I firmly believe in once saved always saved, and the verses that once led me to doubt it, for the most part, have been explained to me. However there is one verse that I still can’t get my mind around, and that is Rev. 3:5. Now I know that we are not supposed to take one scripture and use it to disprove the many that say otherwise, yet since Rev 3 is talking to the churches, how do we explain that we have everlasting life if our names can be blotted out?
You’re correct in saying we shouldn’t take a single verse, especially one who’s meaning is in doubt to us, and use it to negate all the verses we understand clearly.
But as a matter of fact, Rev. 3:5 doesn’t say that our names can be blotted out of the book of life. It says just the opposite. Look verses 4 and 5 together and you’ll see this.
Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Rev. 3:4-5)
He’s basically telling the unsaved in Sardis that if they put their trust in Him like some of their friends have done, they too will be dressed in white and He will never blot their names out of the book of life.