A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
A New Witness for God (Volume 1 of 3)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
_Third:_ A careful reading of the passage discloses that it is only
_man_ who is prohibited from adding anything more to that book of
prophecy, not God. While man may have added to him the plagues which
are written in the book if he presumptuously adds to the words of
the prophecy and passes them off for the word of God, yet God would
still be left free to give revelation _ad infinitum._ I must needs
think that this is the proper view to take of the prohibition, since
in Deuteronomy I find it recorded: "You shall not add to the word
which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it." [14] To
give to this passage the same interpretation that is placed by modern
Christians on the passage under consideration from the Apocalypse
(and it is just as reasonable to place such an interpretation on the
passage in Deuteronomy as to place it on the one in Revelation) would
result in rejecting all scripture that was given after the prohibitory
clause in the writings of Moses--which would be the greater part of the
Old Testament and all of the New. The same is true of the prohibitory
passage in Proverbs: "Every word of the Lord is perfect. * * * Add
thou not unto his words lest he reprove thee and thou be found a
liar." [15] There can be no doubt that these passages mean only this:
Man must not add his own words to the revelation of God and pass them
off as God's word. To say that they mean that no more revelation is
to be given after they were uttered is to condemn all the scripture
written subsequent to that time. What those passages mean the passage
in Revelation means. Man must not add to the words of Deity; but God is
left as free to give more revelation as he was before this prohibition
to man was placed on record. The passage in question does not in the
remotest manner refer to the close of the volume of revelation.
When the last act of indignity which the wicked ingenuity of his
persecutors could suggest was perpetrated on the Son of God, Jesus
bowed his thorn-crowned head and exclaimed "It is finished." By some
who contend against new revelation it is held that this means that
no more revelation is to be expected--revelation is finished! Such a
construction would exclude the inspired revelations, visions, dreams
and revelations given to the apostles after the crucifixion of Jesus
and abundantly testified of in the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles
and the Apocalypse. It is so clearly evident that the exclamation, "It
is finished," [16] had reference to the suffering of the Son of God,
that it is not necessary to enter further into a refutation of the
claim that it means the revelation of God to man was finished.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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