I believe every name is written in the Lambs book of life, when we became born again it remains forever. I believe all people were written in the book and when they die refusing Christ it is blotted out.
Psalm 69:28 "Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous."
Revelation 3:5 "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."
Revelation 3:5 "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."
Christ died for the sins of the whole world.
1 Timothy 2:4 "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
1 John 2:2 "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
Even though he knows not all will trust Him.
Matthew 7:14 "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
Some will not trust Christ but hope to get in anyway by their own deeds and ideas.
Matthew 7:21-23 "21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"
I believe these verses show that Christ died for all, his desire was that all would be born again and He even placed all names in the book until each made his choice to obey or not obey.
I am meeting a lot of people who take scripture our of context to make it say what they want it to, as if God intended us to do that. When I correct them with the context, they fight and argue and often refuse to listen to the truth.
Some scriptures that are often taken our of context have to do with physical exercise. It seems clear to me that God never intended for man to run hard every day for miles. The scientific evidence indicates that jostling our organs and bones age them more rapidly and create injuries, than if one did not run on a regular basis. Of course walking is different, it is something we have to do every day and our bodies were designed to do. Running and intense exercise is abuse of the body with sometimes severe consequences later on in life.
One of the scriptures people use to justify their lust for "body beautiful", is this one;
1 Corinthians 9:27 "27 But I keep control of my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."
If we look at the context we see that it is not speaking about physical exercise but rather fleshly desires.
Verse 4 of chapter 9 speaks of what we put into our bodies, verse 5 is referring to taking a wife, working to earn a living is part of this subject, verse 12 speaks of enduring all things in order to not be a hindrance to others, verse 23 says, " I do all things for the sake of the gospel, he uses the example of running to show that if we would work as hard at the gospel and our spiritual life as we do when someone runs, we would be pleasing to God and useful. And, finally verse 27 speaks about beating the body to make it my slave.
The entire context has to do with serving God fully while denying ourselves things we enjoy to be more useful, it does not have to do with making our bodies strong and beautiful through exercise. The exercise we see in these passages has to do with making our spiritual life strong while minimizing our focus on the flesh.
When we see how many things unspiritual people have twisted of God's word to justify and enjoy their fleshly desire for physical pleasures, we can see that most of modern Christendom has little to do with truth.
Whenever I hear people using these passages as mentioned above, to justify an over emphasis on physical prowess, I am convinced this person does not read the Bible for the sake of truth or personal holiness, rather they read it to find the scriptures they can twist to justify that with which God is not pleased.
Another scripture I have seen taken out of context pertaining to this matter of physical exercise is 1 Timothy 4:8 "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."
God is minimizing bodily exercise in this verse, let's look at the context. Verse 8 speaks about disciplining ourselves (spiritually) for the purpose of godliness. The entire passage has to do with dedicating ourselves to truth, proper doctrine and the growth of the spirit within. Verse 14 says that we are not to neglect the spiritual gift within us, verse 15 says take pains in these things and be absorbed in them. And, finally notice God says physical exercise is of "little" value. It doesn't do much for us in this life.
Our modern culture has turned this around, they take pains in their physical exercise while neglecting the spiritual matters. They speak more about their latest physical conquest and sports accomplishment than anything else and they almost never speak of spiritual matters. We are a sports and exercise crazed culture.
The reason we see so much mania concerning this matter of sports and physical fitness is because our Christian culture is fixated on appearances. They have little interest in becoming holy but are on overload when it comes to outer beauty and acceptance from the community around them. It's a little like showing off our bodies using the excuse that looking good glorifies God, the opposite of what God actually said. Christ was said to have an appearance that no one would desire Him, we do not read of one instance in which Christ exercised His body.
1 Samuel 16:7 "But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”
1 Peter 3:3-4 "Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious."
Proverbs 31:30 "Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised."
James 1:23 "For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror."
Matthew 23:28 "So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."
Romans 12:2 "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."
Notice we do not see any other scriptures in the Bible that mention physical prowess as something to aspire to, and even the ones that have been used here, were taken out of context to justify pride in appearance.
All the hoopla about natural food, exercise and excessive safety measures were developed by an unsaved paranoid world that is entirely focused on this world and this life. These same people are those who developed the doctrine of "self esteem" in their feeble effort to make this life the best it can be since they believe it is all there is. They believe that all this physical attention and pride in self will make for a better life. We see that it is not from God but from the devil to distract us from the important things God speaks of and that is spiritual. All this worldly focus on physical beauty, strength and outer appearance is not for the believer.
All the people I know who are involved in regular exercise and natural food, speak much more about those things than they do the spiritual life, most don't speak about God at all, but many who do speak about God, ignore most of His principles, in favor of a happy and sensual (based on the physical senses) life adding some scripture to their existence to feel justified in their pursuit of worldly pleasure.
Pride and lack of faith is at the root of all this mess about physical beauty and the worship of youthful health.
When we focus on Christ and His principles, we have far less time to spend worshiping our own bodies. I challenge any believer that exercises regularly to spend the same amount of time studying, (not just reading) the Word of God while praying for the understanding through the Holy Spirit. Just reading will not do, we must ask the Lord to show us and dig deeply as the Bible says, the way we would for silver or gold.
Those who do this must be willing to set aside all the lies the world has told us to believe what God tells us.
Proverbs 3:5-8
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.
7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones."
