Question
What does it mean to have your name taken out of the book of life in Revelation 22:19?
Response
There’s much that could be said about the book of life, especially in God’s program with Israel.
First of all, based upon my understanding of God preserving His word, I reject the textual variation of “tree” for “book” that exists in this verse among some manuscripts. Therefore, I hold to the KJV reading of “book of life.”
With respect to what the verse is talking about, if one’s name is taken out of the book of life, then the person is identified as having no part in eternal life. And this is something that God says He will do to anyone who takes away from the words of the prophecy set forth in the book of The Revelation. In essence, therefore, God is identifying anyone who does this as someone who isn’t saved.
Now, this is something that is very important for the members of the saved remnant of Israel (to whom this book is written) to understand and appreciate. For they are going to be besieged by a great number of people who say they are saved, but who in truth are not.
As the seven letters recorded in chapters 2 and 3 make clear, the churches of the remnant of Israel in the Lord’s day are going to be infiltrated by false brethren; by wolves in sheep’s clothing; by false apostles and prophets; false Jews; and the like. And it is going to be impossible for them to tell who is who on the basis of personal testimony, personal appearance, etc. Instead, one of the only ways the remnant will be able to detect the presence of these false persons is by certain things that these characters do when confronted with the testimony God has given to the remnant to operate upon. One of the things these false apostles, false prophets, false teachers, and the like will do is either add to or take away from “the words of the book of this prophecy.” But the remnant doesn’t have to be deceived by these characters, for in view of what the Lord says to them in Revelation 22:18-19 about such actions, along with what He says to them in other places about other identifying actions, such actions as this identify these characters as not being saved at all.
The issue of the remnant of Israel being able to identify false brethren for who they are, is a big issue in the final installment of God’s program with Israel. It’s an issue the prophets talked about, the Lord dealt with when He was here, and it comes up repeatedly in Hebrews through The Revelation. Revelation 22:18-19 is one of their identifiers.
Keith Blades
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