Hey! I know we are commanded to not add or subtract to His Word. But do you think we do so anyways? For example, the Communion/Eucharist debate. Sometimes, I imagine God like, "Yeah, no. It's like this...". Or with some other controversial topic, He's like, "This is what I really mean...". Do you wonder if sometimes we're doing the most and it's unnecessary or not doing enough because we don't understand/want to?
Hello!Yes, the Word most definitely commands us not to add or take away from His Word and states that there are consequences for those who choose to do so.Whether or not someone is guilty of doing this is dependent upon the situation/what is happening. I don’t believe I can make a blanket statement about this because there are some situations where people are legitimately messing with scripture by either adding to it or omitting parts of it, whereas other situations where Christians who disagree on interpretation aren’t altering doctrine and scriptural meaning (in other words, they’re not actually taking away from or adding to scripture, even if there is some differing on interpretation of a particular point).I’m not exactly sure what you’re specifically referring to with the Communion/Eucharist debate, so if you want to expand more on that point so I can give my opinion on whether that’s an example that applies to the adding/taking away command, feel free to do so!I’ll give some examples of my own to hopefully demonstrate better the point I’m trying to make. The Book of Revelation tends to be a very challenging book in the Bible that many have difficulty with interpreting. Because it’s filled with prophecy and referring to events that haven’t happened yet, people have differing perceptions of meaning. For example, I have seen people debating before over whether or not certain things in Revelation are meant to be taken literally or symbolically. Whether you believe a particular detail is meant to be symbolic or literal, your interpretation may end up being incorrect. But that doesn’t mean you’ve added or taken away from the Word. Similarly, there is debate over prophecy interpretation in the Old Testament regarding the emergence of the anti-Christ and what country he will emerge from. Some believe that prophecy is referring to the modern-day area of Turkey, whereas others believe that it will be from the modern-day area of Russia. Regardless of what interpretation is correct, it’s not adding or taking away from the Word if your stance turns out to be wrong.However, there are legitimate cases of people adding their own doctrine or removing things from scripture and this is very, very serious. One example is Jehovah’s witnesses altering John 1 in their own “translation” of the the Bible because they believe and promote the blasphemous doctrine that Christ is not God and claim He is a “created” being. This diagram explains what I’m referring to. Both Mormonism and Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) follow a similar belief that involves altering scripture. This is just one example though - all three of these religions claiming to be Christianity have many examples of altering scripture, sadly. Similarly, Catholicism practices a veneration (which is essentially worship, regardless of how Catholicism tries to claim it’s not) of both Mary and the saints and have other additional man-made doctrine from church leadership - none of which is found in/supported by the Word, which is clearly indicative of adding to the Word.These are just some examples, but hopefully this post demonstrated the distinction between differing interpretation of scripture that doesn’t add/take away from the Word versus people actually altering scripture by removing doctrine in the Word and/or adding their own. I think the key is to assess each situation on a case by case basis and evaluate if changes are actually being made to doctrine as He is referring to in Revelation 19:18-19.I hope this was helpful to you, please let me know if you have any other questions or need further clarification!
