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 10: All Found Written in the Book Will Escape: Daniel 12:1-3.

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In previous posts [Read #1; Read #2], we began to examine Daniel 12:1-3, breaking down the elements of these verses so we can better understand “the book” to which Daniel refers. We complete our observations here.

Daniel sees that people are resurrected one day. But what then?

… some to eternal life, and some to disgrace and eternal contempt. 

Notice first that everyone’s resurrection results in “eternal” existence somewhere. The Hebrew phrase hayye olam (eternal life) appears here for the first time in the Old Testament. Its Greek counterpart (zoe aionios) occurs numerous times in the New Testament, perhaps most notably in John 3:16: “For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (emphasis added).

While followers of Jesus possess eternal life, those who reject him are neither annihilated nor sent to temporary punishment until their sin debt is paid. The wicked possess eternal existence in hell – Daniel depicts it as “eternal contempt” – but not eternal life. Jesus makes this clear in the parable of the sheep and goats, who symbolize the righteous and the wicked. 

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