Rev. 22:18 - 18] For I testify to every one 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 written in this book. [19] 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 these things that are written in this book.
Protestant Christian Understanding: Adding new doctrine is forbidden, The Roman Catholic Church does just that.
Catholic Christian Understanding: This verse is talking about not tampering with the bible itself and the book of the Apocalypse. All Christians agree that you cannot add chapters or delete chapters to the actual book of the Holy Bible. However, it is out of context to condemn what the Catholic Church does by adding inspired traditions. Catholics do not tamper with the bible itself in any way.
Now, it has to be noted that Protestants (Martin Luther) have deleted 7 books from the bible 1 and 2 Maccabees, Sirach,Wisdom, Baruch, Tobit, and Judith, and parts of two others, Daniel and Esther, which completely does what the Rev: 22:19 warns against, "Whoever takes away from this book, God will take away from him the right to the tree of life."
History will help us understand that after Christ came and died, the Jewish Rabbis were scrambling to write the new Talbot. During this time, their sacred Temple had just burned to the ground as well as all of their documents and records. They were trying to rationalize their religious state and a Savior still to come, even though Christ had already came. The Rabbis deleted the 7 books all together in the new Testament, about 400 years after Christ. But History also shows us that all the Old Testament Jews openly accepted the exact 7 books that the Jews in 400 A.D. cut out or rejected from the bible.
So then, Martin Luther comes along and sides with the new testament Jews, who not only rejected the 7 books they deleted but the entire bible altogether, and deletes the 7 books as well. The point is, there needs to be some constancy here on the part of the Protestant objection or belief. The 7 books were rejected by Jews writing in post 70 A.D., their temple had been destroyed as well as their genealogy and records of their religion. So the human construct they called their religion was not only made by men, but also not based on the religion of Christ, thus, not the religion of Abraham, Jacob and the chosen line of God. So the question is, why is Martin Luther siding with Christ rejecting Jews on which books should be included in the bible and which should not, as he accepted their practice of throwing out the 7 books? They don't believe in the entire bible and Martin Luther sided with them. Would not the action of deleting these books be exactly what Rev: 22:19 warns against?
As a non-denominational Christian, my churches over the years have taught that those missing books were rejected by a council of religious leaders of that day because they lacked authenticity and/or were not deemed by the experts of that day to be the inspired Word of God. I agree that this is troubling to say the least, and I am glad to have had this brought front and center by your blog. I must say however, that I was never taught that the Catholic church has added to God's Word. Rather, those in my circles have taken greater offense to the Rosary, confession through a priest, the practice of praying to/through the saints, the use of icons and "holy water", having to "purchase" your Sunday pew, and masses given in Latin rather than in the language of the people. Many churches--or the human leaders in them I should say--seem to have added human-devised rules and practices to the purity of God's Word throughout the ages and into the current day.
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