From the desk Spiritual Director of the Joint Council Alexei Mattanovich
Most people do not actually know what the Bible is saying. They wrest scripture and never come to a knowledge of the truth. For instance, they think the canon is closed, and the scriptures are infallible, but that is not what the bible says.
It says nothing about the infallibility of scripture, other than to warn people about corrupting the words of God. The very reason that Moses writes in Deuteronomy and John in Revelations warning people who would alter their texts was because they knew people would do it, and it is not fair not to warn people. If God intended to protect his word so that it cannot be altered, there would be no need for such a warning. Therefore, what the bible is actually saying is the opposite, that it can and has been corrupted. However, you need not fear, because the Bible is good for bringing you to Christ, and Christ promises to give you the Holy Spirit “Which will teach you the truth of all things and bring all things to your remembrance.” The Holy Spirit, not a book, will teach you truth.
People erroneously try to close the canon. They always want to do such a thing for control because they don’t trust people or God’s ability to reveal truth to them. They falsely use Revelations 22:18-19 “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book (Revelations, you know, the book that John is writing), If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away words from this book, God will take away his share in the tree of life” to infer that there would be no more revelation. It is nonsense to think John was referring to the bible, because the Bible did not exist for another few centuries, let alone the order the books would be in. If it meant an end to revelation, then Moses must have also meant that Moses closed the canon when he said
“Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you” Deuteronomy 4:1-2.
It only meant that humans should not add to the scriptures, not that God could not through his prophets, or else Isaiah, Amos, Daniel, Jesus and his apostles are all false prophets. People are always wanting to elevate their opinions to the level of God’s law, which is why Jesus says in the Gospel of Mary, “Do not multiply laws as the Lawgiver, lest you become ensnared by them.”
They also refer to Timothy, “All scripture is God-breathed,” God breathed means “inspired.” It doesn’t mean infallible, all correct or even quoted by God word for word. It just means inspired by God. Some scripture is written poetically. Do you not think the prophet was allowed to express it in his own words? Do you not think that his personality had anything to do with the message? They even print bibles with “God” listed as the author, as if the writers had nothing to do with it. Why? God inspired teachers to teach, and gave them the means to do it.
What does God say about continuing revelation? Well, he says that he does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And he says “Surely the Lord will do NOTHING, unless he reveals his SECRETS to his SERVANTS the PROPHETS” Amos 3:7. God has secrets, and God calls prophets.
And just as predicted, man has taken away from the revelations of God. There is a list of sacred books revealed by God that are mentioned in the Bible that are missing from it, including the Book of Jasher (true or upright record), The books of Nathan the Seer and Gad the Seer, and the most important book ever revealed, The Book of the Law of the Lord (mentioned 37 times by name. And Christians went so far as to remove whole books themselves, such as the Apocrypha and the Book of Enoch, which is quoted as authoritative by the Apostle Jude. Who told you to do separate our some of the books and call them apocryphal?
There is a whole other testament of scripture that was written by revelation to Montanus and his two female apostles in the second century that were accepted by many Christians, including the Pope(!), who never thought that the canon was closed. Like many scriptures, they are no longer extant.
Why on earth would an unchanging God speaks to Adam and Eve and call prophets from that day until Christ and his apostles and suddenly stop? Many Christians very ignorantly claim that Christ is the Word and thus the manifestation of all revelation in the flesh, and therefore there should be no more revelation. But we only know that Christ was the Word because it was written in the New Testament, which was only written down after he died and was risen, including a whole book called REVELATIONS! As Paul would say, O foolish Christians, who has bewitched you?
Does the bible contain all truth? The Bible says NO! Paul writes saying he has things to teach the people that can’t be written and must be delivered in person. Was that important? Obviously. Is it written in the bible? No. So is the bible complete and containing all truth? No. God is limitless and vast, and the truth cannot even be comprehended by mankind. How can it all be writing? In the Gospel of John, it says that if all the acts and sayings of Jesus were written, the entire earth could not contain the books that it would take to write them.
Paul, himself, was a prophet called by revelation after Christ had risen. Christ had been gone and he was still going about persecuting Christians, when Christ appeared to him, and sometime later took him in spirit to heaven and revealed many things to him. He wasn’t taught by the apostles or witnesses, but he received his Gospel directly from God.
Which brings up another misused scripture, in which Paul writes, “If I or an angel from heaven bring you any other Gospel than the one I have taught you, let him be accursed.” I’ll give you a clue. He wrote that BEFORE any of the four Gospels was written down. It doesn’t mean that another book called a gospel cannot be revealed. It means that if the “good news” (gospel) someone is preaching is different in nature from the good news of peace, repentance and redemption in Christ that Paul taught them in person, they should reject it. To know what exactly Paul had preached as Gospel, you’ll have to ask some dead Galatians. It certainly does not mean that angels cannot appear and teach someone the Gospel. It just means that the gospel preached must be in accord with whatever Paul preached when he was in Galatia. The word angel means messenger. They exist and deliver messages and revelations to people. That is what they do, and everything they reveal is part of the Gospel. Christians try to use this to disprove Muhammad and Joseph Smith, but after Paul wrote it, John wrote: Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth—to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people. Revelations 14:6.
So what does the Bible say? That Angels carry gospels, that revelations continue and God doesn’t change, that the scriptures are incomplete and not infallible, and that we need the Holy Spirit to teach us all truth by revelation.