When are names written in the Book of Life?

[Resurrection Priest]

Is it when a person is born?   Is it when a person is conceived?   Is it before a person is conceived? 

Is it when a person enters into Covenant with God through Christ?   Is it when a person believes?   Is it when a person is baptized? 

Reference:  Romans 16:7 Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.  (NJB)

[Michael37]

2 hours ago, Resurrection Priest said:

Is it when a person is born?   Is it when a person is conceived?   Is it before a person is conceived? 

Is it when a person enters into Covenant with God through Christ?   Is it when a person believes?   Is it when a person is baptized? 

Reference:  Romans 16:7 Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.  (NJB)

Be sure not to strain your brain trying to fit God's eternal foreknowledge of His Elect into our temporal knowledge of His Plan, RP.

 Php 4:3
(3)  And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.

The more important question is whether a person's name is in the Lamb's Book of Life when they die... 
Rev 21:3
(3)  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Rev 21:27
(27)  And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

[Sower]

3 hours ago, Resurrection Priest said:

Is it when a person is born?   Is it when a person is conceived?   Is it before a person is conceived? 

Is it when a person enters into Covenant with God through Christ?   Is it when a person believes?   Is it when a person is baptized? 

Reference:  Romans 16:7 Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.  (NJB)

Don't know if it's being born again that writes your name in the Lamb's book of life.
Could be because your name had already been written in it that you were born again : )............

"According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love"  Ephesians 1:4

[missmuffet]

Question: "Is there a difference between the book of life and the Lamb's book of life?"

Answer: There are eight references in New Testament to the “book of life,” and two of them refer specifically to the book of life that belongs to the Lamb, Jesus Christ. Seven of the references appear in the book of Revelation. Those whose names are written in the book of life are those who belong to God, those who have attained eternal life.

Paul refers to those who have labored alongside him as those whose names are in the book of life (Philippians 4:3), again identifying the book of life as a record of the names of those who have eternal salvation. In the same way, Revelation 3:5 refers to the book of life in which the names of believers in the Lord are found. These are those who overcome the trials of earthly life, proving that their salvation is genuine. This verse also makes it clear that once a name is written in the book of life, Jesus promises that He will never blot it out, proving once more the doctrine of eternal security. The Lord Jesus, who is speaking to the churches in this part of Revelation, promises to acknowledge his own before His Father. Conversely, Revelation 20:15 reveals the fate of those whose names are not written in the book of life—eternity in the lake of fire.

Revelation 17:8 clarifies when the names of the redeemed are written in the book of life: “The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast” (emphasis added). The names of those who approve of the Antichrist are not found in the book of life, and the names that are in the book of life were written there before the world was created. Thus, Revelation 17:8 teaches both eternal security and election.

In Revelation 13:8 and 21:27, we find the references to the "Lamb's book of life," in which also are the names of all those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. The Lamb who has been “slain from the creation of the world” has a book in which are written all those who have been redeemed by His sacrifice. They are the ones who will enter the Holy City, the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:10) and who will live forever in heaven with God. Since the book of life is that which records all who have eternal life through the Lamb, it’s clear that the book of life and the Lamb’s book of life are one and the same.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Lambs-book-of-life.html

Edited December 31, 2019 by missmuffet

[Michael37]

Foreknowledge funnily enough always comes before any other sort of knowledge, and is acted on by God as shown in the sorites* of Romans 8:29 & 30 

Rom 8:29-30
(29)  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
(30)  Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
 

It is one thing to believe a doctrine because someone else swears by it, but to believe a doctrine because it is simply stated in Scripture so that a child may understand it, is sublime. 

so·ri·tes

 (sə-rī′tēz, sô-) Logic

n. pl. sorites

1. An argument presenting a series of premises that can be analyzed as a chain of syllogisms, with each syllogism's major term forming the minor term of the next, until a final conclusion is attained. For example, a sorites might consist of the premises that some pets are snakes, that no snakes have fur, and that only furry things are cuddly, yielding the conclusion that not all pets are cuddly.

2. An argument exploiting the imprecision of everyday language to reach a paradoxical conclusion. The classic argument of this sort maintains that one grain of sand does not make a heap and that adding a single grain of sand to something that is not a heap does not make a heap, yielding the conclusion that no additional amount of sand can make a heap.

adj.

Of or relating to a sorites: a sorites paradox.

---

[Latin sōrītēs, from Greek sōreitēs, from sōros, heap; see teuə- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

 

[johnthebaptist]

20 hours ago, Resurrection Priest said:

Is it when a person is born?   Is it when a person is conceived?   Is it before a person is conceived? 

Is it when a person enters into Covenant with God through Christ?   Is it when a person believes?   Is it when a person is baptized? 

Reference:  Romans 16:7 Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.  (NJB)

"Who were in Christ before me" would simply mean they turned to God before Paul did, I would assume.

[Dennis1209]

20 hours ago, Resurrection Priest said:

Is it when a person is born?   Is it when a person is conceived?   Is it before a person is conceived? 

Is it when a person enters into Covenant with God through Christ?   Is it when a person believes?   Is it when a person is baptized? 

Reference:  Romans 16:7 Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.  (NJB)

2 Peter 3:9 (KJV) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. [emphasis added]

Ephesians 1:4 (KJV) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: [emphasis added]

This is just a thought of mine and pure speculation with no biblical support. Revelation 3:5 and Exodus 32:33 among other places mentions names being blotted out from the Book of Life. My thought process reasons that a name has to be their before it can be blotted out? Again pure speculation but, God is not willing that any should perish; could everyone's name in the beginning be written in the Book of Life by default; then by our own free will of rejecting Christ and the free gift of Salvation, it is then blotted out? 

I could be very wrong in my thoughts, but it's something I've pondered on myself.

Reference:  Romans 16:7 Greetings to those outstanding apostles, Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and fellow-prisoners, who were in Christ before me.  (NJB)

Paul was a late Apostle and former pharisee before his conversion on the road to Damascus. I believe your reference verse is stating Andronicus and Junias accepted Christ as their Savior before Paul did. 

Edited December 31, 2019 by Dennis1209

[Resurrection Priest]

22 hours ago, DustyRoad said:

Interesting, I'd never heard of the NJB before and discovered that it was an English translation completed in 1985, approved for use by Roman Catholics. Not available on biblegateway, unfortunately.  

There are passages of scripture which indicate our election by God before we were born, @Resurrection Priest. The opening of the book of Ephesians (verses 1 through 6):

To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

The opening verses (first and second) of Peter's first epistle repeats something similar:

To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure.

 

Every human being was "chosen" and predestined for everlasting life, because God gave His Son for the whole world. 

Even though everyone is invited, and "chosen" - not everyone accepts.   Sort of like the pardon offered the Japanese at the end of WWII, if they would throw down their weapons and stop resisting.  Most did.  Some refused, choosing rather to die. 

Christ died for everybody (2Corinthians 5:14-15).
    Whosoever will may come (Revelation 22:17)  
    He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved (Matthew 10:22).  
    And take heed that you resist not the Holy Spirit, nor grieve, nor quench him (1Thessalonians 5:19).

[Michael37]

3 hours ago, Dennis1209 said:

Again pure speculation but, God is not willing that any should perish; could everyone's name in the beginning be written in the Book of Life by default; then by our own free will of rejecting Christ and the free gift of Salvation, it is then blotted out? 

A quite reasonable speculation, Dennis, which I believe can be dismissed when we factor in the infallibility of God. In His foreknowledge He doesn't make any mistakes so is not inclined to put any Names in the Book of Life by mistake. Revelation 3:5 is a positive statement which affirms that overcoming is synonymous with unblotted names, but we speculate when we assume the negative statement is implied, that those who don't overcome will be blotted out, rather they were never in there because God foreknew the outcome and didn't need to go "Oops! Where's my blotting ink?" 

 Rev 3:5
(5)  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

[Resurrection Priest]

19 hours ago, missmuffet said:

This verse also makes it clear that once a name is written in the book of life, Jesus promises that He will never blot it out, proving once more the doctrine of eternal security. The Lord Jesus, who is speaking to the churches in this part of Revelation, promises to acknowledge his own before His Father.

Revelation 3:5 "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." (KJV)

It looks like Jesus will blot some names out of His book.  

And branches can be "broken off".   Romans 11:21 "For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either" (NKJ).

I think this compares with the phrase "cut off" - "from the people", in the Old Testament. 

I think of Paul.  Just before his execution he said, "I have finished my course.  I have kept the faith."  THAT is what it means to "overcome". 

Describing the branches that were "broken off", Paul wrote, "For unbelief they were broken off."  So it's not about any specific sin.  Rather it's about keeping faith.

I am not personally a believer in once baptized - never lost, doctrine.   I think we continue to exercise our free will for the rest of our lives.  Which means we CAN walk away - from Christ. 

Hebrews 3:12-14  “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God;  but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.  For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence [faith] steadfast to the end,”

The above text suggests that one can believe in Christ, and then be deceived into unbelief. 

Matthew 24:13  “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

1 John 1:7  “If we walk in the light .... the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Romans 11:22 “Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”  

1 John 2:24  “Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. [that faith]  If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.”

        The words HOLD, WALK, CONTINUE, ABIDE, and REMAIN, all suggest an ongoing relationship, rather than a one time decision. The word “if” stresses an ongoing choice between options.

Just my opinion.