The Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches salvation by grace through faith, apart from works. This is very good. However, it also promotes a man-centered, decisional-salvation. It maintains a heavy emphasis upon the sinner’s free will, and this human-centered theology is heavily reflected in its altered paraphrase, the Clear Word Bible (CWB).
| New American Standard Bible | Clear Word Bible | Comment | |
| John 6:28-29 | Therefore they said to Him, “What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.” | They asked, “What should we do to have a part in God’s kingdom?” 29 Jesus said, “The first thing to do is to believe in the One whom God has sent.” | Instead of our believing being God’s work, the CWB changes it to be completely up to man. |
| Acts 13:48 | When the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. | When the Gentile converts heard that, they were glad and praised God. They shared this good news with other Gentiles and when they realized that they could have eternal life, they also believed. | The order is reversed. In the original, God’s appointing to salvation comes first, our belief follows (that is what it says!). In the CWB, the unbelievers’ belief follows their own realization of salvation. |
| Rom. 9:22-23 | What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, | Whether God chooses to show His power or His mercy, He isn’t obligated to get our consent before He does so. Can’t God choose to demonstrate His infinite patience with those who are fit to be destroyed? 23 Can’t He choose to reveal His abundant mercy to those who love Him and prepare them in advance to share His glory? Isn’t that His right? | This passage has been the source of much interpretational controversy within Christianity. Nevertheless, the CWB softens the words significantly. |
| Eph. 1:4-5 | 4 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 make choices based upon people’s choices, rather than his own and independent sovereign will to predestine. |
| Phil. 1:29 | For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, | This experience you’re going through will strengthen your faith. Not only has God given you an opportunity to believe on Christ, but now He’s giving you a chance to suffer for Him which will test your love. | Instead of God being the one who grants faith in us, the CWB changes the emphasis to man. |
| 2 Thess. 2:13 | But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. | But we thank God for you, my brothers, because you are beloved of the Lord and are among the firstfruits of the gospel in Macedonia. You were drawn to the Lord by the Holy Spirit and you accepted the truth as soon as you heard it. | The CWB’s version is a bad misrepresentation of the verse. Obviously, it is significantly altered based on SDA theology and reveals a very man-centered ideology. |
