![](\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_BtqUSG7RCA0\/TPsSsm_nd-I\/AAAAAAAAAuY\/p7lLG2F4QAU\/s1600\/juggling_books_3fqi.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nContinuing to reflect on the reference to books recording deeds and a book of life in Revelation 20<\/a> (and elsewhere), I wonder if this isn\u2019t simply an expression of the dual emphases in some strands of Judaism and Christianity, maintaining both divine election and human freedom. And so human beings are said to be judged according to their works, and yet their lives and choices are connected with whether their names were written in the book of life, perhaps (depending on how one translates<\/a> Revelation 13:8<\/a>) written there before the foundation of the world. Of course, it is still said that one\u2019s name can be removed from the book of life (22:19<\/a>), and so perhaps the author doesn\u2019t adhere to some sort of absolute, unalterable,\u00a0eternal predestination. But it is also possible that he asserts both divine sovereignty and human freedom. Even if assertion of human freedom and divine sovereignty may seem to some self-contradictory, and may perhaps in fact be a logically incoherent position, that doesn\u2019t mean that the author of Revelation could not have held such a view, maintaining the two in tension. <\/p>\n What do others think? In the Book of Revelation, does the \u201cbook of life\u201d seem more likely to\u00a0represent a list of those whom God has chosen, a list of those who have faith, or simply a list of those who would be shown to be righteous at the last judgment, thus indicating divine foreknowledge?<\/p>\n Continuing to reflect on the reference to books recording deeds and a book of life in Revelation 20 (and elsewhere), I wonder if this isn\u2019t simply an expression of the dual emphases in some strands of Judaism and Christianity, maintaining both divine election and human freedom. And so human beings are said to be judged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n