The Book of Life
A Riddle for the Logical Mind
Three verses. One logical answer. Can you find it?
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Deuteronomy 30:19 (KJV) I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
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Exodus 32:33 (KJV) And the LORD [Yahuah] said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
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Revelation 3:5 (KJV) He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Read all three. Lay them side by side. What must be true?
Peter said what He is willing.
2 Peter 3:9 (KJV) The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
- Every man is told to choose. — Deuteronomy 30:19
- A name can be blotted out of His book. — Exodus 32:33
- Only the overcomer is promised his name stays. — Revelation 3:5
A name that can be blotted out was never fixed.
Why It Matters
Reformed teaching holds that Elohim chose, before the world began, who would be saved and who would be lost. Moses set a choice before Israel: "I have set before you life and death... therefore choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19). A choice already made by someone else is no choice. Yahuah told Moses, "Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book" (Exodus 32:33). And Yahushua promises the overcomer, "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life" (Revelation 3:5). Names can be written and names can be removed. The outcome is not sealed at birth.
Scripture states Yahuah's desire plainly. He has "no pleasure in the death of him that dieth: wherefore turn yourselves, and live" (Ezekiel 18:32). He is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). He "will have all men to be saved" (1 Timothy 2:4). A Judge who fixed the verdicts in advance would not plead with the accused to turn.
The verse most often cited is Ephesians 1:4: "he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." The choosing is "in him." Yahuah chose the way and the Son through whom it would come. Whoever enters Him is in the chosen one. The plan was fixed. The passengers were not.
The doctrine was built by Augustine in his later writings, taken up by John Calvin, and fixed by the Synod of Dort in 1618-1619. Its five points were later summed up under the name TULIP.
This matters because fatalism kills repentance. If the outcome is already decided, the call to turn is theater and the warnings are empty. It also makes Yahuah the author of the lost man's ruin, which Scripture never allows. James says no man should say he is tempted of Elohim (James 1:13). Even less should he say he was damned by Him before he drew breath.
Revelation closes with an open door: "whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17). The invitation is to whosoever, and it is the last one in the Book.