Discernment

In the broader Christian community, this verse is often wrongly applied to mean that no one is allowed to either add or remove anything from the books in the whole Bible.

But verse 18 of our quoted section above refers to “in this book” and “what is written here”, clearly limiting the warning to the actual prophecy given in Revelation, and verse 19 further defines this limit with “words from this book of prophecy”.

If we were to interpret it as applicable to the total Bible, then John himself would be in trouble, because he wrote his other two books in the New Testament after he wrote Revelation, therefore adding to Scripture! Apart from the scrolls on which the Old Testament were preserved, most of the New Testament was still being written, and no complete book of the whole Bible existed yet.

Even a similar warning from Moses in Deut 12:32 “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it refers only to “Whatever I command you” and not to the Bible as a whole.

We definitely do not want to be guilty of either distorting, erasing or altering the text as given in the Bible. But the misapplication of the quoted verses to the whole of Scripture sometimes generates many misleading assumptions. For instance, people we know who studied Apocryphal books (a collection of biblical or related writings that were not included in the officially recognized canon of the Bible) were told that they were wrong to do that, as they were “adding” to the Bible. This of course is not true.

Another totally wrong deduction would be that you cannot make notes in your Bible. In answer to that I can only stress that Jesus Himself and Holy Spirit are the revealers of the basis of our faith, and the text itself is a tool that leads us to more understanding of Him – so go ahead and make notes, highlight verses, jot down all new revelations Holy Spirit gives you!

Pearls to ponder:

We are living in times where deception is increasing at an alarming rate. The sad part is that the church itself sometimes brings deception across our path. We have to start grounding our basic beliefs in truth and practise our discernment. Make sure that what you are told about the Bible is actually what is written there – do not take anybody’s word for it, read it for yourself – Holy Spirit promises to teach you (John 14:26). Make time, you will be greatly rewarded!