Reve?ation 22:18-19 — For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

I don’t spend as much time studying the Bible as I would like. Myra and I read through the Bible every year. I read at least another chapter every day. But I really don’t have as much time as I would like to just really dig in and build my understanding of what God is saying to me. 

There’s an old saying that the devil in the details. I prefer Gustave Flauberts comment that “Le Bon Dieu et dans le detail” — that is “God is in the details”. God has communicated, in great detail, who He is, who we are and what He expects of us. What’s more, He has said — repeatedly — that there will be no forgiveness for anyone who adds to, or subtracts from, His message.

The passage at the head of this piece serves, in its way, as an example of why I care so much about studying to improve my understanding of scripture. At a first look it’s strictly a command not to mess with the Revelation. Studying it, though, in the context of related passages such as Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32 and Proverbs 30:5-6 seems to make it clear that no part of the Bible is to be meddled with. Take a yet closer look, however, and compare two or three distinguished commentators notes and you will find that there’s more than one opinion about whether John, specifically, intended his words to apply to more than the Revelation. I don’t know the answer yet — which is sort of my point. I need to study more.

Many people, over the years, have added their own “rules” to God’s Word. More recently, it has become popular to discount or devalue some scripture in the interest of “inclusivity”. Often the people offering their own interpretation (and remember “no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” — 2 Peter 1:20) are charismatic, persuasive. The only way to deal with such folks is to know and understand the details of scripture thoroughly to “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15). So as I said, I need to spend more time studying …