Clear Word Bible

[Marcia]

The Clear Word, which is a paraphrase of the Bible sold in SDA venues, is unfortunately now being advertised in Christianity Today. Here is an article that shows some of the serious problems in the Clear Word Bible where they change wording to support their views of the Sabbath, with a few excerpts of the article pasted below:

http://www.watchman.org/reltop/clearwordbible.htm

Exodus 5:5

KJV -And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.

CW - You've created enough problems by making them rest every week on your Sabbath.

Note - The CW describes the rest as occurring every week on the Sabbath, whereas in reality Moses requested an isolated three day period in which the Israelites could worship God (see verse 3 in the KJV).



Hebrews 4:4

KJV -For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

CW - That's why at creation He gave man the seventh-day Sabbath, not only as a reminder of creation week, but also as a symbol of spiritual rest. According to the Scriptures, God Himself rested on the seventh day and enjoyed this special time with man.

Note - The CW states "according to the Scriptures," but then adds to the Scriptures such phrases as the "symbol of spiritual rest" and the "special time with man."

This is another good article pointing out the problems of Clear Word:

http://thinking-christian.blogspot.com/2006/12/book-review-clear-word.html

 

[Deacon]

I've never heard of this translation before.

Seems to be a cart before the horse scenario;
a doctrine-driven translation rather than scripturally driven doctrine.


Rob

 

[Marcia]

I've never heard of this translation before.

Seems to be a cart before the horse scenario;
a doctrine-driven translation rather than scripturally driven doctrine.


Rob

You're right, Rob. And it's being advertised in Christianity Today.

Of course, considering the state of things today, I'm not surprised. "Doctrine" has become a dirty word amongst some (like many of the Emergents spokespeople and those who agree with them).

 

[StefanM]

Thank you for your ministry, Marcia, and welcome back to the BB!

 

[Marcia]

Thank you for your ministry, Marcia, and welcome back to the BB!

Hi, Stefan! Thanks so much for your message of welcome! It is really encouraging! :wavey:

Btw, please check out my new website at www.christiananswersforthenewage.org (some friends designed it for me as a gift to the ministry)

I have many new articles, including reviews of some recent New Age bestsellers like Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth."

 

[nunatak]

I've never heard of this translation before.

Seems to be a cart before the horse scenario;
a doctrine-driven translation rather than scripturally driven doctrine.


Rob

Thats an interesting thought. Is this the trouble with RCC?

 

[robycop3]

The CW "bible" is phony as a football bat. It constantly departs from any known ancient Scriptural mss, both adding & subtracting material at every turn.

Now, while the Seven-Day-Adlibbers don't openly claim it as THEIR version, many of'em use it as their everyday Bible.

It was first published in 1994, revised in 1996, all under the auspices of Dr. Jack Blanco, a professor at Southern Adventist University.(owned & operated by the SDA) It was first published by Southern College Press of that university; it's now published by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, also owned & operated by the Seven-Day-Adlibbers church.

Remember, this is the same cult from which the current KJVO doctrine came, through one of its officials, Dr. Benjamin Wilkinson.

 

[robycop3]

The CW often both adds & subtracts from the REAL Scriptures, as well as revising others, to make them fit SDA beliefs.

ADDS: Hebrews 4:4
KJV -For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

CW - That's why at creation He gave man the seventh-day Sabbath, not only as a reminder of creation week, but also as a symbol of spiritual rest. According to the Scriptures, God Himself rested on the seventh day and enjoyed this special time with man.

You can easily see what was ADDED here, material found in no known ancient Scriptural mss.

Added AND changed:

Acts 20:7
KJV -And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

CW - After sundown on Saturday night, the believers got together for a fellowship meal and to say good-by to Paul. That evening he spoke to them until midnight, after which he hoped to get a few hours sleep before leaving early Sunday morning.

"Break bread" was an old term for Communion, and just about everything fron the 2nd "after" onward was ADDED.

Added AND changed:

Hebrews 4:9
KJV -There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

CW - So there still remains the offer of spiritual rest that God intends for each generation to have, of which the Sabbath is a symbol.

A reading of all of Hebrews 4 shows this verse does NOT refer to the Sabbath at all, let alone "spiritual" rest!

Subtracts and alters:

Matthew 10:28
KJV -And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

CW - Don't be afraid that you might be killed. They can kill your body but not your spirit or your loyalty to me. Now if there is some thing to be concerned about, it's that you don't lose your faith in God.

The SDA doesn't believe in eternal hell. Thus, the CW removes the reference to hell, and ADDS, outta left field, an exhortation to keep the faith.

Again, subtracting & changing:

Matthew 18:9
KJV -And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire.

CW - If, for example, your eye places a wrong value on things, be willing to lose your eye to keep your moral innocence. If you have to make a choice, it's better not to be great in this life and yet live forever than to lose your childlike innocence and have everything end with this life.

All references to hell is removed, while "keep innocence" is added.

Even though those who advocate this "version" say it's only a paraphrase, it comes up 'way shorta that! it simply DOES NOT FOLLOW **ANY** known sources of Scripture too closely at all! IMO, this "bible" is as bogus as the JWs' NWT or the British "People's Bible", or similar corrupt worx.

BEWARE THIS BOOK! Read it ONLY with a LEGITIMATE Bible close at hand! It is a POISON MUSHROOM!

 

[queenbee]

.......

BEWARE THIS BOOK! Read it ONLY with a LEGITIMATE Bible close at hand! It is a POISON MUSHROOM!

Just a suggestion...perhaps you Robycop and others here should post your comments/comparisons of this verison on Christianitytoday to combat this poisonous material and provide scriptural counterbalance.

 

[Marcia]

Just a suggestion...perhaps you Robycop and others here should post your comments/comparisons of this verison on Christianitytoday to combat this poisonous material and provide scriptural counterbalance.

I second that! :thumbs:

Good idea!

 

[robycop3]

Marcia-Queenbee:

I couldn't get the window CT provides for 'letters to the editor' to work. You both have my permission, and indeed, my ENCOURAGEMENT to post anything there that I wrote, either verbatim, or altered as you see fit, if YOU can make the window work. After all, my aim is to alert as many as possible of just how bogus this 'bible' is, seeking nothing for myself.

 

[Marcia]

Thanks, Robycop! :wavey:

I'll let you know in this forum if I post something on their site (assuming I can get the window to work for their Letters).

 

[Marcia]

Robycop, because I was limited to 1000 characters, I could not post all those examples. This is what I sent:

I understand that Christianity Today is advertising the Clear Word Bible, a very loose paraphrase promoting SDA doctrines.

Are you aware that the Clear Word alters and changes many things in the Bible in order to reflect the SDA view of the Sabbath and their non-belief in hell? For example:
Hebrews 4:4
KJV -For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

CW - That's why at creation He gave man the seventh-day Sabbath, not only as a reminder of creation week, but also as a symbol of spiritual rest. According to the Scriptures, God Himself rested on the seventh day and enjoyed this special time with man.

Also please check Ex. 5:5, Matthew 10:28 (the CW removes the reference to hell), Matthew 18:9, Acts 20:7, and Heb. 4:9.

I hope CT reconsiders and does not advertise this product.

 

[Marcia]

Here is the info as I originally received it on the Clear Word Bible. I wanted to post this earlier but had deleted it and this evening I got it back from the original person who posted it (on a list I'm on dealing with apologetics).

I'm not trying to beat this to death but in case anyone wants more details, here it is (including some links at the bottom):

I received a copy of Christianity Today's "Today's Christian Woman", and the back cover is a full-page, color ad. The top half of the page is for The Clear Word, and the copy reads, "For everyone who hungers for a clearer understanding of God's Word and a richer devotional experience...The Clear Word paraphrase allows the power of ancient texts to shine through in contemporary language. Come away from your devotions refreshed, renewed, revived." It is advertised as being sold in "bookstores and from online retailers". Further, they are now publishing it under the label "Autumn House Publishing" with the website listed being: www.autumnhousepublishing.com <http://www.autumnhousepublishing.com> . Fine print: A Division of Review and Herald Publishing.

Just FYI--The Clear Word is showing up in various Christian bookstores...

Back to the ad: the bottom half of the page is a color ad for four different books published by Autumn House. Each is a novel about a Bible character. The titles: "Martha and Mary", "Ruth and Boaz", "The Woman at the Well", and "Joseph". They are written by two different authors, both Adventist.

There are two half-page ads for SDA books on page 19 of the July edition of Christianity Today. One of them is for Savior: Four Gospels. One Story by Jack Blanco, the SDA educator responsible for the controversial Clear Word "expanded paraphrase" of the Bible. For critiques of The Clear Word, see (for example)

www.exadventist.com/Home/Articles/clearwordbible/tabid/450/Default.aspx

www.exadventist.com/Home/Articles/Grudem/tabid/503/Default.aspx

www.ratzlaf.com/pdf%20files/4-17-01%20Deliberate%20Distortions%20in%20SDA.pdf

www.isitso.org/guide/cwbible.html

 

[robycop3]

I guess, if ya wanted to, Marcia, you could make multiple posts to show more examples of the CW's alteration of Scripture. Hopefully they "got the message" from what ya DID post.

And we must remember what a sneaky cult the Seven-Day-Adlibbers are. They don't tell prospective members many of the apostate doctrines they believe; they first wanna 'brainwash' the candidate, to make him/her receptive to thair garbage.

Their Pacific Press makes many childrens' boox & places them almost everywhere that children's boox are found, including THE LIBRARIES OF NON-ADVENTIST CHURCHES.

They sponsor "revelation seminars", which they pretend are interdenominational.

Their radio shows, Voice of Prophecy, Faith for Today, It is Written, The Quiet Hour, are heard all over the USA & Canada; they very rarely say the words "adventist" or "adventism" on them.

They do NOT tell non-SDAs they consider themselves the one true remnant church. (As do the RCs & many other cults & cult-ettes)

While they won't tellya much about Ellen G. White, here is their official statement about her, made in their Ministry magazine, October, 1981:

"We believe the revelation and inspiration of both the Bible and Ellen White's writings to be of equal quality. The superintendence of the Holy Spirit was just as careful and thorough in one case as in the other".

Here's an interesting study, if anyone wantsta do it: Many, MANY of White's writings appear to be copied from Mor(m)on founder Joseph Smith's work. A man named Walter Rea, a former SDA who saw through their apostacy, wrote a 1981 book called The White Lie, outlining White's plagiarism of Smith & others. The SDA's defense is that there were no plagiarism laws at that time, so EGW's actions were legal. (THEY DON'T DENY SHE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

And remember, the current KJVO doctrine was taken from a 1930 book, Our Authorized Bible Vindicated, by SDA official Dr. Benjamin Wilkinson.

Last, but not least, this is one of the cults, which, as the JWs do, believes that JESUS was once the archangel Michael!

And let us remember that Dr. Blanco, the author of the CW bible, was, and is, an active SDA preacher-teacher! But of course a SDA will lie to a non-SDA about that bible not being their 'official' version, same as they will lie about most everything else!

 

[queenbee]

From the contents of your posts - even more reason to be vigilant and take some type of countermeasure to thwart twisted scripture. Hmmmm - going to have to work on this one.

 

[Plain Old Bill]

Marcia long time no see, welcome back. By the way I went to youer site and would like to add it as a link on my site.:wavey:

These SDA guys are a sneaky bunch. They also have a program called amazing facts which takes a little time to figure out who they are.

 

[queenbee]

........These SDA guys are a sneaky bunch. They also have a program called amazing facts which takes a little time to figure out who they are.

Aren't they tho!!! Add JW's and Mormons to this lot too! It's so hard to argue logically with them - they have a scripture quote for everything you can come up with. I tried telling the JW lady who's been coming round my door for 2 months straight (every week!!!) that I'd had enough. There was no sense in her returning week after week. Her beliefs and mine just do not mesh; her beliefs are based on heresy and false organizational doctrines. Trouble is they won't take no for an answer because they have to meet quota and bring you 'into the one true church'. I had to get my husband to finally confront her a couple of weeks ago because she wouldn't cease and desist.

 

[sag38]

Just put up an American flag on your door post. That usually deters the JW's.

 

[queenbee]

I forwarded a letter of protest to the Editorial Board at CT. We'll see what happens and if there's a response. There's no question the Board should have done its homework and didn't, so it shouldn't be surprised to be getting heat from its subscribers.