Biblical Warnings Against Altering God’s Word

The Immutable Nature of God's Word

Throughout the Bible, God warns in the strongest terms against adding to or subtracting from His Word. This standard of divine immutability is not only a theological boundary but a spiritual safeguard. Revelation 22:18–19 delivers a final and fearful warning: anyone who adds or takes away from the prophetic words of Scripture invites God’s judgment. This is not a new caution but one reiterated throughout the biblical canon:

Deuteronomy 4:2: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it..."

Deuteronomy 12:32: "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."

Proverbs 30:5–6: "Every word of God is pure... Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar."

1 Corinthians 4:6: “...that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written."

These verses establish a principle: Scripture is final, complete, and untouchable.

The entire framework of biblical theology rests on one foundational truth: that God speaks with absolute, unalterable authority; and that no human being, institution, or tradition may stand alongside or above what He has revealed. This is not a Protestant idea; it is the nature of divine revelation itself. From the thundering commands on Sinai to the sealed judgments in Revelation, God declares that His Word is not open to revision. It is not fluid, progressive, or amendable to ecclesiastical ambition. It is finished. And it is final.

This is why every major inflection point in redemptive history comes with divine warnings: “Do not add to My Word. Do not subtract from it.” These are not mere legalistic constraints; they are spiritual guardrails to protect the Church from falsehood masquerading as orthodoxy. Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32 lay this down explicitly. Proverbs 30:6 frames it as a matter of honesty before God: to add to His Word is to be exposed as a liar. Revelation 22:18–19 closes the canon of Scripture with solemnity, issuing curses upon anyone who tampers with its contents. The biblical authors understood something that much of the modern Church has forgotten: to amend the Word of God is not simply theological error; it is treason against the divine voice.

Within this biblical framework, the Roman Catholic doctrine of papal infallibility does not merely misstep; it crashes through every doctrinal boundary the Scriptures have established. Defined at Vatican I in 1870, the dogma (a man’s (or institution’s) declaration of what seems right) asserts that when the pope speaks ex cathedra; in his official capacity on matters of faith and morals; his pronouncements are to be held as infallible by all Christians. It claims the same kind of authority for papal speech that the Bible attributes only to God’s inspired Word.

This claim is not peripheral; it is existential. It redefines what it means to receive truth. It shifts the locus of authority from the eternal Scriptures to a mutable human voice. It replaces the fixed revelation of God with a living oracle of man. And more dangerously, it teaches the faithful to accept this authority without question, not because it is demonstrated by the Word, but because it issues from the mouth of one man enthroned by ecclesiastical decree. In this, the doctrine commits what the prophets most fiercely denounce: speaking on behalf of God when God has not spoken.

In Jeremiah 23, the prophet unleashes divine judgment upon false leaders who claim inspiration without commission. “They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord” (v. 16). God’s condemnation is not ambiguous: “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied” (v. 21). These men, confident in their religious position and institutional authority, presume to speak doctrinally, authoritatively, spiritually; but their source is not heaven, and their message is not God’s. God calls it “false dreams” and “lies,” and says it causes His people to err (v. 32). The modern papal office, when claiming to declare truth with the weight of heaven behind it, operates on precisely the same presumption that Jeremiah condemns: divine speech without divine commission.

Jesus confirms this in Matthew 15:9, where He rebukes the religious establishment: “In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” This was not merely a critique of legalism; it was a scathing rebuke of theological imperialism; where men presume to elevate their rules, ideas, and pronouncements to the level of divine command. Jesus shows that such worship, though sincere and reverent, is rendered void the moment man’s word displaces God’s. The error of papal infallibility is exactly this: man claiming the right to define the parameters of Christian faith apart from the written Word.

The apostle Paul speaks directly to the consequences. In 2 Timothy 4:3–4, he prophesies that the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine. They will not want the weighty clarity of Scripture. They will gather teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They will, Paul says, “turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” Fables are not merely childish myths; they are religious inventions that mask themselves as divine truth. They give people spiritual comfort while leading them into theological captivity. When the Church says that the pope can declare irreformable truth that goes beyond Scripture; when it teaches Marian dogmas, indulgences, purgatory, or the immaculate conception without any grounding in the Bible; it is not guarding the truth; it is cultivating fables in the name of faith.

And so Paul issues a stern warning in Galatians 1:8–9: “Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel… let him be accursed.” That word; anathema; is not rhetorical. It means under divine judgment. Paul’s point is not just that false teachers are dangerous; it is that even apostles, even angels, are not exempt from accountability to the gospel as already delivered. If even Paul cannot revise the gospel, how can a pope; millennia removed from the apostolic foundation; claim to enhance it, modify it, or declare new dogmas that bear the weight of infallibility?

Even the apostle Peter, claimed by Rome to be the first pope, repudiates the logic of papal infallibility. In 2 Peter 1:20–21, he writes, “No prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not… by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” Divine revelation is never the result of ecclesiastical fiat. It is not the domain of institutional privilege. It cannot be manufactured by office, or guaranteed by tradition. Scripture is not something to be controlled or interpreted infallibly by one voice; it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and it belongs to the whole Church under the Lordship of Christ. To declare otherwise is to claim divine attributes for a human mechanism. It is to take what is Spirit-born and make it subject to human command.

This is the heart of the issue. Papal infallibility is not a safeguard against error; it is an institutional mechanism for perpetuating it. It sanctifies man’s voice with divine authority. It places ecclesial tradition above Scripture by declaring that some things must be believed even if they are not found in the Word of God. It demands submission where Scripture demands testing. It creates a system where questioning doctrine becomes heresy; not because it violates God’s Word, but because it contradicts a man's declaration.

But biblical faith never works this way. In Acts 17:11, the Bereans are called noble not because they accepted apostolic teaching blindly, but because they “searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” The true Church measures all doctrine by the Word; not by councils, not by traditions, and certainly not by a man who claims that his office is above correction. That is not faithfulness. That is spiritual tyranny.

In the end, papal infallibility stands as a monument to what Scripture warns against with relentless clarity. It is the “private interpretation” Peter disallowed. It is the “fable” Paul predicted. It is the “commandment of men” Jesus condemned. It is the “vision not from God” that Jeremiah decried. It is the gospel Paul said would be cursed.

It is, therefore, not an expression of Christian orthodoxy; but a staggering assertion of human pride wrapped in the language of divine authority.

To uphold the authority of Scripture is not to reject the Church. It is to keep the Church under the authority of Christ. When men speak beyond what is written, they do not guard the faith; they violate it. And when they demand infallible obedience to that violation, they do not preserve unity; they impose error with a divine seal.

The only infallible voice in the Church is the voice of the Shepherd, and He has spoken in His Word.

The presumption that a man, elevated by the votes of other men, can speak with infallible authority on matters of divine truth is not only contrary to Scripture; it is blasphemy dressed in robes of piety. The very concept of papal infallibility arises from a theological architecture that places the judgment of man above the authority of God’s Word. And yet, Scripture thunders again and again with warnings to any who would dare to alter, amend, or elevate human tradition to the level of divine revelation.

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ,” writes Paul in Colossians 2:8. This is not a warning against secularism. It is a prophetic word against religious systems that cloak human wisdom in divine language, elevating ideas that seem pious while actually undermining Christ. The Roman Catholic Church, in claiming that Sacred Tradition holds equal authority with Scripture, has crossed into the very danger zone this verse condemns. When tradition is placed beside the Word as a co-equal source of truth, or worse, when it is placed above Scripture by decree, the result is not theological enrichment but spiritual subversion.

Jesus addressed this directly: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9). When doctrine becomes detached from what is written and begins to rest on the authority of religious institutions, it becomes vain; empty, counterfeit, and condemned. The Catholic magisterium’s introduction of Marian dogmas, indulgences, purgatory, and its replacement of biblical holy days with a Romanized calendar of feasts, all stand as direct fulfillment of Jesus’ condemnation. These are not divine revelations; they are human fabrications masquerading as divine will.

And yet, they are not merely neutral errors. They are profound violations of the unambiguous commands of God. The Lord says in Deuteronomy 4:2, “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it.” The same is reiterated in Proverbs 30:6: “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” The canon of Scripture closes in Revelation 22:18–19 with the most severe warning: to add or remove anything from God’s Word is to invite the plagues written in the book and risk exclusion from the book of life.

These are not optional cautions. They are divine threats against institutional pride. And the Roman Catholic system, in declaring “infallible” doctrines such as the Immaculate Conception (1854), the Assumption of Mary (1950), Papal Infallibility itself (1870), and various unscriptural teachings about purgatory and indulgences, has violated every one of these commands. They are not merely developing doctrine; they are manufacturing it.

Jude 1:3 says the faith was “once delivered unto the saints.” That is a statement of divine finality. Truth has already been delivered. It is not ongoing. It is not in need of augmentation. It is not subject to theological evolution. Yet Jude 1:4 follows with the explanation of what happens when this settled faith is abandoned: “For there are certain men crept in unawares… ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.” They come cloaked in reverence, but they pervert grace, displace the Word, and lead many astray.

Paul is equally clear in Romans 16:17: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.” He doesn’t instruct the church to dialogue with them. He doesn’t call for ecumenism. He commands separation. John drives the point home in 2 John 1:9: “Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God.” It does not matter how old the institution is, how grand its cathedrals, or how many souls it claims; if it does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, it is without God.

This brings us to the often misused Romans 13:1: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” The Roman Catholic Church appeals to this verse to justify its hierarchical rule. But Romans 13 speaks of legitimate authority that reflects God’s justice and order, not unaccountable power that exalts itself above God’s Word. The same God who tells believers to honour governing authorities also says in Acts 5:29, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” So how can the pope be considered “subject to the higher power”; God; when he repeatedly elevates his own interpretations, inventions, and decrees above what God has already said not to change? How can any man claim to be God’s representative when he routinely violates the very commandments he claims to defend?

By claiming infallibility in doctrine; while inventing doctrines that God never revealed; the pope does not reflect Romans 13 submission. He defies it. His voice is not that of one who is under authority, but of one who seeks to possess it. He is not subject to God’s rule; he places himself over God’s revelation. And that is not godly authority; it is religious tyranny.

The calendar the Church enforces is not God’s calendar. It is an imperial overlay built upon the Julian system, rooted in sun worship and adopted into Christendom not by revelation but by assimilation. The biblical Sabbath has been abolished; the calendar of Leviticus 23 abandoned; the resurrection and return of Christ severed from the appointed times God embedded into creation.

Let me explain......

From the opening verses of Genesis, God ordained not only the heavens and the earth but a divine calendar; an order of appointed times that would govern His interactions with humanity throughout redemptive history. In Genesis 1:14, God declared that the lights in the heavens were created “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” The word translated “seasons” is not a reference to spring or summer, but to moedim; appointed times, sacred appointments between God and His people. These were not Israelite inventions, nor were they given arbitrarily at Sinai; they were embedded into the very rhythm of creation itself.

These moedim were later revealed in detail in Leviticus 23, where God outlined a series of holy convocations; Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. These feasts were not merely ceremonial or cultural customs; they were prophetic in nature, divinely structured to reveal and fulfill the work of the Messiah. God wove into time a visible pattern of His redemptive plan, one that Christ Himself would walk out; not symbolically, but literally.

Jesus fulfilled the spring feasts with divine precision. He was crucified on Passover, buried during Unleavened Bread, and becoming, as Paul says, the “firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Which means Christ rose at the end of the Sabbath; Saturday evening; as the first day of the week was just beginning (since Jewish days begin at sunset according to God’s calendar, not midnight), precisely fulfilling the timing of the Feast of Firstfruits. This also confirms He did not rise on Sunday itself, because even by our modern reckoning, His resurrection occurred Saturday evening; nullifying the tradition of a Sunday resurrection. Fifty days later, on the exact day of Pentecost (Shavuot), the Holy Spirit was poured out, inaugurating the New Covenant. These events were not accidental alignments. They were divine appointments; kept by the Son of God Himself.

Yet the appointed times did not end with the spring. The fall moedim; Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles; remain unfulfilled in the ministry of Christ. And it is widely recognized by careful students of Scripture that these feasts prophetically point to His second coming, His judgment, and His eternal reign. The Feast of Trumpets anticipates the sound of the last trumpet and the return of Christ in glory (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The Day of Atonement foreshadows final judgment and the cleansing of Israel. The Feast of Tabernacles looks forward to the day when God will dwell with His people eternally, when the tabernacle of God will be with men (Revelation 21:3). These are not relics of the past; they are signals of what lies ahead.

But tragically, the Roman Church, beginning in the post-apostolic era and culminating under the imperial papacy, severed the Church from God’s prophetic calendar. It discarded the moedim and replaced them with a liturgical system modeled on pagan frameworks. Passover was replaced with Easter; a term and celebration borrowed from the fertility rites of Eostre, aligned with the spring equinox and solar worship. The Feast of Firstfruits was obscured, Pentecost redefined without its Hebrew root, and the fall feasts were completely ignored, relegated to silence or spiritualized out of existence.

The calendar God established was exchanged for one rooted in the Julian and later Gregorian systems; both linked to solar cycles, the second restructured under papal authority. In doing so, the Church did not merely shift dates; it divorced itself from God’s revealed schedule of redemption, removing the resurrection and return of Christ from their appointed times. The eschatological significance of the fall feasts was abandoned, and with it, the Church lost its temporal alignment with prophecy.

This was more than a calendrical error. It was a theological crime. For in reordering the times and seasons; God’s own markers of His covenant; the Roman Church exalted itself above the Word of God. It behaved as the little horn of Daniel 7:25, which “shall think to change times and laws.” And the Church, in embracing this altered calendar and suppressing the biblical feast days, did not merely drift from Scripture; it defied it.

This severance is not neutral. By removing Christ’s resurrection and return from the framework God ordained, the Church detached the body of Christ from the visible structure God gave to teach, prepare, and sanctify His people. Instead of walking in step with the Lord’s timetable, the Church began to follow its own, governed not by revelation, but by tradition; tradition drawn from Rome, not from Sinai; ratified by popes, not by prophets; and celebrated by decree, not by command.

In doing so, the Church committed the very sin warned against in Proverbs 30:6; adding to God’s Word and being found a liar. It overstepped Deuteronomy 4:2, which forbids adding or taking away from God’s commandments. It violated Revelation 22:18–19, which curses any who tamper with the Book. And it rejected the apostolic call to “stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught” (2 Thessalonians 2:15); traditions passed down by the apostles, not those invented by the ecclesiastical machinery of a later age.

The resurrection of Christ was never meant to be celebrated with fertility symbols and equinox alignments. The return of Christ is not tied to a vague, seasonal anticipation; it is written into the Feast of Trumpets, embedded in the prophetic clock of Scripture. To sever these events from their appointed times is to rob the Church of its bearings, its rhythm, and its readiness.

When the institutional Church abandoned God’s calendar, it also obscured the map that pointed to Christ’s return. It silenced the trumpet. It extinguished the lamp of prophecy. And it replaced the light of Scripture with the shadows of tradition.

God has not changed. His Word stands. The appointed times still speak. And the call to the Church is this: return. Return to the pattern God ordained. Return to the Word He established. Return to the gospel calendar He wrote into the heavens. For the day is coming when the trumpet shall sound; and those who have rejected God’s times for their own traditions will be found not waiting in faith, but sleeping in apostasy.

May the Church awaken. May she align once again with the Lord’s appointed times. May she repent of calendars forged in Rome and rituals born of compromise.

However.......

Rome did not preserve these things. It replaced them; first with Sunday, then with Marian festivals, then with papal decrees. At every point, the move has been away from what is written and toward what seems right in their own eyes.

And yet again, Proverbs 30:6 cuts through all pretense: “Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” The papacy has not only added; it has redefined what constitutes divine revelation. When a group of men gather in a conclave and vote one of their own into an office, and then declare that man to be the vicar of Christ and infallible in doctrine, they have institutionalized the arrogance Jeremiah condemned in Jeremiah 23:16, 21, 25–32; where prophets speak “a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.” They run, but God has not sent them. They prophesy, but God has not spoken.

This is not an academic matter. This is a line drawn in fire between divine authority and human pride. The question is not whether Rome has tradition. It does. So did the Pharisees. The question is: Does it submit to the Word of God, or does it claim the right to overrule it? Every new dogma, every invented feast, every elevation of Mary, every alteration to the calendar, every indulgence sold and purgatory proclaimed; all of it testifies to the same tragic answer.

Rome does not sit under the Word of God. It sits in judgment over it.

And that is why the cry of the Reformation must echo again; the church must be reformed again by the Word of God. The people of God must once again return to “that which is written.” The Word of God is sufficient. It is final. It is holy. And it will not share its throne with popes, councils, or man-made traditions.

Let the Church of Christ reject every doctrine not rooted in the apostles and prophets. Let it cast down every argument that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Let it mark and avoid every system that teaches contrary to the Word. Let it remember that God is not mocked; and that every man who dares to add to His Word will be found a liar.

Sola Scriptura. Solus Christus. Soli Deo Gloria.