Jorgfe
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Username: Jorgfe
Post Number: 487
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Monday, July 30, 2007 - 10:19 pm: |     |
This evening after worship I read Phillipians 4:3 where Paul lists some people whose names he says are in the Book of Life. So far, so good. That got me wondering what the official Seventh-day Adventist interpretation is on the Book of Life as it relates to the mythical Investigative Judgment.
Why do I care? Because it is helpful when talking to Adventists who actually believe in such a thing as the "pre-Advent" Investigative Judgment. I am also trying to sort out what I learned from Ellen White, and what I learned from the Bible. Perhaps I am just dense, but does the following even make any sense to you?
I did a search on Google to try to find out the official Seventh-day Adventist line.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Book+of+Life%22+%22Investigative+Judgment%22&btnG=Search
Considering that that Seventh-day Adventism states that promulgation of this "unique" doctrine is the most important reason for her existence, it is amazing that she has not done a better job of providing a larger number of positive google listings!
Here are some quotes from http://www.sdabol.org/BOL%20Research/booklife.htm:
quote:Revelation
S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 7 p. 987
12-15 (chs. 3:5; 13:8; 21:27; 22:19). The Book of Life. --When we become children of God, our names are written in the Lamb's book of life, and they remain there until the time of the investigative judgment. Then the name of every individual will be called, and his record examined, by Him who declares, "I know thy works." If in that day it shall appear that all our wicked deeds have not been fully repented of, our names will be blotted from the book of life, and our sins will stand against us (ST Aug. 6, 1885).
quote:Lift Him Up as Our Advocate and Infallible Judge
Lift Him Up, p. 326
Christ says of the overcomer, "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." The names of all those who have once given themselves to God are written in the book of life, and their characters are now passing in review before him. Angels of God are weighing moral worth. They are watching the development of character in those now living, to see if their names can be retained in the book of life. A probation is granted us in which to wash our robes of character and make them white in the blood of the Lamb. Who is doing this work? Who is separating from himself sin and selfishness? "Ye are dead," says the apostle Paul of the true followers of Christ, "and your life is hid with Christ in God." When we are alive to God, we are dead to self. May God help us to die to self. Whose names will not be blotted out of the book of life? Only the names of those who have loved God with all the powers of their being, and their neighbors as themselves.
quote:Facing Life's Record
The Great Controversy, p. 480
The book of life contains the names of all who have ever entered the service of God. Jesus bade His disciples: "Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." Luke 10:20. Paul speaks of his faithful fellow workers, "whose names are in the book of life." Philippians 4:3. Daniel, looking down to "a time of trouble, such as never was," declares that God's people shall be delivered, "everyone that shall be found written in the book." And the revelator says that those only shall enter the city of God whose names "are written in the Lamb's book of life." Daniel 12:1; Revelation 21:27.
So it appears that:
1. The names of all who have once given themselves to God are written in the book of life. Stephen Haskell, in Cross and Shadow wrote, "In the investigative judgment ... only those who have at some time called upon the name of the Lord for salvation ... will be investigated."
2. Names written in the Lamb's book of life remain there until the time of the Investigative Judgment.
3. When the Investigative Judgment occurs, the name of each individual will be called (to who?), and his record examined, by Him who declares, "I (already) know thy works (so I could probably do this for memory)."
4. Angels of God are "weighing moral worth."
5. Only the names of those who have loved God with all the powers of their being, and their neighbors as themselves will not be blotted out of the book of life.
6. (Children of God "should never be taught to say or feel that they are saved." Christ Object Lessons, p 155)
7. If in that day it shall appear that all of our wicked deeds have not been fully repented of, our names will be blotted from the book of life.
So am I correct in thinking that the Adventist doctrine is that:
1. Anyone who has ever given themselves to God at any time in the past has their name written in the Lamb's book of life?
2. There are those whose name are written in the Lamb's book of life who will be lost?
I am so glad to be a Christian! Another resource, John Gill's Exposition of the Bible for Revelation 3:5 says
quote:And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life;
by which is meant the choice of persons to everlasting life and salvation; and this being signified by a book, and by writing names in it, shows the exact knowledge God has of his elect, the value he has for them, his remembrance of them, his love to them, and care for them; and that this election is of particular persons by name, and is sure and certain; for those whose names are written in it shall never be blotted out, they will always remain in the number of God's elect, and can never become reprobates, or shall ever perish; because of the unchangeableness of the nature and love of God, the firmness of his purposes, the omnipotence of his arm, the death and intercession of Christ for them, their union to him, and being in him, the impossibility of their seduction by false teachers, and the security of their persons, grace, and glory in Christ, and in whose keeping this book of life is; which respects not this temporal life, that belongs to the book of providence, but a spiritual and eternal life, from whence it has its name.
quote:"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16
quote:For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. Revelation 22:18-19
Gilbert Jorgensen |
