OSAS And The Book Of Life

Q. I’ve noticed there have been a lot of questions regarding eternal security on your site as of late. Having come out of a very legalistic background, this has been an area of questioning for me. Reading the answers you have been giving people has helped me a lot with this.

Then today, I caught the tail end of a show on tv and the man was talking about where in the Bible it talks about The Lord removing names from The Book of Life. He said for a name to be removed, it had to be put there in the first place.

That got me to questioning again, somewhat. Does our name get put into The Book of Life at our salvation or is it there at our conception? When does a person’s name get blotted out or removed? And what would cause The Lord to do that?

A. Many, myself included, believe that our names were written in the Book of Life before the foundations of Earth were laid. Rev. 17:8 helps to confirm this. The Lord, knowing the end from the beginning, knew all who would choose Him, and reserved a place for us in Heaven before He created Adam. But whenever He wrote them there, to blot them out again would mean that He’s not all knowing and made a mistake in putting our names there in the first place. Crazy, huh?

That person was misquoting Rev. 3:5 which says that the over comers will walk with the Lord dressed in white and He’ll never blot our names out of the Book of Life. Earlier John had described overcomers as those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:5)

Rev. 3:5 is a promise straight from the Lord that if you believe in Him, He’ll never blot your name out of the Book of Life.