Yet Another New “Bible” to Avoid

^{Note: This article is reprinted with permission from As I See It, a monthly electronic magazine compiled and edited by Doug Kutilek. AISI is sent free to all who request it by writing to the editor at dkutilek@juno.com.}

While the various cults are forever quoting Scripture (and very often perverting its sense and meaning), they commonly find it very convenient to produce their own “Bible” with their own peculiar theological spin to make the “Bible” say what they want it to say and mean what they want it to mean rather than employing some standard conservative translation which may not be so accommodating to their heresies. The cults very much prefer fabricating their own heresy-friendly version instead of submitting their thoughts and theology to the Bible and altering them to conform to the true meaning of Scripture. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have their “New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures,” not only in English but in numerous foreign languages as well. The Mormons have their “The Inspired Version” (I thought the KJVOers already had that!), done by the Independence, Missouri-based “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” rather than the Utah group (the latter does, I believe, have a revised KJV which they use). And now I discover that the Seventh-day Adventists have their own version.

One Jack J. Blanco produced—I dare not say “translated”—this exceedingly free and highly interpretive “paraphrase” version to conform to Adventist doctrine, to spin various texts, and to introduce Adventist interpretation throughout the whole. This new “Bible,” called The Clear Word (TCW), first appeared in 1994. It is printed and distributed by Review and Herald Publishing Association, one of Adventism’s own publishing houses. So loose, so paraphrastic, so “spun” is it by comparison that The Living Bible and The Good News Bible seem nearly woodenly literal by comparison! Since its first publication, TCW has been reworked and been re-issued in various formats and editions, but all still blatantly corrupting the Bible to fit Adventist theology.

The interested reader can find more information about this perversion in “Is This Word Clear?” by Stephen Pitcher in Proclamation, 10:1, January/February 2009, pp. 6ff. Proclamation is the bimonthly print magazine of Life Assurance Ministries (LifeAssuranceMinistries.org), a ministry by former Adventists to current and former Adventists and the best source of information and printed material about Adventism I know of.

Doug Kutilek is editor of www.kjvonly.org, a website dedicated to exposing and refuting the many errors of KJVOism, and has been researching and writing about Bible texts and versions for more than 35 years. He has a B.A. in Bible from Baptist Bible College (Springfield, MO), an M.A. in Hebrew Bible from Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati), and a Th.M. in Bible exposition from Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MN). A professor in several Bible institutes, college, graduate schools, and seminaries, he edits a monthly cyber-journal, As I See It. The father of four grown children and four granddaughters, he and his wife, Naomi, live near Wichita, Kansas.