The Pulpit Commentary — Revelation — Section 496

Vel'II. 18, 19.-0loaing WfJf'ds .of warning. It would be deemed an unpardonahle offence for an an1bassador to add words to, or to subtract them· from, any royal manrlate which he was comn1issioned to deliver. And if any one in dispensing a physicia11's prescription, when the life or death of a patient trembled in the balance, were wan- tonly to tamper with it, what condemnation could be too severe? Yet we f,,ar that the tendency of mauy in our day is to treat a meseage in this book far more lightly than they would any importaut official human document; and instead of sympathizing with the words before us, and adding their reverent" Amen," they would in all prob,tbility either condemn the ll8verity of these words, or else pass them by ae out of date and altogether effete. On this account we deem it needful, in approaching the close of our expositions, to look into these verses with special care. We will first inqt1ire wh11,t additions to the book or subtractions from it we may suppo,,e m,•n to make, from what we know ofhum11.n treatment of the Word of God. We propose then to see what is the threatening here denounced against 1tuch. Having done this, we will endeavour to 11.SCertain reasons for a sentence so severe. Then we shall be prepared to see how thia passage ma, help WI in the formation of religious thought, and how it may bear practically 011 the life. !. JUDGING l'BOH WHA'l' WE KNOW OP TllB PAOTB OP HISTORY, 11' WHAT WAY lllA Y KEN BE SUl'POSED TO ADD TO 0B TO SUBTRACT l'BOM THIS BOOK? The words of the text evidently embrace .any kind of treatment of this Book of the Apocalypse whioh seemed to assume that a man was at liberty to take the book into his own hands, and to deal with it as he thought fit. Men do this : 1. lf they put any merely human production 11.longside of it as if it were on a level therewith. 2. If they distort the book at pleasure to make it fit in with a preconceived theory about it; '4· a pre- conceived and extreme theory of evolution is even now (1889) leading some to treat the old book most unfairly. 3. If they summarily rejeet the account which the book gives of itself, out of dislike to the supernatural, or from hostility to the principle of authority in religion. 4. If they make a auman interpretation of the book of equal dignity or authority with the book itself. 5. If they deny and disown any of thOl8 great doctrines which are inwrought into the very texture of the book; e.g. the glory of Christ's Person ; the meaning of his work; the reality of his administration; the freeness of bis grace; the certainty of his victory. These and cognate doctrines pervade the entire Apocalypse, and to omit, ignore, deny, or condemn them, from wilful refusal to submit to Divine authority, would be to commit the sin which is here exposed te view. The words of the Apocalypse as a whole, and of these two verses in particular, are not human; they are Divine. We should hear a voice saying, "Take thy shou from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest iB holy !(l'OUnd.n 11. WHAT IS THE 'l'HREATENING RRRE U'l'TEBED &GA.INST THOSE WHO TAMPER \VITB THE BOOK? 'l'he threatening a.ssumes a positive or negative form 11.ecording to the positive or negative form of the sin. In the one case it affirms that any actual and wiltul ill treatment of, or adding to this book, will bring down the curse of God Up<ll! the guihy one's head. In the other case, it declares that any rebellious rejection of the divinely revealed doctrines of this book will incur rejection from God. III. CAN WE DISCOVER REASONS FOB A SENTENCE so SEVERE? Certainly we C&1l: 11even. 1. The book is Divine in its origin ; it i,, therefore, too sacred fur hfffilGII Aa11dl to mar. (.l!'or treatlllent of the question of the origin of this book, see @ur 552 THE REVKLA'l"ION OF :ST. JOHN' THE DIVINE. [a.a. nn. 1-at.