Revelation 22.19 records, if anyone takes away from the words of this book of prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.

If there really is a God doesn’t it make sense that He gets to make the rules for how we should live? This is important if our concept of God includes a day of accountability before this God. This accountability would seem to be a review of our life’s deeds compared to the rules or commands this God made for people to follow.

For this to be fair, God would need to write down His requirements so that we have the chance to know them. For us to be wise, we would need to read those requirements so we could attempt to do them. In the Christian worldview, this is indeed exactly the situation. There is a God, He makes all the rules, He judges everyone, He has communicated His will through the Bible and has made available to all people everywhere the knowledge of Him through our conscience, nature and His people.

One of God’s warnings to us is found in the passage for review today. Recently the Province of Ontario passed a law stating parents who deny the felt sexual orientation of their children because of religious reasons could have their children removed from them. You can read that article HERE. This is the attempt of some people to take away from other people their attempt to obey God.

This is not unusual in Church history but it is unusual for North American Christians to face a government that holds so little regard for the Bible. North America was primarily settled by Christians who believed the assumptions about God we made previously. However modern Christians have also taken away from God’s book leading them to their current experiences of hostility from secular governments.

The work of all Christians, because it is the work of the Church, is to make disciples of all people by teaching them all to obey the commands of Jesus. The dismal attempt to obey this command over these past fifty years has resulted in immensely secular governments, universities, media and business such that the most recent past American president declared the United States no longer a Christian nation. This comment would have cost him any chance of being elected fifty years ago but instead was warmly embraced by the pagan majority.

In the end, if there really is a God, the denial of God’s words, by both Christians and pagans, won’t make them go away on that day when we pass from this world into His world where He will weigh and measure us according to His words.

There, so many who called themselves Christians and all those who call themselves pagans, will be found wanting and will suffer the consequences of their rebellion as He warned about in His word that they ignored.