How Does God Punish Those Who Add to His Word?

How does God punish those who add to his word? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Well, hi, this is Bill Meyer, along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question.

Our phone lines are open. It's 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-HELP.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You can also post your question on one of our social media sites. And of course, you can always email us your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, let's go to Chris calling in from Lebanon, Tennessee. Chris, what's your question for Adriel? Howdy, y'all.

Yeah, I'd like to ask a question. Why did God approve of invading cities and warfare, particularly in the book of Joshua, and also first and second Samuel, when in the Ten Commandments he says, do not murder? Chris, thank you for that question. Yeah, so I think we'd have to distinguish between what does it mean in the Decalogue of the Ten Commandments, where we're commanded not to murder, and then what's the difference between that and the holy wars, for example, that you find in places like the book of Joshua, where it's clear that God commanded his people not to murder, I would say, but to execute judgment on the Canaanites, on these nations. And that's exactly what that was. It was essentially this exercise of judgment, this in-breaking of God's judgment, after, I'll have you know, a long period of those places engaged in sin and some quite just very heinous sins. I mean, they would sacrifice their own children. So the Israelites coming out of Egypt, this nomadic group of people, they're headed to the land of Canaan, not as this great oppressor. Actually, they're cleansing the land. The land is this picture of the new creation, if you will. They're called to cast out the serpent, cast out evil, bring the judgment of God.

And why is that? Well, again, it's because of the wickedness of these nations that were there in particular. And this is something actually that was hinted at way back in Genesis chapter 15, when Abraham receives this vision from the Lord. You know, he's given this picture of the fact that the people of God are going to be enslaved for a long period of time. But then God says, I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve.

And afterwards, they shall come out with great possessions. That's a prophecy about the Exodus. And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace and you shall be buried in a good old age, God said to Abraham, and they shall come back here in the fourth generation, that is the land of Canaan, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. Now that little statement there in Genesis chapter 15 verse 16 is really important. The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.

It's letting us know. The Amorites, by the way, they're the pre-Israelite inhabitants of the land of Canaan. It's letting us know that Joshua's conquest, when he goes into the land of Canaan and the people of God are executing judgment, they're driving out these nations that are doing all of these terrible things. It's happening on the tail end of a long period of their rebelling against God. In other words, there was time for repentance, time for mercy, and yet they continued to turn away to commit idolatry, to do these terrible things. So part of this is the judgment that God is bringing.

And Chris, there's an excellent resource that has an entire section on this very question. It's a book. It's called The Skeletons in God's Closet, written by Joshua Butler. And he does a really good job in that book of talking about the significance of the conquest, really sort of unraveling some of the confusion around that, you know, God commanding his people to bring judgment there during that time. This is, again, a specific moment in redemptive history. It's not something that we repeat or that Christians are called to do, but I would encourage you to get that book for further reading and just for a more thorough answer.

Thank you for your question. Thanks, Chris. Appreciate you being a regular listener of Core Christianity. By the way, we have a great new Bible study that we are offering today, and it's perfect for starting off a new year.

That's right, Bill. If you started reading the Bible as a part of your New Year's resolutions, this Bible study was made to enrich your understanding of the scripture. It's called How to Read the Bible, and it will help you understand the different genres of scripture, how they point to Jesus. You know, one of the things that many people struggle with as they're reading the scriptures is the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments. How to Read the Bible will put the pieces together for you. It's a 10-week study that can be used in devotions and personal devotions, small group Bible studies, or even a Sunday school class. So get your copy for a donation of $20 or more over at corechristianity.com. It truly is an excellent study, and if you find yourself getting discouraged when reading the Bible or getting stumped or frustrated by some of the more confusing parts, this Bible study is designed to help you with that.

Again, for a donation of $20 or more, we'd love to send that to you. Just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash Bible. That's corechristianity.com forward slash Bible. You can also call us for that resource, or if you've got a question for Adriel about the Bible or the Christian life, doctrine, or theology, here's the phone number. It's 833-843-2673.

That's 833-the-core. Here's a voicemail we received from one of our listeners named Enos. I was just curious, I just heard a program prior to yours about, I think it was in Revelation, that anybody who adds or subtracts from the Word of God, and I don't know what kind of a punishment they're supposed to get, but how does that work for the Catholic Church and the Mormon Church that have added things to the Word of God? They've got a Book of Mormon, and then the Catholic Church has four or five books that aren't in the Bible. Just curious why they're still thriving for all these years.

And I know we can't answer for why God does things, but I was just curious of how you would explain that. Thanks for that question. First, the thriving of a particular organization or church, even, is not evidence that what they're teaching is true. There have been all sorts of movements over the last 2,000 years that have thrived for a period of time. Even today, I think of things like the Theology of the Prosperity Gospel, which seems to be growing like wildfire in various parts of the world. Does that mean that it's true, that it has God's blessing? No. It just means that it's a deception that a lot of people are falling into.

And so, that's the first thing that I would say. Now, with regard to this idea of adding and taking away from the Word of God, the passage of Scripture that it sounds like you're alluding to is the very end of the Book of Revelation, Revelation 22, verse 18, where we read, I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city which are described in this book. Now, with regard to the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church includes in their canon of Scripture a number of books which we sometimes refer to as deuterocanonical or apocryphal books, books that were in around the time, sort of between the last book of the Old Testament and the New Testament, during those 400 silent years, we sometimes call them. There's a lot of history there, and I'd actually distinguish that from what we see the Mormon Church doing. I mean, the Mormon Church essentially has said, well, we have another revelation of Jesus Christ, it's another gospel. Altogether, it's a false gospel. And so, I would distinguish there a little bit, not saying that I agree with the inclusion of those books that the Roman Catholic Church has, I'm just saying I think that we want to differentiate there. Now, it is a very serious thing to add or take away from God's Word. And I think one of the dangers maybe that we experience is we can tell ourselves, right, I've never added a book to the Bible or words to the Bible, I've never cut pages out of my Bible, I must be okay, there isn't an issue here, but I think there are ways that we can add to scripture and take away from scripture even that we're not aware of. Jesus has these really strong words for the religious leaders in his day in Matthew chapter 15.

I want you to listen to what took place. The Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat. And Jesus answered them, Why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? For God commanded, Honor your father and your mother, and whoever reviles father or mother must surely die. But you say, If anyone tells his father or mother what you would have gained from me is given to God, he need not honor his father or his mother. For the sake of your tradition, you have made void the word of God, you hypocrites.

Well did Isaiah prophesy of you when he said, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. How interesting, here essentially what you have the religious leaders doing is adding to the word of God. They're teaching as doctrine man-made traditions. That's one way that people add to God's word today and they're also taking away from the word of God. They're invalidating or making void the true word of God on the basis of their traditions.

This is something we have to watch out for. You may not write in the margins of your Bible, you know, adding to the scriptures or cut pages out of your Bible, as I said. But are we invalidating the word of God by our own sort of religious traditions that we invent? Are we neglecting portions of scripture? Are we saying, God, I'm going to follow you here where your word says this, but I don't think I'm going to follow you there. I don't like that portion of the Bible. This is where we ourselves, brothers and sisters, have to be really careful because it is a serious thing. You think about that judgment that's mentioned there at the end of the book of Revelation. Very, very serious thing, and God will bring judgment on those who add to or take away from his word. Thanks for your question.

Great explanation. Thank you for that, Adriel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a reminder that our program is listener-supported. If you believe in what we do here, we would always appreciate a donation, a gift, because we don't receive money from a church or a denomination or from the government.

We don't play commercials. We depend on our listeners, people just like you, to make ongoing donations. So if you'd like to do that, you can go to our website, corechristianity.com, and click on the How to Donate button and learn more. We also have that group of people we call our inner core who are regular supporters and get some special benefits.

So you can check out that as well. Well, let's go back to the phones. Our phone number is 833-THE-CORE, which is 1-833-843-2673. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, Brian's on the line from St. Louis, Missouri. Brian, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, sir.

I appreciate you taking my call. I've got a very difficult question to ask. In the sixth chapter of Genesis, the Bible talks about how there were giants in the land and that they saw the women that were very beautiful and they basically made it with them. I've had people tell me that they were fallen angels, they were just men that were extremely big and tall, like they were descendants, or Samson and his brothers were descendants of these giants. Could that be, how could you explain what that really is trying to tell people?

Yeah. Hey Brian, I appreciate you noting that this is not an easy passage, and it's been interpreted a number of different ways throughout the history of the church. One interpretation that many people have held is this idea that these are angelic beings, fallen angels. You read there in verse 2, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and oftentimes in the Old Testament, sons of God is a reference to the angels.

I think of places like the book of Job, Job chapter 1 verse 6 or chapter 2 verse 1, in the Psalms as well, Psalm 29 verse 1, Psalm 89 verse 7. Sons of God oftentimes is a reference to angelic beings. There is biblical support for this idea. Now it does raise all sorts of other questions.

How did that work? That's one of the reasons why other people have challenged that view in particular, just saying, I don't know if that's even possible. Others have said, well, sons of God could be a reference to divine rulers or kings, not divine in the sense that they're gods, but these godlike rulers, if you will. There is some evidence that in the ancient Near East that the kings and rulers were referred to with this kind of language, and what's really being condemned here is just these rulers taking these women to themselves, a sort of polygamy, if you will. That's one interpretation. Another interpretation is that what you have here is the godly line mixing with the ungodly line, so the seed, the godly seed being corrupted. Whatever position one takes, and I think that each of these positions has strengths and weaknesses, the positive thing, what I always go back to is the point of the passage is very clear, and it's that whatever was happening there on earth, things were getting pretty bad.

Immorality, sin, it's just getting worse and worse. This is essentially the scene that you have leading up to Noah's flood, the judgment that God brings on the whole world, and so the point of this text is, look, following from the fall and the entrance of sin into the world, things were just getting worse and worse and worse and worse so that you get to the point where God says, look, I need to bring judgment on the whole world, and so I think we can't miss that. In our discussions about who are these sons of God exactly, let's not miss the point of the text, which is primarily that mankind was running headlong into sin and that the world had grown corrupt and that God was bringing judgment.

That's what Moses is trying to communicate here in this passage very clearly, and so we can fall back on that, that the point of the text is very clear, even though we may not know with 100% certainty who exactly are these sons of God, and hopefully that helps you as you're thinking through this passage and as you're getting the big picture of what's taking place there in Genesis. God bless. Mankind running headlong into sin, which is probably why my neighbor is building an ark right now outside his backyard. Just for him, I mean, it's got to be small. Does he have a big backyard?

It's a big ark. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. By the way, you can watch Adriel live on YouTube every day. We have a YouTube channel, and that's at 1130 a.m. Pacific time, if you want to check that out. You can also send us a message through our YouTube channel, and Eduardo did, and he has this question for you, Adriel. He says, Does the curse in Genesis 3 mean that we lost the freedom that Adam had to choose God for salvation?

Yeah. What does it look like for us now as believers in Adam, or not as believers, but as human beings born in Adam, and the fact that God calls all people everywhere to repentance. Sometimes the way in which people have talked about this is Adam had the choice not to sin or to sin, but now in Adam, we are born dead in sin in our trespasses, that our nature, our being has been corrupted by sin. Paul makes it very clear in Romans 5 verses 12 and following that when Adam sinned, we all sinned with him, in him, fell with him, and as a result of that, we've inherited this original corruption, and that original corruption, it just is a part of every element of our being, if you will. We sometimes refer to this as total depravity, that sin has affected every single part of us to the extent that we can't save ourselves. You can't pull yourself up by the bootstraps in order to receive God's mercy. It's only a work of the Holy Spirit, and so when we exercise faith, when we choose God, it's only because the Spirit of God is already working in us.

We're desperately in need of the work of the Holy Spirit. In other words, we can't save ourselves, we can't choose God apart from the work of God first and foremost, and in that sense, I would say we do have to distinguish between the experience of Adam, the state that Adam was in prior to the fall, and our experience post-fall in Adam. Paul made it very clear in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1, You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. That was us apart from Jesus.

That's where we were. We were dead in trespasses and in sins. But God, verse 4, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And so it's all of grace, brothers and sisters, that should cause us to fall on our knees and say, Lord, if it wasn't for your grace, for your mercy, I was dead. I was dead in my trespasses and sins, and yet you worked in my heart to give me life so that I might know you and love you. And we should be praising God for His mercy toward us, toward sinners.

Eduardo, thank you for watching us on YouTube, and God bless. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Sherry in Wichita, Kansas. Sherry, what's your question for Adriel? Yes, I would like to know if the Apollistic Church is a legitimate church. If the Apostolic Church is a legitimate church, Sherry, can you tell me a little bit more about, is there a particular church? Because there are a number of different kinds of churches that might maybe refer to themselves as apostolic.

What are you thinking of specifically? Well, I don't know. I had a friend that invited me to the church, and I went, and I just want to know if it's considered like a legitimate church because they believe that you're not saved unless you can speak in tongues, and I don't agree with that. Yeah, I also do not agree with that, and that would be an illegitimate understanding of the Bible.

Now, of course, you know, Christians, let me just say this. One of the attributes of the true Church of Jesus Christ is that it is apostolic, and by that, what we mean is that the teaching of the apostles is upheld in the church, the Holy Gospel, what the apostles taught in the New Testament, and so in that sense, true churches are apostolic, but there are movements that refer to themselves as the apostolic church or the apostolic denomination that veer away from the teaching of the apostles, and certainly this idea that if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved would be a departure from the teaching of the true apostles like the apostle Paul who made it very clear at the end of 1 Corinthians 12 that not everyone speaks in tongues. Now, I'm of the opinion that those gifts, the sign gifts, those miraculous gifts, were especially for the church during this early period in its history as the gospel was being launched out into the world and that God doesn't ordinarily work in those ways anymore today, but even in the days of the apostles, the apostle Paul made it very clear that not everyone speaks in tongues. The body of Christ, within the body of Christ, people are gifted in different ways. We don't all have the same gift, and that's true of the gift of tongues, so for somebody to say, unless you speak in tongues, you're not saved, they're misunderstanding the teaching of the apostles, and if they're misunderstanding the teaching of the apostles on something that basic, I would say there's probably a lot of other issues as well, Sherri.

The marks of a true church, here's what you want to look for, are is this place a place that faithfully preaches the gospel, the word of God that's setting my eyes on Jesus, right, his work for me, calling me to faith and repentance, are the ordinances that Jesus gave to the church celebrated, baptism in the Lord's Supper, is that done according to Christ's institution, is there fellowship, discipline, care for the body of Christ, you want to find a church like that, and it seems to me like the church that you visited with your friend has some serious issues, maybe see if she'll visit a church with you that is faithful to the word of God. God bless. Thanks, Sherri, appreciate that. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Jessica emailed us with this question, Adriel, she says, I'd like to know what Jesus was trying to explain to the disciples in Mark chapter 8 verses 18 to 21. Thank you. Mark chapter 8 verses 18 through 21.

Well, let me turn there right now. Having eyes do you not see and having ears do you not hear, and do you not remember, Jesus says, when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, twelve. And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, seven. And he said to them, do you not yet understand?

So this is coming on the heels of the two feedings that we see in Mark, in Mark chapter 6 and here in Mark chapter 8. And Jesus had been talking to his disciples about the leaven of the Pharisees, that is the teaching and the practice of the Pharisees and warning them against, and he's saying don't let that creep into your life. It's a warning against false teaching in particular, and that's what we've been talking about on today's broadcasts.

And so, yeah, that's what we have to watch out for. Thanks for listening to Core Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at CoreChristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-The-Core. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.