A Critical Exposure Of The Clear Word Bible

• Introduction:

          -The Clear Word Bible is a paraphrase written by Jack J. Blanco and made available to the public by the Review and Herald Publishing Association in March 1994. This product of the Seventh-Day Adventist church was designed to be an amplified translation of Scripture. The Clear Word Bible was made primarily for devotional use. However, this paraphrase is to be avoided because it contains textual modifications aimed at reflecting aberrant aspects of Seventh-Day Adventist theology. It contains bias in support of false doctrines such as annihilationism and Sabbatarianism. Wayne A. Grudem made a negative assessment of this Bible, "I do not think anyone should trust The Clear Word as a reliable translation of the Bible, or even as a useful paraphrase. It repeatedly distorts the teaching of the Bible. It removes significant content that is in the original Hebrew or Greek, and adds new ideas that are not found in the original texts." Following are examples of textual perversion within the Clear Word Bible:

• Comments On Genesis 2:2-3:

          -"Then on the seventh day of creation week, God stopped to enjoy what He had made and to rest in the beauty of it all. So He blessed the seventh day and set it apart as a day of spiritual refreshment and joy." (Clear Word Bible)

          -"By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." (New American Standard Bible)
          -"And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation." (English Standard Version)

            *The Seventh-Day Adventist rendering of this passage makes the seventh day a day of creation, but the process was actually completed on the sixth. The day on which God is said to have "rested" is not the Sabbath. The Clear Word Bible wrongly introduces the day of rest prior to the time when the Hebrew Scriptures themselves reveal that day. God gave the Sabbath to the Jews wandering in the wilderness from Egypt (Exodus 16).

• Comments On Genesis 35:18:

          -"But Rachel didn’t survive the birth, and as she was dying, she named her baby Benoni, which means Son of My Sorrow, but Jacob renamed the baby Benjamin, meaning Son of My Right Hand." (Clear Word Bible)

          -"It came about as her soul was departing (for she died), that she named him Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin." (New American Standard Bible)
          -"And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin." (English Standard Version)

            *The Seventh-Day Adventist rendering of Genesis 35:18 is clearly biased in favor of the false teaching called soul sleep. If the soul is said to depart upon death, then that would suggest it is an immaterial component that is separable from our physical bodies. It lives on despite our flesh returning to the earth from which it was made.

• Comments On Matthew 25:46:

          -"I have no choice but to end your lives, because in my kingdom everyone cares about everyone else.” (Clear Word Bible)

          -"These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (New American Standard Bible)
          -"And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (English Standard Version)

            *This verse has been altered so drastically in the Clear Word Bible that it barely resembles how word-for-word translations render it. The translators grasped at straws here to avoid the unfavorable implications of this passage as it relates to annihilationism. "Punishment" and "life" are contrasting destinies, yet their duration is functionally equivalent.

• Comments On John 10:30:

          -"You see, my Father and I are so close, we're one." (Clear Word Bible)

          -"I and the Father are one." (New American Standard Bible)
          -"I and the Father are one." (English Standard Version)

            *This rendering of the text is problematic because it describes a relational oneness rather than ontological. The oneness spoken of in John 10:30 is of being or the nature of God, not kindred. The Clear Word Bible confuses a statement about the fundamental qualities of Christ and God with one sounding similar to that of mere friendship.

• Comments On Hebrews 4:9:

          -"So there still remains the offer of spiritual rest that God intends for each generation to have, of which the Sabbath is a symbol." (Clear Word Bible)

          -"So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." (New American Standard Bible)
          -"So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God." (English Standard Version)

            *This passage, when taken in context, plainly tells us that it is through Jesus Christ that we enter into the promised rest of God. Hebrews 4 actually refutes the position that Christians are to observe a weekly Sabbath. Our focus is to be on Christ, not a specific day of week.