Since John in Revelation proscribes adding to the words of the prophecy of this book, would that make any other subsequent scripture wrong?

Question

Dear Gramps,

I was discussing religion with my supervisor last weekend, and he referenced a scripture within Revelation that indicated that the world is not to add to these writings (the Bible by his interpretation) and therefore the addition of the Book of Mormon and other LDS scriptures can not be right and are against God’s teachings. How can I respond? My initial thought was that the Bible is not complete in that it was changed and modified by rulers and canonized as to what books were included by religious leaders who where no longer acting under priesthood authority. Therefore by that reason alone there may be other books and scriptures created in other places prior to the canonization that were not included, or that the leaders were not aware of.

Jeremy

Answer

Dear Jeremy,

You may tell your supervisor that when John wrote the Book of Revelation, the Bible didn’t even exist! When the various gospels and epistles were collected as one unit, I don’t know, but they were certainly not generated as one unit. When John wrote—

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 (Revelation 22:18-19),

he is referring to the words that he wrote, not to the words of the other biblical authors.  If your supervisor will not accept this logical and common sense explanation, refer him to Deuteronomy 4:2, which says—

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

Thus, by his own reasoning he must discard all of the Bible following the Book of Deuteronomy, which was the last book of the Pentateuch that Moses wrote.

Gramps