The Clear Word Bible is a paraphrase, not a translation. A paraphrase is a loose adaptation of the biblical text designed to help clarify what the original says. The proper intention of any biblical paraphrase should be to remain faithful to the text and to expand it, not alter it, and certainly not to contradict the original words. The Seventh-day Adventist Bible (not their official Bible, but it is sold in their Publishing House), known as the Clear Word Bible, violates the biblical text by severely altering it in many places as it restates Scripture in line with SDA bias.
In fact, the bias is so heavy that I would not recommend the Clear Word Bible to anyone. The SDA doctrines of annihilationism, soul sleep, Jesus being Michael the Archangel, seventh-day Sabbath worship, etc., all govern how the biblical text is to be understood instead of letting the biblical text guide the paraphrase. This Bible is dangerous and faulty. I recommend that you steer clear of it.
Let’s take a look at a few examples of the profound bias.
| New American Standard Bible | Clear Word Bible | Comment | |
| Exodus 16:30 | So the people rested on the seventh day. | So the people rested and worshiped the Lord on the seventh day as they were told to do. | Notice how worship, which hints at church practices on their Saturday Sabbath, is added to their Bible. This is quite an addition. |
| Isaiah 66:24 | “Then they will go forth and look on the corpses of the men who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die and their fire will not be quenched; and they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” | “They will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me lying outside the city. But just as worms don’t stop until they devour the dead and fire doesn’t stop until it destroys, so the fire of the Lord will destroy and consume the wicked.” | The meaning of the text is changed to say the opposite of the original: from the fire not stopping to the fire will stop. |
| Matt. 10:28 | “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. | Don’t fear that you might be killed. They may kill your body, but they cannot take away your eternal life. God is the only One who has power over eternal life and death. | The original text separates the body and the soul, but this distinction is removed in the CWB. |
| Matt. 25:46 | “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” | I have no choice but to end your lives, because in my kingdom everyone cares about everyone else.’” | This verse is so severely altered that it bears very little resemblance to the original. |
| Eph. 1:4-5 | just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, | Before this world was created, God determined that all who believed on His Son should be saved, and that we should be holy and blameless in His sight. 5 Because of His love, God decided to secure our destiny by adopting us as His children through Jesus Christ, according to His good pleasure and will. | In the original, God does the choosing regarding salvation. But in the CWB, God’s choice to save is based on his apparent foreknowledge of their choices. This is heretical since it means God looks in the future to learn and then makes choices based upon people’s choices rather than his own and independent sovereign will to predestine. |
Is the Clear Word Bible a good paraphrase? Obviously not. The Seventh-day Adventist Church should withdraw support for this bad paraphrase, and they should remove it from their shelves. The fact they have not seen it clear to do so tells us that they are more interested in promoting their doctrine than keeping true to Scripture. I know that is a serious accusation, but it is one that I am confident is true.
