Home Topics Index Download
Transcript 597B — Does God Know Who Will be Saved?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: I have a couple of questions. First of all, does God know who will be saved and who won't?
HC: The question is, does God know who will be saved and who won't? Absolutely yes. There are no surprises concerning this. God chose, from before the foundations of the earth, those who were to be saved.
CALLER: Then why must life go on? Why must it keep going, if He already knows what's going to happen?
HC: The question is, why then doesn't God simply end it all?
First of all, you must remember that those who are being saved come from each generation that goes along. The world has gone on for almost 13,000 years now, and in each period of time there have been those who were to be saved. And if God had ended it all at, let's say, a thousand years ago, then there would be numerous people whom God had planned to save who didn't even come into existence. And God would have frustrated His own salvation plan. Therefore the world has to go to its predetermined end, so that everyone whom God has predestinated to be saved will actually be born into this world so that they can be saved. And when the last one is saved that God plans to save, then we're at the end of time. Then we're right up against the end of the world.
CALLER: What do you know about the Book of Life? Everyone who's saved, are their names in the Book of Life? Could you explain this to me?
HC: Yes. The question is raised concerning the Book of Life. Now God speaks about the Book of Life in numerous places. In some cases He talks about those who were named in the Book of Life from before the foundations of the world, and indicates that there were others who were not in the Book of Life form the foundations of the world. And in that sense He is speaking of the Book of Life from a redemptive vantage point.
On the other hand, God talks about the Book of Life in other places, where He speaks of everyone being in the Book of Life, and the unsaved being removed from the Book of Life. And in that kind of a place, He is talking about the Book of Life from a creation vantage point. We all began in the Book of Life because we were in the loins of Adam. And as we arrive on the scene and die unsaved, we are removed from the Book of Life.
But from God's eternal decrees only the born again believers were in the Book of Life.
CALLER: OK. By being born again, do you mean that you're a child of God forever, after you're born again?
HC: The question is, are we a child of God forever if we've become born again? Yes. The Bible says that we have eternal life.
CALLER: So you cannot lose your salvation.
HC: No way possible, because you see, to be saved means that Christ has saved us from the wrath of God, which we deserve for our sins. He has saved us from hell and eternal damnation, by paying for all of our sins. Therefore there is no sin that we could commit that would estrange us from God and cause us to again be under the wrath of God. We are saved eternally.
CALLER: So you mean that. Are you saved?
HC: Am I saved? I know this very certainly that I am saved.
CALLER: So do you sin?
HC: Yes, I still sin, because you see, I still have a body that lusts after sin, and I don't therefore live perfectly before God. I would desire that I would live perfectly before God and in my soul, where I've become born again, I never want to sin again. But in my body I still can be lazy, I can be unkind, I can think lustful thoughts. There are sins that can come into my life. And each day I have to go to the Lord, "Oh Lord, forgive me. Help me tomorrow to live more for Thee."
CALLER: Okay. What about blaspheming the Holy Spirit?
HC: Blaspheming the Holy Spirit has to do with believing that Christ was under the power of Satan. And if anyone came to that belief in his life, he wouldn't have the slightest interest in Christ as his Savior or Lord.
Thank you so much for calling and sharing those questions, and I hope this helps a little bit.
CALLER: Okay. Thank you.