Christians: What about Revelations 17:8?

Question

The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

...from the foundation of the world? Doesn't this tell us that the names are already written in the book? SUPPOSE one could find out if their name is written in the book. Does that mean they can sin all they want?

Answer 1

It's true that we can’t lose our salvation by sinning. And we can’t completely stop sinning either. Sin is in our very own nature, in our flesh and bones, it's not something that we acquire by our actions, we are born sinners. On the other hand, we do have a choice to go with the Lord or against the Lord in our daily living. Some times we choose the Lord, while some times we fail. It's a life long, slow, transformation process that we go through.

Before we can be with the Lord through eternity we need to go through various steps. We are first predestinated and redeemed by the Lord, but then we need to be sanctified and transformed and finally glorified to be confirmed in the Son's image. Yes, those whom He predestinated and chose before the foundation of the world would spend eternity with Him in New Jerusalem, but everyone need to go through these steps before being glorified and confirmed. We have the choice of choosing the Lord in our daily life, denying our self and be transformed and gain the Lord as much as we can in this life and built up together to be the church as overcomers, or sin as we want and live a reckless life. Even if we do live such a sinful life, we still need to go through the transformation, sanctification steps and have our self and sinful nature dealt with. If we don’t deny our self and let our soul be transformed now, we will face God’s Judgment later and be transformed and have our soul dealt with later.

Those who haven’t tasted the Lord and seen His preciousness would wonder 'How can you give up these things of the world and choose God' or like you said 'If you know your eternal life is assured then why not go do whatever you want'. But those who have tasted Him and seen His preciousness know that there's nothing in this world more precious than Him.

One parable that comes to my mind is the parable of the prodigal son. He ate with pigs in a pig sty and later returned home to his father, who welcomed him and ordered his servants to bring in the fattened calf. Once he starts to enjoy the riches in his fathers house and eats the fattened calf, would he think about going back to the pig sty to eat pig food?

The pig sty is like the world and the pig food is like the enjoyment, entertainment and all the things of the world. We are in our Father's house, in the Church, we have the Lord as our supply, and as we feed on Him, we will lose our desires to seek after other things.

To sum it all up, yes, our being with the Lord is based on His choosing before the foundation of the world. But as sinners, we all need to be transformed and santified before we can be with Him in New Jerusalem. We can choose Him now in this age and be transformed now or we can reject him now, sin all we want and be dealt with and be transformed later. But either way, we all need to have our sin and self dealt with before we can spend eternity with Him.

Answer 2

Exodus  32:32

11 Kings  14:27

Jeremiah  18:23

Psalms  51:9

Psalms  69:28

Acts 3:19

Isaiah  43:25

Colossians 2:14

REVELATIONS 3:5

Sis, if you've received the Holy Spirit, your name is in the book.  Keep it there !

Answer 3

Its talking about the book of life, where the names of all of God's prophets and saints from genesis to revalation is written. The book is sealed. As for the beast no one knows who he is yet, and the bottomless pit represents a place in h**l where he is currently bound but will be set loose. God told moses that if  anyone sinned against him, he would blot  out their name from the book of life. If you deliberately and continuously sin then he can remove a person's name from the book of life. Not everyone's name is written in the book, only those who live by the word of God.

Answer 4

you have diacovered one of the many contradictions outlined in the bible, whicu do you take as fact how do you find the truth when one section contradicts the other so consistantly

Answer 5

No.

Rev. 2:4-5 – Jesus tells the Ephesians that they abandoned the love they had at first and have fallen. Jesus warns them to repent and do the works they did at first, otherwise He will remove their lampstand (their awaited place in heaven).

Rev. 3:4 - in Sardis, Jesus explained that some people received the white garment and soiled it with sin.

Rev. 3:5 - Jesus says whoever conquers will not be blotted out of the book of life (see Exodus 32:33). This means that we can be blotted out of the book of life. We can have salvation, and then lose salvation by our choice.

Rev. 3:11 - Jesus says to hold fast to what we have, so that no one may seize our crown. Jesus teaches us that we can have the crown of salvation and lose it.

Rev. 13:10; 14:12 - we are called from heaven for the endurance and faith of the saints, keeping the commandments and faith.

Rev. 21:7 - we must conquer in order to share in our heritage and become a true son of Jesus.

Rev. 22:19 - we can have a share in the tree of life in God's holy city and yet have that share taken away from us.

The bible refutes the man-made opinion of "eternal salvation" that was invented 400 years ago, and never was part of Christianity. Justification by faith alone rips love from faith, reducing justification into a Judaizing law. Even the Lutherans have advanced past this reformist nonsense.

Answer 6

It's really ironic that no one seems to understand that the book of life means exactly what it is named. Hasn't all of humanity experienced life on this God created earth? Has Satan and his angels experienced the same? ......I'll answer the last question myself........No, they have always been spirits from the foundation of the world.  

Answer 7

The book isn't at the local library..

You can't, the Book has been sealed until the end, and only the Lamb is fit to open it.

Answer 8

The writing of a person’s name in “the book of life” does not predestine that one to eternal life. His name’s remaining there depends on his obedience. Thus Moses pleaded with Jehovah for Israel: “Now if you will pardon their sin,—and if not, wipe me out, please, from your book that you have written.” God answered: “Whoever has sinned against me, I shall wipe him out of my book.” (Ex 32:32, 33) This indicates that the list of names in “the book” would undergo changes because of disobedience on the part of some, their names being ‘wiped’ or ‘blotted’ out from “the book."

How does a person get his name permanently retained in “the book of life”? For those who are in line to receive heavenly life, it is by ‘conquering’ this world through faith, proving themselves “faithful even to death.” (Re 2:10; 3:5)  

Answer 9

Several references are made to “the scroll of life” or to God’s “book.” It evidently contains the names of all those who, because of their faith, are in line to receive the grant of everlasting life either in heaven or on earth. It contains the names of God’s servants “from the founding of the world,” that is, the world of redeemable mankind. So righteous Abel’s is apparently the first name written on “the scroll.”—Re 17:8; Mt 23:35; Lu 11:50, 51.

It appears that God, figuratively speaking, has been writing names in the book of life from “the founding of the world.” (Re 17:8) Since Christ Jesus spoke of Abel as living at “the founding of the world,” this would indicate that the reference is to the world of ransomable mankind that came into existence after children were born to Adam and Eve. (Lu 11:48-51) Abel’s name would evidently be the first one recorded on that symbolic scroll.