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Earlier in Philippians, Epaphroditus "was nigh unto death, not regarding his life" in
service to the Lord, and Paul himself had taken the view of life "Christ shall be magnified
in my body, whether by LIFE or by DEATH". It is therefore fitting that those who thus
lost their lives for Christ's sake should find them in this Book of Life, the book of
martyred saints who in their several spheres will "reign" with Christ. This passage in
Philippians is the only reference in the N.T. to the Book of Life except those found in the
book of the Revelation. Now the Revelation traces the career of the overcomer,
throughout the great tribulation to the throne, and it is this book that contains all the other
references to the Book of Life.
"I will not blot out his name out of the book of life" (Rev. 3: 5).
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (the Beast), whose names are
not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world"
(Rev. 13: 8).
"And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the
book of life from the foundation of the world" (Rev. 17: 8).
"And I saw the dead (i.e. `the rest', Rev. 20: 5), small and great, stand before God;
and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life"
(Rev. 20: 12).
"And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of
fire" (Rev. 20: 15).
"And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever
worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of
life" (Rev. 21: 27).
"And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God
shall take away his part:
(1)
out of the book of life, and
(2)
out of the Holy City, and
(3)
out from the things written in this book" (Rev. 22: 19).
Some authorities read "the tree of life" here. While the margin of the R.V. reads at
Rev. 13: 8 "written from the foundation of the world in the book . . . . . slain" it still
retains in the text the order "in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world", and this should give us pause, lest in sweeping aside a difficulty, we also
remove an index of its meaning. By referring to Luke 11: 50, 51 we shall see that "the
blood of Abel" was the first to be "shed from the foundation of the world", and this
suggests that the "Lamb's book of life" contains the names of all those who have suffered
martyrdom for the faith since the first martyrdom of Abel. Incidentally, this reference
disposes of the suggestion that "before the foundation of the world" refers to the future,
for if we go back as far as Gen. 4:, for the period "from" the foundation of the world,
the period indicated in Eph. 1: 4 MUST be earlier still. Abel especially sets forth the
conditions we find ruling in the Revelation, for it was Cain, who was of "that wicked
one" the seed of the serpent (Gen. 3: 15), that shed the first martyr's blood and it is the
Dragon "that old Serpent", the Beast, the False Prophet and their follower who shed the
blood of the overcomers in the time of the end.
"And they overcame him
(1)
by the blood of the Lamb,
(2)
and by the word of their testimony;
(3)
and they love not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12: 11),