Posted by Steven Benjamin on April 11, 2009, 5:55 pm, in reply to "Victor Houteff: Shepherds Rod: TRACT No. 3"
Thus does Inspiration reveal that each one's deeds are chronicled with terrible exactness in the books of heaven, and that in the reason for the books inheres the
Reason For The Judgment.
That not every name that has been entered in the Lamb's books will be retained there, is born out with sad conclusiveness by the following scriptures:
"And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, him will I blot out of My book. " Ex. 32:33. "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. " Rev. 22:19.
Accordingly, the books contain the names of a mixed multitude, -- both those who stood firmly in the faith and continued patiently to the end, and those who did not. Said Christ: "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. " Matt. 24:13. But those who do not endure shall be lost.
"And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the Word, immediately receive it with gladness; and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the Word's sake, immediately they are offended. " Mark 4:16,17.
"O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake Thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters. " Jer. 17:13.
So, there must come a day of reckoning, a day when the names of those who are found unworthy of eternal life will be blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life -- a proceeding for which the only correct term can be, "investigative judgment. "
And now that the "time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God. . . ," "thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" (2 Tim. 2:3), for "if it [the judgment] first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?" 1 Pet. 4:17.
Since, therefore, in the fullness of time, the judgment will begin in the house of God, the church, each one is confronted with the imperative need to know
How Names Are Retained In The Book.
At the moment we accept Christ as our personal Saviour through the Word of Truth, -- at that supreme moment God forgives us our sins, and the hands bloodstained by Calvary inscribe our names in the Lamb's Book of Life. Then simultaneously the pen of angels begins in the heavenly ledger the life or death chronicle of our Christian experience separate from our past. Even "the very hairs of your head are all numbered. " Matt. 10:30. Therefore "suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error. " Eccles. 5:6. For in the investigative judgment the books are opened and the deeds done in the flesh are brought to light for a final reckoning before the Ancient of days. All who have stood fast to the end will then forever have their sins blotted from the books and their names retained therein; while all who are not overcomers will then forever have their sins retained in the books and their names blotted therefrom.
Always man's greatest test, and one which has ever involved almost an instantaneous decision, has been in the unrolling of the scroll -- in the eclipse of a past message by a new one, -- present truth. On every such occasion each one has had to decide: Shall I heed the new and unpopular truth and walk in its light, joining with those who are despised by nearly every religious leader in the land? or shall I allow myself to be deterred by the decision and counsel of the ministry in my church?
(Contd)
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