This is my fourth post in a series on the Clear Word.  For the previous entry please click HERE.  I am going to switch to the English Standard Version (ESV) for a few posts on this series.  King James is my overall favorite but I don’t want to give the impression that I disregard the others.

As with my previous posts on this I am going to present some key proof-texts in the Bible on a particular topic.  This time around we are going to cover life after death.  If you are a Seventh Day Adventist or are familiar with them you know that they believe in Soul Sleep.  Specifically, they believe that when you die you simply cease to exist until the resurrection.

I have Biblically covered this topic HERE.  The focus of this post will be to discern if SDA felt the need to change anything in the Clear Word to bolster this doctrine, or if they feel that the Bible actually teaches what they believe on its own.

Notice in the Holy Bible there is a distinction between “inner” and “outer” self.  One is wasting away and the other is being renewed.  In the Clear Word this distinction is left out altogether.  Instead of inner and outer “self” you have a physical or spiritual attribute.  This is a dramatic category shift.  It is the difference between referencing someone’s being or essence and instead referencing their emotions or hair style.

Why did the SDA need to tweak this verse at all?  Do they not believe that the Bible says what they teach?

The Holy Bible says that we are away from the Lord and the Clear Word says we are not.  How confusing is that?  This is because the writer seems to want to swallow up the teaching of the location of the soul being either in the Body or with the Lord by obfuscating with verbosity.  Notice he goes on about the meaning of faith and then ties leaving the body with the end of the world.  Very strange and I see no justification in the text for these additions.

Again, we see the Clear Word obfuscate the text with verbosity so that your mind loses track of all the nouns and verbs.  Second instead of “depart[ing]” his body in death like the Holy Bible says, we see that Paul is said to be speaking of the next moment of consciousness.

If the Holy Bible actually taught of a gap between death and the “next moment” why did the writer of the Clear Word feel the need to add it in?  If the Bible taught what he actually believed would it not be there already?

Why does he equate “in the flesh” to “stay here”?  It seems to me that the writer would rather have Paul be speaking of his whole being located on Earth rather than the Soul actually separating from the body.  Would SDA theology crumble if the distinction Paul taught was taken as is?

In addition to that we get extra fan fiction of Paul speculating on his release.  Why do we need this?  Is it fun to just make stuff up?

The difference here is more subtle.  Notice that the Holy Bible qualifies “die” as never happening.  Where as the Clear Word instead quantifies the duration you will experience death.  These ideas are complete opposites!  Jesus is telling me I will never die at all, and the Clear Word is saying I will die for a period of time but then won’t be dead any longer.

Notice in the Holy Bible, just prior to the Resurrection on the Last Day, God brings the souls of the saints with him.  It is after this text that the dead in Christ rise, no joke go read it.  This is why SDA usually start their quote of the passage after verse 14.  Notice the Clear Word omits this entirely and replaces it with the Resurrection narrative.  Why doesn’t the Clear Word speak of God bringing anyone with him like the Holy Bible does?

In the Holy Bible we see the word “souls” and in the Clear Word we see the word “bodies”.  If SDA really believe that “souls” are bodies why change it?  Just leave it how it was if you agreed with it.

Even if you disagree with the Christian teaching of the Soul and life after death, I am sure that you would agree the Bible shouldn’t be altered either way.