CLAIM: Jesus said, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life” (Rev. 3:5). Does this mean that believers can potentially lose their salvation?

RESPONSE: Two options are both plausible:

OPTION #1. This negative statement is not a threat, but an affirmation of eternal security. Jesus is emphasizing the negative concept to explain the positive security of the believer. This seems to be a case of litotes, where a positive assertion is stated through the use of a double negative (e.g. “It’s not bad” or “He wasn’t the cleanest”). Consider a parent consoling their suffering child in a hospital bed. The parent might say, “I’m not going to leave you here to suffer alone.” Now imagine if the child interpreted this to mean that the parent was entertaining the thought of leaving them. This would be the exact opposite of what the parent was trying to communicate!

OPTION #2. All people begin life with their names in the book of life, but they get these erased by not receiving Christ. Under this view, God recorded every person’s name in the book of life before the universe began (Rev. 13:8; 17:8). This is because Jesus died for all people (see “Limited Atonement: A Critique”). However, the Atonement is only potential, not actual. Thomas writes, “If a person experiences physical death, never having trusted Christ for forgiveness, his name is erased from the book of life.”^[1]

Finally, we should be careful in taking major doctrines about salvation from the book of Revelation. Mounce wisely writes that it is “hermeneutically unsound to base theological doctrine solely on either parables or apocalyptic imagery.”^[2]

^[1] Robert L. Thomas, Revelation 1-7: An Exegetical Commentary (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1992), 263.

^[2] Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 97.