The Book of Life

cameo-d

Do you think this has anything to do with church records? Baptismal records?

yknot

Are you talking about the scrolls in Revelation?

cameo-d

It is with reference to the Book of Life that the holy remnant is spoken of as being written unto life [2] in Jerusalem [3] ; compare also Ezekiel ix. 4, where one of the six heavenly envoys "who had the scribe's inkhorn upon his loins" is told to mark the righteous for life, while the remainder of the inhabitants of Jerusalem are doomed. The Psalmist likewise speaks of the Book of Life in which only the names of the righteous are written "and from which the unrighteous are blotted out" [4] . Even the tears of men are recorded in this Book of God [5] . "Every one that shall be found written in the book . . . shall awake to everlasting life" [6] . This book is probably identical with the "Book of Remembrance" in which are recorded the deeds of those that fear the Lord [7] .

Considering that I believe this "god" to be the ET's who are trying to take the credit for creation.....and suspect that the churches of christiandom are in cahoots (some knowingly, some unaware) and the fact that so many churches keep records on people.....

The ET covenant is with the 12 tribes and not the general population. And of course, no one is totally righteous....so it looks like there will be more hoops to jump through even if your name is in the book.

Also according to the above quote "deeds of those who fear the Lord." I don't think anyone feared Jesus (unless it was the pharisees and that's why they killed him for making trouble and exposing them) . Jesus did not want people to fear him. He did not beat them up for mistakes and ignorance. So this "Lord" would have to be one of the jinns, ETs, evil watcher angels, maybe satan himself.

Farkel

:Those whose names are written in the Book of Life are those repented Christians who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

Why does God need to write those names down in a book? Can't God just remember stuff like that?

Farkel

Leolaia

Revelation appears to be dependent on the Essene notion that Enoch is the heavenly scribe (1 Enoch 8:1-2, 12:4, 14:24-15:1), who writes down the deeds of all generations into the heavenly books. These books are opened on Judgment Day so that everyone may be judged on account of what they did prior to the resurrection. Thus Jubilees (written in the middle of the second century BC) says that "Enoch's work was something created as a warning to the generations of the world, so that he should report all deeds of each generation on the day of judgment" (10:17; cf. 4:17-21). Similarly, in the Essene Dead Sea Scrolls, the Genesis Apocryphon states that Enoch "is beloved and since with the holy ones (i.e. the angels) is his lot apportioned and they inform him of everything" (2:20-21), that is, the deeds of those on the earth. Daniel (written in the early second century BC) has a similar notion of the heavenly books, and it is quite clear that its thought is cognate to that in Enochic Judaism (indeed, the throne vision in ch. 7 is probably literarily dependent on the Book of Giants, written in the third century BC).

In late Essene thought, Enoch was thought to be glorified as the Son of Man who would come to earth in judgment as the Anointed One (as in the Book of Parables of 1 Enoch, written in the early first century AD). This development was influential on the Christian concept of the Son of Man. Then in post-Essene Jewish mysticism, Enoch was glorified further as the archangel Metatron, the "lesser YHWH". Hence we read in 3 Enoch: "The angel Metatron, Prince of the Divine Presence, said to me: 'When the Holy One, blessed be he, removed me from the generation of the Flood, he bore me up on the stormy wings of the Shekineh to the highest heaven and brought me into the great palaces in the height of the heaven" (3 Enoch 7:1). On Metatron's scribal activity, he is referred to as the heavenly scribe in the targums: "And Enoch served faithfully before God and behold he was not with the inhabitants of the earth, for he had perished and ascended into heaven and he called his name Metratron, the great scribe" (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Gen. 5:24).

yknot

Sacolton..... With all due respect most of what Cameo-d is discussing is from the Hebrew Scriptures which of course is prior to the Messiah.

In theory the scrolls of life in Revelation and the Hebrew Scriptures are one in the same. Since I am a Christian I would have to ultimately go with the explanation given in Revelation 20: 11-15

NWT (which reads similar to other translations I check on BibleGateway http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelations%2020:%2011-15;&version=31;49;9;15;77 ;)

-(Revelation20:11-15)11 And I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it. From before him the earth and the heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. But another scroll was opened; it is the scroll of life. And the dead were judged out of those things written in the scrolls according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up those dead in it, and death and Ha´des gave up those dead in them, and they were judged individually according to their deeds. 14 And death and Ha´des were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death, the lake of fire. 15 Furthermore, whoever was not found written in the book of life was hurled into the lake of fire.

So here we see all the dead are judged. So you are either resurrected (dead standing before the throne) and rejoice to hear your name is there or saddened and cast into the lake of fire (which for JWs is the final destruction)....... thus proving Jehovah did in fact blot out some names.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Now about your 'ET god'........um how much StarGate do you watch? I ask because it sound very similar to that plotline. In addition you would have to be adding an to the argument of literal versus figurative Israeli tribes into Israel not even being earthly.

Your last comment of ""recorded the deeds of those that fear the Lord"" is referencing Malachi 3:16. I am not going to attempt to explain the trinitarian POV of this scripture, but the us Arians designate this 'LORD' to be Jehovah Almighty, father of Christ not Christ himself. In the Greek Scriptures there are additonal references to 'fearing the FATHER'.....which to us is Jehovah not Jesus.

cameo-d

Why does God need to write those names down in a book? Can't God just remember stuff like that?

Right on Farkle!

If 'god' is supposed to "read the heart" why does he need spies to take notes on us?

Has anybody here ever had a problem with trying to resolve and prove incorrect information...perhaps a bill dispute and it STILL ends up in your equifax records? Or something mistaken written into your medical records? How about a school teacher that did not like you and wrote negative comments on your report card? How are you going to argue with the spy angels if they have written unfavorable or incorrect information or one sided views and opinions of you?

cameo-d

Those whose names are written in the Book of Life are those repented Christians who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior

Sacolton, I am curious to know...is this your own idea or what WT teaches?

As Leolei has also shown, as did my quote from OT, this originated long before Jesus ever walked the earth. This is not something directly related to Jesus or salvation.

Also, Sacolton, does Leolei's reference and OT quotes change your thoughts on the subject or cause you to question this more deeply?

cameo-d

Your last comment of ""recorded the deeds of those that fear the Lord"" is referencing Malachi 3:16. I am not going to attempt to explain the trinitarian POV of this scripture, but the us Arians designate this 'LORD' to be Jehovah Almighty, father of Christ not Christ himself. In the Greek Scriptures there are additonal references to 'fearing the FATHER'.....which to us is Jehovah not Jesus.

I know that ynot. That is why I explained that "Lord" could not be descriptive of "Jesus"...and because I knew that somebody would say this Book of Life had to do with redemption from Jesus.

Slappy

I actually did a little side-study on the 'Book of Life' a few weeks ago. The actual phrase 'Book of Life' appears only 8 times in the Bible (NKJV), and all of those instances occur in the NT. It appears once in Philippians and seven time in Revelations.

In Rev. 13:8 & 17:8, it mentions those that have not been written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. Calvinists would undoubtedly argue that that is proof of God choosing those who would be saved (aka. no free will). However, Romans 8:29, I think, explains what is meant by those verses in Revelation.

However, one thing that I'm still studying is the fact that there are those that can be 'blotted out' of the Book of Life. This seems to be a very strong argument against our salvation being assured for all eternity. While some may view that as a contradiction to other parts of the Bible, I find it intriguing. For if this really is the Word of God, then it is safe to assume that I will not understand everything at first glance. I may not understand everything even after I've been over it several times. Does this make the Bible a 'load of bull'? Does the fact that one cannot understand physics make physics a 'load of bull'? No! It just means that the one who is studying such doesn't have the proper mindset to adequately understand what is admittedly a difficult subject. Saying that such is stupid and not worth one's time is the juvenile answer to such difficulties.

slappy

The Book of Life

Share this