Return to Bible Basics - Part Three

 

Return to Bible Basics – Part Three

 

When I completed Part Two of this post on Bible Basics, I attempted to highlight a few points from the Book of Revelation that I believe are key to understanding the full message of our scripture, leading to our salvation. The most significant of those points was:

“The ultimate goal of every person should be to obtain eternal life with our Creator by being included in the “Lamb’s Book of Life”. (Revelation 20: 15;  21: 27)

The key here is that throughout man’s existence, whether aware of it or not, every one of us has been given a choice affecting this eternal destiny. The Bible tells us “the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men”. (Titus 2: 11-14)  Many people, even among believers, find it hard to understand how people never exposed to Christianity or the Bible could be saved.  Although our minds may have difficulty understanding how that could be, we do know that with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19: 26) He has a way of providing information to people that goes beyond our limited level of understanding. Further, whether the issue is related to salvation or something else, He knows not only what we do, but also what is in a person’s heart…what we believe that motivates us. (1 Samuel 16: 7)

Knowing these things we can start with ourselves and, if we wish, look back through mankind’s history to see what decisions were made by others to secure a person’s name in the “Lamb’s Book of Life.” First, regarding the “Lamb”, I remind you that throughout the Old Testament the lamb was a sacrificial  animal used by Israel in its worship of the Lord God Jehovah. This concept was continued into the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ by John the Baptist when he heralded the Lord’s arrival when he said: “Behold the Lamb of God Who taketh away the sins of the world”.  (John 1: 29-36) Now, in the Book of Revelation we find that it is our Lord Jesus Who possesses the Book of Life that determines who will spend eternity with Him and our Father. (Revelation 5: 1-10; 20: 11-15; 21: 22-27)

Now to get a perspective regarding our own personal salvation, we must back up from our future with our Lord Jesus, to our present. We are in the position of having our names as Christians included in the Book of Life because we have been made members of the Body of Christ. (1 Corinthians Chapter 12)  That happened when we believed the Gospel of Grace by which we were saved (1 Corinthians 15: 1-4; Romans 10: 9-13)   Our Lord Jesus accomplished the act of redeeming us some 2,000 years ago, from the death sentence that was awaiting us as sons of Adam. We were saved when we believed that He suffered, shed His blood and died for us…and then overcame death through His Resurrection.  Nothing else, but that we believed.

Further, we have been blessed even beyond our position in the Book of Life. Due to the timing of our birth, God brought us into this world during the past 100 years so that we could fully experience and understand these closing days of this world age. Even as we’ve watched the prophesied decline of society during our lifetimes, we’ve seen and are seeing the fulfillment of scripture. Israel having returned to their Promised Land; explosions in knowledge / science including the societal impact of social media and artificial intelligence (AI); increasing murders and other domestic violence and border wars; pestilences / diseases; political infighting;  growing racial / ethnic / gender and other disputes; destructive “natural phenomena”; and “climate change” are some markers of world-wide decline leading to the end of this age. (Ezekiel Chapter 37, Daniel 12: 4; Matthew 24: 3-8; and Revelation 13: 16)

To get still another perspective of who else would be in the Lamb’s Book of Life, consider those who lived many centuries before us, whose names are noted in what many call the Bible’s “Hall of Faith”. (Hebrews, Chapter 11)  What we share with them is that our salvation was based on our faith in believing what God has said, not based on what we might have done in this life. (Romans 3: 19-28; Ephesians 2: 1-13)  Both we, and they, and others who believed (or will believe) what God has said to us through the Scripture, already have or will have our names in that precious Lamb’s Book of Life.

Dr. W. A. Robinson