(upbeat music) - We have electronic mail from listener Charles Dazel in South Africa. Pastor John, I love listening to the podcast each day. If I'm correct, the Bible mentions the phrase, the book of life about 14 times. And quite a few of those passages mention getting blotted out of the book of life.

How does this not mean losing your salvation? What would you say, Pastor John, to Charles? - When it comes to the doctrine of eternal security or perseverance of the saints, we need to speak with precision. And I think it's not quite precise to say, as Charles does, in quite a few of the scriptures, it mentions you can be blotted out of the book of life.

I don't think it ever says you can be blotted out, at least not in the sense that sometimes God does it. It says we will be blotted out if we fail to meet certain conditions. Now, whether that ever happens or in God's sovereignty can happen is another question. I don't think so, and let me try to show why.

The book of Revelation is the book that refers to this most often, and it's the book that has the text that sounds most problematical, I think. So Revelation 3:5 says, "He who overcomes shall thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and his angels." Now, some say, "Well, that's a foolproof text against the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints or eternal security." They assume that when Revelation 3:5 says that God will not erase a person's name from the book of life, it implies that he does erase some people from the book of life, and that these people would once be born again, justified, saved, and nevertheless, in the end, condemned, lost, perish.

In other words, they lose their salvation on that reading of that verse. But is that a true assumption? The promise, "I will not erase his name from the book of life," does not necessarily imply that some do have their names erased. It simply says to the one who is in the book and who conquers in faith, "I will never wipe your name out." In other words, being erased is a fearful prospect, which I will not allow to happen to those who persevere.

In fact, there are two other passages in Revelation that teach that to have your name in the book of life means that you will most definitely persevere and conquer and thus meet the condition not to be blotted out. For example, Revelation 13:8 says this, "And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast.

Everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of the life of the Lamb who was slain." Now, that verse teaches that those whose names are written in the book of life definitely will not worship the beast. That's what it says. In other words, having your name in the book of life from the foundation of the world means God will keep you from falling.

He will cause you to persevere in allegiance to God. Being in the book means you will not apostatize. You'll not forsake the faith. Same point in Revelation 17, 8. The beast, this is what it says, the beast that you saw was and is not and is about to come up out of the abyss and go to destruction.

And those who dwell on the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel when they see the beast that was and is and will come. Now, that means having your name in the book of life means you will be kept from marveling at the beast.

Those whose names are not written in the book will marvel at the beast and those whose names are in the book will not marvel. It's infallible as far as the way this author is arguing. To have your name in the book means you won't marvel, you won't worship. So the point is that having one's name written in the book is effective.

It keeps you from making shipwreck of your faith. John does not say, if you worship the beast, your name is erased. He says, if your name is in the book, you will not worship the beast. Now, back to 3.5, Revelation 3.5. He who overcomes, I will not erase his name from the book of life.

Does that mean God erases some people? No, the conquering that keeps you from being erased is guaranteed by being in the book. That's the point of 13.8 and 17.8. Being in the book keeps you from doing what would get you erased from the book if you did it. - Amen, yes.

- And say that again. Being in the book, having your name in the book keeps you from doing, like worshiping the beast, keeps you from doing what would get you erased from the book if you did it. And that's not a contradiction any more than the way Paul is a contradiction when he says, work out your salvation, for God is at work in you to will and to do his good pleasure.

Philippians 2. It's not nonsense to state the condition, if you conquer, God will not erase your name. And then to state the assurance, if your name is in the book, you will conquer. That's not a contradiction. God's written down ones really must conquer, really will conquer. They must and they will.

One side highlights responsibility, you must, and one side highlights God's sovereignty, you will. So the message for us is, I think, never, never, never be cavalier or trifling about your perseverance. God uses real warnings to keep us vigilant and to keep us persevering. We are safe, but we are not careless.

That's the point. Press on to make salvation your own, as Paul says, because Christ has made you his own. Safe, but not careless. Well said, Pastor John, thank you. And we'd love to hear from our international audience, like Charles in South Africa. And to send us a concise question of your own, like this one, go to our online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn and click on the button that says, submit a question.

Well, we're back tomorrow and we're gonna look at how the gospel of Jesus Christ sensitizes us to life in this world, so that we can discern the manifold experiences of this life. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper, and we'll see you tomorrow.

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