Can Christians believe in dinosaurs?

A while ago, I went on a Christian Facebook group binge, to have some new, interesting posts on my feed. As I applied for groups, I barely noticed which ones I was entering and after a while found out that I was a part of this group called "CAD, Christians against dinosaurs". Now I did not join this group on purpose, to be honest, I had never before heard of the fact that some Christians think dinosaurs could be a conspiracy theory. As I read through the posts in that group, it seemed that there was quite a dramatic debate going on between a) non-christian people who did believe in dinosaurs, b) Christian people who did not believe in dinosaurs and c) Christian people who did believe in dinosaurs. At first, I was very amused. I read posts of trolls that said: "Is God able to create a dinosaur so big that he himself could not lift it?" and read serious answers from people in groups a), b) and c). Here are some screenshots of comments in the group:

The bible does not mention dinosaurs and many people figured that therefore, they are not biblical. So I decided to do a deep dive into research.

Today, I want to present to you what I found out.

Yes, the word dinosaur is not in the bible. That is because the word itself was invented in 1841 and only really used in the early 1900s. There are many animals that are not listed in Genesis, yet exist. Even though the word dinosaur is not used, the bible speaks of a bunch of other creatures that could fit the dinosaur description.

The behemoth

In Job, God takes Job on a tour of the universe and presents him a beast he has made, which is called the behemoth and many Christians believe, that he fits the description of a dinosaur perfectly. But I'm going to let you decide for yourself, here is Job 40:15-24 

15 “Look now at the behemoth, which I made along with you; he eats grass like an ox.
16 See now, his strength is in his hips, and his power is in his stomach muscles.
17 He moves his tail like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are tightly knit.
18 His bones are like beams of bronze, his ribs like bars of iron.
19 He is the first of the ways of God; only He who made him can bring near His sword.
20 Surely the mountains yield food for him, and all the beasts of the field play there. 
21 He lies under the lotus trees, in a covert of reeds and marsh.
22 The lotus trees cover him with their shade; the willows by the brook surround him.
23 Indeed the river may rage, yet he is not disturbed; he is confident, though the Jordan gushes into his mouth,
24 Though he takes it in his eyes, or one pierces his nose with a snare."

I have to admit, that it does sound like a dinosaur to me.

The Leviathan

In Job 41:1-2,7,12-32, the "Leviathan" is another creature described

 1“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? 
 2 Can you put a reed through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?... 
 7 Can you fill his skin with harpoons, or his head with fishing spears?...
 12 “I will not conceal his limbs, his mighty power, or his graceful proportions.
 13 Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle?
 14 Who can open the doors of his face, with his terrible teeth all around?
 15 His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal;
 16 One is so near another that no air can come between them;
 17 They are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted.
 18 His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning.
 19 Out of his mouth go burning lights; sparks of fire shoot out.
 20 Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
 21 His breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.
 22 Strength dwells in his neck, and sorrow dances before him.
 23 The folds of his flesh are joined together; they are firm on him and cannot be moved.
 24 His heart is as hard as stone, even as hard as the lower millstone.
 25 When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid; because of his crashings they are beside themselves.
 26 Though the sword reaches him, it cannot avail; nor does spear, dart, or javelin.
 27 He regards iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood.
 28 The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him.
 29 Darts are regarded as straw; he laughs at the threat of javelins.
 30 His undersides are like sharp potsherds; he spreads pointed marks in the mire.
 31 He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment.
 32 He leaves a shining wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair.

This speaks of a fire breathing dragon. The word dragon is used in the bible a total of 35 times.

The bible also makes reference to flying reptiles a few times, for example at Isaiah 14:29

...and its offspring will be a fiery flying serpent

and at Isaiah 30:6

...the viper and fiery flying serpent.

But if that does not have you convinced, there is more.

In Genesis, it says that God created all beasts of the earth on the 6^th day of creation:

Genesis 1:24 

“And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: And it was so.”

This does not exclude dinosaurs and would mean, that dinosaurs and humans must have lived side by side. Many people doubt this fact and think of the dangerous T-Rex and how we could have survived living next to dangerous dinosaurs like that. But Isaiah 11:6-7 shares this picture of heaven:

    “ The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
      The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
      The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
      And a little child shall lead them.
      The cow and the bear shall graze;
      Their young ones shall lie down together;
      And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. "

Therefore, predators of our world today were not predators at the start of Creation.

Then, there is this whole "Were dinosaurs on the arc? Or did they die in the flood?" discussion.

This is where I found a lot of my Christian sources had different opinions. Some believe that younger dinosaurs, in fact, were on the arc, others say that they must have died in the flood.

A YouTube video I found from Answers in Genesis stated the following: Pairs of all creatures that had the breath of life in them came to Noah & entered the ark. Including dinosaurs. But how could those even fit in the arc? The arc was over 500feet long, 85feet wide and 50 feet tall, with 3 levels. Noah took 2 animals of each kind, not of each species. So for example Noah did not take 400 types of dogs on his arc, but just 2. This would have been the same for dinosaurs. Many people don't know that the average size of a dinosaur is that of a bison. Like a really big cow. Some were even as small as chickens. As dinosaurs lay eggs, all of them are really small at some point and could have fit on the arc if they were young enough.

Another video I found, from BibleArchaeology on YouTube stated that the dinosaurs must have died in the flood.

Sources:

Youtube

https://creationtoday.org/dinosaurs-in-the-bible/

https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/dinosaurs-in-the-bible/

https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/are-dinosaurs-mentioned-bible