What Does The Bible Say About The Book of Life?



NOTE: In answer to many requests Dr. Cooper has prepared the following explanation, giving the difference between the Book of Life and the Lamb's Book of Life.

The Book of Life is the book in which appears the name of every person who is born. The Lamb's Book of Life is the book in which appears the name of every person who has been born again, spiritually speaking, who has been saved through the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. These are not actually books, but God speaks to man in the language that he can understand. To say that our names are in these books is to say that we are in the mind of God. When do our names appear in these books? The answer is found in Psalm 139:16:

 

"Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance;
And in thy book they were all written,
Even the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was none of them."


Also in Revelation 13:8 we find that, in the foreknowledge and omniscience of God, our names appeared in these books "from the foundation of the world."

The Book of Life is mentioned in Psalm 69:28, along with the Lamb's Book. Through the law of double reference, the plea of David blends into that of the Lord Jesus Christ in verses 19 to 28. Speaking of the leaders, the authorities, such as Caiaphas, who perpetrated His arrest and crucifixion, He pleads:

 

27 "Add iniquity unto their iniquity;
And let them not come into thy righteousness,
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life,
And not be written with the righteous."


This passage reveals that names can be blotted out of the Book of Life. We know that none can be blotted out of the Lamb's Book, because no one who has been saved is ever lost. In this passage, then, the plea is made that these wicked ones have their names removed from the Book of Life that they never have salvation--never have their names enrolled with the righteous in the Lamb's Book. This prayer is not contradictory to the prayer on the cross, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." As this prayer clearly indicates, it is for those who in ignorance were led to join in the cry, "Crucify him; crucify him." It is not for those in authority who knowingly and willfully perpetrated the most heinous crime in all history.

The Book of Life is mentioned in Revelation, chapter 3:

"4 But thou hast a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy. 5 He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."

This passage shows that the righteous will have their names retained in the Book of Life. From the statement that the Lord Jesus will confess the names of these persons before "my Father," we know that their names are also in the Lamb's Book of Life.

In Revelation 13:8 we learn that during the Tribulation all those whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will worship the Antichrist: "And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain."

Lastly we learn of the Book of Life in Revelation 20:11-15, the judgment of the Great White Throne, before which only the wicked will appear:

"11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead that were in it; and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, even the lake of fire. 15 And if any was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire."

To summarize, every one has his name written in the "Book of life". The wicked will have their names blotted out of this book. The righteous, the born-again believers, have their names written in the Book of Life and in the Lamb's Book, and thy will never have their names blotted out of either one.