The Animals Went in Seven by Seven

Gen 7:21‑22 "Every living thing that moved on the earth perished‑‑birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died." All land and air creatures were destroyed except for eight humans, seven of every "clean" animal and two of every "unclean" animal. Many people miss this point, but here it is in the Bible.

Gen. 7:2 "Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate". What is the difference between a clean animal and an unclean animal, and why were seven of every clean animal included? You can find a list of clean and unclean animals in Deut. 14:1-20 and Lev. 11.

While the distinction of clean and unclean animals was established and preserved for us in the law, it was obviously known at least since the time of Noah. Mammals had to both chew the cud and have a split hoof to be considered clean. Cows and goats were clean, pigs and horses were not.

These unclean animals were forbidden to Israel primarily for the sake of physical health. Those animals that were called unclean were more likely to carry disease, and provide less nutritional value. Uncooked or half cooked pork would carry many harmful bacteria and parasites. Many of the forbidden animals were scavengers and without adequate preparation, would be unhealthy. However, at the time of the flood, man had not yet been given permission to eat meat. So why were more clean animals carried than unclean?

The first seven chapters of Leviticus outline the offering of various sacrifices commanded by God. Those chapters are very explicit that only clean animals were to be used. The reason Noah was directed to take seven of every clean animal was probably for the offering of sacrifices during the long stay on the ark and/or after they left the ark.

Immediately after Noah and his family emerged from their long stay on the ark, Genesis 8:20 tells us, "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.” "Clean" animals in the Old Testament, therefore, served not only to provide a healthy diet for Israel, but also to be a perpetual reminder of God's redemptive plan that He introduced in Genesis chapter three. This is also why, after Christ provided that promised redemption by His ultimate sacrifice as the Lamb of God, the restrictions between clean and unclean foods were lifted - Acts 10:9‑15.

The Duration of the Flood

It is reasonable to assume that if asked about the length of the flood, most Christians would reply, "Forty days and forty nights." That is how long the rain continued, not how long the flood lasted. To ascertain that information we need to look at some additional scripture.

Gen 7:11,"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month‑‑on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened."

8:13‑14 "By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. By the twenty‑seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.”

By comparing these two texts we can see that Noah and his family were in the ark for almost exactly one year. (Dr. C.I. Scofield, in the notes of his New Scofield Reference Bible, puts the time at precisely 365 days.)

The Existence of Cave Men

The material we've covered so far doesn't address this. Where does the knowledge of cave dwellers originate? The answer simply is from artifacts found in caves and pictures drawn on cave walls. Some would have us believe that the existence of cave dwellers somehow contradicts what we have seen in the Bible. That plainly is not true. Although we know that there were cave dwellers, and the artifacts and drawings tell us how these people lived, it doesn't tell us when they lived, or how other people in the world lived at the same time. The assumption is that just because some people lived in caves, everybody did. But that was no truer in ancient times than it is today.

It is also important to understand that these cave dwelling people were not part of early cultures that existed before the flood at all; but were after the flood, and were in fact a result of the fall. The result of the influence of man's sin on the race was a primitive culture. We know that before the flood and shortly after creation man was highly technical. He possessed the knowledge of metal work, musical instruments, and he lived in cities.

Gen. 4:17 "Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch."

Gen. 4:21‑22. "His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute. Zillah also had a son, Tubal‑Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron..."

We've seen that Noah had to have an incredible degree of technical knowledge to build the ark. God just told him how big to build it but he didn't give him detailed instructions. How many people even today could build a watertight ocean liner from scratch, out of wood? After the flood, as sin continued to affect the race, man spiraled downward, and civilization in some places more that others degenerated from God's original design. Therefore, the existence of primitive cultures does not disprove the Bible, or that God doesn't exist. Quite to the contrary, it demonstrates the depravity of man that resulted from the fall and that man's sin has separated him from God, just as the Bible says.

The Existence of Dinosaurs

Did Dinosaurs Really Exist? Of course dinosaurs existed. Why would that question even be posed? It has been asked because in their attempt to defend the Bible some well meaning believers have tried to say that dinosaurs really didn't exist but that God just buried dinosaur bones in the earth to fool man. That, of course, is ridiculous. We know that dinosaurs certainly existed. But a legitimate question is, did dinosaurs exist as contemporaries with man? Secular science says no. Anyone who has ever watched an episode of Jurassic Park knows that it is the consensus of the evolutionary community that dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years before man came into existence. But there are some very obvious problems with this theory in light of what we have studied. One of those problems is that the world is not 65 million years old. It's not even 65 thousand years old. The earth, as we have demonstrated, is only about 6 to 10 thousand years old.

Another problem is that there is now substantial evidence that man and dinosaurs did indeed live at the same time. Scientists committed to an atheistic view of origins continue to hide or ignore these proofs, but they exist nevertheless. In the Pauluxy river bottom in Glen Rose Texas, Human footprints and Dinosaur tracks have been found together. Some of the dinosaur tracks have human footprints inside them. In 1924 an expedition exploring the Grand Canyon found drawings on cave walls depicting, men, dinosaurs and mastodons together.

The question that must be answered is how did men know what dinosaurs and looked like if they had been extinct for 65 million years? Even dinosaurs and mastodons, according to the evolutionary model, were supposed to be separated by millions of years. Also, these pictures must have been drawn after the flood because the Grand Canyon was most likely a result of the tremendous energy released in the flood.

Dinosaurs and man lived at the same time, and dinosaurs came through the flood on the ark. Genesis 6:19-20 is clear that two of every species of animal were to be taken onto the ark. “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.” (There was sufficient room on the ark for full-grown dinosaurs, but it is not necessary to assume that God brought only adult specimens to Noah. It could have been that juvenile animals were brought aboard.)

We also have Biblical evidence for the existence of dinosaurs after the flood. In the book of Job there is a description of something that could only be a dinosaur. Job 40:15-19. "Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close‑knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword." There have been many attempts to explain this as some other creature, such as an elephant or hippopotamus, but no other animal fits this description. No elephant has a tail that "sways like a cedar". (See also Job chapter 41.) The creature described here could very well be a brachiosaurus, a dinosaur which grew to 80 feet in length, stood over 40 feet tall and weighed almost 90 tons. There can be little question that man and dinosaurs lived together both before and after the flood, as little as 4,500 years ago.

The Extinction of Dinosaurs

After the flood, the dinosaurs lived for a time on the earth with man and only subsequently became extinct. The flood had not only destroyed all animal life on the earth but all plant life as well. Before the flood, the earth was covered with plush vegetation, which provided sustenance for man and animals. It would have taken some time for this vegetation to be replenished; and as the conditions of the atmosphere were different after the flood, (the envelope of water that had surrounded the earth no longer existed), there would now be large portions of the earth that were barren and without vegetation. The large dinosaurs that were still herbivores would have required a great deal of foliage to live. It may have taken only a short time for them to consume all of the available food. If the large herbivores died out, the large carnivorous dinosaurs that fed on them would also have become extinct.

Of course there were other changes that would have affected the dinosaurs, such as climatic changes and disease that did not exist in the beginning, but gradually affected life on the planet. Another possibility that will be addressed later is that they may have been hunted to extinction. Whatever the cause, it should not surprise us that dinosaurs became extinct, as hundreds of other animals as well as plants have also disappeared since that time.