plants with diseases?

Over the years, numerous theories have been suggested that attempt to explain the extinction of the dinosaur. While in the past, most dinosaur experts held to "the gradual extinction" view, now there is a new theory that suggests not only the dinosaurs, but countless other forms of life, were wiped out in the past by a global catastrophic destruction.

The three events at the top of the list of theories are : (1) a huge meteor hitting in Mexico, (2) the eruption of several super-volcanoes (like the Yellowstone one); and (3) a great flood (like the biblical one.) All these events would have a huge impact on the climate and on animals’ ability to survive.

The idea that dinosaurs died through disease, or through over-grazing available plants, or due to a slow warming of the planet are now less accepted theories. I’ll bet, though, that parts of all of these theories intertwine and come into play. We just don’t know yet. I think some day we may know more precisely. Perhaps you will be the godly scientist who discovers the truth!!

I have a book that said people existed in dinosaur times. Is that true?

People probably did not exist in dinosaur times! Let me explain.

For right now, science doesn’t have enough evidence to be able to give us a definite answer. The cool thing, though, is that science gets better and constantly changes as new ideas pop up and new things are discovered. And the Bible simply doesn’t speak of dinosaurs because it’s a book about God’s relationship with man, not God’s encyclopedia of interesting stuff! Kind of a bummer, because dinosaurs are super interesting.

Most scientists who study the early earth and early plant and animal life (paleontologists, evolutionary physiologists, biologists, etc) agree that the last dinosaur died about 65 million years ago.

Most scientists who study early man and early civilizations (anthropologists, archaeologists, historians, etc) agree that the first man existed on earth somewhere between 50,000 and 1 to 7 million years ago.

Now, there are about a gazillion disagreements about all this – like I said, science isn’t accurate enough and the Bible doesn’t say - BUT we can at least recognize that even if the numbers are WAY off, it doesn’t seem that dinosaurs walked the earth with man. They were created long before man was created.

You know what I wonder? I wonder if you might become the scientist who loves God and who figures this all out! Wouldn’t that be cool?