The Lamb’s Book of Life is mentioned only in the Book of Revelation, in Rev. 13:8 and 21:27.
Rev. 13:8 “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
First, John says all who dwell on the Earth will worship the anti-Christ.
Then he says their “names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb”.
Christ has a chosen remnant, redeemed by His blood, recorded in His book, sealed by His Spirit; all those multitudes who were sealed on earth are saved in heaven.
From this we can infer that at the beginning of the Great Tribulation there’s no one on Earth whose name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. The Lamb’s Book of Life is the registry of the Church, rescued from the time and place of the End Times judgments.
Rev. 21:27 “But there shall by no means enter it (New Jerusalem) anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.” Parentheses added
It says only those whose names are written therein can enter the New Jerusalem. It is wholly reserved for those who are called, and chosen, and faithful, who are all written … in the Lamb’s Book of Life. This identifies the New Jerusalem as the exclusive home of the Church. There the saints shall have no impure thing remaining in them.
Old Testament and Tribulation believers will be resurrected at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Daniel 12:1-2, Rev. 20:4). However, they will not dwell with us in the New Jerusalem.
The Tribulation martyrs described in Rev. 7:9-17 will serve God in His Temple day and night, but there’s no Temple in the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:22) and believing Tribulation survivors will live on Earth where they’ll re-populate the nations.
Faith is the only work that God requires and none of the other things we can do count for anything until we’ve taken that one required step.
We’re saved because of what we believe, not because of how we behave. Nowhere in all of Scripture is there even a hint that an unbeliever’s destiny can be altered in the slightest by the “goodness” of his or her life.
Many ask, Why should an unbelieving humanitarian who led an exemplary life in service to others, but failed to acknowledge the Lord as his Savior receive the same punishment as someone like Hitler or Stalin who murdered millions of people in cold blood? They say it’s not like God to do this, and back it up by quoting Revelation 20:12 that says in part, “The dead were judged … according to what they had done.”
Is there Biblical support for this?
“And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)
Adam and Eve only had one rule and they only disobeyed it once. But when they did, despite the fact that the good in them far outweighed the bad, and though they had only committed one sin, they died and the creation was cursed, as was all their progeny. We all lament the consequences brought upon us by this one act of disobedience. As Paul wrote, “The result of one trespass was condemnation for all mankind.” (Romans 5:18)
In fact, it would appear from Scripture that the Lord equates unbelief with disobedience. Paul wrote that God believes His existence is simply too obvious to be missed (Romans 1:18-20). And in 2 Thes. 2:10 he said that unbelievers will perish because they refused to love the truth and be saved. To refuse something is to decline it. It’s a specific action. By doing so, unbelievers have disobeyed the one rule He gave us, and in response He’ll do exactly what He said.
There you have it, mankind’s one rule. Believe in the One He has sent. It’s our equivalent to “Don’t eat from that tree.” It’s the only thing that God requires.
If we disobey, nothing else matters. Those who deny Jesus go to eternal punishment according to Matt. 25:46 while the righteous go to eternal life. Isaiah 66:24, Daniel 12:2 & Mark 9:48 all agree.
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