What’s in Your Study Bible?

All good evangelical study Bibles teach that we are saved by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone (Eph. 2:8, 9; Titus 3:5-7).  The Henry Morris Study Bible (formerly The Defender’s Study Bible) and The MacArthur Study Bible are highly regarded, but how can we spot a pro-Creation study Bible?  The next time you go to your Christian bookstore and browse look for the following:

1)  Is Genesis 1:1 the beginning?

2)  Creation in Six Days (CISD)

3)  Global Flood

4)  Gen. 5&11 implies a Young Earth

5)  Are Behemoth and Leviathan dinos or large reptiles?

6)  What does Mk 10:6 imply about a Young Earth?

The Wayfinding Bible (NLT, Tyndale) has a version of AiG’s ark similar to this,

However, the comments are fuzzy as to whether the Global Flood had significant geologic effect.  If your Bible has a map of Eden, that is an error – Noah’s Flood wiped out the pre-Flood geography.  Does your study Bible skip Exodus 20:11, which clearly teaches Creation in Six Days (CISD)?  In Job 40 & 41, Behemoth is surely a dino and Leviathan was most likely a large water-dwelling reptile (such as a mosasaur).

Ken Mathews in the Apologetics Study Bible (p. 15) says, “… this genealogy [Ge 5&11] cannot be used to the reconstruct the age of the earth.”  The chronology of Genesis does help us validate the Young Earth view.  Ted Cabal (p. 877) states that the “… old-earth interpretations arose due to the … discovery of enormous numbers of extinct animals such as dinosaurs.”  This is a non sequitur – fossils point to the Flood.  Terry Mortenson has shown in The Great Turning Point that Old Earth Fallacies (OEF) are founded on the work of Deist and atheist scholars using anti-biblical PreSuppositions.   

The New Geneva Study Bible has a chart of the ages of the patriarchs from Adam to Joseph (p. 17).  This would seem to favor the Young Earth interpretation, but the OT editor is Bruce Waltke who supports BioLogos.  The Framework Hypothesis is given consideration (p. 7).  The commentary on Ge 6:17 says, “A worldwide flood seems to be in view …” (p. 20).  R.C. Sproul now endorses The Reformation Study Bible.

Near the front of the NIV Study Bible there is a Chronological Chart:

The world is roughly about six millennia old – we don’t need a bunch of question marks.  Arguments for both a local and Global Flood are given (p. 15).  Behemoth is a hippo or elephant and Leviathan is a crocodile (p. 769).

Terry Mortenson describes Bible commentaries and systematic theologies that support the Young Earth perspective. [1]

After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.  The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed (Dan. 9:26, NIV).

Note:

1) Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), pp. 327-329.