Objection 16

From Sovereign Grace and the Scope of Election: A Comparative Examination of Attainment Theology and Grace Theology, with Particular Attention to the Question of Whether God's Elect Are Found Among All Nations and Religions

Revelation 3:5, "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life" implies names can be blotted out.

The verse is a Hebrew figure called litotes, an emphatic promise by negation, like "I will never leave thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Christ does not say any name will be blotted out; He promises the overcomer the strongest possible assurance that his never will be. Elsewhere the book's contents are fixed "from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8; 17:8), and the omission of a name from that book is what distinguishes the lost (20:15). A register written before creation, according to election, is not an attendance sheet edited by performance. And who is "he that overcometh"? John defines his own term: "Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world... who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1 John 5:4-5). Every regenerate person is the overcomer. The attainment system turns "overcomer" into an elite grade; John makes it a birth certificate.