Forest Keeper-By itself, this explanation doesn't exactly rock my world, so I admit I can't say about this one. Dr. E or Harley (or anyone), can you add anything to this?
God’s decrees were established before the foundations of the world. Man acts out these unchanging decrees. However, from our perspective we feel that we are capable of changing the decrees of God which is simply not true. There are several places in scriptures that talks about names being blotted out or erased from the Book of Life (Ps 69:28, Rev 3:5). OTOH we know that the Book of Life was written before the foundations of the world (Rev 13) and those whose names are in the Book of Life are saved. If one argues that names can blotted out of the Book of Life then the passage in Rev 13 is completely false; peoples names were not written from the foundation of the world and scripture is in error. And that is something jokus will find hard to explain.
If one starts from the premise that all those who are going to be saved have their names in the Book of Life then the other verses in Psalms and Rev 3:5 poses no problem. They are nothing more than an exhortation by God to do what He has already decree. They are not idle chatter on God’s part but true Christians are motivated by these exhortations to love and good works; understanding that God runs the show-not us.
It’s like God ordaining Moses to carry His message to the Egyptians and then seeking to kill him because Moses failed to circumcise his sons. God knew what would happen and what it would take to motivate Moses (actually in this case Moses’ wife) to do what was proper. Or it could be likened to God casting Jonah into the sea (Jonah 2:3) and then bringing him up from the pits (Jonah 2:6). It was only after God threatened Jonah with death was Jonah willing to do the things of God. (BTW-Note that Jonah doesn’t say it was the sailors who threw him into the sea or that he, Jonah, made a choice to be thrown into the sea which many today would claim. Jonah rightfully and accurately stated that it was God who caused the events to happen.)
The verse jokus provided is nothing more than an exhortation from God similar to the exhortations of Moses or Jonah. We are never to take our salvation for granted even though it has been granted us. And true Christians will never take their salvation for granted, persevering to the end. It has nothing to do with our salvation for this was written in the Book of Life before we even existed.
Here's the problem with your entire premise. You are confusing God's "time" with our time. God sees everything as one NOW. He lives in the eternally present. The Scripture speaks in human terms - that God decrees before we existed. However, God is not subject to time, since He created it. Thus, God does not literally plan things on T minus day one of creation, then goes to sleep, wakes up, and then each day, consults His pre-planned chart of things to do today and ensure that it will happen! Thus, it is more accurate to say that God's plan are of the ultimate in fluidity, as they take everything done into account in His eternal PRESENT.
Since God sees yesterday, today, and tommorrow as ONE EVENT, His decrees ARE our actions! Thus, free will is not destroyed, nor is God's omnipotentence and foresight. I believe your mistake comes from applying time to God. Thus, you believe that our names cannot be blotted out. You think they are already written 6000 years/20 billion years ago - to God.
Regards
Thanks, Harley! I heartily agree.
Rev. 13:8 - "8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world."
I think this is further supported in:
Rev. 17:8 - "8 The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come.
It seems to me again to come down to the power and sovereignty of God. Does God work His plan around us or through us?