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Do Christians Believe in Unicorns?

    Image of biblical Unicorn DiBgd [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)]

    © 19 Colin Melbourne

    Biblical Unicorns

    Q: Must I believe in Unicorns to be a Christian?

    A: Certainly not: To become a Christian, you must be born again by truly believing in The LORD Jesus Christ.

    You ask because you have embraced cynical scepticism to justify continuing your sinful lifestyle.

    Wake up, time is short, procrastination results in eternal damnation.

    The wages of sin is death, and payday is at hand.

    Unicorns in the Bible!, accompanied by mocking eyes, is a fashionable excuse for rejecting the authority of the written word of God.

    However, even schoolchildren, with an interest in dinosaurs, can put you right about Unicorns.

    Fairy Tale Unicorns

    Image of mythical Unicorn with a maid

    The ‘Unicorn’ you have in mind is entirely fictitious; a mythological equine-like beast, with a lion’s tail, ungulate feet, and caprine beard, often incorporated on English heraldic arms.

    Image of UK Royal Arms
    Once you are saved you will repent of mythology of every kind, and give no place for such time-wasting, because you are too busy fulfilling the will of The Absolute Truth: The Living Christ.

    Mythical Unicorns feature in ancient fairy tales, tenderly consoling harp-playing, heart-broken, doe-eyed maidens.
    Image of Our Doris
    The Unicorn’s constant feature is a single horn jutting from its forehead. The significance of which is best left alone. Steady Doris!

    Unicorns of The Holy Bible

    The Unicorn is mentioned in the Holy Bible nine times as follows;

    God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

    Num. 23:22 KJV

    God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.

    Num. 24:8 KJV

    His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh.

    Deut. 33:17 KJV

    Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
    Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
    Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
    Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

    Job 39:9-12 KJV

    Save me from the lion’s mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

    Ps. 22:21 KJV

    He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.

    Ps. 29:6 KJV

    But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

    Ps. 92:10 KJV

    For my sword shall be bathed in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my curse, to judgment. The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is made fat with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the LORD hath a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea.

    And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.

    For it is the day of the LORD’S vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

    Isaiah 34:5-8 KJV

    Read those scriptures in context, and you will understand that Unicorns are fearsome creatures of the Rhinocerotidae family: The marginal note of the 1611 KJV makes clear what Unicorns are, and with charming Seventeenth Century spelling, reads;

    Isaiah 34:7 unicorns: Or, rhinocerots

    Instances of Unicorns in the Holy Bible emphasise the massive size and strength of the Rhinoceros, and symbolise the power and judgment of God.

    Examples alive today weigh over two tons, and fossilized remains of the extinct genus, Elasmotherium sp., ranged throughout Asia, and are estimated to have weighed 4-5 tons.

    Image of White Rhino Mother abd calf c00

    Mother and calf White Rhino

    This massive creature was the size of a mammoth, with a single enormous keratinous horn jutting from its forehead. Several specimens have been found from China, Siberia, and the Caucasus.

    There are two African rhino species alive today; Ceratotherium simum, The White Rhinoceros, and Diceros bicornis, The Black Rhinoceros, each of which has two horns, so neither species qualifies as a biblical Unicorn.

    However the Indian Rhinoceros has the name Rhinoceros unicornis, and as its zoological name infers; possesses a single horn.

    Image of Indian Rhinoceros

    Indian Rhinoceros and baby

    Michaelstone428 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)]

    News of sighting the Indian Rhinoceros reached Europe in the Sixteenth century, where the Flemish Renaissance artist Albrecht Durer created his famous engraving from the description.

    Image of Durer's Rhinoceros of 1515

     

    Another Unicorn was once abundant throughout Asia, but is now almost extinct, being found only in Indonesia; Rhinoceros sondaicus, The Javan Rhinoceros, also known as the Lesser One-horned Rhinoceros.

    Impressive in size as modern rhinos are, and fearsomely aggressive, (as I discovered studying them, when one took a dislike to me, and rammed the door of the van I was driving), they are not as intimidating as the biblical accounts describe.

    It is therefore most likely that biblical Unicorns were giant rhinos of the aforementioned Elasmotherium sp.

    Image of Elasmotherium tiberius ДиБгд [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]
    Elasmotherium siberius The Biblical Unicorn

    ДиБгд [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]

    In Conclusion:

    It is both foolish, and invalid, to exempt yourself from salvation on the grounds that the Holy Bible records the existence of Unicorns, because the same Bible informs us Unicorns are members of the Rhinoceros family which remains extant on Earth today.

    If your bible does not have the word unicorn or unicorns in the cited scriptures, then it is a broken modern ‘bible’, and you will be wise to download a free Holy Bible, the KJV in English.

    You may also be interested in reading:

    Genesis: Fact or Fiction?

    Genesis & Creation

    Genesis 3:15

    Sir David Attenborough

    Jonah’s Whale, Monster, or Fish?

    How Old Is The Earth Really?

    Header image of Elasmotherium sibiricum drawn by DiBgd CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

    © 19 Colin Melbourne

    Image of the book, The Genesis Record by H. Morris

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