Adding To Or Subtracting From God’s Word

Q

I much enjoy your insight of the Bible and I have a question adding to and/or taking away from the Word of God. Duet. 4:2 and Proverbs 30:6 warn against this. Rev. 22:18,19 speaks of the consequences of adding to or taking away from “the words of the prophecy of this book” and the resulting punishment in so doing.

A

The idea of these passages is to discourage people from attributing to God something He hasn’t said, and from denying things that He clearly has said. Revelation 22:18-19 is the only place that actually pronounces a threat against anyone who tries to either insert or delete words from the Book of Revelation.

Ignoring these commandments has caused a great deal of false teaching to take place and has resulted in many people becoming deceived into obeying things taught by men rather than the word of God.

In Colossians 2:8 Paul warned us against this yet again. He said,

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”

Sadly, large components of what passes for doctrine in the Church today fits the description of things that Paul warned us against.