Recently, there have been several articles released in the media describing an ancient flying being of some kind with a monstrous 24-foot wingspan. Its remains were discovered in South Carolina in 1983 while workers were excavating for a new airport terminal building. It seems odd that we are getting news releases about this flying creature over two decades after it was found, but here is what has been reported (first link, second link).
It is characterized as a “bird” but opinions vary whether the winged creature was 20 or 24 feet in wingspan due to varying estimates about feather-length. It is called a bird, but the photographed remains of its head look far more like than of a dinosaur instead of a bird. Indeed, one reference refers to it as “more like a dragon” [than a bird], and it is also called “spectacularly weird.'”
With little or no hard evidence re: why this flying creature should be called a “bird” instead of a “dragon” or dinosaur, it is not clear why the term “bird” is used at all. That may be an appropriate name, but the evidence isn’t provided. The purpose of this post isn’t to enter the scientific debate over the nuances of its remains, but rather to find a biblical context for its existence. Indeed, there are two biblical contexts for its existence.
As a careful reading of Genesis 1 confirms, the earth itself is far older than 6,000 years. The Creator God made the species now on the earth’s surface in a literal, six-day week followed by a Sabbath day of rest (Genesis 1) However, before God did any work at all in Creation Week, the Bible confirms that the earth was here already albeit in a darkened and flooded condition (Genesis 1:2) typical of what one would expect after a global extinction event of some kind. The earth was here before Creation Week, but covered by darkened oceans. I can recall evolutionary teachings in my childhood days where evolutionists scoffed at the Bible’s assertions that there had been more than one extinction-level event or near extinction-level events in planet’s earth’s history. As man’s fund of knowledge grew, it became clear the Bible was right– the earth had experienced extinction-level events (or nearly so). I discuss in great detail the pre-history of the earth during the pre-Adamic period in my article: Is the Earth 6000 Years Old? [When Lucifer Ruled the Earth]. This Luciferian world was destroyed by God when Lucifer and his rebellious angels were cast down to earth, their first estate (Jude 6). When Lucifer was first created, he was created as perfect, and what God makes perfect takes, in my opinion, eons to “go bad.” When Lucifer and his angels rebelled, they ascended “above the clouds” (Isaiah 14:14) as they lifted off from the earth’s surface to invade heaven. The reference to “clouds” on earth during the Luciferian world indicates there was a normal atmosphere with rainfall, evaporation, etc. My aforementioned article examines biblical evidence that the earth, as originally created, was a verdant place full of life. That was the dinosaur age and whether flying creatures at that time had scales, feathers, etc. is a matter unknown to us. If the remains of the flying creature are really as old as 25 million years ago, its origin would almost certainly be in the Luciferian world prior to Lucifer’s revolt and the subsequent war in heaven that wiped out physical life on the earth’s surface and left it in the flooded, darkened wreck we see in Genesis 1:2. How long it stayed in that condition we do not know, but Jude 13 indicates it may have lasted some time.
When God re-created life on earth during Creation Week, he created many animals, fish, birds and reptiles which were new at that time, but some have gone extinct over the millennia. The Bible does make two references to a “flying serpent” [reptile] that did co-exist on the earth millennia ago during mankind’s presence on earth (Isaiah 14:29, 30:6). The winged creature whose remains were found in 1983 has also been called a “dragon” in appearance (i.e. a serpent) in media reports, so it is not impossible that this creature may have been a specimen of the “winged serpent” referred to in the book of Isaiah. Some kind of “winged serpent” was still alive on earth circa 27 centuries ago. I’m always reluctant to accept evolutionists’ datings of fossils and creature remains as they make so many evolutionary-based assumptions in their theorized datings. Personally, I don’t trust radiocarbon dating any further back than the deluge in Noah’s time as the amount of carbon-14 deposited in the atmosphere was not a constant before and after that time due to the extreme tectonic activity on earth during the flood when the “foundations of the great deep opened up” (Genesis 7:11). Genesis 1:2’s description of a darkened earth is consistent with what would be the case if massive volcanic eruptions had spewed immense amounts of carbonized materials into the atmosphere.
In summation, I don’t know the time-era the remains of this great flying dragon or bird date to, but there are at least two biblical time periods into which it could have fit easily. Its discovery does not prove the theory of evolution at all.
- http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/07/extinct-bird-giant-wingspan/12087039/
- http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/08/us-science-bird-idUSKBN0FC23320140708
