Was Your Name Written in the Lamb's Book of Life Before the Foundation of the World?

[Music] [Music] the soteriology 101 podcast where God is most glorified by his love and provision for all people welcome your host the director of apologetics for Texas Baptists an adjunct professor of theology and a local teaching pastor dr. Lane flowers welcome back to sociology 101 today we're gonna answer a question I get quite often about the Lamb's Book of Life where our names recorded before the foundation of the world before we dive in I want to just remind you of a few things there at so triology 101's website there's a search feature there if you've got questions and you're looking for an article you can find all kinds of material there at the the website please go there first before sending me a message just because more than likely I'm not gonna be able to have time to get to all the messages or go to our Facebook page there's a lot of professors PhDs who are on the Facebook page who believe much like I do who would be glad to engage and answer some of those questions for you I'm actually gonna be traveling for a while and I won't be able to answer a lot of the emails and questions that I'm getting also if you can help us please help us spread the word either by retweeting or sharing on your Facebook page the 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them to hear what our view is with regard to these questions and if you wanna make a one-time donation you also have that option there but we need the help to get the word out it's the only way that we're gonna be to be able to curtail this generation of understanding of God's love and provision for all of humanity so help make that happen now let's dive into the question I'm gonna be a resourcing and looking for some resources from Richard cords a friend of mine from examining Calvinism calm and so he's a contributor and a friend and and got his permission to to republish this a long while back and just wanted to use it as a way to answer this question because I think he does a good biblical sound job of really answering why Calvinists have misinterpreted this passage these passages with regard to names being written before the foundation of the world so if for example we look at revelation 13:8 and we also see Matthew 25:34 we see this we see all who dwell on the earth will worship Him everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain now notice I emphasize the word from those who can see the screen are not listen to the audio only podcast you can see that I've underlined the word from there because that's going to be the focus of this discussion so really pay attention to the word from and how Calvinists I think have switched that word to make it a better support their particular theological will view now you can be the judge for yourself I'm gonna try to put the evidence in front of you for you to see this for example what we see from Calvinist John MacArthur who comments quote seven times in the New Testament believers are identified as those whose names are written in the book of life and he gives a list of those verses the book of life belonging to the Lamb the Lord Jesus is a registry in which God inscribed the names of those chosen for salvation before the foundation of the world this phrase is used as a synonym for eternity past in and they list a bunch of other verses where it's used in that terminology believers are doubly secure because the book of life belongs to the Lamb who has been slain not only the decree of election but also the atoning work of Christ seals the redemption of the elect forever in quote that's from the MacArthur New Testament com terrian revelation 1 through 11 page 50 thus the Calvinistic paraphrase of revelation 13:8 and some other passages is to change the word from the word from to the word before but clearly those two words carry very distinct meanings as McArthur similarly comments on Matthew 25:34 he says quote the Lord designed his kingdom from before the foundation of the world and he designed who would be in it from before the foundation of the world in quote that's from understanding election from John MacArthur as well so another verse that demonstrates this point is Matthew nineteen eight quote he said to them because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives but from the beginning it has not been this way so evidently the word from from the beginning does not mean before the beginning but from the beginning from Genesis the beginning that's what it means now notice all statements here this all statements where before the foundation of the world is used are given reference to Christ so John 17 24 for example Ephesians 1:4 1st Peter 1:20 when you see the word before Pro is in the regional language Greek when are you here before the foundation of the world it's always in reference to Jesus and rightly so he he's eternally existent before the foundation of the world so you you right would least say before the foundation of the world when talking about Jesus but all statements where from the foundation of the world at PO in Greek from the foundation of the world is used is in reference to man moving us from a point of reference forward and it makes sense because man has a beginning point in Genesis we have a beginning because we're creatures that were created unlike Christ the eternal one and you see those passages listed there where a PO is used from the foundation of the world Matthew 25:34 Luke 11:50 revelation 13:8 so here's the question what does from the foundation of the world mean and what is the impact of adding our changing it to the word before the foundation of the world answer before the foundation of the world indicates before Genesis whereas from the foundation of the world indicates from Genesis to the present therefore it is incorrect to equate written from the foundation of the world with written before the foundation of the world Luke 11 49 351 states quote for this reason also the wisdom of God said I will send them prophets and apostles and some of them will kill and some of them they will persecute so that the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this generation from the blood of Abel to the blood of zechariah who was killed between the altar and the house of god yes i tell you it shall be charged against this generation if you similarly insert before the greek pro then you will you would have to conclude that the prophets were martyred before they were born which makes no sense right so therefore it is reasonable to conclude that the names that were written into the Lamb's Book of Life which are said to be written from a PO not pro but a PO the foundation of the world were written as people came became Christians okay in time as a response to as a result of their their belief okay so that's the difference between those two meanings so MacArthur I think along with many other Calvinists have altered the biblical text of from the foundation of the world and have made it they kind of slightly switched it over to say before the foundation of the world well the King James Version reads quote and all that dwelled upon the earth shall worship Him whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world now here's the question why does the Calvinistic Leeming English standard version the ESV why does it translate revelation 13:8 as before the foundation of the world instead of from the foundation of the world y'all look at this real quick here it is on blue leather Bible calm which is a great source if you're looking for you know the original languages and different translations here's the King James Version this all happens to be on the screen the whose names are not written in the book of light at the lamb slain from the word from there from the foundation of the world in King James which is a PO right here you can see that in the original Greek and so you scroll down and you can even look at the word a PO here look root form Greek a PO okay from and now go over to ESV okay so here's the ESV version and notice what they've got been written before the foundation of the world that's the same Greek I mean Greek doesn't ever change okay you got different translations it's still a po creek okay so it hasn't changed there the translators changed it okay why I really really I think good question why did they change that answer unknown will have to suspect that the Calvinists - going back to Richard's article here we have to suspect that the Calvinists lead committee felt it better support of their so logical view and translated the Greek word a PO as before instead of from the Greek word a PO is sense or from that's how it's translated the Greek word Pro is before which makes sense Pro meaning something that comes beforehand we all know that the Greek word a PO is used in Matthew 13 35 25 34 Luke 11:50 Hebrews before 3 and 926 and in Revelation 3:8 and 17:8 the Calvinistic translation the ESV seems to be erroneous at revelation 13:8 as a mistranslated a PO as before what's telling is that in the parallel versions of Revelation 13:8 and revelation 17:8 in which a PO is used in the same exact way the ESV properly translates a PO in revelation 17:8 as from but improperly translated a PO in Revelation 13:8 as before okay and Calvinists have just continued this same erroneous conclusion the word before and changing it to the word from because it fits their systemic maybe unintentionally because they've got the ESV and they're trusting those commentators and those translators to do it correctly and so I'm assuming that possibly some Calvinists are just not aware of this error indeed the lamb is before the foundation of the world as per first Peter 1:20 but the revelation 13:8 from the foundation of the world is not modifying the lamb but modifying the writings of names when used of time a PO can only mean from in the sense of sense since the foundation of the world the point identified is the beginning point of the period in view now I go on to write underneath here Richards article clearly spells out the differences between traditionalists and Calvinists but I also want to draw our attention to the problem within the ranks of Calvinism if you have studied anything about the Lapps Arian controversy you will recognize right away that interpreting passages about the Lamb's Book of Life as being completed before the foundation of the world would necessitate a high super elapsed Arian position which has typically been rejected by mainstream Calvinists among Southern Baptist at least most Southern Baptist Calvinists like a David plant or a Matt Chandler for example a JD Grier those guys who are Calvinists they're lower forms of Calvinists not typically superlap serían so even translating the the Lamb's Book of Life as being written before the foundation of the world as is if it God selecting certain individuals wouldn't fit their normal way of looking at the different laps Aryan views and so I'd be interested to explore how a Calvinist who is not a super lapse Aryan would maintain their perspective of the Lamb's Book of Life being completed by God unconditionally before the foundation of the world so hopefully that answers the question from a traditionalist perspective is that when you interpret the text rightly their text really makes a lot of sense and you don't have a lot of problems with it lessons to you see you next time bye-bye you

Channel: Soteriology101

Views: 24,225

Rating: 4.7605443 out of 5

Keywords: Lamb's book, book of life, written, before the foundation of the world, from the foundation of the world, calvinism, calvinist, traditionalism, traditionalist, Leighton flowers, Provisionalism, Southern Baptist, SBC

Id: XXZVmV2pb2s

Length: 14min 9sec (849 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 18 2017