The Curse At The End Of The Word

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.  Revelation 22:18

Last night I noticed the early morning dew was already doing its thing on my truck, long before it was due. So of course we are bound in by the fog of painful writing along with the atmospheric fog this morning. 

While it may be many years too late for me, I wondered this morning at the curse at the end of the word John gave to us. To take it literally is to stop all preaching, writing, and singing in church or outside it for the past couple thousand years, since it is all, we hope, adding to the words of this book we hold called the Bible. Did John really mean to put that sort of chill on the spreading of the good news when His Lord told him quite the opposite at the end of Matthew? Do we voluntarily curse ourselves each time we try to explain or expand on the word of God? Is prayer adding to the words of this book, since so much of the Bible holds the prayers of Jesus, David, and many others? For goodness sake, have we ruined our chance at the Rapture by singing a hymn, and we must all now endure the plagues of the Revelation?!!  Wait, what does John mean by 'these things'?

Before we run to tell the preacher that he cannot preach this weekend, I should think we would be in more danger to say something like, Rev 8:9, "And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed, and the seashore was covered with blue Lego blocks." That last bit after 'destroyed' would clearly be adding to these things as revealed by the Christ to John. Don't do that. But go ahead and write, preach, sing those hymns and songs of praise, and spread the good news of Jesus Christ!

Bucky