“Mommy, that’s a stegosaurus!”

One of my kids’ favorite places on Earth is also my workplace—the Creation Museum in Northern Kentucky. With five kids aged eight and under, you can probably guess what they love most about the museum: all the dinosaurs! From the dinosaur topiaries throughout the grounds to the sculpted dinosaurs in the Dino Den to the animatronic dinosaurs in the exhibits, they adore them all. That love creates a great opportunity to introduce kids to a biblical view of history.

Throughout the year, I teach a children’s program at the museum called Dinosaurs for Kids. It’s always my most popular program, especially with little boys who often show up wearing Dino T-shirts. I use their love for dinosaurs to teach them God’s Word. After all, they usually only hear about dinosaurs alongside a hefty dose of “facts” about evolution and millions of years of history. We’re reclaiming the dinosaurs for God’s glory.

In this program, I teach kids the “7 Ages of Dinosaur History,” complete with hand motions and fun fossil reproductions for them to explore. While I can’t pass a triceratops brow horn replica around to you, I can share the “7 Ages of Dinosaur History” as a way to 1) build a biblical worldview of dinosaurs yourself, and 2) be prepared to teach the children in your care about dinosaurs, starting with the Bible’s history.

Why do we start with the Bible’s history? As I tell the kids, no scientist was there at the beginning, no scientist knows everything, and scientists make mistakes. But God, our Creator, was there, He knows everything, and He’s never made a mistake. So we trust His perfect Word—the “history book of the universe”—over interpretations of evidence from fallible humans.

Here’s how we apply the Bible’s history to dinosaurs:

• Formed. God created—He formed—the dinosaurs. Genesis tells us God created the land animal kinds on day six of creation week. Since dinosaurs were land animals, this includes dinosaurs. Adam and Eve were also created on day six, so yes, dinosaurs and humans lived together just a few thousand years ago. (We determine the earth’s age using genealogies in Scripture: 2,000 years from Adam to Abraham, 2,000 from Abraham to Christ, and another 2,000 to us today.)

• Fearless. God’s original creation is described in Genesis 1:31 as “very good.” There was no death, suffering, or disease, and everything—including dinosaurs—was vegetarian (Genesis 1:29).

• Fallen. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, creation was broken. It was no longer “very good.” Death, suffering, disease, and carnivory (including dinosaurs eating other animals) entered the world.

• Flood. As wickedness increased, God judged the world with a global flood, saving Noah, his family, and two of every kind of land animal (seven pairs of some) aboard the ark. Would this include dinosaurs? Yes, as they were land animals. Noah likely brought younger, smaller dinosaurs onto the ark.

Dinosaurs not aboard the ark drowned in the floodwaters, with some buried in mud becoming fossils. Some fossils even retain soft tissues like blood vessels, blood cells, or collagen fibers, confirming a young age of thousands—not millions—of years.

• Faded. After the flood, two of every kind of dinosaur left the ark and spread worldwide. Over time, they went extinct, but their memory lives on in dragon legends found across cultures.

• Found. When humans began digging up dinosaur bones, they wondered about these creatures’ origins and history. Instead of starting with God’s eyewitness account, they based their interpretations on evolutionary ideas, leading to concepts of millions of years.

• Fiction. There’s so much fiction out there now about dinosaurs, but here are two of the biggest stories:

1. “Dinosaurs didn’t go extinct—they evolved into birds.”

But God made birds on day five of creation week—a whole 24 hours before He made the dinosaurs! Each kind produces more of its kind, so one kind of creature (like a dinosaur) can’t turn into another kind (like a bird).

What about “feathered dinosaurs”? Well, in most instances, these so-called “feathered dinosaurs” aren’t actually dinosaurs—they are birds interpreted as dinosaurs because of an evolutionary worldview. The ones that truly are dinosaurs didn’t have feathers; some have filaments (which do not have the structure of a feather) that evolutionists have redefined as feathers.

2. “Dinosaurs went extinct when an asteroid hit off the coast of Mexico, sparking a chain reaction that eventually led to the demise of the dinosaurs.”

That asteroid did hit Earth, but the impact crater is found in flood layers. So, it hit Earth during the flood, when two of every kind of land animal were safe on Noah’s ark.

So, what really happened to the dinosaurs? Well, they died! Probably for the same reasons many other creatures have gone extinct, such as overhunting by humans or changing climates. (The climate changed dramatically after the flood, to the point of an ice age covering one-third of the globe in snow and ice.) It’s not a big mystery!

After I share with kids the true history of dinosaurs, I teach them one more thing: dinosaurs are “missionary lizards.” Why? Because, sadly, they’ve all died out. That reminds us that death is part of this world, but it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Death is here because of our sin.

But God loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sin through His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Now, everyone who turns from their sin and trusts in Him is saved for eternity.

And that’s how you connect dinosaurs with the Bible!

Avery Foley is a writer and speaker for Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and the Ark Encounter. She and her husband are homeschool parents to five young children and the producers of Building Blocks, a chronological walk through the Bible for kids on Answers.tv.