Is Revelation 22:18-19 Forgivable?

Please look with me at Revelation 22:18-19.

I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

You may have heard someone say about the entirety of the Scriptures that we are not to take from it or add to it. That’s a true statement. We are not to take from or add to any of the Scripture.

But in the context of our passage is that what it says? No. It’s talking about the prophecies of this book. John’s talking about the words in the visions of the Book of Revelation that are not to be taken from or added to — that revelation or those visions that God gave to Jesus to give to the angel that the angel gave to John to record for all of the saints.

Deuteronomy 4:1-2 “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it”

Now this warning actually mirrors a warning from the Old Testament it mirrors a warning that God had given to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 4:1–2.

And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live, and go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you.

Now, we have to ask in light of the warning of Revelation 22:18-19 and in light of Deuteronomy 4:1–2 — is there any reason for us at all to ever teach the Book of Revelation?

This is a highly debated book and so is God saying that if we err in our interpretation that we’re going to miss out on the tree of life in the holy city?

No, that’s not what he’s saying. Remember he’s already said “blessed is the one who reads aloud and hears the words of this book.” He wants this book taught amongst his churches.

So what does he mean?

Who the Warning of Revelation 22:18-19 is for

Look back to Deuteronomy 4:3-4

Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all the men who followed the Baal of Peor. But you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

Who was judged? It was the faithless and the disobedient.

This is the same idea then being brought out in our text. It’s not that if you get something wrong in your interpretation that you’re going to lose out on your salvation.

We know that as believers we cannot lose our salvation if you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ — because he’s covered all the weaknesses of our sin.

What does breaking Revelation 22:18-19 indicate about a person?

So what does it mean? It’s a warning to those who have crept into the Church who are faithless and disobedient.

He’s talking to folks like the Nicolaitans back in Revelation 2 who came in and willfully perverted the word of God. He’s talking to those folks back in Revelation 2 like Jezebel and her followers who deliberately distorted God’s word and taught the exact opposite of what he had proclaimed to his churches. He gave them — and he gives people today like them — opportunity to repent. But if they don’t and they persist in their faithlessness and their disobedience they show that the tree of life and that the holy city was not theirs to begin with. They have no share in the eternal inheritance that God has set apart for all those who belong to him.

They show themselves to be no saints at all. Because a distinctive of a saint is that although imperfectly we are characterized as those who keep the commandments of God and who keep our faith in Christ.

This is what we read in Revelation 14:12 where the angel says this:

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.

Who are the saints? Those who keep the commandments and their faith in Jesus.

God is jealous to guard his word

We see in this warning in Revelation 22:18-19 the jealousy with which God guards his word.

He’s telling all in the churches “do not tamper with my word!” His word is perfect. His word is pure. It’s sufficient. It is without error. It cannot be improved upon. It is divine. And it is final.

Anyone who would seek to add to the words or or take away from them — he says “you will receive the plagues that are written in this book!” You will be judged by God now and on the last day. They revealed themselves to not be lovers of Christ — to not be those who are indwelt with the Spirit. The Spirit causes us to walk in the statutes of our Lord.

This is what Jesus says in John 14:15 — “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

The one who willfully though distorts his commandments — the one who perverts his word for their own gain — shows that they have no love for Christ. They have no love for his word.

Be careful with God’s word

This also should teach the Church — and in particular those who handle the word — how careful we are to be with it — how serious we ought to approach it. We have to approach it with fear and trembling — being zealous for the word of God — to be careful not to add to it nor take away from it.

When we speak about adding to it in the context of the book of Revelation we need to remember what was going on. What were the Nicolaitans — what were Jezebel and her followers doing?

They were promoting idolatry. They were promoting immorality. They were promoting false teaching. They were promoting spiritual adultery — all things which Christ told the seven churches in Asia Minor to stand fast against. They were coming in saying “you can have one foot in the world and one foot in the church. You can belong to the world and you can belong to Christ. You can compromise with the world and still be a saint.”

Jesus said — “No! The two are inconsistent. You can’t.”

This is why he promises that to the one who is faithful until the end he will give them the crown of life. He understands if you don’t compromise with the world then in the first century period you could suffer and die. That’s why he promises that to them so that they would be faithful to the end.

To take away from the words of the book would mean to bring deceptive teaching into the Church which then would invalidate the word of God and make it null and void.

Don’t change God’s word. Don’t mess with it. Don’t tamper with it. It is perfect.

This likewise is an exhortation to the Church to contend for the faith — to guard the deposit that we have been entrusted with.

What are some of the ways in which we do that? First we need to humble ourselves in submission to God’s word. We need to detest what’s being proclaimed by Scripture itself. We are to correct the one who waivers. And ultimately we have to exercise Church discipline if need be in order to protect God’s word and God’s people from those who would seek to twist and to pervert and to distort it.