Do Not Add To Or Take Away From The Word Of God

Rev 22:18-19, Deut 4:2, and Deut 12:32 (“What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it”) all forbid us from adding to or taking away from God’s word in one form or another. “Don’t do dat.”

If you’ve ever studied with a Mormon, you know their Bible is much thicker than ours. They not only have the Old and New Testaments in their Bibles, but also the Book Of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl Of Great Price. They have literally added to the word of God. But suppose someone doesn’t literally add to the word of God, they just add to it by teaching things that are not in there. For example, suppose a church teaches sprinkling for baptism is okay even though texts like Rom 6:4 show baptism should be a burial. Wouldn’t that in effect be adding to the word of God, kind of like writing in there “sprinkling for baptism is authorized”?

And suppose a “woman preacher” cut out with her scissors texts like I Cor 14:34-35 that teach women should “keep silence in the churches:” That would be literally taking away from the word of God. Suppose she didn’t use her scissors, but just ignored such passages. Wouldn’t that in effect be the same thing – taking away from God’s word, the same in essence as using her scissors?

So aren’t churches adding to or taking away from God’s word by allowing gay marriage (Rom 1:26-27), adulterous marriages (Matt 19:9), infant baptism (Acts 8:35-37), sprinkling for baptism (Rom 6:4), women preachers (I Cor 14:34-35), short or medium length hair on women (I Cor 11:15), teaching a sinner doesn’t have to be baptized to be saved (Mark 16:16), Total depravity / original sin inherited (Ezek 18:20), Unconditional election (John 3:16), Limited atonement (Heb 2:9), Irresistible grace (Josh 24:15), Preservation or Perseverance of the saints (Gal 5:4), that a Christian can be forgiven without repentance (Acts 8:22), Jesus was not deity (John 1:1,14), faith only salvation (James 2:24), divorce is okay as long as one doesn’t remarry (Matt 5:32), mental divorce (Luke 16:18), the miraculous gifts are still for today (I Cor 13:8-10), that the Holy Spirit doesn’t actually dwell in Christians (I Cor 6:19), that Jesus wasn’t punished in our place (Isa 53:5), etc.? We are willing to imitate Paul and Jesus (I Cor 11:1) and discuss these and other Biblical issues publicly to try to spread the truth of the gospel (Acts 19:8-10).

And Rev 22:18-19 makes it clear what the consequences for adding to or take away from God’s word would be. It says “God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city.” In short, you lose your salvation. We should teach exactly what the word of God teaches – we “cannot go beyond the word of the Lord … to do less or more …” (Num 22:18); we “cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad of mine own mind” (Num 24:13); we should not “not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.”

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