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Module 11 Practice Examination
Answer for essay question 17
A complete answer includes all of these points.
A minimal answer has the main points but not all the details:
| | 1. | Land dinosaurs were created on Day 6; swimming and flying reptiles on Day 5.
| | | 2. | Along with all animals and mankind, they were created to be plant eaters (vs. 1: 29,30), for there was no death before Adam and Eve rebelled against God. When Adam and Eve rebelled, God pronounced the awful curse of death on all of creation. In doing so, He not only fulfilled His promise that they would begin to die (2:17), but evidently He actually changed the genetic makeup of each "kind" so that all their descendants would forever be different. He changed Eve's body structure (3:16); the plants (v. 18), and the animals, as well (v. 14). Perhaps at this time dinosaurs and other animals acquired or began to acquire body parts designed for aggression or protection, eat meat. This may be over-speculation, but sin ruins everything, and before long the entire planet was corrupt (6:11,12, 7).
| | | 3. | God had told Noah to bring pairs of each kind of land animal on board the Ark, including, evidently, the dinosaurs (7:15). Recognizing that as reptiles, dinosaurs would have continued to grow as long as they lived, implying that the oldest would be the largest, there was plenty of room on board the Ark for the younger ones. Thus the dinosaurs on board the Ark probably would have been young adults, no bigger than a cow perhaps.
| | | 4. | The world after the Flood was much different than before, with much less vegetation and a colder, harsher climate, and evidently the dinosaurs gradually died out. Perhaps they were even hunted to extinction, as would be indicated by the many legends of dragons, the descriptions of which closely resemble dinosaurs.
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