EACH OF US ARE
IN THE BOOK
FROM OUR BEGINNING

by Jacques More

God said to Moses,

Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.

Exodus 32:33

The quote is God's response to Moses. Moses appears in this passage as the first in the bible to mention a book of God which has everyone mentioned in it: he mentions it in intercession to God like this,

Oh, these people have sinned a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold!
Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.

Exodus 32:31-32

As we saw, God's immediate reply was:

Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.

Exodus 32:33

Now, you cannot blot out - remove something - which does not already exist:

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

Psalm 69:28

The Psalmist speaks of enemies of his that were persecuting him and also prophetically, of the coming Messiah that also would be persecuted. He implores God that in regards to these persecutors that He would:

Add iniquity to their iniquity, and let them not come into Your righteousness.

Psalm 69:27

Which is when, he also then mentions:

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

Psalm 69:28

Again, to be blotted out of this book of the living, these individuals have to be in the book already. You cannot remove something that is not already in place.

But, how they are blotted out is also interesting.
To do so, to be effectively removed from the book, the Psalmist mentions iniquity that needs to be added: It is only when a real state of "non righteousness" fully applies. This also can be seen in the context of the first mention with Moses, when God said:

Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book.

Exodus 32:33

This is not a momentary sin or just any transgression of the law (1 John 3:4), but an established practice of sin: unrighteousness as a regular, deliberate, persistent fruit of one's life.

This does not refer to the incidental or accidental, but instead the complete pattern of life of the individual and is shown us by both the immediate context of this first mention, but also by David calling on God to "Add iniquity to their iniquity". There is also a clear independent secondary witness, as principles of God's modus operandi, in passages such as Ezekiel 18 and Romans 9.

The immediate context involves Moses offering that his own record in the book be blotted out. God said "No!" to that possibility, but instead that only those who sinned against Him would be blotted out. To God, Moses was seen as faithful and true, so He said, "Not you Moses!" To God Moses was the meekest man alive (Numbers 12:3). But, an examination of Moses life shows us that in his anger he had previously murdered a man (Exodus 2:12) and that his life indeed, had not been free from sin.

Indeed the Word is clear, no matter how good you are, there has been sin in your life:

For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.

Ecclesiastes 7:20

But, that is not the same as what God meant by saying: to "have sinned against Him" or else, no one would be in the book at all.

Moses life pattern was not the same as what the makers of the golden calf had done: what the people of Israel in the wilderness had done was a world apart. As part of the exodus they gave numerous indicators of unbelief, whilst God had repeatedly shown His reality, protection and provision to them. It is out of this life of unbelief, murmuring and, finally explicit idolatry that this "sin against God" is exemplified: A world of difference.

The Ezekiel 18 and Romans 9 example
In Ezekiel 18 we read God describing who merits life and who does not. It involves the complete practice and turnaround from a righteous to an unrighteous lifestyle, or vice versa: that is what is in view repeatedly in Ezekiel 18 (Verses 5-18 and 21-24). It is not an incidental or mistaken event in the life of the individual, but it is out of a clear persistent existing pattern. Paul describes it like this in Romans 9:

What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

Romans 9:22-23

Allow me to unwrap this as the Greek is not as well transmitted as it could be. Here is the initial element to view "God . . . endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction" in the YLT this is, "God . . . did endure, in much long suffering, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction" the difference here is that the "vessels of wrath" - the wicked: representing those who in the above passages are mentioned as, not "the righteous" (Psalm 69:28): those whom God now sees as those who have "sinned against Me" (Exodus 32:33) - these vessels of wrath, are "fitted for destruction" whereas in the first quote from the NKJV of Romans 9:22-23 these vessels are mentioned as "prepared for destruction": this mention of being "prepared" is misleading since Paul is giving a contrast with "vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory".

How is this misleading?
Two mentions of being "prepared" suggest - by the use of the same word - that God has prepared both types of vessel in the same manner from the beginning: Whilst instead, the Greek Paul employs has two altogether different verbs:
KATÉRTISMENA = "fitted" (YLT); "prepared" (NKJV)
PROÉTOIMASEN = "prepared beforehand"
The first verb only gives an action that occurred some time after a beginning.
The second verb gives us two words that involve an action well in advance.

Only the vessels of mercy are "prepared beforehand", whilst in contrast, the vessels of wrath become "fitted" after "much longsuffering": No one becomes a vessel of wrath "beforehand".

So Paul's words that it involves "much longsuffering" inform us that only after a clear pattern and determination to walk in this unprepared beforehand action, only after this, does someone become a vessel of wrath: someone who would then be removed from the book.

This means we all begin as vessels of mercy and, are thereby in the book, ready to be blotted out, only once one is fully seen as having "sinned against Me" (Exodus 32:33).

Other mentions of the Book
There are many books mentioned in the bible. There are books of men and books of God. Books of men include the book of Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer (1 Chronicles 29:29), the book of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer (2 Chronicles 12:15), the book of Jehu the son of Hanani (2 Chronicles 20:34), Paul's third letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 5:9 - preceding 1 Corinthians), the letter from Laodicea (Colossians 4:16) and other. Books of God or books in heaven include the "book of tears" (Psalm 56:8), the book in which are numbered the days a baby is formed in the womb (Psalm 139:16 - see note below), a book of remembrance of those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name (Malachi 3:16) and, since many early books were kept in scroll forms there is the scroll with seven seals (Revelation 5:1) and other. There is of course the Lamb's Book of Life mentioned in the last book of the bible. I will discuss this Book further, later on in the article, but first will expand a little more and also deal with some possible objections.

The book of the living is unique in being about everyone. We saw above how we all begin as vessels of mercy and are in the book mentioned by Moses until some time after, we sin as a way of life, and a blotting out then happens.

Isaiah makes clear, the sin involves going our own determined way; it involves a personal fall and, it is a "way", a new path of going "astray".

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:6

If "every one" has gone "his own way", each of us then has "gone astray". This reflects the above truth that none of us begin in our own divergent way. Each of us, are not astray to begin with. This is echoed in the same passage used above from Ecclesiastes that mentions even the best of us sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20) where, in his observations in his own lifetime, the writer informs us clearly how each of us begin.

Truly, this only I have found: that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Ecclesiastes 7:29

Now Paul made explicit that "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine" (2 Timothy 3:16) and it is plain in the Scripture: Every man is made by God upright.

Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?

Job 31:15

And that wonderfully,

For You formed my inward parts; You have covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.

Psalm 139:13-14

A sinner from birth?
But, I hear another say is it not written "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." (Psalm 51:5)? It sure does, but who is sinning here? It is David's mother and, speaks of the influence on David's life from outside his being: that is what is in view; nothing more. David is not denying what he also said, that "I am fearfully and wonderfully made": his being which was made by God in the womb.

Now, this personal fall as mentioned explicitly "we have turned, every one, to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6), we also read that it occurs from our youth.

. . . the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth . . .

Genesis 8:21

We are not involved in a "fall" from our birth or due to our make up by God in the womb, but from going our own way, from our youth; not before (our youth).

But, I hear you say is it not written, (i.e.) even before our youth, that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)?

Yes, that is written, but that is not what Paul meant there. Paul wrote to the (mainly) Gentile church at Rome about the Jews. Paul does this by quoting the Jew's Scripture in Romans 3:10-18 and is very clear why he is doing that "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law" (Romans 3:19): "the law" is the Jew's scripture. His sole purpose thereby is to show that in this regard there is no difference between Gentiles and Jews "For there is no difference" (Romans 3:22), that is to say that both Gentiles and Jews are sinners: which is all that Paul means here when he says "all have sinned". Both have sinned is his meaning in context. The innocent thereby are not included in that statement. And that there are innocents is also mentioned in Scripture.

The innocent
I began this discussion with God's words to Moses. The people of Israel as a nation had done evil, but not all of them, since we read of Joshua and Caleb - and Moses - and some of the tribe of Levi as faithful, but a whole other group is also mentioned as free from that "evil generation" (Deuteronomy 1:35): The children.

The Lord is explicit that the children who had no knowledge of good and evil are not accounted "evil", as their parents are:

Surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers, except Caleb . . . and . . . Joshua . . . Moreover your little ones and your children . . . who today have no knowledge of good and evil, they shall go in there; to them I will give it, and they shall possess it.

Deuteronomy 1:35-39

The separation of guilt is clear in Ezekiel 18.

Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die.

Ezekiel 18:4

The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Ezekiel 18:20

For God to mention children are not to be held guilty because they "have no knowledge of good and evil" is scripture, which Paul informs us is to be treated as "profitable for doctrine", means these are to be treated as innocent. Other such pointers to children's innocence include God's reaction to their being offered in sacrifice to idols:

They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons, and shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with blood.

Psalm 106:37-38

The blood of little children is "innocent".

In Adam all die
But, I hear you say is it not written too "in Adam all die" (1 Corinthians 15:22)? Yes, of course it does, but in this classic passage about resurrection, it is only about us all having the same body as Adam; nothing else: ". . . For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:52-53): Adam was made of perishable material, so that in his make up, an integral part of his creation, machines of repair were included to renew and repair various broken, damaged and dying elements: The blood clotting mechanism and the replenishment of skin cells, and so on. The smallest biological complete life forms are cells. The skin cells of the body are designed to be replenished continuously: the old cells are designed to die off and new ones to take their place. This happens over the course of every two to three weeks for all skin cells. So death and the perishableness of the body was designed and built into the "very good" (Genesis 1:31) Creation, right from the beginning. That is all that is meant by "in Adam all die".

To suggest perishableness and thereby mortality of man came in after the first sin - the Fall - is to say that God designed and built his blood clotting system and other repair and replenishment mechanisms after the Fall. The Fall caused an increase in speed of perishableness (and more so, after the Flood by the lineage accounts of Genesis 5 and 11) and thus the speed of mortality; it did not introduce perishableness and mortality. Just as the pain of childbirth was increased; not introduced: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children" (Genesis 3:16). Our nerves and their function was designed and created "very good" to inform us when something is sharp or too hot, and this pain is a part of the "very good" Creation (Genesis 1:31). Only spiritual mortality was introduced by the Fall: separation from God and that by a process too:

and of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou dost not eat of it, for in the day of thine eating of it– dying thou dost die.

Genesis 2:17 YLT

Dead in trespasses and sins & Romans 5
But I hear you further say is it not also written that we were "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1)?

Did you know the word "in" is not in the Greek of this verse, but it is not incorrect to add it in translating into English, providing it is only understood as "whilst in"?

We can see the Greek word EN, meaning "in", in Verse 2 of Ephesians 2, but not Verse 1.
Instead we find the words "the trespasses" and "the sins" in their Greek rendering in the Dative. And here this is for the purpose of showing the relationship of the "dead" to the "trespasses and sins": this is known as the instrumental use of the Dative. The means by which they were dead is by trespassing and sinning, so that it is "whilst in" sins and trespasses that they were dead. And since this is about an activity, a doing, the death in view is not a physical death, but a spiritual death. Whilst one sins, one is cut off from God: one is spiritually dead. So, this passage cannot be used to say we are all spiritually dead, but all who practice sins and trespasses are spiritually dead.

What Ephesians 2 does well though is picture that the death Paul speaks of here is not physical, but a spiritual death. You cannot say to people you were dead if they cannot read or hear your words. And this chapter of Ephesians involves the mention of salvation, of grace and faith. All things that are also explicit in Romans 5, another passage used to suggest physical death was introduced by Adam, whilst the only death in view is no different to Ephesians 2: a spiritual death.

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—

Romans 5:12

Adam committed the first wilful sin and thus sin entered the world of men. Spiritual death is the outcome of sin: it is the wage of it (Romans 6:23). And this death spreads to all men: as each and every one also commits sin. This is the clear words Paul includes here "because all sinned". It is complimentary to Isaiah's clear statement which is well worth repeating:

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:6

Each of us from our youth (Genesis 8:21), "have turned, every one, to his own way". This Romans passage does not speak therefore of Adam making us all sinners, but of our following in his footsteps by having our own falls, and thus becoming sinners too.

The Lamb's Book of Life
I promised to write more about the Lamb's Book of Life. The book of the living we read of in Psalm 69:28 can also be written as the Book of Life, as Paul did:

And I urge you also, true companion, help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life.

Philippians 4:3

This then leads on nicely to the Lamb's Books of Life mention. It is only mentioned twice with its connection with "the Lamb" in Revelation 13:8 and Revelation 21:27, but the mention of the Book of Life is also plentiful without its connection to the Lamb (by name) in Revelation: 3:5; 17:8; 20:12; 20:15; 22:19. The first mention of the Book of Life in Revelation is found in Chapter Three, in one of the letters to the seven churches:

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

Revelation 3:5

The next connected with "the Lamb" is in Revelation 13:8,

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Revelation 13:8

The Lamb was prophetically slain from the foundation of the world in that it was then that the plan for salvation was put in place - with Jesus as the lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) - It was in the recognition from that time that men, about to be created, would fall; just as angels had fallen. We know angels were already present to witness the foundation of the earth (Job 38:4-7). And we know that Satan fell before men did (Genesis 3:1; Revelation 12:9; Ezekiel 28:14-15). It is from this foundation time that the book of Life exists. The Book is mentioned next without the connection to the Lamb,

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

Revelation 17:8

We see then the book of Life exists from the foundation of the world. Our names are there, in the Book, from our point of existence; not a long time before. We can know this since king Saul's dynasty was due to last, but David was then chosen instead after Saul's rebellion (1 Samuel 13:13-14; 15:35). God is not a liar. He is not into play acting. The Lord meant it when He said that He "would have established" Saul's "kingdom over Israel forever" (1 Samuel 13:13). Had David not been king, then he would not have had so many wives and the children from those wives. So the names of those children would never have existed. The bible informs us God learns, since He is free to make new decisions. And He repeatedly tells us that at the time of the exodus the Lord had not chosen where to put the temple (yet), nor who to be king in Israel, but (would do so) when the time came: "Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a ruler over My people Israel." (2 Chronicles 6:5; cf. my article The bible tells us God learns and How Does Prophecy Operate for an Open Theist?). Those things would be new decisions for God some time after the exodus.

GEGRAPTAI
The phrases "whose names have not been written in" (13:8) and "whose names are not written in" (17:8) require some attention.

The verb "to write" in the Greek, GRAPHÓ - "I write" is found conjugated as GEGRAPTAI in both those passages and equally so, in all the following places in the New Testament (inclusive; NT):

GEGRAPTAI = (it) stands written
Matthew 2:5; 4:4; 4:6; 4:7; 4:10; 11:10; 21:13; 26:24; 26:31; Mark 1:2; 7:6; 9:12; 9:13; 11:17; 14:21; 14:27; Luke 2:23; 3:4; 4:4; 4:8; 4:10; 7:27; 10:26; 19:46; 24:46; John 8:17; 20:31; Acts 1:20; 7:42; 13:33; 15:15; 23:5; Romans 1:17; 2:24; 3:4; 3:10; 4:17; 8:36; 9:13; 9:33; 10:15; 11:8; 11:26; 12:19; 14:11; 15:3; 15:9; 15:21; 1 Corinthians 1:19; 1:31; 2:9; 3:19; 4:6; 9:9; 10:7; 14:21; 15:45; 2 Corinthians 8:15; 9:9; Galatians 3:10; 3:13; 4:22; 4:27; Hebrews 10:7; 1 Peter 1:16; Revelation 13:8; 17:8

GEGRAPTAI is perhaps best seen in its simplest translation where it first occurs in the NT: "So they said to him, 'In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:' " (Matthew 2:5)
So doctrine is best served if Rev. 13:8 was rendered like 17:8 "are not written", following the basic literal of GEGRAPTAI - (it) stands written.

The final mentions of the Book of Life/the Lamb's Book of Life are:

And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

Revelation 20:12-15

But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Revelation 21:27

and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

Revelation 22:19

The changing contents of the Book
The changing contents of the Book as a clear reality exists, with the repeated words that names will be blotted out:

"Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written."
And the LORD said to Moses,
"Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot him out of My book."

Exodus 32:31-33

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

Psalm 69:28

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

Revelation 3:5

The Lord is not mentioning something impossible here, but a reality.

How do we begin again?
Of course we all know how Adam began: created from the dust and breathed into by the living God (Genesis 2:7). But, how do each of us since; how do we come about?
We are informed that God makes each of us in the womb:

Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb?

Job 31:15

So that, we know that before we are physically born, God is involved in making us in our mother's womb.

We also read that God fashions the spirit of man within him:

. . . Thus says the LORD, who . . . forms the spirit of man within him;

Zechariah 12:1

We read how God is, "the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22; 27:16) and God is "the Father of spirits" (Hebrews 12:9).

So that, not only our bodies are made by God, but our spirits: of each and every one of us.
And of course we are:

. . . fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works . . .

Psalm 139:14

And that also includes all those of us born with less ability than others. God wanted to use Moses for a task. Moses suggested in reply that his speech impediment did not render him fit for the task. This is what the Lord said in reply:

So the LORD said to him, "Who has made man's mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD?"

Exodus 4:11

But this is not evil which involves spiritual darkness as God makes nothing evil: He is not a maker of spiritually maimed beings.

. . . God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:5

And,

For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness, nor shall evil dwell with You.

Psalm 5:4

God never made anything directly with evil as an element or else He is tainted. It is clear "God made man upright" (Ecclesiastes 7:29) speaking of all of us from the perspective of the lifetime of the writer who had just stated ". . . my soul still seeks but I cannot find: One man among a thousand I have found, but a woman among all these I have not found." (Ecclesiastes 7:28): an observation of what he saw of God and man in his lifetime; not a statement relating to the first man, Adam.

       So, each of us are holy and upright from our beginning.

A spirit birthing
So, the spiritual birthing that is mentioned in John 1:13 and John 3 is not about a dead spirit being made alive, but an embryonic spirit being birthed after a period of forming: completely like our physical bodies are formed within the womb and then birthed, so our spirits are formed and then birthed.

John 3:5 uses the Greek word EK - "out of" or "from" - and out of water is our 1st birth, the physical birth: we were formed out of the waters in the womb of our mothers.
Then out of Spirit is our 2nd birth (John 3:6): having been formed out of the Spirit that formed our spirit.
       But our spirit was not dead; just incompletely formed.
Paul informs us of another part of us, our soul.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 Thessalonians 5:23

We have a body, a soul and a spirit.

But because we also have a soul and there resides our will, our intellect and our passion, God is either resisted or received to either disable or enable the complete forming of our spirit: but the birthing itself is all and completely of God. And it is this final birthing "delivery" that John 1:13 describes as all of God.

It follows a reception mentioned in John 1:12 (which is) mentioned as synonymous with "believing in the name". Believing in the name is not the title of the person, but the character of the Person in view. This phrase is only used by John and we can see by his use elsewhere this does not refer to a title of the person: "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world." (John 17:6) then more: "I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." (John 17:26).

If this was a title, it would not need repeating. It is not. It is the character of the person that is meant by this phrase.
[cf. The meaning of born again chapter in Will there be Non-Christians in heaven? Or John 1:12 et al in Serious Mistranslations of the Bible]

We read in John 1:9 that as THE LOGOS, Jesus is the "true Light which gives light to every man who comes into the world." No one is excepted.
And,

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

John 1:11

But,
"But as many as received Him" whether His own of not, but of all who are given the light...
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name:" (John 1:12).

There is a clear cause and effect here:
One receives and, if so, THEN they are given the right TO BECOME a child of God. So that the decision to be given the right to become a child of God is made in the lifetime of the person who receives and at no time prior. It is then - following that - they are birthed - all of God - and, as per John 3:3 & 3:5, can then see and fully enter the kingdom of God.

So, the long and short of it is, God makes us in our mother's womb and forms our spirit within us, as He is released to. We are born with a living spirit, yet not fully formed from our beginning. We separate all our spiritual life from God when we practice sins and trespasses: that is spiritual death.

Conclusion
The bible informs us there is a book of Life and everyone's name is in it from their beginning. As we saw, each of us are made upright "God made man upright" (Ecclesiastes 7:29) and there is no meaning of this being about Adam from the context. But, we read that we all sin (Ecclesiastes 7:20) and that from our youth (Genesis 8:21) due to having each fallen and gone our own way (not Adam's - Isaiah 53:6). But only a determined life of sin - a regular practice of evil - involves removal from the Book, as Jesus said,

. . . this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.

John 3:19-20

And, since a blotting out of the Book means the name needs to be there before it can be removed, each of us are in the Book from our beginning. A Book kept for the righteous (Psalm 69:28); the saints (Philippians 4:3).

Note
Psalm 139:16 in the NIV is rendered as "Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." This is a significant difference to the context which only involves the forming of a baby in the womb. The KJV has, "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book ¹all my members were written, ²which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." [¹Heb. all of them. ²Or, what days they should be fashioned.] And the YLT has, "Mine unformed substance Thine eyes saw, and on Thy book all of them are written, the days they were formed— and not one among them."

Ref. M.038

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NIV material is taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version

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