SCRIPTURE Revelation 13:8 “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
COMMENTARY While this passage may seem to suggest that God has determined, by the writing of who will be saved in the book of life of the Lamb from the foundation of the world, there are several issues with this. First, just because a person’s name is written in the book of the life of the Lamb, does not mean it cannot be removed. In fact, this is consistent with what we have said in this book about God dealing with us according to our limitations. There are other places in Scripture which suggest that can happen (ex. Psalm 69:28, Revelation 3:5). Second, and perhaps more importantly, there are different views as to what was actually done from the foundation of the world from a linguistic perspective. Although it is possible what was done from the foundation of the world references the writing of a person’s name in the book of life of the Lamb, it is more likely to reference the closest antecedent which is the Lamb slain. Many Greek scholars affirm this; an idea supported by 1 Peter 1:19-20.
However as we look at the breadth of Scripture we come to one of two primary conclusions. First, that a person’s name can in fact be removed from the book of life. This would be consistent with the idea that God deals with us according to our limitations, not His lack thereof (ex. Jeremiah 18:7-10 where God announces something and yet does something other than what He announced based on the actions of men). Second, if a person’s name cannot be removed (and again there are passages which suggest it can) then it would seem to mean, as inconsistent with what the breadth of Scripture teaches, that God looked ahead and time and saw those coming to faith and remaining faithful unto death. There is a third conclusion, that God is controlling all of this and in this manner knows that what He writes in the book of will be accurate but this of course denies the nature of human free will. This last case, would be inconsistent with what the breadth of Scripture teaches us.