Surprising as it may seem, the Bible has indeed much to say about the existence of certain elusive creatures. It is entirely possible that some of these creatures, such as the “Loch Ness monster” in Scotland or similar “lake monsters” in other parts of the world, might exist today.
First of all, let us examine some interesting Scriptures which clearly describe animals, which are generally believed today to be myths or legends, or which are thought to have become extinct. Some have attempted to apply living known animals, or Satan, or world powers, to the biblical descriptions, but those attempts must be considered as totally inadequate.
For instance, the Bible has much to say about a creature called, “Leviathan.” This animal clearly existed at the time of Job, and is described, in detail, in the 41st chapter of the book of Job. Some have said that a crocodile is described there–but this is utter nonsense. The description of Leviathan in the book of Job and in other places refers to a living animal–but it does not remotely apply to a crocodile. Some have said that the description of Leviathan in the book of Job is merely a description of Satan. However, clearly an animal is described in Job 41–not a spirit being (even though some of the characteristics of Leviathan might very well, in a symbolic sense, apply to Satan).
We might also consider additional passages outside the book of Job, referring to Leviathan. Psalm 74:14 says that God “broke the HEADS of Leviathan in pieces, And gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.” Some might want to dismiss this passage as simply mythological, claiming that no known animal existed or exists with more than one head. This claim is not necessarily accurate. Even today, sometimes animals, due to mutation or birth defects, are born with more than one head, so there is no reason to believe that the passage in Psalm 74 must be understood in a mythological, rather than a literal way.
Psalm 104:25-26 clearly identifies Leviathan as a real, living water animal, co-existing with man: “… The great and wide sea, In which are innumerable teeming things, Living things both small and great. There are ships sail about; There is that Leviathan Which You have made to play there.”
There are additional biblical passages which might refer to Leviathan and/or other unidentified “sea monsters.”
In Isaiah 51:9, we read: “‘Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD! Awake as in the ancient days, In the generations of old. Are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart, And wounded the serpent?”
Amos 9:3 states: “And though they hide themselves on top of Carmel, From there I will search and take them; Though they hide from My sight at the bottom of the sea, From there I will command the serpent, and it shall bite them.”
An interesting statement can also be found in Isaiah 27:1: “In that day the LORD with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan that twisted serpent; And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.”
Some contend that God is referring here to world powers, comparing them with Leviathan and other strong animals. Maybe so. We find similar comparisons in other passages. For instance, King Nebuchadnezzar is described as “a monster” in Jeremiah 51:34, and in Ezekiel 32:2, God compares the Pharaoh of Egypt with a young lion AND with a “monster in the seas, Bursting forth in your rivers, Troubling the waters with your feet, And fouling the rivers.”
In any event, the fact that God compares world powers or individuals with Leviathan and other sea creatures suggests that those creatures exist. God compares Pharaoh with a lion AND with a monster in the sea. Since lions are real animals, it is reasonable to conclude that that particular sea monster exists as well. Also, God speaks in the same context of Leviathan as the fleeing serpent and the twisted serpent, AND of the reptile in the sea. We all know that reptiles exist. Why would God mention Leviathan in the same context, if THAT creature was only mythological or allegorical?
We should understand that the alleged sightings of the “Loch Ness monster” are only one category among literal hundreds of other sightings of additional “lake monsters” all around the world. Another famous “lake monster” is the “Ogopogo,” a creature reportedly living in the Okanagan Waters in Canada. The description of that creature is very similar to the description of the “Loch Ness monster.”
We are not saying that the Leviathan of the Bible is necessarily identical with the “Loch Ness monster” or with the “Ogopogo”–nor, of course, that these modern creatures have more than one head–but we are saying that the Bible allows for the existence of “sea monsters.” And if the “Loch Ness” monster or “Ogopogo” exist today, they would not have been the end product of an “evolutionary development,” nor would they be “living fossils,” but God would have created them, and, as water animals, they would have survived Noah’s Flood.
There are many reports of sightings and even some photographs of the “Loch Ness monster” or the “Ogopogo” or other lake creatures from all over the world–just too many to be summarily dismissed. We cannot say that all these reports and pictures are fake (even though undoubtedly many are); or that none of these sightings are legitimate; or that they all were the result of highly imaginative minds; or that they were hallucinations, caused by Satan the devil (again, undoubtedly, some, if not many, of these “sightings” would belong to those categories).
Books have been written trying to identify the “Loch Ness monster” or the “Ogopogo” as a pre-Adamic long-necked plesiosaur, a marine dinosaur thought to have been extinct “for about seventy million years,” and they have tried to explain how and why that creature was able to survive in sweet water lakes. Others have tried to explain the numerous sightings by pointing at a variety of known existing animals or other natural phenomena.
However, these explanations fail to consider that even today, we sometimes discover previously unknown species, or animals which were thought to have been long extinct. For instance, although legends existed for centuries of a “hairy man living in the trees,” it was only fairly recently that the Orangutan ape was discovered by scientists. The same can be said for the huge giant squid which lives in the oceans. Although there had been some speculation for centuries that it might exist, scientists were only recently able to discover certain body parts of the giant squid, such as the portion of a long arm, with tentacles, in the belly of a sperm whale, enabling them to calculate the enormous size of that squid. Even in more recent days, new, previously unknown species were discovered. Cadavers from animals were found–and pictures taken–which look like the cadavers of previously unknown animals or of those considered by misled scientists to have become extinct “millions of years ago.”
Many eyewitness reports of the “Loch Ness monster” or of the “Ogopogo” have been published, but members of the Church of God view those reports correctly with caution, not knowing how reliable they really are. However, in light of the biblical evidence, it is possible that some of those reports are accurate and that these and other unknown creatures do exist. As a consideration of this question, we are setting forth below an eye witness report about an encounter with the “Ogopogo.” The report was written by Delia Messier, wife of Rene Messier, an ordained minister of the Church of God (CGCF) in Canada. The report, relating events which took place in about 2007, is reliable and also makes reference to eye witness reports from two other Church of God ministers and their families:
“The beautiful Okanagan Lake has a famous legend of an elusive water creature called the Ogopogo. This lake is almost 100 miles long with under-water caverns. For many years stories of sightings of the Ogopogo living in the Okanagan Lake have been heard and told. A family of three of our friends told my husband and me that they saw [about 25 years ago] Ogopogo’s head appear in front of them, as they were standing on the pier one fall day. They told us: ‘It lifted its head out of the water, then quickly disappeared when it saw us.’ Another family had also told mutual friends that they had seen it, but never having seen it myself, and being an elusive creature not common to public acceptance, one tended to dismiss the stories.
“One day, driving along the lake heading towards Kelowna, I saw something on the water that was strange. Looking hard at what it was that I saw there in the water, I have to say that it was at first unrecognizable. Nothing I had ever seen before in all these years living near the lake fit what I was observing. It was puzzling as it was not any type of water craft I would normally see, not a motor boat, not a canoe, not a Sea-Doo, not a paddle wheel, not a water skier, not a sail boat. Trying to identify what it was, I had to eliminate what it wasn’t, but there it was–a big head sticking out of the water, erect and moving smoothly straight forward, with a long wake trailing behind. It had a very big head, shaped like a horse’s head, with the long face and nostrils which a horse has, and with rounded short ears.
“The lake was quiet that day, as it was in late fall and the usual summer tourists had gone for the season, so this big water animal, gray or dark green in color like a wet rock, kept swimming leisurely. There was nowhere for me to pull over on the highway, but as long as I could see the lake from the road, the animal stayed above water and kept moving forward. Now I do believe the legend is true, that there is the Ogopogo living in the Okanagan Lake, and that our friends truly saw it, just as I did.”
From this it follows that an elusive creature seems to exist in the Okanagan Lake, and that similar creatures might also exist in Loch Ness and in many other lakes around the world. What is especially interesting is that the words of the Bible, speaking of unknown “sea monsters” co-existing with man, have to be viewed as literal truth, rather than myth, legend or fiction.
Lead Writer: Norbert Link
