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Where is the line?

NomyRomy

Daughter of God
I have seen a number of religions that claim to be Christian yet do things that defy Christian belief completly. For example. Some groups have added their own spiritual testements to the bible when it states very clearly in the bible that anyone who adds anything to the bible is damned. The only argument I have read is that they don't believe the part of the bible that states that. Once again this goes against the bible completly since it says you can't take anything away from it either. So where is the line between re-writing Gods word? If you are a Christian you can't change the bible, God says so in it.
 

Prometheus

Semper Perconctor
I have seen a number of religions that claim to be Christian yet do things that defy Christian belief completly. For example. Some groups have added their own spiritual testements to the bible when it states very clearly in the bible that anyone who adds anything to the bible is damned. The only argument I have read is that they don't believe the part of the bible that states that. Once again this goes against the bible completly since it says you can't take anything away from it either. So where is the line between re-writing Gods word? If you are a Christian you can't change the bible, God says so in it.

That verse is speaking only of the Book of Revelation. It doesn't apply to the entire Bible. If it did, having all these different translations would be unchristian as well.
 

kmkemp

Active Member
That verse is speaking only of the Book of Revelations. It doesn't apply to the entire Bible. If it did, having all these different translations would be unchristian as well.

That is ludicrous. Translations don't take away or add words except in a very literal sense. They are there purely to represent what is already there and only what is already there. To say that the verse is only speaking about Revelation (not with an 's' btw) is crazy.
 

McBell

Unbound
I have seen a number of religions that claim to be Christian yet do things that defy Christian belief completly. For example. Some groups have added their own spiritual testements to the bible when it states very clearly in the bible that anyone who adds anything to the bible is damned. The only argument I have read is that they don't believe the part of the bible that states that. Once again this goes against the bible completly since it says you can't take anything away from it either. So where is the line between re-writing Gods word? If you are a Christian you can't change the bible, God says so in it.
Nowhere in the Bible does it state that nothing is to be added to the Bible.
Especially given the fact that the "Bible" did not exist back then.
All that existed are the scriptures that are contained within the Bible.
 

McBell

Unbound
To say that the verse is only speaking about Revelation (not with an 's' btw) is crazy.
To say that the verse in Revelation is referring to the whole "Bible" shows a complete lack of knowledge on how said Bible came about.
 

Bishka

Veteran Member
To say that the verse is only speaking about Revelation (not with an 's' btw) is crazy.

How so? The Book of Revelation was written well after most of the other books were written so it make complete sense for it to be about that book only.:yes:
 

Prometheus

Semper Perconctor
That is ludicrous. Translations don't take away or add words except in a very literal sense.

That's funny. If you listened to yourself you might laugh too.

They are there purely to represent what is already there and only what is already there. To say that the verse is only speaking about Revelation (not with an 's' btw) is crazy.

Yes, too many people that I've talked to say "Revelations" and it rubs off on me sometimes.
 

Darkness

Psychoanalyst/Marxist
How so? The Book of Revelation was written well after most of the other books were written so it make complete sense for it to be about that book only.

There were many other Scriptures which were cut from the Book we now call the Bible. Who is to say one of those books weren't Scripture to the Author of Revelation? The Bible is simply a collection of seperate Scriptures Christians put together and claimed was the inerrant Word of their Lord.
 

Inky

Active Member
Nowhere in the Bible does it state that nothing is to be added to the Bible.
Especially given the fact that the "Bible" did not exist back then.
All that existed are the scriptures that are contained within the Bible.

True--most of the authors of the writings in the Bible probably never predicted that their works would be put together in one big volume. They didn't know what was in the other books, so we can't really expect them to comment on the collection we know as the Bible.
 

NomyRomy

Daughter of God
So in other words you are saying that the bible is flawed? If one is a Christian they must believe in the word of God. So in other words if revelations was chosen to be the final book of his word then revelations would also be refering to the entire scripture. I see it as sad that different religions pick and choose what they want and just assume it is ok with God.
 

Inky

Active Member
"Christian" means "follower of Christ", not "follower of the Bible". There have always been a variety of views on the Bible's proper place in the Christian Church(es), and probably always will be.
 

McBell

Unbound
So in other words you are saying that the bible is flawed? If one is a Christian they must believe in the word of God. So in other words if revelations was chosen to be the final book of his word then revelations would also be refering to the entire scripture. I see it as sad that different religions pick and choose what they want and just assume it is ok with God.
The verse does not say "the entire scripture" or "The Word Of God."
It says 'book.'
Rev 22:18
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
Now what does the Bible mean when it uses the word book?
Hint: It does not mean Bible.

In fact, the word Bible means a collection of Holy Books:
Bible
early 14c., from Anglo-L. biblia, from M.L./L.L. biblia (neuter plural interpreted as fem. sing.), in phrase biblia sacra "holy books," from Gk. ta biblia to hagia "the holy books," from biblion "paper, scroll," the ordinary word for "book," originally a dim. of byblos "Egyptian papyrus," possibly so called from the name of the Phoenician port from which Egyptian papyrus was exported to Greece. The port's name is a Gk. corruption of Phoenician Gebhal, lit. "frontier town" (cf. Heb. gebhul "frontier, boundary," Ar. jabal "mountain"). The Christian scripture was refered to in Gk. as Ta Biblia as early as c.223. Bible replaced O.E. biblioðece "the Scriptures," from Gk. bibliotheke, lit. "book-repository" (from biblion + theke "case, chest, sheath"), used of the Bible by Jerome and the common L. word for it until Biblia began to displace it 9c. Figurative sense of "any authoritative book" is from 1804. Bible Belt first attested 1926, reputedly coined by H.L. Mencken.​

 

Booko

Deviled Hen
That is ludicrous. Translations don't take away or add words except in a very literal sense. They are there purely to represent what is already there and only what is already there. To say that the verse is only speaking about Revelation (not with an 's' btw) is crazy.

Sometimes they do. The Authorized Version in 1611 added the words to the famous prayer "Thine is the Kingdom, and the glory, and the power...."

Those aren't in the original. It was an addition by the translators to give King James a message.

I guess they're all burning in that lake of fire now. :(

Too bad, as they otherwise made a beautiful translation.
 

Halcyon

Lord of the Badgers
Lol, funny thread.

Firstly, FYI Inky, Christian means "little Christ" and was originally used as an insult.

Secondly, people are perfectly correct in that the order forbidding change applies only to the Revelation of Jesus Christ.
The Apocalypse was written at the end of the first century, but before the Gospel of John, the epistles of John, Timothy, Titus and Jude. It's common sense that the author referred to his book alone, not to some future anthology of which several works weren't yet in existence.

Also, ever heard of the Shepherd of Hermas? It was a book of the new testament that was removed. Obviously removed because it didn't belong in the Bible right? In that case why did Irenaeus accept it as scripture?

Who's Irenaus you ask? He's the guy who decided the four Gospels in the current NT were scripture!
So, if Irenaeus was inspired to chose the Gospels and several other books of the NT for inclusion, why was one of his scriptural choices removed - Holy Spirit only working through him part-time was it?
 

Popeyesays

Well-Known Member
That is ludicrous. Translations don't take away or add words except in a very literal sense. They are there purely to represent what is already there and only what is already there. To say that the verse is only speaking about Revelation (not with an 's' btw) is crazy.


Well actually, in a chronological sense there was no "Bible" in existence when John wrote The Apoalypse (Revelation). The New Testament was still a box full of unassociated and largely unwritten accounts, letters, etc.

The Bible in its form today was not assembled until the Council of Nicaea in the days of Constantine (who oddly was not a Christian at all at the time).

So by your criteria, the whole bible is "additions" and therefore damnable.

Care to reconsider?

Regards,
Scott
 

Katzpur

Not your average Mormon
I have seen a number of religions that claim to be Christian yet do things that defy Christian belief completly. For example. Some groups have added their own spiritual testements to the bible when it states very clearly in the bible that anyone who adds anything to the bible is damned. The only argument I have read is that they don't believe the part of the bible that states that. Once again this goes against the bible completly since it says you can't take anything away from it either. So where is the line between re-writing Gods word? If you are a Christian you can't change the bible, God says so in it.
No one has the right to rewrite God's word. More importantly, no one has the right to tell God He's through talking.
 

Halcyon

Lord of the Badgers
Well actually, in a chronological sense there was no "Bible" in existence when John wrote The Apoalypse (Revelation). The New Testament was still a box full of unassociated and largely unwritten accounts, letters, etc.

The Bible in its form today was not assembled until the Council of Nicaea in the days of Constantine (who oddly was not a Christian at all at the time).

So by your criteria, the whole bible is "additions" and therefore damnable.

Care to reconsider?

Regards,
Scott
That's not quite right Scott, the canon was decided long after the first council at Niceae. Niceae was pretty much just about the Nicean Creed.
 
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