Q:  What is the Lamb’s Book of Life? I heard a televangelist say names can be erased, but I believe I am in forever. Which is it?

A: This is one of those topics that can be hashed out in some coffee shop for hours, and all people have done is copped a buzz and gotten confused.

There are always groups on this side or that, with good points to prove that a name can be erased, or that they are etched in granite forever. I have discovered that some of the best answers are the simplest.

Joshua declared, “Choose you this day who you will serve,” (Joshua 24:15). How simple is that? Jesus said, “He who is not against us is for us,” (Mark 9:40). That’s not hard to figure out. Here is mine, plain and simple. Get your feet on the rock and your name on the roll. Now stay there.

Hey, I warned you that I didn’t have anything deep or profound to offer. Well, maybe I forgot to. Anyway, salvation is secured on the rock of salvation which is Jesus, and our name must be found listed in the Lamb’s book of life in the end. John wrote, “If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire,” (Rev 20:15).

The names of people who will enter heaven have been written in the Lamb’s book of life since the foundation of the world.

(See Rev 13:8.) God already knows who will say yes to His Son tomorrow, because God has already been to tomorrow. Einstein talked about time being relative, and the idea that everything in the universe is happening at once. If God exists in the eternal now, then He has no problem knowing who will receive His Son tonight, or who will not. He has already seen it. Thus the names of everyone heaven‑bound are divinely pre‑recorded. We’re the ones stuck in time, but God has no problem knowing.

So, God chooses man, and man chooses, but only God knows whether each man will or will not. God has given us a glimpse of how it works, but only God knows how it really works; but it works. Is this beginning to hurt? Maybe this will help. The real issue is not if names can be erased, but that we simply abide in Jesus all the way.

Some Southern Baptist will follow me across the parking lot proving that once we’re saved, we’re always saved. The next day somebody from the Church of Christ will try convincing me that we can lose salvation. Here’s my two cents. The word “abide” is used a bunch of times in John 15. This means to remain standing with Jesus in your life. Just do that, and finish your race well.

John 15:6