When are names written in the Book of Life?

[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.

The New Jerusalem Bible is just one of several translations I compare when studying.  I tend to like NKJ best, or New English Translation.  American Standard usually hits me as too rigid. 

Edited January 1, 2020 by Resurrection Priest

[Resurrection Priest]

20 hours ago, missmuffet said:

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.

Revelation 17:8  "And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.   (ESV)

Revelation 13:8 “and all who dwell on earth will worship it, [the image of the Beast] everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world, in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.” (ESV)

Other versions say the Book is from the foundation of the world, NOT the names written in that book.  Why?  Because Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" .  The book is His book, because He is the One who would be slain, and His death was planned from the beginning. 

Revelation 13:8 "All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." (NKJ)

If we say that certain names were written in the Book long before they were even born, that also means that other persons were predestined to be lost.  I don't believe that.  

I do believe in God's foreknowledge.  But knowing something will happen, is NOT THE SAME as making it happen.  

[Michael37]

33 minutes ago, Resurrection Priest said:

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. 

Yes, our relationship with God the Father through Christ the Son by the Holy Spirit is eternally known to God. God knows His own intimately through all eternity, but whilst He knows of sinners and their deeds, He does not know them in the intimate sense of having a personal relationship with them, due to Him being holy and them not.

Mat 7:23
(23)  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity.

10 minutes ago, Resurrection Priest said:

I do believe in God's foreknowledge.  But knowing something will happen, is NOT THE SAME as making it happen.

True on all points, although Divine Intervention is always an option.

[Resurrection Priest]

My own understanding is that we enter in to COVENANT with God.  Through the blood of Jesus, we enter in to the New Covenant.  I believe this is WHEN our names are written into His Book for eternal life.  We are "born again" - of the Spirit, and start our life eternal. 

Describing the Gentiles, before they heard the Gospel and believed, Paul wrote,

Ephesians 2:12 "remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world." (ESV)

Sure doesn't sound like people with their names forever written in Christ's Book for Life.  Not if they were "separated from Christ". 

NEXT VERSE

Ephesians 2:13 "But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." (ESV)

The Scriptures present all mankind as:
    “sinners” (Romans 3:23, 5:8, 5:12)                  
    “alienated and enemies” - of God (Colossians 1:20)
    “gone astray” - like sheep (Isaiah 53:6)
    “lost” (Matthew 18:11, Luke 19:10)
    “confined under sin” (Gal. 3:22)
    “carnal” “sold under sin” (Romans 7:14)
    “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3)  
    “condemned to death” (1Corinthians 15:21, Romans 5:12)
    “dead in trespasses and sin” (Ephesians 2:1,5)

Galatians 3:22 “But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.”

Before one can believe, one must HEAR the truth.  Paul complained that he was forbidden to speak the Gospel.

    I Thessalonians 3:16   [Persecution by Jews and pagans] “forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved,”

You must HEAR the truth, to BELIEVE it.  You must BELIEVE in order to be "saved" . 

 

[JustPassingThru]

The Book of Life has every human written in from Adam to the very last one born in the future, ...to say that someone would be missing  would mean God is NOT Omniscient.

Is that not what John 3:16 is telling us?

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Does not the "whosoever" include/mean everyone?

Is not every one of the "whosoevers" perishing?

Does the verse not say that everyone of the "whosoevers" have "eternal" life?

So the logical answer is, ...I was a "whosoever," ...then I received Christ and became one of His born again children, ...is it not true that when we were born it is recorded in a "official" book, ...so when I became a child of God my name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

The real question is "when" was my name written in His Book, ...was it in July of '86 or was it when the Lamb was slain "before" the foundation of the world?  Rev 13:8

For me personally it doesn't really matter, ...because I know this to be true from personal experience with my Jesus:

I am my Beloved's, and my Beloved is mine:  Song 6:3

Lord bless

[Michael37]

3 hours ago, Resurrection Priest said:

Sure doesn't sound like people with their names forever written in Christ's Book for Life.  Not if they were "separated from Christ".

I'm with you there, RP, which is the conundrum that predeterminists face, namely if God predetermines who will be saved why does He wait until they have committed all sorts of sins before making them one of His elect? Also if God has provided everything necessary for everyone to be saved, why aren't they. 

I regularly use a four dimensional framework to describe the interactions between God and man, and I believe God has created us with a dimension of freewill which He wants us to exercise in harmony with His Will.

1. Foreknowledge - God always knows everything, if He doesn't then He isn't God.

    

2. Predestination - God predestines elements of existence, such as the Laws of Nature, the criteria for salvation, and the outcome of Judgment Day.

    

3. Freewill - God calls everyone to repentance and actively works on our freewill to lead us to repentance from dead works and to faith towards Him.

    

4. Divine Intervention - God knows those who are His and does whatever He wills to do according to His wisdom, mercy, and grace. 

    

None of these is mutually exclusive of the others, and in His eternal foreknowledge God is always intimately acquainted with all those who will eventually populate heaven, and has predestined them to be conformed to the image of His Son. The point where I part company with so-called Calvinistic predestination is when it claims the only reason people become born-again Bible-believing followers of Christ is because this was forced upon them against their will.  One ridiculous claim of hyper-Calvinists is that a person can jump off a cliff shouting, "Curse God for creating me thus!", and still get to heaven because God has predestined them to. 

Being dead in trespasses and sins does not mean an incapacity to hear the word of God, but without it leading us to faith we are actually children of wrath...so much for unchangeable predestination there...while fortuitously the Word of God is living and active, in essence irresistible grace is only irresistible to those who don’t resist it, having no will or desire to resist it as evidence of the Holy Spirit at work in their lives. 

Eph 2:1  And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
Eph 2:2  in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
Eph 2:3  among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Eph 2:5  even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
Eph 2:6  and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph 2:7  that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9  not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Just like Jeremiah)

 

Blessings from Michael37.

[JustPassingThru]

The foreknowledge of God means that way back in Eternity past when I was just a thought in His Mind, He knew in what we call" time," ...in July of 1986, I would ask Jesus to save me, ...that means if He knew I would make that decision of my own free will, and He allowed something to come into my life before July 1986 that caused me to die, ...that would be a "sin" against His foreknowledge, ...if God can sin then He is not God!

For the life of me I don't know where people get this idea that Blood Bought, born again, Holy Spirit filled children of God can curse God, turn their back on Him, plunge into habitual depths of depravity of sin, transgression and iniquity...

In fact, I've never heard of that, let alone witnessed it, ...when I ask my friends all over the world, they have never heard of it either ...I'm beginning to believe that"doctrine" is exclusive to Worthy Christian Forums.

Lord bless

[Michael37]

20 minutes ago, JustPassingThru said:

For the life of me I don't know where people get this idea that Blood Bought, born again, Holy Spirit filled children of God can curse God, turn their back on Him, plunge into habitual depths of depravity of sin, transgression and iniquity...

Also, why do some people believe that by attending an altar call and saying a set prayer you are now a born-again Christian, saved for eternity regardless of any other evidence to the contrary. 

BTW, I like George's line: "A true born-again believer will show fruits of their salvation ... not FOR salvation ... but BECAUSE of salvation! "

 

[JustPassingThru]

1 minute ago, Michael37 said:

Also, why do some people believe that by attending an altar call and saying a set prayer you are now a born-again Christian, saved for eternity regardless of any other evidence to the contrary. 

I'm with you brother, ...I made that mistake before I was born again, ...maybe like me they had never been taught or the church they are attending is just a religious organization, ...every born again child of God who has "received" Jesus as Savior, ...after "their" age of accountability, ...as an adult have had and remember their "crisis" moment of Salvation as if it were yesterday, ...that "crisis" moment when the Holy Spirit "illuminated" their sinful, Hell bound state:

And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  John 16:8

At my "crisis" moment the Holy Spirit placed all of my "sins" on my shoulders, ...He revealed to me the "Righteousness" of Jesus Christ that I was lacking, ...and my "judgement" was Hell, ...I fell to my knees and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins, ...no alter call or repeating a prayer by rote, ...it was a prayer of desperation, ...Jesus save me, ...I don't want to go to Hell!

Lord bless

 

[Resurrection Priest]

I Timothy 4:1  "But the Spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." 

To me, this looks like some folks with faith, loose their faith.  

I mean, why would Paul triumphantly write, "I have kept the faith", if it was a given once one accepted Christ?  

I don't believe it's an automatic given.  Or that there's nothing I'm supposed to do - especially those things He has told us to do.  Pray and read His word.   

I do believe that Christ holds on to us - not - I hold on to Him.   I also believe we must continue to nurture faith.  It is a relationship.  A relationship is living.  It's not something you do once, in church, and then keep the baptismal certificate in a drawer like a get-in-free card.  That's just not how it works.  If we neglect the relationship, we can be enticed away, or "fall away". 

Satan works by lies/deceit.   He puts his lies into our minds, and makes us believe those are our own thoughts.   Our continual defense is the truth.   We learn the truth and keep the truth in our minds.   Only in this way can we recognize and reject his lies.   And we pray "Deliver us from the Evil One."   We pray to be protected from Satan and his lies.