When Change is Expressly Forbidden

“You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you.  (Dt. 4:20)

“Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it. (Dt. 12:32)

Do not add to His words
Or He will reprove you, and you will be proved a liar. (Prov. 30:6)

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other. (1 Co. 4:6)

I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book. (Rev. 22:18-19)

There are those who try to tell us that the warning at the end of the Book of Revelation applies exclusively to revisions attempted to only that book of the Bible and not the rest, but as with all things biblical, our understanding of any principle of the Lord comes from the whole of Scripture and not by lifting out and highlighting just a single reference. Moses, Solomon and Paul, at various points of history, provide the foundation for what is finalized in the last verses of the Bible on behalf of the whole of Scripture, that God’s entire Word is closed canon and provides no option for human editing, be it in any form of redaction or embellishment. And yet something has taken place within the walls of the Church since the turn of the new millennium for which I can find no previous historic parallel: openly changing God’s Word in spite of the express mandate otherwise.

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