Predestination or Predetermination?

Predestination or Predetermination?

In this article, we will cover what the word “predestined” means and how this is different from “predetermined.” Examples will be given from the Old Testament to display how people had free-will and how their futures were not irresistibly predetermined even though God had a desire and intention for their future to be a certain way. We will also discuss foreknowledge, decisions being made in time or before time, eternal security, what the book of life is in Revelation 13:8, and if it is possible for a genuine believer to have their name blotted out.

Ephesians 1 and free-will in the Old Testament

Ephesians 1:5 “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

Ephesians 1:11-12 “In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

The entirety of Ephesians 1 has this constant theme of “in Him” or “in Christ.” It is mentioned eleven times in just this one chapter. In the last article, we explained what it means to be “in Him.” It is our union with Christ through faith and these future blessings are ours only in Him. But if we ever were to get out of Him through apostacy, then we would no longer be in Him. Therefore, the predestination is conditional on being in Him. Some might think that verse 5 is speaking about justification to become children of God but it is not. The adoption of sons is distinguished from the title “children of God” in Romans 8. The “spirit of adoption as sons” in verse 15 is the foreshadowing of adoption which is referred to as “the revealing of the sons of God” in verse 19 and is defined as “the redemption of our body” in verse 23. This is clearly a reality still in the future according to the context. Therefore, in Ephesians 1:5, the predestination to the adoption of sons is not speaking about when you “get saved” but rather, when your salvation will be complete and you receive a glorified body like the body of Jesus. For this reason, the predestination starts when someone is justified through faith in Christ. This verse cannot be used to defend any kind of predestination prior to coming into Christ as if there were some kind of preemptive elect people.

Predestined simply means that the path of destiny has been selected for all those in Christ. Those who believe that salvation cannot be lost, will say that this is a determined end to arrive at and nothing or no one can thwart it, not even yourself. But those who believe salvation can be forfeit through apostasy will say that as long as you are in Christ, then you will get to your destination. An analogy for this would be like getting on a bus or train. As long as you stay inside, you will get to the destination. The only thing that is determined in this case is where the bus is headed. This goes hand-in-hand with the corporate view of election. This is the lens through which we read Scripture. It is not speaking of particular individuals but rather, groups of people. That is also the cultural context in which the Bible was written. Individuals did not each have their own copy of a Bible to have “quiet times.” The church life was much more of a corporate reality and experience. The Bible says that we are co-heirs with Christ because of the Spirit within us and because we are in Christ and since the promises are in Christ, we also receive the promises (Ro 8:17; Eph 3:6). The reason we will receive immortality after we die is because of the life of God that abides in us. But apart from that life, there is no eternal resurrection. Salvation is not some objective reality outside of ourselves but it is the life of Jesus in us and there is no salvation apart from transformation.

At this point, someone might say, “If God works all things after the counsel of His will and according to His purpose, can His purpose really be thwarted?” No, because His purpose is that all those who are in Christ will obtain their final salvation and that is what He has purposed. He does not purpose anyone to be in heaven who does not want to be there because of rejecting Him. He has also purposed for mankind to have a free-will. They are not robots bound to irresistibly believe. Otherwise, how would love for God be genuine?

In 1 Chronicles 28:6 God says to David, “Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courts; for I have chosen him to be a son to Me, and I will be a father to him.” Then God says to Solomon, “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (v. 9).

God literally “chose” Solomon to be king and to build the temple and set His love and grace upon him, gave him the greatest wisdom of any man on the earth, called him His own son, and he was. But that does not remove his own free-will. He could still turn his back on God and God clearly laid out to him how He would respond to Solomon’s choice. So, yes, God does respond to our choices and does not determine those choices. Though God desired that Solomon remain faithful to Him, He also intended that if Solomon chose to forsake God, then God would also reject him as well. And isn’t that what happened? Solomon had many wives who turned his heart away from God to serve other gods (1 Kings 11). God warned him twice to correct the error of his ways but he refused in anger and protest, refusing to give up these other gods. Since Solomon broke covenant with God and turned his back on God to forsake Him, God freely left him and even raised up adversaries against him. But God did not determine Solomon’s rejection, rather, He provided the grace and opportunity to turn back, but he refused of his own free-will. Whether or not we will see Solomon in heaven one day, I do not know how his last days ended.

There are some who might think we are predestined to an inevitable future because of verses in the Bible that speaks of God forming and molding David and Jeremiah in their mother’s womb (Ps 139:13; Jer 1:5). God even says that He consecrated Jeremiah before he was born. But in Jeremiah’s case, I don’t think we can take that as a rule for all people because Jeremiah was selected specifically to serve God as a prophet. Nonetheless, this did not remove his free-will, even as Solomon who was chosen by God still chose freely. In regard to our faithfulness or lack of faithfulness, God does not determine what our future will inevitably come to be.

Take for example the event recorded in Jeremiah 18 where Jeremiah was told by the Lord to go up to the potter’s house and observe. He said that the potter was “making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make” (Jer 18:3-4). God explains:

Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. (Jer 18:6-8).

What happened was, Israel became rebellious and idolatrous against God and this is equated to the spoilage of the clay. God did not create them spoiled so that this would become their inevitable end, but they became so through all their sin. It is at this point that God repurposes them, and molds them in a different way than what was His original intention. Instead of becoming a vessel for honorable use, they become a vessel for dishonorable use. But of course, the ultimate aim of God is for their restoration, to break apart their stony hearts so that they will repent. But God has the right to do that if He sees fit, because He is the potter. Yet in this way, we can understand that although God created us, He did not determine or desire us to sin against Him. That was our doing and we could have done otherwise in turning to God. God’s intention and willed purpose is to call all people to Himself, to offer life for all, and to save all that come to Him; and in this way, He orchestrates life to the end that this will of His becomes a reality.

One of the greatest climaxes in the book of Romans is in chapter eleven and verse thirty-two which says, “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” That is, God has given every person reason to believe in Him from creation, to conscience, to the law, and showing them their inability to obtain the righteousness of God by their own works and merit, and making Israel jealous by the salvation of the gentiles so that they might turn their hearts to God. All of this is to the end that God may show mercy on everyone as He draws everyone to Himself. But they must believe to be saved, and He places that choice in their own hands.

In the parable of the boiling pot, God shows that though He tried to purge the sins out of Israel, they would not have it (Ezek 24). They would not become clean despite all the ways God tried to purify them. God said of them, “You will not be cleansed from your filthiness again until I have spent My wrath on you” (v. 13). Here, God’s wrath was purposeful in disciplining Israel. Eventually, Israel does turn back to God in repentance but their hearts were so hard, it took a ton of suffering to bring them back, and many people perished. Israel had resisted God’s intention and God responded to their choice by intentioning something else for them to conform them into His true intention to be a holy people for Himself to make His name known throughout the earth. God used the means of suffering to influence their wills to change rather than irresistibly causing them to change through zapping their wills into obedience. Ultimately, they chose what they chose whilst at the same time, they did not thwart the ultimate plan of God to bring the Messiah through their lineage because God would have His way no matter what but God also decreed that mankind should freely decide to be faithful to Him or not. And even though God influenced their wills through suffering, many died in their sins and such a means to influence them was not effective for most of them since their hearts became so hard.

To sum up Ephesians 1 in connection with everything discussed here, we have certainly been “predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will.” Within covenant relationship with God, you will certainly be disciplined if you turn away from Him and you can choose to respond positively to that discipline or respond negatively by turning away. If you continue to turn away, He will pursue you in His lovingkindness and will always love you but if you still continue to refuse Him as to abandon Him, then you are no longer in Christ and therefore, the predestined path will not be yours either. God will never forsake us but we can forsake Him (Mt 10:33; 2 Tim 2:13). But even if you don’t believe faith can be forfeited, at least come to terms with all the examples of free choices just presented here which deny the doctrine of determinism. God’s knowledge of things before the time of them happening, does not necessitate Him determining those things to occur. God responds to us in time according to the choices we make in time. Predestination is not an inevitable destination for all but only those in Christ, “those who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:12). There is also no “predestination” for those before the time of entering into Christ. That would be called “predetermination.”

Having established this foundation of covenant relationship in the Old Testament, the case is further solidified by Romans 8:29 which says, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” Then Romans 11:2 gives us context about who are the ones God foreknew, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?” That is, those whom God foreknew are the Israelites who lived in the old covenant who were saved by faith. Romans 8:28 begins with the present tense verbs speaking to his audience and then the next verses switch to past tense, which are referring to the believers of old whom God foreknew, who He had a relationship with. Paul is saying that in the same way that they were predestined, you also are predestined in this new covenant with God. But since we have established that the Old Testament saints could violate and leave covenant with God, that means the New Testament saints can do the same. They were predestined to a particular end yet did not all arrive at that end and so our end is not inevitable either. We must persevere in faith and our hearts must remain devoted to God.

Old Testament foundation for books and blotting out

Someone might ask about the Lamb’s book of life in Revelation. But before interpreting this passage, let’s develop a theological basis for what the Old Testament has to say about books, life, and blotting out. Also, pay careful attention here to whether something is happening before time or in time.

The first time “book” is recorded is in Genesis 5:1 where it says, “this is the book of the generations of Adam.” Then it proceeds to list the genealogy from Adam to Noah. The names of all the people in between were written in this book of genealogy, along with who they fathered, and what age they were when they died. The next occurrence of book is in Exodus 17:14 where the Israelites just had victory over the Amalekites as Moses held up his staff. After this victory, the Lord said to Moses, “Write this in a book as a memorial and recite it to Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven.” Then Moses built an altar and said, “The Lord has sworn; the Lord will have war against Amalek from generation to generation” (v. 16). The purpose of having a book in this context was to have a written remembrance of God’s promised word that He would always be against the Amalekites. Then in Exodus 24:7 there is “the book of the covenant” which was a record of all the instructions of the Lord for the Israelites to obey which is often referred to as “the book of the law” (Dt 29:21).

Finally, we get to Exodus 32 where the Israelites just made a golden calf and Moses had the sons of Levi kill three-thousand people to purge the evil from among them. Moses then intercedes on behalf of the Israelites and says to God, “But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your book which You have written!” (v. 32). Then the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book” (v. 33). Then “the Lord smote the people” because of the calf (v. 35). In this context, to be blotted out of the book (of life) meant to be killed, to be unalive, even as the blotting out of the memory of the Amalekites meant to wipe them off the face of the earth. But there is also an implication that this is not just about physical life but about spiritual condition as well since the subject of forgiveness is involved. In this case, God did not forgive these Israelites and instead smote them. This would indicate that they did not inherit eternal life. Otherwise, God would have forgiven their sin so as to not kill them.

“Book” is also referred to as a historical books such as “the Book of the Chronicles” and “the Book of the Kings” which is an often repeated phrase, and “the book of Moses” (2 Chron 35:12; Ezra 6:18; Neh 13:1). David mentions book as a recorded account of all the times he wept (Ps 56:8). Then he prays against his enemies, saying, “May they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous” (Ps 69:28). In this way, he prays for their destruction.

In Psalm 139:16 David says, “Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”

Some might point to this verse to defend a deterministic worldview that every single day and hour of our life is determined by God but that is not what this verse is saying. The King James Version says, “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.” After examining the Hebrew, here is my translation: “You saw me as an embryo and recorded everything in your book, from the very start from when you began to craft me, down to the very day and time and every day thereafter. Every phase of my development (in the womb), you watched over me and recorded everything, every single day, before I was even born.” I’m not sure how the modern English translations come up with “all my days” (CSB), “every day of my life” (NLT), “the days that were ordained for me” (NASB). But in the context, all the days are in reference to all the days before David was born while he was still in the womb, the days of his mother’s pregnancy. The text cannot be forced to mean all the days after that but even if it does mean all the days after David is born, it is not something deterministically controlled by God either since the emphasis of the text is about God creating David, intimately seeing what nobody else could see, and keeping a record of it in a book, which is symbolic of God’s distinct and careful remembrance of this event. If this is carried on to future events, then it would be God’s watchful eye of providence over David and remembering all the events that occur in his life as they happen. But since the “formed” was only in relation to his development in his mother’s womb, that word cannot rationally be translated as “ordained,” in reference to every single day or choice in our lives. Therefore, this verse does not support determinism. The emphasis of the whole chapter is about the intimacy of God’s knowledge and the closeness of His presence to David, not about our everything being determined. However, that does not exclude God’s foreknowledge because verse 4 says, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, You know it all.”

Going back to our present study, the book is in reference to events that happen in time, not before time or future time. Books are about record-keeping. That’s what verse 16 is really talking about. God writes things as they happen. Not everything is already written. Foreknowledge does not necessitate God’s predetermination since God has determined that mankind should have free-agency. The verb form for “have seen” is in the perfect tense, describing a completed action since David was already born and this was a past and completed event. The tense could even be understood as God’s foreknowledge of the event being complete. But the words “were” and “written” are in the imperfect tense, indicating the moment-by-moment time period of David’s development in the womb. This also indicates that the book was not pre-written. God was writing about every stage of development as it was happening.

Moving on, there is a book of prophecy (Jer 25:13; 36:10; 45:1). Malachi speaks of “a book of remembrance” that was written before God “for those who fear the Lord and who esteem His name.” The Lord said, “They will be Mine … on the day that I prepare My own possession, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” Malachi writes, “So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and the one who does not serve Him” (Mal 3:16-18). Then Daniel received a prophetic vision of things still yet to come where a river of fire was flowing before God, there were many around Him, “The court sat, and the books were opened” (Dan 7:10). The horn (a king, a mouth uttering great boasts who waged war with the saints) and the beasts (the other kings) were judged (v. 11-12). Then verse 26 says, “But the court will sit for judgment, and his dominion will be taken away, annihilated and destroyed forever.” This alludes to the Antichrist and those who follow after him being judged by the record of things written within the books.

Daniel 12:1-2 says:

“Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.”

There is a book here that will be relevant for Old Testament saints, Daniel’s people. It even applies to those who are dead, buried in the ground. If their names are in this book, they will resurrected to everlasting life.

The most consistent definition of a book in the Old Testament is a record of historical events that were recorded in time, not before the foundation of the world. The books we have on earth document the righteous acts of the saints like Abel, Noah, Abraham, etc., along with recording what they did and how they lived. In a similar way, there are books in heaven that have these things recorded.

The word “blot” is used in reference to the great flood, to blot out man and animals from the face of the earth (Gen 6:7; 7:4, 23). God uses it in reference to destruction in removing people’s existence, “Let Me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven” (Dt 9:14; 29:19-20). Sin or deeds can also be blotted out (Neh 4:5; 13:14; Ps 51:1, 9; 109:14; Prov 6:33; Jer 18:23; Ezek 6:6). In this way, for sins or deeds to be blotted out means for them to not be remembered or considered anymore in the sight of God.

So far, the closest connection we have to interpreting the book of life in revelation is Exodus 32 since it mentions both a book and the blotting out of that book, implying that the specific book in discussion is the book of life. Deuteronomy 29:20 also carries the same thought. The next closest Old Testament passage would be Daniel 7 & 12 since it is prophetic literature just as the book of Revelation is and the time period that those events take place are also eschatological. But there is not just one book mentioned there but multiple and at least one of them is the record of their evil deeds by which they will be judged by since this event takes place within the context of a court and they are indeed judged.

New Testament on the book of life

Revelation 13:8

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (NASB).

Interestingly, we encounter an anomaly here with various Bible translations. In referring to when this happened, some translations say “from” (NASB, LSB, CSB, KJV, NKJV, NIV, ESV, YLT). But a couple others say “before” (NLT, RSV). Even more interesting is that The Geneva, Wycliffe, and NIV translation have an interesting rendering, “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (NIV). This rendering seems to imply that Jesus’ crucifixion actually took place at the creation of the world. Weird, right? How does that work? The sequence of the text isn’t even lined up that way and so they had to purposefully go out of their way to change the syntax in order to make that interpretation.

But that’s not really the main subject of discussion. What we’re focusing on here is the difference between “from” and “before.” What does the Greek say? It’s the word apo, which literally means “from.” But Ephesians 1:4 is pro, which means “before.” But we have to keep in mind that these are two separate passages and we shouldn’t mince them together. I already dealt with Ephesians 1:4 in a previous article, so I will not do that here. But with regard to our text in Revelation 13:8, there is a world of difference between the word “from” and the word “before.” Interestingly, in John MacArthur’s Bible commentary, he writes, “According to God’s eternal, electing purpose before creation, the death of Christ seals the redemption of the elect forever.” So even MacArthur inserted his theological bias into this interpretation even though the passage he quoted from clearly said “from.” His idea is that people were preemptively elected for salvation before the creation of the world.

For those who understand this as “before,” then that means the book was already written before the world was even made and the interpretation is very deterministic, so much so that this may throw some wrenches into what kind of lapsarian doctrine a Calvinist holds to (which I personally think is a pointless debate but it could be very relevant for them). But since the text does not say “before” but rather “from,” this indicates that the book began to be written within time ever since the foundation of the world and more things were written in it as time progressed. This interpretation fits well with the historical nature and understanding of books in the Old Testament.

The reason it mentions the foundation of the world is because the Old Testament saints will be saved as well from the things written in this book, as Daniel 12 mentions. But those who have not believed, have aligned themselves with the work of the devil. Though the provision of Jesus was planned before the world was (Eph 1:4), that does not mean that every individual in the future has already been deterministically selected for salvation. Those two things are not the same and we must keep them in their separate categories for the purpose of defending a non-deterministic worldview.

In reference to the book of life being a separate book from the Lamb’s book of life, I would reject that idea since Philippians 4:3 says, “Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.” A connection is made here between the gospel, all of Paul’s fellow workers for the cause of the gospel, and the book of life, indicating that it is in reference to spiritual and eternal life. Therefore, the Lamb’s book of life is synonymous with the book of life.

But from my perspective believing in conditional immortality, this is hardly a distinction for me. Meaning, for those who do not believe in Annihilationism, their perspective is that dying on this earth is wholly different from the final judgement of death whereas I see them as nearly the same thing. For someone’s name to be blotted out of the book of life means that they will (1) die physically on this earth and will (2) die again physically and spiritually and totally, similar to their first death. Therefore, to be blotted from the book of life simply means to forfeit any life now or after and it means to become unalive forever. For this reason, there is no benefit for having two separate books of life in my theological system whereas such a distinction might be a significant difference for those who believe in Eternal Conscious Torment.

In the example of Moses, he asked to be blotted out of the book of life if it were possible to take him as a substitute for the sins of his people, but God refused his gesture because a penal substitution would not have been an acceptable method in the eyes of God. The Israelites sinned and so were responsible for their own sins. It would have been unjust for God to have judged an innocent person in place of a wicked person as God says, “The person who sins will die” (Ezek 18:20). But the judgement of God here is no more than annihilation and so Moses was not asking God for more than that kind of judgement. As I also previously mentioned, sin and forgiveness were part of the issue here in which God chose not to forgive those Israelites and that’s why He smote them. Therefore, the book of life indicates a physical as well as a spiritual reality. It is both together—life in general. Those whose names are not found written in the book, will perish forever by being thrown into the lake of fire (Rev 20:15). For this reason, when David says, “May they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous” (Ps 69:28), he is simply asking for these people to become unalive forever. But these people were his enemies and in this way, it would be right to assume that they did not have saving faith. David acknowledges that they were in the book of life since one cannot be blotted out of the book unless they are first in the book. For this reason, David is not thinking about some spiritual reality separate from physical life but merely the general reality of them being alive. Therefore, according to David, as long as someone is living or who will live in the future, their names are recorded in the book of life. Again, this does not create any problems for the annihilationist perspective and it fits nicely into it without having to wrestle one’s mind against the text. If you are living and/or have rights to life in the future, then your name is in the book of life.

What are the conditions for having one’s name not being taken out of the book? Revelation 3:5 says, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” The condition is that they need to overcome so that they are clothed in the white garments of Christ’s righteousness (Mt 5:20; 22:1-14). But this is not merely an objective reality outside ourselves but it is the life of Christ within us that transforms us, has given us a new heart, and so we live righteously through His strength. That’s why God says, “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it [the new Jerusalem], but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life. (Rev 21:7-8, 27). John even says that people were judged “from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds” (Rev 20:12; cf. 17:8; Dan 7). Therefore, our deeds are a very important issue here when it comes to being in the book of life.

Some people in the day of Moses neglected the warnings of Scripture, though they heard the warnings, they didn’t want to believe the warnings, and so they said, “I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry” (Dt 29:19). But as long as that heart attitude continues, it says, “The Lord shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven” (v. 20).

This is similar to what it says in Revelation 22:18-19 “I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.” To add to this book means to add new legalistic requirements to enter into eternal life and to take away means to strip out the conditions and requirements that are written in this book for eternal life. What is probably in view here is when people do this on an individual level for themselves, seeking to gain entrance into the kingdom of God by their own self-righteousness or by ignoring the warnings thinking it’s okay to just live however you want in the stubbornness of your own heart and you’ll get to heaven anyway. But the reality is for both of those people, they will not enter life. Whether they had this life to begin with and it was taken away or whether they never had this life to begin with and that future life was forfeited, the result is the same, they will not enter and the Lord will extinguish their life as it says, “the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.” As they became alive, their name was recorded in the book for whatever time period in history that they lived in and this has been done for all people since the foundation of the world. But when they become unalive while having died in their sins, their name will be deleted. Therefore, when they appear before the judgement seat of God, their names will be absent from the book of life and the memory of them will be blotted out forever.

As Revelation 3:5 says, the one who “overcomes” will be saved. The context of this is the message to the church of Sardis who had a name that they were alive but because of their deeds, they were actually dead. This is why they were instructed to “Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God” (v. 2). Overcoming then, has to do with these good deeds and forsaking bad deeds through the power of Christ’s righteousness within them or else, if they do not have Christ’s righteousness, then they will be unable to do such things. Notice that overcoming precedes being clothed in white. But how do you get there? 1 John 5:4 says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” So then, a transformative faith in God is required to receive His righteousness to live out of a new heart. Upon such a condition, one’s name will not be blotted out of the book of life and Jesus says, “I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (v. 5). Doesn’t that phrase sound familiar? Matthew 10:32-33 says, “Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.” The denial being spoken of here is about one who does not have faith in Jesus and thus denies Him (2 Tim 2:12; Rev 2:13). If you do that, your name will be blotted out of the book of life which results in the forfeiting of all future life.

When Revelation 13:5 says “from” the foundation of the world, it is just indicating all those who have existed since that time, not those who were determined to be in the book. Example: Cain is an example of someone who did not end up having a right relationship with God when he died and so his name was not written in the book of life at the time in which he existed. But the writing in the book only happens for those who exist in time, not before time. Therefore, what Revelation is referring to are those who have existed previously in time, not those who exist now whose name were written previously in time before their existence. It simply says “from” the foundation of the world to include people like Abel, Noah, Abraham, etc. and to exclude those who did not have genuine faith in God like Cain and all the rebellious Israelites who died in their sins. There are two more Scriptures to support this view.

Luke 11:49-51 says

For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will persecute, so that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’

Those who rejected and crucified their Messiah, followed after the same sinful pattern of their ancestors who killed the prophets and because of this, they were guilty before God. The phrase, “since the foundation of the world” is not speaking of people whose blood was shed prior to the world’s existence but rather ever since its existence starting from the blood of Abel that was shed. They were guilty for things that happened in time. They were not guilty for shedding blood before the foundation of the world but only when they accomplished the act. There is no deterministic thinking in this text.

The second Scripture is Revelation 3:12 which says

He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.

Notice how Jesus says, “I will write,” not “I have already written, it’s already accomplished in eternity past. It’s already a done deal. Every future action is already determined.” No, He doesn’t say that. Things are recorded and written in time as they happen. In this case, the writing had not happened yet and so it is still in the future since the writing is dependent upon the condition of “He who overcomes.” You must first successfully overcome before this blessing is granted to you. It is not yours yet until you first overcome. The Scripture does not present this as an inevitable reality for that person in the future. Otherwise, such exhortations to overcome and persevere are pointless if God is going to just irresistibly move your will to do it anyway. Though God works sanctification in us, we must also cooperate with the process as Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

Can a genuinely saved person be blotted out of this book?

Logically speaking, if you are in the book of life because you have physical and spiritual life, and the Bible says that names can be blotted out of the book of life, then that means it is possible for your name to be blotted out from the book of life so that you forfeit eternal life. This seems to be a clear warning for everyone to persevere. If a name is blotted out, it must have first been written in, right? Otherwise, it could not be blotted out. So the question is, what specifically was written in the book? Physical life? Or spiritual life? Philippians 4:3 indicates both but with a more specific emphasis on spiritual eternal life. So then, eternal life can be blotted out. But someone may ask, “if the life that is given to us is eternal, how can it become not eternal? That does not make any sense.” But I would reply: Jesus is eternal life Himself, knowing Him and having a relationship with Him. Eternal life is His life in us as we abide in Him and He abides in us. That’s eternal life. But if we do not abide in Him, then we will be as a branch that withers and dries up and shall be cast into the fire (Jn 15:6). Christ the Word is eternal and He is life and so He is eternal life. Therefore, eternal life is not anything apart from His life abiding in us. What do the Scriptures say? “This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (Jn 17:3). That word for “know” is intimate knowledge. And why is it a deep knowing? Because the life of God abides in us, in the depths of our hearts. Eternal life is His abiding presence. But if our hearts become so dark as to kick Him out, then He will no longer abide, even as He left the temple in Jerusalem because of all of Israel’s abominations (Ezekiel 7-11). But even in the record of those events, we can also take comfort because God was extremely patient with them and put up with so many evil things that were profaning His temple before He actually left. They were performing idolatrous worship in His temple, but He stayed for awhile until actually leaving as there was not a single soul left who had faith in Yahweh. So ultimately, He left since their faith in Him had left.

Hear the Word of the Lord, “Even now, if you quit your evil ways, I will let you stay in your own land. But don’t be fooled by those who promise you safety simply because the Lord’s Temple is here. They chant, ‘The Lord’s Temple is here! The Lord’s Temple is here!’” (Jer 7:3-4; NLT. Read all of 1-15 in the NLT). Isn’t that what people say today? They say, “I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. I am once saved, always saved. My future is a done deal. God would not dare leave His own temple, would He?” I strongly caution you, do not test the Lord, for if you test Him, you will find out one day what the true reality is. Therefore, clothe yourself in white garments, abide in Him and His righteousness. Put away the deeds of darkness and live before the fear of the Lord. God promises to never fail us or forsake us, even as He promised the Old Testament saints these things. But if they could violate His covenant so as to forfeit their lives, then so can we, and the same promises that were spoken to them are spoken to us. So then, what makes that promise different for us if it was the same promise spoken to them?

Those who maintain the immutability of God’s good character will have to believe that just as God was good to Solomon, He is also good to us. Therefore, no argument can be made against God’s character to say that God would be evil for allowing our faith to become forfeit. Because, God indeed allowed that for Solomon. But even if Solomon was reconciled to God at the end of his life, the promise and warning from God was still true and representative of His character that “If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever” (1 Chron 28:9).

Though I say all these things, I maintain it to be a possibility that in our current time, we live in an age of grace but once the tribulation begins, a new age will begin and stricter rules will apply. Or rather, the rule that has always been will be strictly enforced. The only way to get to heaven will be by persevering until the end and only those who overcome will not have their names blotted out from the book of life. But how exactly different the next age will be from the one we are in now, I do not fully know. But I do know that in whatever age, it is dangerous to presume upon God’s grace.

It was not my original intention to make this article about controversial issues like eternal security or annihilation, but those subjects are relevant to the texts we are discussing and even somewhat applicable to the subject of determinism, so I did not avoid speaking about them. But as you can see, I do not fight the text to fit into my theological worldview, it just naturally fits in there and is consistent throughout the whole Bible. Throughout this discussion, we have come to the conclusion that books are primarily seen as record-keeping documents which are written into once events take place in time or when the converse of those events take place in time. As long as we are in Christ, our future is predestined, but that does not mean our future is predetermined.

For more on Romans 8:28-30, see the article on the Order of Salvation

For more on the subject of Eternal Security, see article on Can You Lose Your Salvation?

Video on the absurd philosophy of determinism and how it makes God the author of evil:
Why Did You Believe And Your Friend Didn’t? | Dr. Leighton Flowers | Soteriology 101 - YouTube

Many of the ideas in this article were taken from this video discussion:
Was Your Name Written in the Book of Life Before Creation?