Most Protestants believe that once a person is justified, they cannot lose their salvation. Once written, their names can never be blotted out from the Book of Life. But what does the Bible say?
On the one hand, Jesus says to the seventy-two disciples in Luke 10:20:
But yet rejoice not in this, that spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice in this, that your names are written in heaven.
That sounds good. Their names are written in Heaven. If one cannot lose one’s salvation, then once your name is written in Heaven, it is there for good.
Yet in Psalm 69, as well as later in Revelation, we read that:
Let them be blotted out of the book of the living; and with the just let them not be written.
To be blotted out means that their name was written there in the first place. So in the Bible we see both: God writes someone’s name in the book of life, and God also blots people’s names out of the book, if they decide to reject him.
This is fully harmonious with the Catholic Faith, as the Church teaches that God honors our free will. We can freely choose him, be justified through faith and baptism, but then later choose to reject him, commit mortal sin, and leave his friendship. Our names can thus be written in Heaven but then blotted out from Heaven.
To try to reconcile these verses with their doctrine, Protestants would have to say that God knew that the names he wrote in Heaven he would later remove, thus that person was never saved to begin with, even though their names were written in Heaven for a time. But that means he wrote their names in the book of life even though they were never saved, a sort of ruse that he went through for dramatic effect, I guess, which doesn’t seem to make much sense.
It is thus worthwhile to pose this question to your Protestant friends, not in a “gotcha” style, but honestly seeking to understand how they harmonize these verses with their seemingly incompatible doctrine.
10 thoughts on “Blotted Out from the Book of Life?”
Excellent point! 🙂
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The pattern is interesting. It pervades the blogs of the Christian right. It follows
certain psychological seams that typify those who once held extreme views. It
is usually soon after St Paul type conversions that they go from 0 to light speed
in a very short time, espousing strident views that are aimed at either those who still hold their former belief or – in this case – some church they passed through before settling in as a Catholic The dry drunk’ attitude while proselytizing their
new faith is the saddest of all.
Using a gospel quote to affirm Jesus’ metaphoric reference to those already saved and trumping it with one of King David’s psalms and an apocalyptic end of days vision, all to lambaste Protestant denominations for wallowing in what you perceive as error is …not cool. Sorry you missed the still, very much alive spirit of Vatican II. You still have far to go.
James,
I trump nothing with nothing. Both Catholics and Protestants seek to harmonize seemingly contradictory Bible passages, seeking to find true doctrine from it and eliminating or changing erroneous doctrines. This posts suggests *asking* your Protestant friend who they harmonize these verses–a difficult challenge for them, and a thought-provoking one.
I don’t “perceive” Protestant denominations have errors in their doctrine–the Catholic Church *teaches* it. And correcting errors (instructing the ignorant) is a work of mercy.
That I “still have far to go” in my Christian life I do not deny, but that the part I have far to go on is to somehow capture the “very much alive spirit of Vatican II” is silly.
For all your psycho-analysis, you didn’t actually provide any information or theory about how a Protestant would harmonize these verses, or why exactly a Catholic should not ask them to.
God bless,
Devin
Devin, with all due respect, trying to harmonize a few drops of oil and water in an age where we have married Catholic priests who left their protestant faiths over
other issues seems disingenuous. I believe you have not reconciled your own departure and these parting shots indicate an unrighteous concern at those who remained. The book of life is written in ones heart and only God can read it.
Bless you too.
Reconciling seeming paradoxes in Scripture is really not “trying to harmonize… drops of oil and water.” Is it “strident” to politely note a systemic logical problem in protestant thought?
In this case, Hilary, the ‘politely note’ seems to be
equivalent to taking the speck our of your brother’s eye
without removing the beam from your own.
To be fair, it might be argued from the text itself that all men’s names are written in the book of life initially and then only later are blotted out (this is consistent with the second part of the verse you cite). Still, these aren’t the only two verses which imply that faith once obtained might later be lost, nor salvation, nor heavenly glory. I don’t think that St Paul warns us lightly when he tells us to work out our salvation in fear and trembling (Phil 2:12) nor in saying that those who think they are secure in their salvation may yet fall (1 Cor 10:11-2). Presumption is a sin against the Holy Spirit every bit as bad as despair.
I am a former Protestant converted to the Catholic faith 11 years ago. I enjoyed your article and look forward to reading more by you.
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