Category: book of life

The Lamb’s Book (Part 1)

This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 3: the Lamb’s Book.

When we explore the varied biblical references to the book of life, it’s clear that God is both author and keeper of this divine record. When Moses returns to Mount Sinai after Israel’s sin with the golden calf, he pleads with Yahweh to forgive the people. “But if not,” he tells the Lord, “please erase me from the book you have written.” Yahweh replies, “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book” (Exod. 32:32-33, emphasis added).

Moses then warns the next generation that if it rejects God’s covenant requirements, “the LORD will blot out” the people’s names, making it clear Yahweh is the author, editor, publisher, and copyright owner of the book of life (Deut. 29:20).

Praising God for the wonder of his conception, David writes, “Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began” (Ps. 139:16, emphasis added). 

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The Book of Life: A Real Book

This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon. This except comes from Chapter 2: A Real Book.

When studying biblical realities we’ve never seen with the naked eye, it’s good to ask whether a writer of Scripture is expressing his divinely inspired thoughts literally or figuratively. For example, is the millennium a literal one thousand years, or simply a long stretch of time (Rev. 20:1-7)? Is “the arm of the LORD” a muscle-bound appendage of God’s, or an anthropomorphism – an expression of God in human terms (Isa. 53:1)? And is the book of life an actual scroll-and-pen publication, or a way to explain God’s unrestricted knowledge of people and events (Ps. 69:28)?

To address the last of these questions, and to better set the tone for our study of the book of life, it may help to briefly explore how Scripture uses the words “book” and “life.”

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Apocalyptic and Other Writings

This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon.

When it comes to the book of life, it should be noted that Jewish apocalyptic writings conceive of God keeping at least two books: a book of life for the righteous, and a book of death for the wicked. To have one’s name blotted out of the book of life means complete condemnation (e.g., Jubilees 30:20-22; 1 Enoch 108:3). These writings further indicate that the archangel Michael is the keeper of these books. 

The overriding idea is that God, or an angel, keeps a record of people’s deeds, which are exposed to them on judgment day, resulting in salvation or condemnation. This is not strictly a Jewish concept. An ancient Babylonian New Year’s festival finds an assembly of gods determining the duration of people’s lives based on what’s written down in a “tablet of life.”

It’s possible this influenced Jewish thinking during the Babylonian captivity of the sixth century BC. Much later, Islam adopts the concept of two recording angels – one who notes a person’s good deeds; the other, his or her evil deeds. Both angels open their books on judgment day.

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God’s Registry of the Redeemed

This is another in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon.

Section I: What Is the Book of Life?

The phrase “book of life” appears in only eight passages of Scripture. Other references help tease out a biblically faithful understanding of this divine record. The Lord calls it “my book” (Exod. 32:33). David acknowledges God’s ownership of it, rejoicing that his own days were written in “your book” (Ps. 139.16). The prophet Malachi writes of a “book of remembrance” (Mal. 3:16), while the writer of Hebrews describes those whose names have been “written in heaven” (Heb. 12:23). 

But what, exactly, is the book of life? This section lays the groundwork for an exploration of Old and New Testament passages that seek to answer this vital question. We begin with an explanation that the book of life is the registry of the redeemed.

God’s Registry of the Redeemed

The book of life is God’s registry of the redeemed. It’s the official roster of citizens in the kingdom of God, the final checklist of those who inhabit the new heavens and new earth. One theological resource calls the book of life “the balance book of God.”

But it’s not quite that simple. Like other biblical realities, the book of life is revealed progressively across the pages of Scripture. That is, each reference to the book of life adds to the previous one until we come to a more complete understanding of God’s purpose in keeping such a record. 

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The Book of Life

This is the first in a series of excerpts from The Book of Life: What the Bible Says about God’s Registry of the Redeemed from High Street Press and available at Amazon.

The Bible mentions dozens of books. For example, there’s the book of the law, a collection of commands and decrees from God, given through Moses to the children of Israel (Deut. 30:10; cf. Deut. 31:24). There’s the Book of the LORD’s Wars (Num. 21:14), the chronicles of David (1 Chron. 27:24), and an angel’s book (Rev. 10:2). The record book of King Ahasuerus indirectly helps save the Israelites in Persia (Esth. 2:23; 6:1). A book of remembrance is penned in the days of Malachi (Mal. 3:16). And a seven-sealed scroll is opened in the hands of Jesus, revealing future judgments (Rev. 5:1ff.).

But perhaps the most fascinating book revealed in Scripture is the one that may, or may not, feature your name: the book of life. 

Scripture tells us the book of life is God’s book. Under his sovereign authorship, names are written in the book, and many are subsequently erased from it. In some biblical references, the book of life simply appears to be a record of the living, while in other passages, it’s the roll of God’s faithful covenant people. 

But the Bible’s most dramatic revelation is that the book of life discloses the everlasting destiny of all people. It is, John writes, the Lamb’s book of life (Rev. 21:27), and those whose names are written there are shielded from the lake of fire and welcomed into New Jerusalem. 

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