Revelation 22:18, 19, "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add to 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 that are written in this book."In the immediate context, Revelation is only talking about itself. No one may alter the text, lest they be cursed. This has nothing to do with church polity. We are to preserve these words, neither adding to them nor taking away from them. Moses gave a similar lecture in Deuteronomy, stating that no one may add to or take away from the words of Torah.
The Christians have nevertheless ventured to make changes of a most glaring nature. The removal of the sabbath to the first day of the week is not authorised by Jesus or any of his apostles. The eating of blood, and the flesh of strangled beasts, etc., is a palpable infringement of the dictates of the apostles, as has been amply proved in Chapter 3 of the First Part of this work.
Biblical Christianity has not added to these words, or the words of Moses. The New Testament is no more an addition than the books of the prophets and writings are additions to the Torah of Moses. The injunctions by the early church were not meant to apply to all people at all times and all places. They were local stipulations which applied to their immediate context.
The Sabbath day is not Sunday, and the early church did not consider it so. It is the Lord's day, and a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Besides, Troki's objection is a non-sequitur since this has nothing to do with these verses.
In a homiletical sense, this also signals the close of Scripture, that the canon is complete and that nothing more is to be added. The age of the apostles has gone, and nothing more will be added to the canon until Messiah returns.
One can also mention that the rabbis have done more than their fair share of adding to the Torah of Moses, but they call it "erecting fences around the Torah." An example is muktzeh, which is a category of objects that one is not allowed to move on the Sabbath. Since one is not allowed to light a fire on the Sabbath, the rabbis have declared that in order to improve observance, one is not allowed even to move a lighter on the Sabbath. The rabbis could not give an answer when I asked them the difference between adding to the Torah and erecting fences around it.
One should remember that the books of the New Testament were written to people who already believed in Jesus. It is, therefore, not an apologetics textbook, offering proofs for the existence of God, or proofs for the resurrection of Jesus, or prooftexting which tries to convince someone who believes in Tanakh to also believe in the New Testament. Instead, the book proclaims the truth about Jesus for all to hear.
End of Chizuk Emunah Part 2.
חזק חזק ונתחזק
Chazzak, chazzak, v'nitchazek!
Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened!
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