Well Barney seems quite friendly. But perhaps he doesn’t count 😀. Or perhaps they could bring back T-Rex, or Tyrannosaurus Rex – the pop group, and not the animal. The T-Rex animal seems a bit nasty, but who knows what they were really like. I remember seeing some robotic dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum in London some years ago as well as skeletons. It was very impressive.
And I was fascinated with dinosaurs as a child. I remember seeing two movies, One Million Years BC and When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth. That was many years before Jurassic Park. And I remember watching Walking With Dinosaurs on BBC in 1999. I felt very sad when any of them died, which shows what a compassionate guy I must be 😀.
If I had to choose a real one, perhaps I’d choose the Brontosaurus. I don’t imagine that they’d do much harm. They’re not quite as friendly as Barney, but they seem like they’d make nice household pets – if you had a big house.
However, this lady says that the Brontosaurus never existed. But maybe, they could make one 😀. Or maybe we could just stick with elephants. They’re pretty cool. Or giraffes – why does a giraffe have a long neck? To reach up to his head! Well I thought that was funny 😀.
So, I like to mention music and the Bible in my blog. With respect to music, I suppose I should show one of my favourite T-Rex songs; Metal Guru from 1972. And a song that I never heard of until now by Johnny Cash – The Dinosaur song.
What about the Bible? I always end with the Bible. Well, the Jews in the Old Testament had their legendary monsters like we all have. Sceptics see much of the Old Testament as a legend, but if Jesus accepted it as true, and he did, that’s good enough for me. But just because the Old Testament mentions monsters doesn’t mean that they believed in their literal existence. Anyway, here are a few examples:
- Behemoth from Job 40: Some think that this might have been a real animal like a hippopotamus, elephant, or water buffalo. Some even think that it might be an actual dinosaur that became extinct. But when you think of it, you can describe Santa Claus or Frosty the Snowman without believing in their existence. So, it could be a mix of a real animal with legendary features.
- Leviathan from Isaiah 27:1:
In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent, Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea.
You can see from books that contain much symbolism, such as Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation that monsters often represent dangers and evil. - Daniel’s Four Beasts from Daniel 7: These were clearly purely symbolic.
- The First and Second Beasts (Revelation 13): Again, these are part of symbolic visions of real creatures. Such creatures can be evil angels or humans. Or they can sometimes represent evil political or religious systems.
- Pit Locusts (Revelation 9): Again, these are most likely symbolic, although some see them as literal.
- Nephilim (Genesis 6): These are giants, the offspring of the “sons of God” and the “daughters of men”. Some see the sons of God as simply representing godly people who chose to marry non-believers and their offspring just happened to be particularly tall and fearsome. Others see this as a match between evil angels and humans, which produced unusual creatures. This is way out of our experience, but who’s to say that it didn’t happen?
- Lilith (Isaiah 34:14): This is translated as “night creature” in the NIV. Again, maybe it was a known creature rather than a symbolic or legendary creature.
- Rahab (Psalm 89:10): A sea monster symbolizing arrogance and chaos, which is thought by some to represent ancient Egypt.
Another consideration is that sometimes people build on biblical material and create legends based on it. In Ireland there used to be a story of a lady going to a dance hall and discovering that her dance partner had hooves instead of feet. She was said to be dancing with the devil. I don’t know were anyone got the impression that the devil has hooves 😀.
Even in the modern era, monsters feature quite regularly in films about fighting evil, such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and the The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. And we used them in expressions, such as slaying the dragon.
The very last mention of a beast in the Bible is here:
Rev 20:20
And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
We’re clearly not talking about an animal. The beast is a symbolic figure representing a powerful, anti-God political system or ruler. In the first century, this was Rome, but many systems have taken on such roles since then. People debate what the future holds, but I take comfort in the fact that ultimately evil will be defeated.
Who knows, maybe we’ll have nice friendly dinosaurs in the New Heaven and New Earth 😀. If God created them in the first place, in this world that went wrong, why not include them in the new creation?
It might even happen before then. They do talk of creating a mammoth out of genetic material from their remains. That would be cool. Although it would surely be a mammoth task 😀.
Hibernia Gospel 