The Book You Have Written (Part 3)

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 5: The Book You Have Written.

Two previous posts [read #1; read #2] explored the first Old Testament reference to the book of life:

So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, these people have committed a grave sin; they have made a god of gold for themselves. Now if you would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written.” The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book” (Exod. 32:31-33).

So, how might we summarize Moses’s conversation with God about “the book you have written”? 

First, at its most basic level, the book of life is a record of the living – that is, those who are alive at a particular time in history, as opposed to those who have died. In the context of Exodus 32, this means a record of living Israelites. But there’s more.

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Erased: The Book You Have Written (Part 2)

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 5: The Book You Have Written.

In the previous post, we were introduced to the first Old Testament reference to the book of life:

So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, these people have committed a grave sin; they have made a god of gold for themselves. Now if you would only forgive their sin. But if not, please erase me from the book you have written.” The LORD replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me I will erase from my book” (Exod. 32:31-33).

In that post, we explored the context in which this referencee to the book of life is set. Now, we note that these verses tell us names may be erased from God’s book. 

Moses doesn’t offer to die instead of the people, but rather with them. God already has honored Moses with the offer of a nation of his own in place of Israel (Exod. 32:10), an offer Moses declines for the sake of God’s reputation among the heathen nations. Now, Moses seems to say that if God judges the Israelites with annihilation, the Lord might as well take the life of their leader as well. 

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The Book You Have Written (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 5: The Book You Have Written.

This post begins a series of posts on Section II of The Book of Life: The Book of Life in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament features at least seven references to a set of divine books in which people’s names are recorded, along with documentation of their works. We explore these passages on the basis of our discoveries in Section I: (1) the book of life is God’s registry of the redeemed; (2) it’s a real book, not a metaphor for God’s memory; (3) it is the Lamb’s book, purchased by his blood; and (4) names are entered at or after the time of creation, with the unrepentant wicked erased from the book of life when they pass a point of no return.

Now, we begin a series of posts that examine the first biblical reference to the book of life; Moses, speaking to Yahweh, calls it “the book you have written,” and the Lord responds by calling it “my book” (Exod. 32:31-33). Then, we delve into David’s song of lament, in which he petitions the Lord for relief, asking that the names of his tormenters be erased from the book of life (Ps. 69:28). The third reference explores David’s wonder at his own existence, exalting Yahweh for writing all the king’s days in his divine book (Ps. 139:16). 

Next, we see the immediate and prophetic implications of the book of life in the days of Isaiah (Isa. 4:3), followed by the book of life as Daniel shares his vision of the Ancient of Days, and as books are opened before the almighty judge (Dan. 7:9-10). The sixth Old Testament reference propels us to a time of future resurrection and judgment, in which those whose names are written in “the book” escape God’s wrath (Dan. 12:1-3). 

Finally in this section, we investigate the only reference in Scripture to a “book of remembrance” (Mal. 3:16). As a bonus, we’ll note the connection between the Israelite festival of Rosh Hashana and the book of life.

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Could Satan be Saved?

This is another in a series of excerpts from What Every Christian Should Know About the Return of Jesus, released by High Street Press and available at Amazon. 

There doesn’t appear to be any scriptural support for a reversal of fortune in hell. Once there, Satan, demons, and the unrepentant wicked spend eternity without a chance for redemption. Nevertheless, some in the early church took a different view. 

Clement of Alexandria, for example, thought there was hope for the devil based on God’s limitless mercy. Clement’s pupil, Origen, took it a step further. He argued for apocatastasis, or the idea that all things made by God return to him. He once wrote, “We believe that the goodness of God through Christ will restore his entire creation to one end, even his enemies being conquered and subdued.” 

In Origen’s view, everyone – including Satan, evil spirits, and the most wicked humans – ultimately submit to God’s sovereignty and are saved. Thus, Satan ceases to be evil, and his angelic nature is restored. 

Origen’s view never gained much traction. Jerome and Augustine countered it. And the Council of Constantinople II in A.D. 553 anathematized the idea that the demonic could revert to the angelic in nature. In Against the Darkness, Graham Cole summarizes, “The darkness won’t extinguish the light. The destiny of the darkness is its destruction. Fallen angels will experience the eternal fire. The devil may be the prince of this world. Be that as it may, in the next he has no kingdom.” 

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Written from the Foundation of the World (Part 3)

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 4: Written from the Foundation of the World.

Before closing this three-part study on the phrase, “written from the foundation of the world,” we still need to understand two prepositions: “from” and “before.” One or the other appears in each of the ten Scripture references to “the foundation of the world.” And the placement of the prepositions is key. (Read Part 1 and Part 2.)

From and before

As we’ve seen, the word “foundation” (katabole) appears ten times in the New Testament in the phrase, “the foundation of the world.” When the preposition “from” (apo) appears before “foundation,” it normally signifies something that occurs across time, and thus unfolds throughout human history. And when the preposition “before” (pro) precedes “foundation,” it depicts something that occurs before the creation of the world.

For example, Jesus speaks of truths hidden from the foundation of the world – that is, since the beginning of human history – but now revealed through his parables (Matt. 13:35). He tells the religious leaders of his generation they are to be held responsible for the blood of the prophets shed from the foundation of the world – that is, since the time the first prophets appeared (Luke 11:50).

And, in teaching about a future judgment day, Jesus tells the sheep at his right hand he has prepared a kingdom for them from the foundation of the world, a kingdom in which the intersection of heaven and earth, which sin destroyed, is restored, and from which the wicked are banished forever (Matt. 25:34; cf. vv. 41, 46).

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