The final warning
We’ve seen that Revelation begins with a blessing:
Revelation 1:3
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near.
and now we see that Revelation ends with a serious warning:
Revelation 22:18-19
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 that are written in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, which are written about in this book.
We understand from our study of Revelation 21-22 that a person’s share in the tree of life and the holy city are rewards for faithful service; they are not connected to a person’s salvation from sin or Jesus’ gift of eternal life. So what are these penalties then? On a practical level, how do I avoid them?
Our first clue comes in the beginning of verse 18 – I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book. The original recipients, the seven churches in Chapters 2-3, also had to deal with those who would distort or minimize God’s Word.
Three specific groups are mentioned among the seven churches – the Nicolaitans, those who followed the teachings of Balaam, and those who followed the teachings of a self-proclaimed prophetess named Jezebel. Each of these groups taught Christians to live promiscuously and unprincipled in sexual matters. They also enticed believers to participate in the local feasts which focused on the worship of a Greek god or the emperor through both eating food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality.
In order for them to teach these things, they either had to add something to what God has already said or to purposefully leave out parts that they didn’t like. With respect to everything God has said in Revelation, a clear warning is given against either of those practices:
If anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.
The plagues described in this book are the punishments given to those who refuse to accept Christ’s offer of salvation from their sins – they would rather face God on their own terms. Similarly, Jesus pronounced severe punishment on those who followed the Nicolaitans, Balaam’s teachings, or Jezebel. From this we understand that adding to what God has proclaimed in Revelation is to invite significant punishment.
And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and the holy city, which are written about in this book.
Remember, this speaks to a loss of future reward, not a loss of salvation. The warning here is that we could miss out on the full opportunities to partner with God in eternity future if we willfully remove parts of what God has proclaimed in Revelation.
The cure for both of these types of willful errors is the same, whether we would be in danger of adding our own sections to God’s word or purposefully removing sections of God’s word. The cure is to take God at His word, as He has revealed it…even if we don’t fully understand parts of it.
For example:
After the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD and the dispersion of the Jews that happened soon afterward, there was no “nation of Israel” until 1948. Given the vast amounts of Scripture in the Old Testament and New Testament which speaks to God reigning over the nations of the earth from Israel…how much abuse and ridicule do you think Christians would have suffered prior to 1948 from those proclaiming “There is no nation of Israel, so clearly your beliefs are wrong”? I’m sure that believers would have been tempted to re-interpret what God had prophesied, either adding a little (like the idea of replacement theology, which is claiming that any Old Testament reference to Israel now relates to the church…it doesn’t, by the way) or by taking a little away (deciding that, maybe that part of Scripture no longer applies).
But God knew that Israel would be a nation again, and that His prophecies were still right, even if in a particular moment in history it appeared otherwise. So trust God now, take Him at His word – all of it, adding nothing, and taking nothing away.
Keep Pressing,
Ken