The Book of Life

Book of Life

The book of life is one of the books that will be opened at the day of judgment (Revelation 20:12). What is this book? How do we have our name added to it? How important is it that our name is found there? Let us notice a few things the Scriptures teach about this book.
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Who Will Be Lost? Who Will Be Saved?

Thinking young man

Anyone who has even a mild interest in spiritual things wants to go to heaven. Do you just want to go, or are you really going? How can we know if we are going to heaven or not?

Many times when one tries to explain who is and who is not going to heaven, charges are made that such a one is judging others. It is of prime importance that we understand who it is that is the Judge, for there is only one (James 4:12). Paul said, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10).

It does not matter what you or I think. What matters is what He thinks. Judgment will be made according to His word (John 12:48). So what does the word of God say? First of all, it says that many will be lost while only a few will be saved (Matthew 7:13-14). If we want to be among the saved, we ought to find out what His word says about who will be saved and who will be lost.
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Three Branches of Government

Three Branches of Government

The U.S. Constitution specifies three separate branches that make up our government: legislative, executive, and judicial. These branches of government are not unique to the United States. Every government will carry out these functions in one way or another.

When it comes to the rule of God, His government performs the same legislative, executive, and judicial functions. Isaiah wrote, “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; He will save us” (Isaiah 33:22). We live under a different covenant today than the Israelites did at the time of this writing. They were part of God’s kingdom in the nation of Israel. We are part of Christ’s kingdom today in the church. But even today, when we examine the rule of Christ, we see that Jesus completely and sufficiently carries out the role of each branch of government in His kingdom.
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The Curse of Adam

Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden

Calvinism teaches that man is born totally depraved, separated from God, and unable to come to Him apart from a divine operation of the Holy Spirit upon his heart. Why is man allegedly in such a state? It is because of Adam’s sin.

The basic idea is this: God created Adam and Eve in the beginning. Later, these two sinned (Genesis 3). Because of Adam’s sin, all of his descendants are cursed, having inherited the guilt of Adam’s sin. One key verse for this doctrine is Romans 5:12 – “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.

What we need to remember is that the Bible speaks of two different types of death – physical death (the separation of the spirit from the body) and spiritual death (the separation of man from God). Adam suffered both of these. One was a punishment for his sin. The other was a consequence of his sin.
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All Continues Just as it Was

When Jesus ascended into heaven, the apostles were there to witness the event. Afterward, two angels appeared to them and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Christians today “eagerly wait” for the Lord to return, as the angels said He would, and bring the faithful home to heaven (Philippians 3:20-21; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

That was about two thousand years ago. Yet we remain watchful, knowing that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief” (2 Peter 3:10). But there are many today who will ridicule this idea. They say we should live as we please here because this is the only life we will have. We should not be surprised that there are such people. After all, Peter wrote about them in the first century. As the apostle began discussing the day of the Lord, he wrote, “Knowing this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation’” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
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Taking Stock

Meditation

As another year is quickly drawing to a close, we often use this time to take stock of our lives. We look back at where we have been and evaluate where we are now. We also tend to look forward to the new year and what might lie ahead, thinking about what we ought to do in order to get to where we want to be.

It is certainly a good exercise for us to consider where we are in contrast to where we have been and where we are going. While we are doing this, let us not forget our spiritual lives. It would be good for us to be taking stock of where we have been, where we are, and where we are headed.
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How Much Does God Hate Sin?

Flight of Lot

Sin is not taken very seriously by many in our society. People ignore it, make excuses for it, and joke about it. This casual attitude is in stark contrast with the way God views sin.

There are three examples from the book of Genesis that clearly demonstrate to us just how much God hates sin. We will briefly look at each of these examples as well as how they compare with God’s view of sin under the gospel age.
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