Pearls in a Nutshell

 

"Before the foundation of the world"

  While God has given us details of what we can look forward to in our 'eternity' with God after the time of this earth,  we do not have a lot of information on what God did in His eternity  before  time on this earth began.  We do however have a few verses that contain the phrase  'before the foundation of the world." 

These passages are...... 

Eph. 1:4,  - God chose us in Him 'before the foundation of the world" 

Matt. 25:34 -  Jesus says that when He returns in His glory the Father will say .. "inherit the Kingdom prepared for you 'from the foundation of the world.'" 

 I Peter 1:19 ..  Jesus was "foreordained 'before the foundation of the world' ..."

Matt. 13:35 -  Jesus said He would fulfill the prophecy that He would speak of things that had been kept secret "from the foundation of the world."

John 17:24, Jesus, in speaking to the Father, says " ...for you loved Me before the foundation of the world." 

II Tim. 1:9 ,  we are told that 'according to God's own purposes and grace, we were saved and called in Christ Jesus ... 'before time began' 

Heb. 4:3  -  God says all His works were finished "from the foundation of the world." 

All of the above passages speak of wonderful truths  and we could build a great study based on them, but that is not where I want to focus today. 

If you look at the above list of passages you will notice something they all have in common.   ALL of them speak of what God thought or planned or determined as His purpose.  NOT ONE of the above verses depend on anything except God Himself.  NOT ONE of them need or  allow any input from us.  We have no part in the plans nor in the 'work' of God.   

Yes... God's plan and purpose was FOR us  and we can enter by faith into God's marvelous plan, but God 'before the foundation of the world"  planned, ordained and fulfilled it  ALL BY HIMSELF 

One Verse that Stands Alone

We all agree, God's plan and purposes and all His creation were His alone, but there is however something God did 'before the foundation of the world'  that DOES involve man's  'work'  or 'involvement'. . 

There is one verse that I did not include in the list above and it is found in  Rev. 17:8 .  There we read ... ".... whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world...."

If we consider that verse and follow its thread ..we will find God did something 'before the foundation of the world' that did involve the 'will'  and action of man.   

Be Fruitful and Multiply 

Adam and Eve were created directly by God  -- they were part of the God-alone thoughts and purposes of God.  But after they were created God told them what their 'work' was. They were to go and ..."multiply and fill the earth".   In other words,  all of the people born AFTER Adam and Eve .. were not by the 'will' of God, but by the 'will' of man.  

If this is not true, then we would have to believe that God decreed  that a certain man would rape a certain girl so that the resulting 'predestined'  child could be born. That, of course, could never be!  

So then we know that the 'multiplying'  of people is by the will of man...Man chooses and marries a woman and they have children, who grow up and  choose  spouses and they have children. And included in this 'multiplying'  process,  you and I came to be.  

We all  have a deep need for 'significance'.  We want to know we are loved, that we belong and that we have purpose.   I think we have all at times-- some more than others - felt that we were just 'one of a crowd' - lost in the masses of people.   Is God even aware of me?  Does He see me?  How can He care about me when I am so insignificant?"  

God does not want us to feel that way -- because we are   - every one of us -- important to Him. 

And He did something to prove it ...I am sorry it is not something often talked about , so I want to focus our attention on it today and hopefully you will never again doubt that you are important to God!!  

The Book 

Before He began the 'work' of His creation -- BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD -- God created a book.   A Book created by God has to be the most beautiful book you or I have ever seen.  I can't even imagine how intricately beautiful the details of the cover are.  I think just looking at it would leave us in such awe that we would not dare even touch it.   Yet if God smiled and encouraged us to open it, we would be so surprised and 'shocked' to see what was written in the book.  

When God created this Book, BEFORE He created anything else,  He looked down the long corridor of time and -  by His foreknowledge - NOT predestination - He saw every human being that would be conceived and born on this earth.  He lifted His finger and wrote down the name of every person who has ever lived or ever will live !   Imagine that ... before Gen. 1:1 , God wrote my name,  Julianna Joy Klassen, in His book .. and He wrote down your name !  

Is it hard to believe that that is possible?  even for God?   Consider what science has been able to discover about our DNA..   ALL our DNA would fill about 1/2 teaspoon, but if the information were written out it would not fill just one book but enough books to stack from here to the moon -- not just once, but 5 times !!  It is so mind boggling that nothing  God does should surprise us !!  

BUT .. BUT .. you correctly point out , in the  Rev. verse I quoted above it does not say EVERY name was written in the book...  No it doesn't, but follow with me and you will see why I can say that every name was written into the Book of Life 'before the foundation of the world'. 

We sometimes hear someone say .. 'even if you were the only person on this earth, Jesus would still have died for you!"   and yes, that is true ..  for ANY one of the names written in God's Book of Life, Jesus would have come and died to save them.   That is how great God's love is .. and He wants us to know that we know that EVERYONE is so important to Him that He recorded their names in His Book -- BEFORE He laid the foundation of the earth that would be our home. God is LOVE and love needs somewhere to be expressed and God chose 'mankind'  and built His whole creation plan on His ultimate relationship with mankind -- specifically you and me !   Wow !!  

So you may be stuck on the thought ..." but, but ..  she is wrong in saying the name of every person ever born is written in this Book, obviously Rev. 17:8 says  some names are not!"  

Granted, that is a valid objection at first glance  .. but stay with me.  

The Most Important 'Invited Guest'  List

God has revealed His heart to us  and  we know His character. 

We know that it is God's will that EVERYONE should be saved... I Tim. 2:4.  We also know that God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked- Ez. 18:23, Ez. 33:11  and He proclaims for all to hear ... "Whosoever will may come ...   "   His invitation to come to Him is extended to every human being -- Rom. 10:9-13, Rev. 22:17, Joel 2:32, John 3:16, Acts 2:21, John 12:46.  

If I am planning a milestone birthday party I will send out invitations to everyone I want to be there.  It would not make sense for me to say ... "I really want Susie to be there, but I won't send her an invitation."   

In the same way, we know  that if God desires EVERYONE to be saved they would ALL be on His list of people who are invited -- and that would include every human being that has been or will be born on this earth.  As with any invitation, however,  not everyone accepts the invitation and shows up at the event. 

While that conclusion is logical, it is not my 'proof'  to show that God wrote EVERY name in His Book. 

(I believe that every aborted baby that is not given a name, God Himself names it  and records the  name in His Book!!) 

 Names we know are Written 

There are other passages that speak to our names being written in the Book of Life.  Jesus Himself refers to it in Luke 10:20 when He tells His disciples to rejoice because their "names are written in heaven". 

Paul refers to the Book of Life in Phil. 4:3 when he speaks of his fellow workers "whose names are in the Book of Life."

Daniel prophecies in Dan. 12:1 that God will deliver those "whose names are written in the book." 

Rev. 21:27 speaks to the fact that in the New Jerusalem nothing will be allowed to enter it that defiles ... but ONLY those who are "written in the Lamb's Book of Life" 

Heb. 12:23 assures us that those in the 'church' of Jesus are "registered in heaven" 

So we know that the above names are those who are 'saved'. All those who have put their trust in Jesus have their names written in God's Book,  And we know the names that are there were recorded 'before the foundation of the world."

Let's look at whose names are NOT found in the Book 

Rev. 17:8  tells us  that the names of the beast worshippers are not found in the Book, and we also see in Rev. 13:8  that this fact is repeated -- beast worshippers do not find their name in the Book. 

We know that those :beast worshippers' whose names are NOT written in the book are outside the Kingdom of God,  

So now we must consider  --  if every human being's name was written in the Book of Life before God created the earth, then why do these verses point out that some names are missing? 

Names Blotted Out 

It seems that Old Testament saints knew about the Book of Life. . 

We first see reference to it with Moses in Ex. 32:32.  Here Moses is interceding for the rebellious Israelites who have angered God to the point He severely punished them and Moses was afraid God would destroy them all. In a desperate plea Moses begs God to forgive, but if He cannot forgive Moses offers Himself for the lives of the Israelites.  He says, "Yet now, if You will, forgive their sin - but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written." 

"Blot me out?"  Moses can only be referring to the Book of Life.  And he is saying .. "Put the people's sin on me, blot MY name out of the book instead of theirs."  

Moses knew that if  his name was  blotted out meant he would be condemned. His offer points to Jesus who DID take the sin of the world upon Himself to let them go free. 

God's answer to Moses, of course, was a refusal. He replied, "Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book."   Everyone is responsible for his own name in the book, whether or not it is blotted out. 

So we know that 'sinners' have their names blotted out of the Book of Life -- but names can only be blotted out if theu were first written in, right?

We also see David. In Psalm 69:28, asking for God's judgment against his enemies.  The worst he can wish upon them is that they would be blotted out of the Book of the Living - that their names should not remain with the names of the 'righteous'.  

NOTE - In Rev. 3:5 Jesus promises that those who overcome shall be dressed in white garments and Jesus will NOT blot out their name from the Book of Life. 

Is it Easy to Have our Name Blotted out?

When I don't want to do something, it takes a lot of will power to make myself do it, so I would think the same would be true of God. 

He says He does not want anyone to perish but ALL to come to repentance that they might be saved ....  so then how hard do you think He would try to save everyone?

We see God had patience with the  Amorites for 400 years  (Gen. 15:16)  He says He had patience because their 'iniquity was not yet full' ... What does that mean?   It means He still had hope, still gave them room to repent , and only when their hearts were so hard  that they would never turn from their sin,  did God finally bring judgement.  

So we know,  God will continue to draw, to woe, to convict EVERY soul until there is no hope left because the heart is tooo hard for His mercy to soften it.  Man has the free will to reject God,  but he has to harden his heart to resist  the love of God drawing him. 

Warning - how important God's word is 

There is a warning in Rev. 22:19 that states how serious an offense it is  to  take away from the words of the book of this prophecy' .. We have this same warning in Deut. 4:2 and Prov. 30:5,6. God is warning that if man 'takes away or adds'  to the Word of God the penalty is that their name is removed from the Book of Life and their inheritance in the holy city taken away..  

God's word is true and there is no other truth .. no other path to heaven ... no other salvation.    

We need to keep a holy fear for the things of God and guard our hearts from the  lies and deception of the enemy. .

"Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against You."  Psalm 119:11 

Why is it important for us to understand the Book of Life?

Other than the simple explanation that every word given us by God is important I think there are some important conclusions that encourage us greatly to trust God more ! 

1. God knew and cared about me before time began !   How mind boggling is that? That God wrote down my name in His Book -- just imagine for a moment that book in heaven - lying before God's throne open to the page that has your name written in a heavenly script with liquid gold !   We know of the Hollywood Walk of Fame where celebrities have their name written on a star on the street and people come to gaze on these names.   How much greater a privilege is it to have YOUR name written in God's Book !!  

2.  Knowing our name is written -- and not written and placed on a heaven-shelf - but this book is in God's hand -- Is. 49:16  is a wonderful encouragement to our faith to believe how personally detailed God's interest in us is .. and how much He is watching to fulfill His plan and purpose for us !  see..   Ps. 56:8, Ps. 139:16, Jer. 29:11 

3. It keeps us on guard against anything that could take us away from the Lord -- We don't want our name 'blotted out' ..We want God to smile when He looks at our name and pours His love out upon us and delights in our return love for Him ! 

4. Because God wrote our name in His Book, we KNOW that He is committed to fulfilling every promise He made -- to us PERSONALLY --  

 I learned something this week.  There is a verse that has always somewhat bothered me ... "It is found in Luke 1:37 where it says .. "For with God nothing will be impossible."  We know even with God some things are impossible --for example,  it is not possible for God to lie .   I took the verse in the general sense that God could do anything He wanted to do ...  But if we go to the Greek we see that the original meaning sheds light on the intended meaning.    In the Greek it does not say that NOTHING is impossible with God ... it says that it is impossible for His  REHMA  (living) WORD to fail.   And we have the confirmation in Mary's response when she says .. "let it be to me according to your WORD"

All of God's promises to me ... to you ... stand !  Not one of them can fail !! 

5. Bottom line conclusion --   YOU and I are important to God - it is IMPOSSIBLE for Him to forget about us !!  We truly are VIP IN  His eyes!  

******************************