Revelation 22:18–19

Man's one-sidedness always leads him to set grace and judgment against each other, while the many-sidedness of God's word gives each its proper place. Tender words of invitation have just been spoken. Right after them, God builds a defensive wall around this book of sevenfold judgments. It is a solemn lesson to see how He shuts out every intrusion of man's reasoning and unbelief.

The importance of these revelations could not have been more jealously protected. reason: two very-hard sentences (58 and 72 words), trims length

The Lord Himself claims every word here for God. If this is not a claim for verbal inspiration, what is it? This is clearly the closing book of New Testament Scripture. So what should we conclude about the verbal inspiration of the other parts? And what woe will fall on those who presume to meddle with God's authoritative message of His mind to man?

The warning applies first of all to the words of the book of Revelation. But it comes at the very end, and we believe it applies in a second way to the whole New Testament, if not the whole Bible. We are neither to add to it nor to take away.

The Lord refers especially to the book of Revelation here, but the Old Testament sounds a similar warning... The Lord has always been jealous for the maintenance of His own truth... The canon of Scripture is complete. To add to it must be deeply offensive to God. It must be the fruit of a proud and unbelieving heart. The warning speaks to every person who even hears the prophecy of this book. When God carries out the sentence, He will show no partiality.

The professing Church has set this book aside in practice. This did not happen through simple misunderstanding, which is not what is in view here. It happened because the Church's character and hopes took a worldly form instead of a heavenly one. It refused to believe itself under judgment, and so took away from this portion of God's word. It claimed for itself universal rule, triumph over evil, and a continuance to the end of time. In that way it added to this portion of God's word.

To John's prophetic ministry in the Revelation nothing was to be added. God had revealed all the great lines of truth when He made known the special revelation given to Paul. And He set out all things to come, for Christian times at least, when John, the son of Zebedee, recorded the revelations granted to him on Patmos. We look, then, for no more. Claimed additions to revealed truth are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit's teaching now.

Wherever the words of this prophecy are read or heard, this deeply solemn warning applies... The plagues of the book, which are many and varied, are added in righteous retribution to those who add to its words... This is how God guards the book that suffers more neglect than any other in Scripture, and that many treat with contempt.

Man is one-sided. He always sets grace and judgment against each other. God's word has many sides, and gives each its proper place. The tender words of invitation have only just been spoken. Right after them, it is a solemn lesson to see the wall God puts around this book of sevenfold judgments, to shut out man's reasoning and unbelief.

Wherever the words of this prophecy are read or heard, this deeply solemn warning applies... This is how God guards the book that people neglect more than any other in Scripture, and that many treat with contempt.

There is a statement that certain names will NOT be blotted out of the Book of Life. That plainly implies that names may be blotted out. God does not hold out empty threats (Rev. 22:19).

Where Scripture speaks of blotting out, it is like a register of voters: if a name is shown to have no right there, it is blotted out. In Revelation 22:19 it should be "tree of life," not "book of life." God takes away no name that He has written.

The words "which are described in this book" point to the tree of life and the holy city. Interpreted, these two things mean Christ and the church. Christ, risen from the dead, is the tree of life; the church is the bride of Christ. So the penalty for anyone who "takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy" is exclusion from Christ and the church.

It does not mean only open unbelief, which refuses the book as God's word. No doubt it includes that, but it includes much more. The professing Church has in practice set this book aside. This did not happen through simple misunderstanding — that is not what is meant here — but because its character and hopes became worldly instead of heavenly. It refused to believe that it was itself under judgment, and so took away from this part of God's word.

Here the Lord Himself claims every word for God. If this is not a claim that God inspired the very words, what is? This is plainly the closing book of the New Testament. So what may we conclude about the inspiration of the words in other parts? And what sorrow waits for those who dare to meddle with what God has said to man with authority?

In Deuteronomy, near the start of Scripture, God tells His people the same thing about the law: do not add to the word He commands you, and do not take from it (Deuteronomy 4:2). Put the two passages side by side — one at the start of God's dealings with men, one at the end. There is no doubt that we can apply this to the whole of Scripture. There is no scripture that we may take away, and no part where we may add anything.

To ask that is to confuse this warning with the question of salvation, and so to weaken its seriousness... If these words mean being cut off from Christ and the church for ever, they can only refer to someone whose part in Christ and the church was only a claim. That is the right reading, because taking away from the words of this prophecy is a deliberate, hostile act... It is a very bad sign when believers use the truth that they cannot be lost to push God's warnings aside.