Question: Does the Book of Life mean Calvinists are right?

The Berean Call

Question: Does the Book of Life mean Calvinists are right?

June 19, 2024 • Dave Hunt & T.A. McMahon

Question: Why does Revelation 17:8 (and maybe Revelation 13:8, depending on the translation used) refer to those “whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world...”? Could that, coupled with Psalm 69:28, Revelation 3:5, and Revelation 22:19 mean that the names of all mankind are in the Book of Life, then later blotted out one by one as each Christ-rejecter crosses the line of final renunciation? I always thought that only after we believed the gospel were our names written in the Book of Life. If this were not the case, wouldn’t Calvinists say, “See! He has already chosen those whom He will save; their names are already written down before the foundation of the earth!”?

Response: Several verses speak of God blotting or not blotting names out of the book of life: “I will not blot out his name out of the book of life” (Rv 3:5); “God shall take away his part out of the book of life” (Rv 22:19); “...if thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.... Whosoever hath sinned against me, him

Question: Why does world opinion go against Israel?

July 3, 2024 • Dave Hunt & T.A. McMahon

Question: Why does world opinion (UN, EU, Russia, media, etc.) generally go against Israel, and why is it often so viciously backed by false accusations? Is this of any significance for today, or is it merely what God foreordained? Response: God did not foreordain anti-Semitism and the hatred of Israel rampant in the world—and He will severely punish those persons and nations guilty of it. He foretold this hatred, but He does not cause it. As Jesus declared, evil comes from the human heart: "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man..." (Mt 15:19-20). Of course, Satan does all he can to stir up anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel. As we explain inJudgment Day, Satan's only hope to escape his final doom is to destroy Israel. He has made the destruction of Israel and the extermination of all Jews one of the foundations of Islam; he has persuaded Europe and most of the rest of the world to believe the lies of the Arabs who claim to be descended from the original "Palestinians" (a people who never existed); and he is persuading not just the D. James Kennedys, Hank Hanegraaffs, and R. C. Sprouls, but increasing numbers of Christians that the church has replaced Israel...

Question: Was Chuck Colson Ecumenical?

June 26, 2024 • Dave Hunt & T.A. McMahon

Question: I am reading Chuck Colson’s book The Body, and am greatly disappointed in Chuck for including the Roman Catholic Church as a part of the body of Christ that we are to embrace in his call for unity…. I appreciate Chuck Colson, but I’m a bit confused about his term “evangelical Catholics.” What also greatly disappoints me are the endorsements by a host of religious leaders on the jacket. Would you comment on this book in The Berean Call? Response: I respect Chuck as a Christian who loves the Lord and has sacrificed a great deal to bring the gospel into prisons. Therefore it grieves me to say that his book is a sad mixture of warnings against error and at the same time embracing that which is false and even covering up or ignoring that which, if admitted, would undermine his thesis of unity with Rome. He finds fault (often correctly) with various segments of the evangelical church, but not with the Catholic Church. And the praise he gives Rome is often so blind as to be embarrassing, such as his statement that “the Catholic Church, to its great credit, does call heretics to account” (p 132). Indeed she does, having burned more than a million at the stake! And to this day both Trent and Vatican II condemn evangelicals as heretics for holding beliefs to which Colson subscribes. Surely he must know this!

Question: Must the church be united before Christ can return?

June 12, 2024 • Dave Hunt & T.A. McMahon

Question: Many are teaching that the church must be united and purified before Christ can return. Is that biblical? Response: It is neither biblical nor logical that the small fraction of the church that is alive on earth at the time of the Rapture must have attained to a status that was unknown by Christians who have died in order to join them at that heavenly marriage to our Lord. Yes, the Bride is made ready and robed in white linen (Rv 19:7-8)—but the Bride is the entire church. If this purification is a prerequisite for being raptured, then what about those who died before the Rapture? Clearly, they must be “made ready” after they get to heaven. Then why wouldn’t this happen to all Christians up there, rather than on the earth? Surely this final cleansing can only take place at the Judgment Seat of Christ (2 Cor 5:10) when we give account to our Lord, our works are tried in the fire (1 Cor 3:11-15) and we are rewarded or suffer loss. There is no biblical basis for a “last-days revival” that will make Christians worthy to be raptured to heaven. We are worthy of heaven through Christ’s finished work alone. Moreover, the Bible speaks of the last-days church as apostate (2 Thes 2:3). Christ even questions whether He will find faith on the earth when He returns (Lk 18:8). Even the wise fall asleep while the bridegroom tarries (Mt 25:5). Hardly the “last-days revived church”! Let us therefore watch and be ready for our Lord!