The Marcionite Church of Christ proclaims the pure Evangelion and Apostolicon—the Gospel and Epistles of the Apostle Paul—a message of unmerited grace revealed by the True God through Jesus Christ. Any writing that distorts that revelation or seeks to restore the false dispensation of the Hebrew Bible must be weighed and found wanting. The so-called Apocalypse of John, commonly called Revelation, fails every Pauline and apostolic test. A late Jewish-Christian apocalypse re-establishes the rule of the false deity and obstructs the mystery once hidden but now made manifest in Christ. For these reasons, our communion excludes Revelation from the canon and urges all believers to measure its claims against the testimony of Paul preserved in the Testamentum.
1. A Spurious Book Consigned to the Apocrypha
Early catalogues place Revelation among writings treated as apocrypha rather than authoritative Scripture. The Muratorian Fragment omits it; the Council of Laodicea (c. 363) forbids its public reading; the Apostolic Canons and the Stichometry of Nicephorus list it as “spurious.”
From Ephesus to Antioch, entire patriarchates refused to read it publicly for centuries. Eusebius of Caesarea notes that many rejected it outright, and when western bishops pressed for inclusion, eastern churches still barred it from liturgy until the seventh century. Divine Scripture bears innate authority and enjoys immediate reception among the saints; a text that provoked such prolonged hesitation advertises its own deficiency.
2. Questionable Authorship and Montanist Enthusiasm
Dionysius of Alexandria observed that the Greek of Revelation bears little resemblance to the Gospel supposedly attributed to John. He advanced the Cerinthus theory, suggesting the apocalypse came from the Judaizing heretic Cerinthus rather than from the apostle. Montanist prophets later brandished the book to justify ecstatic revelations, new fasts, and millennial settlements in Phrygia. Canonical writings edify and unify; Revelation instead fueled sectarian excess.
3. Doctrinal Discord with the Pauline Mystery
Paul declares, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Romans 3:28). Revelation, however, promises blessing only for those who “keep the commandments” and “overcome” by works: “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life” (Revelation 22:14).
Paul teaches that in Christ, “there is neither Jew nor Greek” and that the dividing wall is abolished (Galatians 3:16; Laodiceans 2:14 ). Revelation resurrects tribal distinctions, explicitly sealing “twelve thousand of all the tribes” of Israel (Revelation 7:4–8). Paul situates the church “in heavenly places” (Laodiceans 2:6 ); Revelation drags the redeemed back to an earthly millennium crowded with plagues and vengeance. Paul further warns that, “God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel” (Romans 2:7). The two voices cannot both speak for the same gospel.
4. The Revival of the False Deity
The True God, unknown to past ages yet revealed in Christ, is wholly gracious. Revelation paints throne-room scenes brimming with thunder and blood, horsemen unleashing famine, and bowls of wrath—imagery mirroring the violent acts of the Hebrew Bible’s false deity. Instead, Paul exalts “the kindness and love of God our Saviour” (Titus 3:4). The apocalypse reverses the gospel’s emancipation from hostile powers.
5. Covenant of Fear versus Covenant of Grace
Believers stand in liberty: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free” (Galatians 5:1). Assurance flows from faith, not terror. Revelation threatens churches with lampstands removed, names blotted out, and torment “day and night for ever” (Revelation 20:10). Such fear enslaves. Paul concludes, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 7:1). Revelation negates that settled verdict.
6. Silence within Paul’s Correspondence
Paul wrote epistles to and from Ephesus and Colossae, yet he never mentioned an exiled apostle on Patmos, seven Asiatic lampstands, or an impending global cataclysm. Nor does Revelation quote Paul or echo the vocabulary of the Mystery. Its silence toward the very apostle who founded many of the named churches is inexplicable if both works share apostolic origin. More plausibly, the apocalypse belongs to a rival current seeking to reassert Jewish ordinances and prophetic terror.
7. The Canonical Test of Witnesses
Paul writes, “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” (2 Corinthians 13:1). Essential doctrines in the Evangelion and Apostolicon resonate across multiple letters; by contrast, Revelation introduces numerologies, prophetic time-frames, and cosmic spectacles found nowhere else in Scripture. A solitary, spurious book cannot impose its isolated imagery upon the Church, especially when it clashes with Pauline testimony.
8. Pastoral Consequences
Wherever Revelation dominates, the Church drifts toward legalism, violent expectation, and sectarian withdrawal. Joachimites, Taborites, the Münster radicals, the Millerites, and modern dispensational alarmists. Medieval radicals armed themselves with its trumpets; modern fear-mongers terrorize believers with its beasts. None of this fosters the fruits of the Spirit—love, joy, peace—but instead reproduces wrath and heresy. Removing Revelation frees souls to rest in the sufficiency of faith and the hope of a heavenly inheritance.
Conclusion: Hold Fast to the Pauline Canon
The Marcionite Church of Christ receives Paul’s Evangelion and Apostolicon as the unsurpassable standard of truth. Revelation contradicts the gracious Mystery, revives the punitive regime of the false deity, and unsettles the faithful with earthly terrors. Guided by the Spirit of Christ, we therefore declare the Apocalypse of John spurious and unfit for doctrine.
Let every congregation rejoice in the liberty bestowed by the True God, heed the apostle who commands us to stand fast, and refuse any writing that drags us back under the shadows of fear and bondage.
