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.

Exodus 20:11

Consider the Sabbath commandment:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it (Ex. 20:8-11).

We work six days (144 hours, twelve dozen) and rest one. These are not imaginary days – they are real. Creation Week occurred in six 24 hour (approximately) days. Creation In Six Days (CISD) is an important teaching of the Bible.

For in six days GOD made Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore GOD blessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day (Ex. 20:11, Msg).

Exodus 20:11 is the Haec Credimus (“this we believe”) of the Creation Research Society:
Exodus 31:17 is a parallel passage:

It [the Sabbath] is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.

The Hebrew of Exodus 20:11 may be found here.

John Trapp commented on Ex. 20:11, “God took six days to make the world in, to the end that we might be in a muse when we think of it; and think on his works in that order that he made them.” [1]

Robert McCabe concluded, “… both passages [Ex. 20:11, Ex. 31:17] have been clearly understood as references to man imitating the divine pattern established in the first week of temporal history by working on six consecutive, normal days and resting on a literal seventh day…” [2]
Notes:
1) Online Bible (2004)
2) “A Critique of the Framework Interpretation of the Creation Week” by Robert McCabe in Coming to Grips with Genesis ed. by Terry Mortenson and Thane Ury (Master Books, Green Forest, AR, 2008), p. 243.