Photo and Commentary ©2025 by Maylan Schurch
Sabbath, March 15, 2025
As you know, companies who are able to track your browsing information online are always ready to leap into your inbox, or wherever they can get at you, with product suggestions.
The message above popped onto my phone in late February. I can see our church’s website link in the background, so it may have come up as I was trying to get to our website. With breathtaking audacity, this message claims to be from God Himself!
My usual response to such audacity is to give it a dismissive chuckle and go on to something else. But actually this suggestion – probably meant in a jocular way – is really pretty deadly.
Why do I say deadly? Because at least a couple of times in Scripture, God includes warnings not to add to or delete from what is written in the Bible.
In Deuteronomy 4:2, Moses tells the people, “You shall not add to the word which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” In other words, don’t make up – or ignore – what I’ve told you about God’s will.
And Revelation 22:18 and 19, written in the last chapter of the Bible’s last book, the solemn command is repeated, with some “teeth” in it. This is a direct quote from a heavenly angel: “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; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”
In other words, the Lord is NOT reminding you to update your Bible. Obviously, the writer of the cute reminder would like you to purchase a newer version of the Bible, or an upgraded version of what you have. But that’s different.
On a practical note, I always advise people to read a passage from three or four different literal-leaning translations in order to get as close as possible to what God means us to hear. For me, these versions are the New King James Version, the New International Version, the English Standard Version, and the New Revised Standard Version. Why not make this a habit – set your phone to bring up these versions, or other literal versions, to make sure you are not unknowingly “updating” what God really means.