The Lamb’s Book (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 3: the Lamb’s Book.

Read The Lamb’s Book (Part 1)

Of those who worship the beast from the sea – that is, the antichrist – John writes, “All those who live on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered” (Rev. 13:8).

John tells us the book of life is the Lamb’s book. While the three persons of the Godhead work collaboratively to redeem mankind, Jesus is the distinct member of the Trinity that leaves heaven, adds sinless humanity to his deity via the virgin birth, bears our sin debt on the cross, and rises from the dead to conquer Satan, sin, and death for us. 

It is Jesus who shares our humanity, satisfies the wrath of the Father on our behalf, proves his messianic claims under the power of the Spirit, suffers and dies as our Passover Lamb, rises from the dead in cosmic victory, and now holds the keys of death and hades.

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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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Satan and the Abyss

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. 

Before Satan is cast into the lake of fire to be tormented forever, he’s imprisoned for a thousand years, as Revelation 20:1-3 records:

“Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding the key to the abyss and a great chain in his hand. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. He threw him into the abyss, closed it, and put a seal on it so that he would no longer deceive the nations until the thousand years were completed. After that, he must be released for a short time.”

The Greek word abyssos, rendered “abyss,” “pit,” or “bottomless pit” in many English translations, occurs nine times in the New Testament. In most cases, it refers to a place of temporary confinement for certain evil spirits. For example, in Jesus’ encounter with Legion, the demons who possess the Gerasene man beg Jesus not to banish them to the abyss – no doubt a place evil spirits fear (Luke 8:31). 

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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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