=17.= Revelation is essential to the Church, not only for the proper calling and ordination of its ministers, but also that the officers so chosen may be guided in their ministrations:--to teach with authority the doctrines of salvation; to admonish, to encourage, and if necessary to reprove the people; and to declare unto them by prophecy the purposes and will of God respecting the Church, present and future. The promise of salvation is not limited by time, place, or persons. So taught Peter on Pentecost day, assuring the multitude of their eligibility to blessing:--"For the promise is unto you," said he, "and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call."[883] Salvation, with all the gifts of God, was of old for Jew and Greek alike;[884] the same Lord over all, rich unto those that call upon Him, without difference.[885] [883] Acts ii, 39. [884] Rom. x, 12; Gal. iii, 28; Col. iii, 11. [885] Rom. iii, 22. =18. Alleged Objections in Scripture.=--The opponents of the doctrine of continual revelation quote, with gross perversion of meaning, certain scriptural passages to sustain their heresy; among such scriptures are the following. The words of John with which he approaches the conclusion of his book are these:--"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."[886] To apply these sayings to the Bible as it was afterward compiled is wholly unjustified, for surely John did not write with a knowledge that his book would be the concluding section of any such compilation of the scriptures as we now possess in our Bible. John had reference to his own words, which, having come to him by revelation, were sacred; and to alter such, by omission or addition, would be to modify the words of God. The sin of altering any other part of the revealed word would be equally great. Moreover, in this oft-quoted passage, no intimation is given that the Lord may not add to or take from the word therein revealed; the declaration is that no man shall change the record and escape the penalty. [886] Rev. xxii, 18-19; see also Doc. and Cov. xx, 35.