This is my next post in a series on comparing the Clear Word to the Holy Bible. In this series my goal is to demonstrate using the words of the Bible exactly how and where SDA intend for you to imagine these verses differently than they actually read on their own. The brainwashing in this starts from youth and can be very difficult to realize when it has come over you. In reviewing these one at a time I hope that the reader will be able to see for themselves what they have been taught to read into the text.
If you want a more comprehensive breakdown of Daniel 8 I recommend you read the work done by Dale Ratzlaff on this. You can find it HERE. You can also find all my work on the Investigative Judgement HERE. This post will only be addressing a few key texts in Daniel and how the SDA changed them in the Clear Word.
| The Holy Bible |
The Clear Word |
| “He answered, “After two thousand, three hundred prophetic days (which represent actual years), God will restore the truth about the heavenly Sanctuary to its rightful place. Then the process of judgement will begin of which the yearly cleansing of the earthly Sanctuary was a type, and God will vindicate His people.” |
I had a hard time making my highlights relevant as the SDA added a great deal into this verse. Where did they get the concept of the heavenly sanctuary out of Daniel 8:14? Would it not be more plain to read it as the Earthly Sanctuary? If they do believe this is talking about the heavenly sanctuary why did they have to add that word in?
Where did they get a narrative explaining the interpretation of evenings and mornings as prophetic days representing actual years? That isn’t in the Holy Bible at all. Why add that if the meaning was already clear? What the heck is up with this Bible fan-fiction about a process of judgement etc. That is a whole line of thought completely foreign to the Biblical text!
This verse in Daniel 8 is the heart and soul of Adventist theology. Every distinctive comes back to and flows out of the interpretation of this verse. See for yourself above how much has to be eisegeted into the passage for their beliefs to be reflected in it. Once done the length is more than doubled. Since the core of their theology is hinged on a fabrication of concepts foreign to this verse what do you think are the ramifications when that is extrapolated out to every other doctrine which connects to the Investigative Judgement?
Logically, since the root of Adventist theology is rotten here in Daniel 8:14 so is the fruit produced by it.
| The Holy Bible |
The Clear Word |
| “The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.” Daniel 8:26 ESV | “The vision having to do with the three-and-a-half years, each day representing a year, is true. But for now, you don’t need to understand more than what I have told you because it applies to the time of the end, far int the future.” |
Notice that the writer of the clear word for some reason felt the need to define evenings and mornings as three and a half years with each day representing a year. Those words are not found in the Holy Bible at all. In addition to that sealing up the vision is changed to “for now, you don’t need to understand“. Why would he take a “sealing” until the time of the end (Daniel 8:17) and change it to a temporary delay of information? The answer to this will become more apparent when we analyze another verse that SDA changed in Daniel 9.
| The Holy Bible |
The Clear Word |
| “While I was praying and confessing my sins and the sins of my people and pleading with the Lord on behalf of Jerusalem and His holy mountain, Gabriel quickly flew to my side and help me. He was the one who had talked to me before and helped me to better understand parts of the vision. It was about the time of evening worship when he arrived.” |
Notice in the Holy Bible Daniel is identifying the angel that he had seen earlier. The “vision at the first” is simply a referent to the first vision he received in this series, starting all the way back to Daniel 7. However, the Clear Word softens this so that it can be seen as a referent to Chapter 8, their argument is that Gabriel is unsealing the vision that had just been given.
The reason they need this is so that they can tie the start date of the so called 2300 year prophecy to the 490 year prophecy. It is a highly dubious assumption that is not conveyed in the Biblical narrative. But it is imperative for SDA theology because a hard start date isn’t given for the time prophecy in Daniel 8.
It is apparent to me that the author of the Clear Word also doesn’t believe SDA teaching can be found in the text connecting Daniel 8 to 9. If so, he wouldn’t have felt the need to tweak the text to facilitate this connection. And if you have been reading my series on this you have likely seen that this seems to be a pattern with every SDA distinctive in the Clear Word.
Armchair Theologian 